... And better and better

This follow-up post is part review of Avatar, and part continued discussion of my story, A Far Sun. (Hey, it's my story; I'll talk about it if I want.)

I've read a few reviews/commentaries on James Cameron's newest movie blockbuster, Avatar. Some guy on Reddit posted "$300 million, and all we get are Native American space elves?" I responded sarcastically, something to the effect that I was sure he's done much better. He seemed to feel that for the money a better story could have been written, but one tends to forget that putting butts in seats is the primary objective of any movie--i.e., it's entertainment--so we will just have to forgive Mr. Cameron that he made his native people so ... human.

There will be no spoilers in my review, so don't worry. I really enjoyed the movie, and I highly recommend it. Visually it's stunning, and (almost) worth the ticket price on that basis alone. I suppose 3D is an added bonus. (There is one point where you'll be swatting insects--it's a real immersion moment.) Visually quite stunning. I almost even said 'wow' at a couple points (but then I'm old, and easily impressed. Huh).

The story is not as strong as many would have liked. John Scalzi, in his blog Whatever, felt that way, but I think he also gets it, too. The most thorough review/comparison I've read is on chud.com. That guy read Cameron's earlier treatment, called Project 880, and notes many differences between the movie originally envisioned, and the finished product. It's a rather long blow-by-blow comparison; I won't recap it here, except to say that Avatar is more streamlined and even less preachy than Project 880 would have been.

Now on to my favorite subject: A Far Sun. Both my wife and stepdaughter mentioned the similarities between it and Avatar. I don't paint a picture highlighting the evils of technology, which I think could be inferred from the movie, but I do have gentle native people (who even speak a little English. Both writers plausibly handle the reasons why). My natives aren't 10' tall with blue skin (no spoiler there--the movie trailer shows this clearly). Instead, they're regular-sized and orange-ish. No, the sun-skins aren't oompa-loompas, and quite honestly I never even thought about that when I envisioned them. Of course, I can see why you might think that. (I did think of sun-skins as 'native Americans meet the Amish,' but with a slightly orange tint to their skin. Just enough to make them different. That was the point. Besides, I really liked the name 'sun-skin.')

I have an evil bad guy--the 'Head Librarian' (of all the titles for him to have!)--though by the end of book 2 I've hardly done more than introduce him. All his evil has come out by proxy. His 'minion' in the story, the 'chief ambassador' is a powerful, ambitious man who is following his master's orders very faithfully. We don't find out why he's doing this, yet, but I have certainly set up this promise. In fact, we don't really know why anyone would be following the Head Librarian, but we do know how afraid they are of him. Perhaps they have good reason.

So, I'm now sitting on a blank page at the beginning of book 3. Some might be wondering how I could possibly have an entire novel still to tell (especially some of my friends and family who have been patiently listening to me talk about this for forever), but actually, having reached this point in the process, another 100K words feels about right. It gives me a chance to more fully flesh out the insanity of my big bad guy and more thoroughly draw out the distinctions between sun-skin philosophy and 'pale-skin' philosophy. Oh, and plenty of knuckle-chewing action. The 'cold war' between them will become a hot, shooting war, with the potential for more death (and destruction).

The inhumanity in my story is not 'big' inhumanity the way it is in Avatar. Mine is small, on the scale of just one person. Though, to be fair, this one man's hold over the others could not have been accomplished without help, or at least 'inertial neglect'. Or, perhaps he's really not so different from them, after all.

With my decision to keep on truckin' with the story (I had intended to end it with this second book), it now means I can also extend the time line, somewhat. I had always wanted to write about their survival over a winter, since in primitive conditions it can very trying. Also, since at least one of my heroines is pregnant, with more time to fill in a third novel, we get to follow her over a much longer period during her pregnancy. Also, being 'with child' will heighten the tension, later, when things are coming to an exciting climax. There are other motivating factors, as well, that I must, alas, continue to keep secret.

On a final note: last night my wife was talking about this current work in comparison to the one I had been writing back about 2004-ish. I know that other work isn't very good, for several reasons. She likes the current one, a lot, and says that not only am I a better writer, but that my story is also much, much better. I've read both works; it's not hard to see why she says this.

That's all for now. Maybe sometime I'll talk about how one turns a very rough story idea into a fully fleshed-out work, because that's about all that's required to write a novel. Everyone comes up with story ideas that could maybe fill two chapters. How you turn those two chapters into fifty is the trick. But, it's not that difficult. Or, then again, maybe it is. We'll find out.

The Princess and the Frog

I've seen the trailers for this new Disney animated feature. My initial impression has been that the toothless firefly character (well, almost toothless) is racist in the way he is portrayed. But perhaps blacks see him in a different light. It's a fine line to be walked, no doubt.

My family members are Hispanic. Both my wife and her daughter (now living with us) felt the firefly image to be racially inappropriate. I know how much more sensitized I've become to racial stereotypes: the dark skin, the ah ... nose, the curly hair, etc. It's inevitable, though I simply cannot see how such things as minor appearance differences are significant.

My wife's complexion is somewhere in the middle, as far as it goes. She's darker than your average WASP, and her nose shows her African ancestry quite plainly. But I say, "so what?" She has described herself as having the Puerto Rican flag "tattooed" on her face. Her daughter's complexion is lighter and her facial features are more European than African. But though Puerto Ricans have a thing for skin/hair color (the worst thing would be to be very dark with nappy hair, which many have), both of them have found similar racist attitudes here in the states. My wife thought she was continually being scrutinized when she lived in Louisiana. Perhaps not so much here in the Midwest. But then, again ...

None of us are terribly interested in this new Disney movie, but we may change our minds, depending on the reviews. It might not be so bad.

So, why does any of this matter to me? If we're on the subject of racism, why does it matter, and whom am I trying to convince? I know how I feel, and I don't need to convince anyone of anything. If someone thinks my wife is half-black, then that's fine. She isn't, quite, but she's some significant percentage, for sure. I really don't care. Man, it's hard enough to find someone to be with as it is. If I worry about a bunch of insignificant stuff, I might miss someone really nice. I don't, and I didn't. I guess that's my point.

There is so much more to us as individuals, regardless of our physical characteristics and cultural heritage. We need to be looking for ways to come together--and work together--rather than focusing on how some of us aren't like the others. Because everyone is a minority of one.

I was worried I was being harsh on Dan Brown

I wrote some stuff the other day, and wondered if I was being overly critical. Then I read this. And this.

Nah. I'm right in the middle.

Moon: A movie for the thinking SciFi fan

We saw the movie Moon Friday night. It stars Sam Rockwell, who is essentially the only actor, outside of Kevin Spacey who does voice-over for GERTY, the base computer. Yes, think HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are numerous allusions to the 1968 Stanley Kubrick classic, which I found unobtrusive and mostly appropriate.

The movie is a psychological character drama that showcases Sam Rockwell's substantial talent, very well. Space opera this definitely ain't. It's more like a visit to an insane asylum that ultimately leaves you wondering what happened. At the end there are many, many unanswered questions and nothing (well, not exactly nothing) is resolved. In particular, the central conflict of the movie is not resolved, though we are given clues that things just might be different.

I found the premise completely plausible, scientifically. Sure, there are things we can't quite do, yet, since the movie is about a guy working alone in a power generation station on the far side of the moon ... but if you can accept all that as plausible, some other things (that I won't reveal because they would be spoilers) shouldn't bother you, too much. What I found slightly less plausible is the premise that the fictional company would do what they've done to this guy. More along the lines of: Did they really think they would/could get away with it indefinitely? That's the part that chafes on the brain.

I suppose companies are so brutally inhuman as this one (Lunar Industries, I think it's called) is portrayed, but given there is evidence the protagonist is "in" on the cruel deception, I am called to wonder at his own level of humanity. Because, humanity--more specifically inhumanity--is what this movie is about. In the end (and this should not be a spoiler) we find that the so-called inhuman computer is perhaps the more human (maybe even the most human) character. And that's interesting.

I think the movie is rather well done. Definitely something you will want to see more than once. I suggest buying the damn thing so you can get to the heart of what's going on, because there's far too much to absorb in a single sitting. I suspect every moment of film contains clues (perhaps answers) to what's really going on, and you will want to figure out what's really going on.

Good movies are good for various reasons They may have a really good story, with good, compelling characters. They may present ideas, glimpses into life in worlds very different from our own. They may evoke popular tropes (follow mythical storylines) that tell us something about ourselves and the nature of being. They may ask (and answer) the age-old questions of who we are, how did we get here, and where we are going.

This movie is good because its characters are human and elicit our sympathies, and tells us something about ourselves. But it won't leave you with anything resembling a comforting vision of the future, because in the end, human nature isn't changed. It is what it is, and it's ultimately not quite the good thing we'd like to think it is. But humanity does exist, and it's revealed at the level of individuals. In Moon, that's where we find it, so for that there may be a small ray of hope.

Final verdict: recommended. I'm going to buy it and study it frame-by-frame, and that should tell you something.

Cory Doctorow: A DRM Dissertation

If you've been on the Internet in the past few years, you'd be hard-pressed to have not heard of Cory Doctorow. He also writes for BoingBoing, as well. This article may not be new, but it's ever so relevant. It happens to be directed at Microsoft, but Sony (and others) are also prominently mentioned.

I can only wonder if the buggy whip manufacturers association were as powerful as the music industry; we'd all be paying a buggy whip avoidance tax on every new automobile, and be paying an entire industry to exist without contributing any value whatsoever. And yes, music industry, I'm looking at you!

WotD: PENDEJO

Pronounced pen-day-ho. Apparently when you google it all you get are references to the Daily Show's Dora the Explorer segment. Hang around until almost the end of the video.

I want to clear up the confusion. Pendejo is the Spanish equivalent to calling someone a fuckwad. My spouse's Spanish-English dictionary (dead tree copy, so you know it's authoritative) defines it as "pubic hair," or imbecile, idiot, asshole, etc.

Carry on.

Coraline 3D: A review

We saw Coraline in 3D yesterday (Saturday, Valentine's Day). It's a kids' horror story, but I would term it "cartoon scary," meaning none but the most sensitive young children would find it truly scary. The villain isn't very nice, but our heroine, Coraline, is strong and determined, and "defeats" the bad, scary monster in the end.

First, about the new 3D: It works fairly well. Much better than the technology you find at theme parks (and I'm thinking of the Terminator 3D attraction at Universal Studios). We saw Bolt in 3D in January, and thought it was very well done. That movie, in particular, is a keeper and I will buy it when it comes out on DVD. (BTW, that movie also had a heroine, though the dog, a boy, is the main character.)

Coraline makes more use of things coming at you on the screen, which I found moderately cheesy, but given that the movie is targeted for kids, I can forgive the occasional poke in the eye. The children in the theater seemed to like it, which I think is the point.

What I found most satisfying is the role that Coraline, the movie's heroine, plays. She is strong and independent, yet when it comes to helping others, is compassionate and doesn't hesitate. Excellent role model for girls, and not too poor for young boys, either. At her character's age, there really isn't much difference between the genders. Her parents are portrayed as busy and not paying much attention, but it's very clear she loves them and in the end their family is back together. A good message all the way around.

I give Coraline an A-