Crush: Ginormica

I watched "Monsters V. Aliens" with the boys last night, and found that I kinda liked Ginormica. She seemed fun. White-haired, lithe giantess? Hmmm. Not bad, not bad. And that's coming from somebody who hates (HATES) the word "ginormous," so that's testament to Ginormica's appeal.

Networking

This is a great scene, and speaks to our future from the past...



Chayefsky's sermonizing in "Network" may be dated in some ways, but when you think about cybernetics marching onward, the concept of "dehumanization" takes on an entirely different context. Depending on where we end up in this century, it could be an upward and evolutionary process, or a downward spiral into final oblivion.

The Mummy

Saw a mummified squirrel on the way to the bus stop this morning. Must've died in a snowbank or something, and when the snow went away, there was the squirrel mummy -- I thought it was a rat at first, because it was black, but then realized it was a squirrel. A ghoulish memento of the winter.

Sort of weird running across that, after watching "Zodiac" on DVD last night. I think it's a good David Fincher movie -- his excesses are reined in by the demands of being rooted in time and place. Anyway, since there is a scene with squirrels in it, seeing that this morning made me shudder anew.

It's weird to think about the Zodiac killings, because so much of it depended on police departments not communicating with each other, over-reliance on particular experts, and other assorted missteps that perhaps might not have been so much of a factor these days. I'm sure investigative botches occur all the time, but theories around serial killing weren't as well-developed in the early 70s as they are now, and plenty of the warning signs of a suspect or two were likely glossed over, whereas today, they would point to particular suspects straightaway.

I'm sleepy today. A bit sleep-indebted from the weekend.

Salinger and LitFic

This piece talks about Salinger being credited with the creation of the literary short story. Perhaps "blame" would be a better word?

Dream: Bundy? No, Danson

I woke up too early, then went back to sleep, had a bad dream/nightmare for my troubles! Thanks, Brain! I dreamed I was in a house I used to own, and was talking to my folks on the phone, when I became aware of this presence, this sense of somebody in the house who ought not to be. This while I was in the basement. So, I'm hunting around for something to use as a weapon, and keep finding useless toy weapons -- green Colt .45 squirtgun? No good. Black Smith & Wesson .45 Peacemaker cap gun? No good. A starter pistol? No good. Colt Navy replica revolver? No good. I peek at the stairs and see this guy's feet, moving very quietly, realllll sneaky-like. So, I hang up on my folks (not wanting them to worry and/or give away my position) and I draw back the hammer on the replica pistol, which makes a nice authentic-seeming click, even though I'm desperate to find an actual weapon. The guy doesn't hear it, keeps going down the steps. He has a rifle. He's a middle-aged guy with a kind of hair helmet ala Ted Danson. He doesn't see me, as I'm crouched behind some boxes. I find a machete. Finally! A weapon. I have the cap pistol in one hand, and the machete in the other, am bracing for this psycho to find me.

He sees me at last, once he's down in the room, and I brandish the cap pistol and blaze away at him, which startles him, and he ducks, firing his rifle, which thankfully misses me. Then I throw the pistol at him, and charge him with the machete. I go to swing at him but the rifle deflects the blow, and the guy runs back upstairs, leaving me in the basement.

Then I woke up.

J. D. Salinger. Seymour or Less?

I just saw that Salinger died. He influenced me a lot in the mid-90s, when I went on a Salinger reading binge. I read most of his books back then, liked his writing style, even though the world he conjured didn't really speak to me, I liked his writing style.

I have a few bones to pick with Salinger, but will revisit that another time, since he just died. I always thought that he was his enigmatic character, Seymour. Or that he projected much of himself onto Seymour, for perhaps various reasons he wanted to keep hidden from the world.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13773

State of the Union?

Obama and the Democrats have really dug themselves into a hole. It's amazing. They need to realize that, unlike the Republican base, who by and large will stay by their leaders so long as they keep goose-stepping to their agenda, with the Democratic base, it is built entirely in progress -- forward momentum, building a better, brighter future for all Americans. And when there is no progress, there is immediate risk of backlash. The GOP understands that if they can prevent the Democrats from getting anything done, they magically get on equal footing with the Democrats, despite their absence of an actual mandate. They keep people believing that government is good for nothing (except when it helps), and that it's the problem, not the solution. Weirdly, it creates the idea that the government is this unaccountable and alien entity, apart from "real" Americans (which embody stalwart Republican values like mandatory prayer in schools, warrantless wiretapping, endless militarism, gutting environmental protections, privatization of public assets, secret wars and sabotaging the Bill of Rights, etc.) The GOP, in their bid to demonize government, work paradoxically to make government as evil as they can -- civil rights fly out the window in favor of a centralized police state where corporate wealth is the only thing to be protected, where the rich are free to enjoy their wealth without the rest of the country having much say about it.

That's been their agenda since about 1964, and it hasn't changed. The Democrats continue to fail to realize this. Movement conservatism isn't going to work with "the enemy" (e.g., anybody that isn't them); it's why movement conservatives excel at forming Marxian blocs that don't budge an inch, forcing the Democrats to give and give and give again.

The Democrats need to do an end run around the Republicans, and grab the unacted-upon social mandate that is there, if only they had the political courage to risk going for it.

They won't do it; if they could have, they would have decades ago. They'll only pretend to do so. It's very frustrating.

Quote: George R. R. Martin

“Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson’s quarrel divided us into realism and romanticism, and, in a way, fantasy writers are all children of Stevenson, and literary fiction writers are all like James. But now you’ve got writers like Michael Chabon and Junot Diaz who are accepted in literary fiction despite their clear groundings in fantasy. There’s no real distinction between fantasy and literary fiction.”

Ouch

I made the mistake of getting too many groceries at the Fullerton El stop last night, after work, ended up doing a kind of Bataan Death March with the groceries, hauling them homeward about 1.3 miles. Now, that isn't a tough distance ordinarily; I'm used to walking through the city and all, but encumbered with many pounds of groceries entrusted to my carpal-tunnel-damaged wrists, it was a bit of a slog. And with the CTA apparently getting a head start on their whole service cutbacks plan for February, not a bus in sight, so I trekked it home, my wrists aching, shoulders sore. Next time I do that, I'm totally bringing a hauler for the groceries, so I won't be lumbering about. In the snow and wind, it was comically horrible. I felt like stopping into a bar on the way for some refreshment, leaving groceries on the curb.

Seems like college students these days are so much bigger than they were in my day. Just taller. I'm 6'3", and routinely college guys and girls are taller than me! Maybe DePaul attracts amazonian people, I'm not sure. But walking through the Dominick's there, I was amazed to see that.

I've got a new story idea I'm toying with, for a book. I'm going to bang it out, see what comes of it.

Artistry Can Redeem...

Hmmm

Here's the judging process of Amazon/Penguin...

First Round: Amazon editors will review a 300 word Pitch of each entry. The top 1000 entries in each category (2000 total entries) will move on to the second round.

Second Round: The field will be narrowed to 250 entries in each category (500 total entries) by Amazon top customer reviewers from ratings of a 5000 word excerpt.

Quarterfinals: Publishers Weekly reviewers will read the full manuscript of each quarterfinalist, and based on their review scores, the top 50 in each category (100 total entries) will move on to the Semifinals.

Semifinals: Penguin USA editors will read the full manuscript and review all accompanying data for each semifinalist and will then select three finalists in each category (six total finalists).

Finals: Amazon customers will vote on the three finalists in each category resulting in two grand prize winners.

I'm perhaps a little worried about that first round, since it's all based on the pitch. I think the pitch is good, but it's so subjective, who knows? The second round could be worrisome, too. Will the 5000-word excerpt be enough? I'm more optimistic after the second round; but getting there is going to be challenging.

Hope? Joke.

I answered the door over the weekend wearing my green "Audacity of Joke" t-shirt, and the delivery guy saw that, liked it, and treated me an impassioned riff about the current administration, the past administration, and the one before that. He was on fire. Populist anger, right at my doorstep! I just listened, gave him a few "Yeah, things are pretty fucked up." I wasn't about to get into a political discussion that morning with the Peapod grocery guy, so I just let him shpiel, nodding politely. People are so pissed off right now, they don't even necessarily know which way to go, only that they're pissed. The fascinating thing for me was after this fiery diatribe, he said "You know, I'm not political or anything; I'm not right- or left-wing." I thought it was interesting, since he was getting a lot of his stuff from various right-wing radio broadcasters. The inchoate fury among Americans is palpable -- a 21st century version of "Network" -- "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it, anymore. Things have got to change!"

The funny thing is that, the night before, I thought "Hmm, I should change my tee shirt, just in case it provokes the delivery guy." I honestly thought that. It didn't provoke him, though; it inspired him. He saw it, said "Joke. Yeah, the joke's on us, right?" And I nodded, agreed that it was (embittered by last week's Supreme Court decision about corporate political speech).

Amazon/Penguin

So, I entered a novel in the Amazon/Penguin Books Breakthrough Novel Competition. We'll see what happens. First round of eliminations is at the end of next month. I think I should make the quarterfinals, but we'll see how it goes. With my luck, I may get axed early, who knows? But fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted.