tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13311720364213620992024-03-19T04:09:54.990-07:00Ancient LogicWebsite for Morgan Crooks, WriterMorgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.comBlogger427125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-25389881312883932912019-12-24T18:53:00.002-08:002019-12-24T18:53:46.477-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m going to take a slightly abbreviated approach to this year’s best-of lists and mostly focus on movies. It’s not that I didn’t read or listen to music but for whatever reason I feel uninspired to talk about either topic. C’est la vie!</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-418e35f7-7fff-ede6-3fcf-a9c12dad79e2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So in no particular order are five movies I greatly enjoyed watching this year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Firstly, Avengers: Endgame. Well, I guess there is some order to this list because literally the first thing I thought of in terms of movies I’ve seen is this movie. It is inevitable! This is the one MCU flick it’s hard for me to remember as simply a super-hero film. Although I found its predecessor a bit more more compulsively watchable, I really enjoyed this film. First of all it’s tone, which veered from despair, heist hijinx, parental reconciliation, to epic mega-brawl was never boring. Even the gorgeous mess which is that final fight has its own interior logic and sports some of the best looking cinematography this side of Black Panther. With Endgame MCU found a way to transcend some of the limitations of the super-hero genre while stamping into place a archetype for the future on how massive story-telling has to be to improve on this saga.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Secondly, we have Parasite. Strangely similar to Endgame in the genre bending aspects, this film is one best watched with little context. There is something oddly inspiring about a film which can mesh together comedy, horror, and pathos in a single highly restricted set. The acting is incredible and the final scene really sticks with me now months after I saw it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I was dreading the ending of this film and perhaps Tarantino was too because the film certainly took its sweet time getting to its point. Even so, I find it hard to dismiss this film as simply another Quentin Tarantino film. In a way I haven’t seen since Inglorious Basterds this film stretched out its premise in new and interesting ways. It’s a movie that asks you to sit, be patient, and wait for its surprises. One of my favorite QT films of all time in all honesty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I watched this film three times in a row and I would happily see it a fourth or fifth. It’s an entirely respectable end to the sequel trilogy and a somewhat less convincing capstone to the Skywalker saga. Similar to the last JJ Abrams helmed Star Wars movie I enjoyed the first two thirds an enormous amount. It’s fast, effortlessly fun and good-natured, and a lot of fun. If I’m less impressed with the final act it’s more a problem of strange ambiguities the film seems to think it needs to hold on to. In any case I think the final scene, the last word in the Skywalker story, is just about perfect and certainly worthy end to the story as a whole. Star Wars is dead! Long Live Star Wars!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Late Night: It dawned on me that this comedy was a bit of a speculative fiction work as well. The speculation of a world where a woman has been a long-running successful talk-show host is a bit discouraging in its premise but also weirdly liberating. In addition to be wickedly funny, this is a story about how the old survives alongside the new and how each has something to teach the other. A timeless theme that struck me as timely when I watched it.</span></span></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-83451022660461164532019-09-07T07:04:00.000-07:002019-09-07T07:04:11.224-07:00Too Big To Fail<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkKkXMLyDC4wKuOadKF37xyfeoExRJdLfH53WPxYpFZdTJUGV51mir9Rd-KybisZ7dKWuUlc5n-B7vO8lOSMgAQAy92kR9rWA7FphFOBw2IMjNWMmUvSYc3WzfS2bZr_e5MO66xLT2Fxw/s1600/IMG_1555.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkKkXMLyDC4wKuOadKF37xyfeoExRJdLfH53WPxYpFZdTJUGV51mir9Rd-KybisZ7dKWuUlc5n-B7vO8lOSMgAQAy92kR9rWA7FphFOBw2IMjNWMmUvSYc3WzfS2bZr_e5MO66xLT2Fxw/s320/IMG_1555.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Initial Walk by Morgan Crooks (2019)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the light rail car picked up speed, Morris felt his heart race increase. On the speakers, the jangling guitars marking the start of REM’s It’s the End of The World played.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“What is this about anyway?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">King County Advisory Executive Marrion Tims zipped up the front of her dark purple uniform and grimaced.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Did you watch the videos?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“The cartoons?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now Tims’ eyes blazed. “Instructional videos and mandated onboarding material.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A glint of something bright attracted Morris’ attention. Far to the south, close to Tacoma, something flared in the bright blue sky.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“What the hell was that?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“We don’t have a lot of time and I need to know whether you’re ready for the fight.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I’d like to know what’s happening.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The windows rattled in the Link Light Rail’s frames and Morris heard a faint thud. On the horizon the glint dimmed as he caught sight of the first trail of smoke.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Are we under attack?”</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnUtLmBvQ22IOUAa8iEj1gbSWapxzLPfUVPJW5AjJ4HZmTSh9EG3_hyphenhyphenyy24MP7dqRKoCubkcCe4WlmlPB2LmycyFK2coFSgz3R8JLHOgJUXbclIAoo5nDcy55pKQJrAaIZ_gzvBQQY-e0/s1600/IMG_1557.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnUtLmBvQ22IOUAa8iEj1gbSWapxzLPfUVPJW5AjJ4HZmTSh9EG3_hyphenhyphenyy24MP7dqRKoCubkcCe4WlmlPB2LmycyFK2coFSgz3R8JLHOgJUXbclIAoo5nDcy55pKQJrAaIZ_gzvBQQY-e0/s320/IMG_1557.HEIC" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Capitol Hill by Morgan Crooks (2019)</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Executive Tims brought the cuff of her uniform to her mouth. “I will need to increase our velocity to 65 kph. The aberration has arrived.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At this request, the green woods and modern condominiums became a blur as they sailed past. For the first time, Morris realized that no one else was in their car. First one and then a trio of helicopters passed overhead, the heavy thump thump of their rotors audible over the rattling din.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Executive Tims sat back in her chair and watched Morris. In the distance were more sounds, each one growing steadily louder.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Are you telling me Evangelion is real?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“More or less.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Voltron?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She nodded.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“So I’m supposed to, what, help manage the flow of traffic with all of Seattle under attack?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“You are going to help us defeat a monster.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As if on cue, the crest of an enormous scaly head rose above the hills of Rainier Valley. There was a tremendous explosion, and Morris saw red flame blossom and turn into waves of thick black smoke. As the smoke cleared the general outline of the creature became clear, and Morris had little surprise in recognizing it as the Freemont Troll.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There was chatter from the overhead speakers. Tims again spoke into her cuff. “Acknowledged.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What’s going on?”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The monsters first appeared 150 years ago. There is something that does not like the idea of industry and technology and humans building cities. Everyone so often the earth spits up one of these titans and we’re off to the races.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Morris was slack-jawed as the colossus heaved into view. No matter how much of the thing he saw, there was always more to see, some impossible detail too large and coherent to deny, too large to ever believe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“How does that thing even stand? It should collapse in on itself.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Monsters are too big to fail,” Tims said with a wry smile. “The size is their entire point. They are meant to be a dark reflection of the immensity of modern reality. Think of Godzilla. Born of nuclear hell-fire, a dark commentary on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Yeah, but that’s a movie.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Movies, cartoons, and books, all art serves that part of the brain which doesn’t go to sleep between catastrophes and still seeks coherent lessons.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Are you saying this has happened before?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“It happens constantly. That is the point of this type of media. It’s so ridiculous and illogical precisely because it must reflect the preposterous scale of the threat.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“What threat?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Modernity itself. Each Kaiju, each titan is an avatar of the destructive part of our own reality.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“How do we fight something like that?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Each city has its own way. Seattle and Tacoma decided the most natural course was the King County Metro. Each of the major methods of transportation around Seattle and its suburbs is a separate defense function. The ferry, street cars, buses, monorail and the light rail, they form the five rings on the fist of the King.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“How do you fight a monster like that with a light rail car? Am I missing something?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“At the outset of World War One, the general outlines of the German’s assault on France was already etched into the transportation system. The trains brought the troops from the towns and burgs of the German countryside to the frontier. Seattle’s public transit system is designed to safeguard the people who live here from enormous monsters.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, but they’re trains,” he said. “And </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">buses</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“You are looking at the thing without appreciating its symbol. Think of the Voltron Lions. The point of the lions is not that that the leonid body plan makes the most efficient combat platform but rather that the symbol of robot lions inspires and reaches back to ancestral memories of valor and might.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“The monorail is based on ancestral memories?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Nostalgia for future pasts, I suppose. Look, it doesn’t matter. In a little over five minutes we are going to reach Seattle Center and you are going to need to join with the rest of the team.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I’ve never even driven a train before, let alone a mech!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Recall how the Voltron robots are driven forward by a pair of joy sticks and big buttons that appear when they are needed. Or think of the “Drift” as it appears in Pacific Rim. You will know how to control the King County Defender because it is your destiny to drive the Link Light Rail. Reach out and grasp the true nature of the Link Light Rail. It is not meant to be steered or controlled. It is meant to fight.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Morris sat back and closed his eyes. Around him the noises of the cabin died away. He reached inward and outward with his mind and found the faintest of flickers on the edge of his awareness. There was something in the train that was waiting for him. Had, in fact, always been waiting for him.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for fremont troll" class="irc_mi" height="273" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/FremontTroll.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="365" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freemont Troll (Wikipedia)</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When he opened his eyes, he was seeing through the front of the train, the rails rushing beneath him. He had somehow opened another set of eyes within the train and he could feel the powerful electical current supplied by the overhead catenaries caused the Siemans S70 to surge forward. With his new perception he knew course he had to take. The Link Light Rail lifted off of the tracks and swiveled in air. Behind him the monstrous outline of the Freemont Troll stomped through the tiny tidy homes of lower Seattle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Morris reconfigured the body that was his and the train together. He formed arms and legs. The rails rose up and formed a double-edge sword. Although he had had no more than a lesson or two in fighting, he assumed a defensive stance and watched the Troll approach his position. A signal light blinked red in front of him. He knew it would go green.</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ae83da6e-7fff-b922-b56a-d4fd65870a22"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-17926659758834327302019-03-03T18:21:00.000-08:002019-03-03T18:21:35.154-08:00Woburn Library Opening Ceremony<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?rinli=1&pli=1&blogID=1331172036421362099" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The following is the press release for the March 16th 2019 Opening Ceremony. for the renovated Woburn Public Library. As it mentions, I'll be reading an original poem for the dedication as a part of the ceremony. Thank you very much to the Woburn Library, Rebecca Meehan, and Andrea Bunker for asking for poetry to be included in the ceremony and for choosing my work.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Woburn Public Library Grand Re-Opening</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Welcomes the Public on March 16: 2-5:30 pm</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For immediate release:</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Contact: Rebecca Meehan, rmeehan@minlib.net</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMLV-r9vUEFVSOyGxEKCuC1TrtQbY4b_oS7XAACOOa2IjyaBCKYAxJmFhoRG3nxOKRMdIP07Yi-D8YOwGonZ-a_v98pWQK3pTnxNcGPqJ9pE0I9Yg0d_wgYjpT9HDBUoM3fhew9jUcIEg/s1600/WoburnLibrary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="762" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMLV-r9vUEFVSOyGxEKCuC1TrtQbY4b_oS7XAACOOa2IjyaBCKYAxJmFhoRG3nxOKRMdIP07Yi-D8YOwGonZ-a_v98pWQK3pTnxNcGPqJ9pE0I9Yg0d_wgYjpT9HDBUoM3fhew9jUcIEg/s400/WoburnLibrary.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woburn Public Library Addition</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mayor Scott Galvin, the City Council and the Trustees of the Woburn Public Library proudly announce the grand re-opening of the newly renovated and expanded library on Pleasant Street in Woburn Center. The $31.5 million City-bonded project restores the 19thcentury National Historic Landmark, designed by celebrated architect Henry Hobson Richardson, while adding a new wing to meet the needs of Woburn’s 21stcentury community.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On March 16, from 2-5:30 pm, the public is invited to spend the afternoon with us, explore the new spaces, rediscover majestic historic spaces, and experience the library's new state-of-the-art technology, featured in almost every department. From a laptop vending machine to the new Maker Space’s powerful laser cutter and 3D printer, there's a lot to check out.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A never-ending story time will be held in the Children’s Room throughout the afternoon, where you can also see the new robot themed check out kiosk. And, if you don’t already have one, librarians will be on hand to help you sign up for a library card, so you can access everything the library has to offer.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“This library project has been an outstanding example of the citizens of Woburn coming together to restore the crown jewel of our community, which will now also provide the space for its rich resources to serve as a true cultural center for all of Woburn’s residents,” said Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The original 1879 building, H.H. Richardson’s first commission after Trinity Church in Copley Square, Boston, reflects the architect’s unique blend of Romanesque structure with his admiration for local flora and fauna (integrated into the architecture in, for example, the botanical carvings on the pilasters in the Frizzell Study Hall). The glass wall of the new addition provides a spectacular view while new openings in the sandstone façade provide easy access between the original historic and the new spaces. The major addition and renovation were designed by CBT Architects, who drew on their experience renovating the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, also designed by H.H. Richardson, restoring the Senate Chamber at the Massachusetts State House and creating the new wing at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, blending the beauty of the original building with the needs of the 21st century Woburn community.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We are so proud to celebrate the completion of this extraordinary project,” said Richard Mahoney, President of the Woburn Public Library Trustees. “This dream has come true thanks to the support of our staff, patrons, the Friends, the Foundation, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, Mayor Galvin and the City Council.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The opening celebration will include performances by the Woburn Memorial High School Band, and a performance by the Woburn Memorial High School Acapella Choir, as well as a ribbon-cutting and a reading of an original poem written by Woburn resident and local author Morgan Crooks to mark the occasion.</span>Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-86298877907872071382019-01-26T07:03:00.005-08:002019-01-26T07:03:55.274-08:00Arisia 2019: Wrap Report<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Arisia 2019 is over!</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7nNaGYMr0XZOUm6_TYYNJbYlgZ_imdiRi7i_JygP3I1GZbyupOVMcfQoj5FA2tlN6S3_YCD5zEaJBrptfPKv0CEX8IneXiU6yO3NQFBxXOd_q4xY_bk0vje1Bmp5UlJPsAGYQR4p6ntw/s1600/arisia_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="528" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7nNaGYMr0XZOUm6_TYYNJbYlgZ_imdiRi7i_JygP3I1GZbyupOVMcfQoj5FA2tlN6S3_YCD5zEaJBrptfPKv0CEX8IneXiU6yO3NQFBxXOd_q4xY_bk0vje1Bmp5UlJPsAGYQR4p6ntw/s320/arisia_logo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s back to the real world this week after an entire weekend in Arisia 2019. I go to this convention every year, but this one will definitely be special to me. For one thing, this is the year that felt, at least for a moment, like it wasn’t going to happen. If the debacle with the e-board wasn’t enough, there was the strike at the Westin. The convention felt slimmer this year for sure. A lot of people self-selected to not come this year and honestly with the smaller, more confined venue of the Boston Park Plaza, that was a decision enormously beneficial to my enjoyment of this con.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had a blast. I was more invested in the panels this year because I wrote a portion of them. It’s one thing to go to a panel and listen for reading suggestions, or new ideas, or people to follow on social media, but it’s quite another to put together a panel of people to create a very specific conversation and then get to sit back to see how the discussion plays out. I loved that aspect of being Writing Track Manager and honestly I’m looking forward to doing this next year if Arisia will have me back. It was a great experience.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, what did I actually DO at the convention? Well, I had five panels total, two Saturday, two Sunday and one reading panel on Monday. The two on Saturday were my ‘experiments,’ a live DnD event with writers and a looser more casual panel I called Shop Talk. The DnD panel, I think, went off better than I could have hoped. James Cambias did an amazing job as a DM, and Ruthanna Emyrs, Brent Weichsel, and Trisha J. Wooldridge all did a phenomenal job playing out a fun little dungeon delve Cambias concocted. I called this a proof-of-concept for the writing track and I consider the concept proven. Next year I am going to see if I can arrange AV support though. There needs to be a display of the map of the adventure for the audience and microphones. Other than that though I had no complaints.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The shop talk panel went well too. The purpose of the panel was a small group of writers to talk about their experiences actually writing and I have to say that went off pretty well. James Cambias, Keith Yastuhashi, and Andrea Hairston were all pretty game to try the looser format and although this was my first moderating job and I definitely could tighten up my game, I really appreciate the patience of panelists and audience as it paid off with some really great conversation.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sunday was a bit more traditional. I took part in a Conlanging panel in the afternoon and a Marvel Year in Review panel in the evening. Both were a lot of fun, the “All Words Are Made Up” panel being a bit more academic and the Marvel panel being pretty much straight fun. Heather Urbanski continues to impress me as one of the best moderators I’ve met and as a result that panel had some truly great interactions between Dan Toland, Bob Chipman, and Marianna Martin, PhD. The impression I’ve built up recently of Marvel fandom is of a community interested in celebrating what’s good about the franchise and pushing for further improvements with each movie. I guess another way of saying this is some people enjoyed Black Panther the most out of MCU films this year and some people enjoyed Infinity War. Fans are able to - wonder of wonders - sit at the same table and talk about what they liked about both movies without dissolving into acrimony.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The reading on Monday was a great chance to listen to Athena Andreadis, PhD and Kristen Janz read their story and while also getting a chance to read my published work “The Emissary.” If you are interested in hearing me read any of my other work in the near future, I have some exciting news.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although this hasn’t been publicized completely, I’m going to say that I’ll be reading one of my poems at the opening ceremony of the new Woburn Public Library on March 16th. I hope to see you there! I should be just about recovered from my weekend at Arisia!</span>Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-41750677889529036292019-01-17T15:41:00.001-08:002019-01-17T15:41:11.989-08:00All Words Are Made Up<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The title of this post (and the panel I’m participating in for Arisia 2019) come from a random exchange between Thor and Drax in last year’s “Infinity War” movie. It’s what Thor replies when to Drax when the always literal-minded hero doubts the existence of Niðavellir its forge. It’s a funny throw-away line and the title of this post because I think there’s always been a bit of defensiveness on my part when I add some invented vocabulary to a story of mine.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nidavellir from Avengers: Infinity War (2018)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The art and craft of inventing new languages has a surprisingly long history. A 12th century nun by the Saint Hildegard is credited with one of the first (sadly incompletely recorded) constructed language. There was also a period during the Enlightenment when the creation of ‘philosophical languages,’ meant to resolve age-old problems and reshape society, were the vogue. Gottfried Leibniz, for example, tried to a create a language that was logically self-consistent. The task proved too much for him, but that drive to bring the people of the world together through languages (instead of dividing them) which lead to progressive language experiments such as Esperanto.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course no survey of conlanging would be complete without a discussion of JRR Tolkien and David Peterson. Tolkien because his genius for languages ushered in an era of more naturalistic, living conlangs. I greatly admire David Peterson for the work he did fleshing out George R.R. Martin’s languages from the Song of Ice and Fire.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even at this late date, it’s impressive to look over Tolkien’s achievement. The various languages created for the Lord of the Rings feel real - possibly because Tolkien created such a rich history and cultural context for Sindarin and his Dwarfish language. The languages don’t feel random, they feel lived-in and alive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found it interesting that Peterson, when given the task of creating plausible languages for the Dothracki and High Valyrian, quickly discovered that Martin had not followed Tolkien’s example in creating languages for the people of his world. For some reason, even when reading the books, I had assumed that Martin had done extensive work on the languages underpinning his imaginations. To find that is not so doesn’t really detract from the books, but it does add a lot to Peterson’s achievement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It also made me wonder something - how much work on conlanging really needs to be done for your average fantasy novel? Do you have to be a linguist to get much benefit out of the process or can even a little bit of conlanging improve a speculative work?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is not simply an academic question for me because my current long form work (let’s not call it a novel - at least not yet) involved the creation of three separate conlangs for the setting. One was based - very loosely - on Welsh, another on classical Japanese, and another inspired by aspects of the Yolgnu language of Northern Australia but with much of the lexicon invented whole-cloth. I’ve found the experience incredibly rewarding and fun - but also, a lot of work. Although that part of my pre-writing is largely done at this point, I nevertheless wonder if it was worth it. Will anyone really come to appreciate the work put into these languages when I don’t (and never did) intend to write much of the work in untranslated original conlangs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All I can offer is one example of what conlanging provided my work. Very early on, I knew that the mythical beings of the sun and moon had strange names in the indigenous language I invented. Using reverse etymology, it became clear that the sun was derived from the phrase ‘head-scorcher’ and the moon from the phrase ‘branch-hewer.’ This seemed to me to be a very aggressive way to describe the sun and moon and a bit odd.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I had a choice at this point. On one hand I could’ve simply hand-waved a different etymology or gone with them. Figuring the point of conlanging was to allow happy accidents I began to conceive the sun and moon in this setting as something very different - weapons left over from some primeval, cosmic war. That idea later spun in many other fruitful directions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So is conlanging worth it? I can’t say but I will suggest that conlanging provides a depth and wonder to speculation that can be missing if you confine yourself to one language and its words.</span><br />
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-5175299950551502842019-01-12T08:40:00.001-08:002019-01-12T08:40:56.712-08:00Thoughts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anything that persists for an entire decade as a recurring entertainment event begins to mean more than simple entertainment. It’s inevitable that once a franchise like the MCU has continued for long enough that its overall significance has to be factored in. I don’t think fans quite appreciate what genre movies like these used to be like before MCU.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Battle on Titan Avengers: Infinity War 2018</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s really not the special effects or effective mix of humor, action, and character development. It’s the fact that all three of things happen within the persistent universe. Because no Marvel movie is the last Marvel movie, and there’s always another one to develop the characters, fans have a different relationship to this franchise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s more like what comic books are, obviously, where no matter what crazy stuff goes on in a crossover event, you have a reasonable expectation that your favorite character will be back the next month or the month after that.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There have been good MCU movies, mediocre movies, and one that I’m pretty sure qualifies as a bad movie. There are also an assortment of television properties that range from epic to fairly boring.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But what does it mean?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a writer, what really impressed me about the 2018 MCU offerings (Black Panther, Infinity War, and Antman and Wasp) was the nifty trick it seemed to get away with. Check online and the innumerable youtube video essays and you get this picture of a master-plot that connects each and every movie, with details, character points, and the odd artifact all connected in a hyperaware fashion. People watch movies for all sorts of reasons but I think what really hooks people - HOOKS me for one example - is the sense that these movies are building on each other, telling long form stories that carry through from one two hour spectacle to another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In other words, MCU has found a new way to be epic and all it costed them was a few very diligent continuity experts and enough money to craft a few epic money-shots per film.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After that, fandom takes over. We know that these stories are going to continue and that even very superficial details or relationships in one movie might come back in a later one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let me give one example - The Vision. The Vision appears in a total of three films: the Age of Ultron, Civil War, and Infinity War. In each of those films, the Vision maybe gets nine minutes in each. And yet in that time, we get a sketch of The Vision’s origins as a mechanical being, a few spectacular examples of his powers and the bare-bones development of his relationship with the Scarlet Witch AKA Wanda Maximoff. I want to be clear, when The Vision gets offed (twice!) in the closing moments of Infinity War, I really connected with his story.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It worked for me. How does Marvel accomplish stuff like this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First off, it’s important to state how little support went into making these moments develop. The relationship of Wanda and The Vision, for example, consists of maybe three conversations in Civil War and then the brief scene of them as fugitive lovers. Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany sold their scenes and created something that came off as genuine out of the most minimal of stories. The other angle is that there is even though there isn’t a lot to work with between these three stories, there is something. Each of the movies suggests just enough to make the relationship plausible without distracting from the real plots of those movies. This is a nifty trick and one only possible because the assurance of another and another movie down the line gives directors the confidence to insert sub-plots that aren’t going to pay off for another couple of movies. These subterranean storylines only exist because MCU is popular enough to support the storylines of secondary characters. MCU is popular because even if Iron Man,The Hulk, Captain America and Thor aren’t your favorite characters (back in the day, I was an X-Men fan first and a Marvel fan a distant fourth or fifth), there is this constant virtuous cycle that promises that your character is going to be brought in and be made as an integral part of the overall story - not just a cameo.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The other thing that’s happened more recently is that MCU, as it’s expanded its ranks of heroes and villains, has found its own way to express a mythic impulse. One of the things that bugs me about the DCEU, is that each character is always portrayed as a god first and a human being second. Justice League made the mistake of assuming that epic settings and lots of CGI baddies makes for epic story-telling. MCU has both of those things too but it also has characters that start off as relatable and sympathetic and THEN get involved in epic scenarios through their relatable ambitions and fears. My favorite MCU movie so far - Captain America: The Winter Soldier - was one of the best Phase 2 examples I can think of. Even though the final showdown over the Triskelion suffered from a little of the Big Bad Explosions Spectacle that many comic book movies do, it also that incredibly personal and savage battle between hero and his best friend. That’s the stuff of mythology - The llliad,The Epic of Gilgamesh and Star Wars. The most recent Sony Spiderman movie is one of the first non-MCU movies in a while that’s figured out the code. Personal conflicts leading to Cosmic Conflicts = Epic movie-making.</span><br />
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-2108005121031349222018-12-30T07:06:00.001-08:002018-12-30T07:06:14.238-08:00Alive in 2018<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I originally called this last of my year-end posts “Alive in…” because honestly I couldn’t think of a more general or truthful way to labeling the intention of these posts: “I was alive in 20XX and here’s what I saw.” That’s the way it’s seemed to me in the past.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading Across by Morgan Crooks (2018)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had a tough year in 2018 but I survived. There are many, many things that happened that made this year difficult but I’m still alive and I hope for a better 2019.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I guess I’ll start at the top. As many of you already know, I’m getting divorced early next year. Lauren and I have gone through rough patches before but at some point this year it became apparent to both of us that we were trying very hard to keep something going that was making us both miserable.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, in the next few months I will be: selling my house, filing a lot paperwork, transitioning to some other living situation, and figuring out where to go next. In part, although this has been incredibly difficult and I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do, the hard part is over. The change is happening and I am coping with it as best I can. Again, most of you that read these posts already know this and if you don’t the most likely reason is that I have not been fortunate enough to be in your company long enough to explain what’s going on. I’ve kept it off social media because by the time I figured out what was going on, for the most part it was already old news. I sincerely apologize if this is the first time you’re hearing about it and that makes you disappointed. I will buy you a beverage of your choice at your earliest convenience.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was Arisia. That was a thing in 2018. I’ve already posted a couple of thoughts about the failures at the top and my own struggles to come to terms with what the allegations meant for the convention and my role within in it. I will sum up by saying, the people who messed up are gone and the people replacing them have demonstrated repeatedly that they get the severity of the situation and are working very hard to remedy them. I continue to want to be a part of that and I continue to look forward to Arisia 2019. If they’ll have me, I look forward to starting this process all over again in the summer of 2019 and inviting even more of you to the convention. Arisia will be a far stronger convention this time next year because of the struggles and heartbreaks of this year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back one saturday morning in February I made an either or decision. The cafe I meant to go write at was packed and I really didn’t want to write at this other place so I decided to bring my coffee to the Winchester Public Library. While washing my hands in the men’s bathroom I started hearing this screaming coming from outside. The screaming was so loud and alarming, I thought a wild dog had gotten into the building and people were trying to chase it back out. I wanted no part of that noise, so I stayed in the bathroom until it stopped. Coming out, I found that a maniac had attacked a girl with a knife, stabbing her fatally. Someone who tried to intervene was also stabbed. There was blood everywhere and when the emergency response arrived they wheeled the poor woman outside. I saw the knife.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t think this year ever really righted itself after that point, honestly. I didn’t write as much for a while and I’ve never completely shaken a feeling of unease and imminent collapse. Of course I’ve talked and continue to talk with someone about this and it helps.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Talking helps. I think that’s the thing I’ll take away from this year. One life is too big to fit inside of a single person. It’s shared, passed around, given back slightly rumpled. I knew that prior to this year, but this year went a long way to convincing me to try to be as much a part of others’ lives as they are for me. To try in someway to give back to others as much as they gave back to me this year.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was alive in 2018. We were alive together. Nothing fills me with a more a more intense or durable feeling of well-being than that simple fact. Thank you for all that you were this year and I will try to return all that you gave me as soon as I possibly can.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-59368900761434434752018-12-28T07:54:00.001-08:002018-12-28T08:02:37.828-08:00What I Read in 2018<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
For my third year-end wrap-up blogpost, I’m going to share the things I’m most glad I read this year. In previous editions to this post, I’ve focused on novels and short stories I read that were published in that calendar year. I’m going to have to have to do something a little different this time.<br /><br />In years past, one of the motivating factors pushing me to read current writing was my own desire to update and broaden my own writing skills. I wanted to see what was out there and who was writing stuff I wanted to read.<br /><br />This year I have been involved in this longer project which has changed my focus to a lot of mythology and non-fiction books. I’ve read some books released this year but rather than rank them separately I’ll fold them into what left a mark - literary-wise - this year.<br /><br />The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander. A couple years back Uncanny Magazine published Bolander’s “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies,” which was one of the most savage and funny take-downs of a sub-genre (“what does makes those serial killers tick”) I’ve had the pleasure to read. “The Only Harmless Great Thing” is an altogether different beast although it embodies Bolander’s gift for using a breezy and acerbic voice to bore right through the BS. Here, the story alternates between the plight of Radium Girls and an Indian Elephant killed in a useless publicity stunt. The way these stories are explored, through an alternate reality, where one injustice blends in with the other, the sickly glow of radiation and industrial priorities throwing uncomfortable shadows on both.<br /><br />The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. I’ve now read enough Tremblay to say this is one of his better books. While not as fiendishly knotty as “Head Full of Ghosts,” this novel is perhaps more immediate and appalling. A couple settles into a wilderness cabin with their daughter, expecting a week of relaxation and family bonding. Instead they are attacked by a group of strangers committed to saving the world from an impending catastrophe. The way this scenario plays out is disturbing, bloody, and inevitable. It’s also a hell of a good read.<br /><br />Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste. It’s been my pleasure to put something by Kiste on my best-of lists and monthly review posts for a few years now. Quite simply, she writes stories I like reading in direct but effortlessly evocative ways. Returning to her hometown, Phoebe Shaw begins to wonder if a strange affliction that claimed her childhood friends decades before has returned. Kiste mines the rust-belt decay of the mid-west to describe a concept with one foot in social commentary and one foot in cosmic horror. <br /><br />Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton. This is the first novel I’ve read by Hamilton and I have to say I’ll be looking for more to read. There’s something at once leviathan and also appealing about this tale. Due to the time-shifting elements of the story, each vignette told by a separate member of a contact team sent to a distant uninhabited world, I immediately began thinking of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. While there are a lot of similarities between the two, Simmons mined literary references to create one of the classics of cosmic horror, and Hamilton hews closer to space opera, albeit Space Opera with an unusually diverse palette of story-telling styles and better-than-average idea extrapolation. First of a trilogy apparently so don’t expect a neat-and-tidy resolution.<br /><br />Space Opera by Catherynne Valente. I’m sure the genre of science fiction humor did not die with Douglas Adams but for the life of me I can’t think of anything with as much fun and loopy charm as Valente’s Space Opera. Told from a similarly arch and all-knowing narrator as Hitchhiker’s Guide, Space Opera here refers to a trans-interstellar musical competition with incredibly high stakes. Fail to impress the judges of this Eurovisionesque musical sing-off, and your world is destroyed. One catch: every intelligent race which hears Earth’s music agrees, our music is terrible. Another catch: Earth’s only hope, the glam-rock has-beens “Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes,” broke up years ago and is no longer on speaking terms.<br /><br />With special mention:<br /><br />This year, in the interest of my ongoing project, I ended up reading a bunch of classics I’ve been meaning to get to for years. One was the “Silmarillion” and the other was “The Once and Future King.” <br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The Once and Future King,” is a weird one I think. I think somewhere in the 80s or 90s it stopped getting mentioned in the same breath as “The Lord of The Rings” and “The Wheel of Time” as must-read classics of the fantasy genre. It sits in a strange liminal place in the YA, Serious Adult Literature divide. Add to that the metafictional elements, the sincere but odd philosophical meanderings and you're left with something which checks a lot of boxes without fitting comfortably on any one shelf. Or at least that’s my take on its current reputation. Anyway, having read this lengthy work, I want to put a good word in. T.H. White’s book is amazing and should literally be read by everyone. There is something about this recreation, reimagining and resurrection of the Arthurian Cycle which makes what was good great and what was bad an essential paradox to the narrative. In a similar fashion, I would humbly suggest that the Silmarillion is perhaps not as imposing and dreary as its reputation suggests. To be sure, this is not the Hobbit nor the Fellowship. I’ve heard it described as the Elven Bible, which is both witty and apt but also unfortunate. If what you liked about The Lord of the Rings is storytelling told on a mythic and epic scale, with subtle and astute references to existing mythos then you want to read the Silmarillion, or at least listen to a good audio version of it.</span><br />
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-70787608051187557422018-12-27T10:04:00.000-08:002018-12-27T10:04:12.780-08:00What I Saw in 2018<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To continue my year-end best-of list, I’ll next move to movies that I really enjoyed this year. As usual, this is not a list meant to be what I think had the highest artistic merit of all movies released this year. I watch a lot of movies but I don’t watch nearly enough to be able to make a statement that sweeping. These are movies I liked a lot and I continued to think about for the rest of the year (however long that might be at this point).</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-4c7be148-7fff-fb7e-6d6c-0aed791a670c" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#5: Annihilation. I honestly didn’t think this was going to wind up so far down my list (number-wise). I loved the book this movie is loosely based upon by Jeff Vandermeer, and think that in terms of capturing the mood and translating the basic idea of the story for a wider audience this movie does an incredible job. It is a beautiful, awe-inspiring cerebral science fiction and damn unsettling to boot. It’s not at the top of this list because ultimately it didn’t seize my imagination or hit me with a hammer blow of feelings like some of the others below did. That said - absolutely one of my favorites this year.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#4: Colette. Do I like this film or the complicated feelings I had watching it because of events in my own life? I can’t be sure and in any case what’s the point in trying to disentangle one’s reaction to a film from its merits. The facts on the ground are simple and compelling enough. Keira Knightley gives quite possibly the performance of her career. This is Dominic West’s best performance since the Wire. The story manages to capture an impressive length of the title character’s development from a talented but naive country girl to an artist in full command of her ambition and career. It is wickedly funny in places and heart-rending in others. </span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#3: Spider-Man into the Spider-verse. This was the year that I became a fervent MCU fan but there will always be room in my heart for works like this movie that try something different with the superhero genre. Set in an alternate reality from Tom Holland’s version of the Web-slinging Hero (really several alternate realities), Into the Spider-Verse is a very clever exploration of this particular mythology. It leans somewhat on the original Sam Raimi trilogy but doesn’t really rest there either, cutting an exciting, fresh, and inclusive universe all its own. This is clearly Sony’s attempt to get back into the superhero game but if they start making movies like this, I will absolutely pay to watch them.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#2: Mission Impossible: Fallout. Simply the best action film of the year even when stacked up against the film below. I love smart and well-crafted action and this film had that in abundance. Tom Cruise was at the top of his game (did you hear he learned how to fly helicopters for the climatic copter chase?), the plot is fast-moving and complicated without being bewildering, the conflict is at once global and high-stakes but also plausibly personal. At some point they’re not going to be able to make Tom Cruise action films any more, this is one of the most compelling reasons to miss Mr. Cruise’s particular set of talents.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#1: Avengers: Infinity War: Ah, Infinity War. I watched this film many times and loved every single time. I think the best and most accurate thing I can say about the film is that this felt like my reward for sitting through all 20 previous Marvel movies. There are elements to this story that makes everything that came before it better and deeper. There is also the simple fact that this movie is a hell of a lot of fun. While not every character gets a fully realized role in the film (how could they) my multiple rewatches have left me more and more impressed how cleverly the whole project ties together. The editing and pacing are top-notch, giving just enough information and emotional heft to sell its many, many action scenes. I don’t know what Endgame’s going to be like but I cannot wait for it.</span></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-30251255714469885692018-12-26T08:30:00.000-08:002018-12-26T08:30:33.676-08:00What I Heard in 2018<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s about that time of year again. Today I’m going to list my favorite five albums I heard this year. In terms of music, I wasn’t blown-away by much released this year. Most of what I bought were albums released ten or even twenty years ago. I wouldn’t classify this as nostalgia because what I was listening to wasn’t really what I was listening to at that time. Nevertheless it was a shift from last year which I thought was an excellent year for new music. That said my favorite release this year is one of my favorite albums in quite some time.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-a23216f3-7fff-21a6-c51d-2e7ac41d91c2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#5) Be the Cowboy by Mitski: Propulsive, poignant electro-pop with a lead singer who seems to narrating, moment by moment the day she realized she had the ability to survive everything weighing her down. Survive, that is, if she did everything exactly the way she needed to. This is album composed of highly danceable anthems to self-possession and there’s not a single track that doesn’t contain some moment of cataclysmic heart-break set to a memorable electrified and so familiar soundtrack. Highlights: Geyser, Old Friend, and A Pearl.</span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#4) Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe: I bought it. I loved it. Janelle Monáe stepped back from her synthetic alt-personality on this album to inhabit more fully...herself, a kind of hyper-aware, determinedly funky, singer/songwriter. Instead of a concept album, Dirty Computer sounds like social media posts set to music, which considering Monáe has a wicked sense of humor and a engagingly down-to-earth weirdness, works very, very well. A summer album so perfect it makes every day about 10% brighter. Highlights: Dirty Computer, Crazy, Classic, Life, and Screwed.</span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#3) Ordinary Corrupt Human Love - Deafheaven: At some point this year I got into metal. Not just any metal but the grinding, singer shredding his voice, obliterate all resistance strain of metal I have NEVER liked before. What can I say? I started going to gym this year and I needed some appropriate soundtracks. Okay, that’s a little flippant. In actuality, I finally got around to picking up Slayer’s Reign in Blood and found I really loved guitar thrash for guitar thrash’s sake. So, after a few twists and turns, I eventually wound up here. Deafheaven is basically My Bloody Valentine only screamed instead of cooed softly. The same emotional heft and obvious compositional talent are there, but Deafheaven, as befitting its post-metal background hits with more immediate visceral intensity. Highlights: Honeycomb, Canary, and Glint.</span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#2) Joy is an act of Resistance - IDLES: Earlier this year I wrote my admiration and enjoyment of this post-punk slab of pure energy. IDLES are not really what you might think, as a band, and a creative force. What they appear to be is an unstable mix of angular Wire-style rave-ups mixed with a Mekons or Chumbawumba populist singer. In actuality they are an excellent example of how when you choose a particular voice and stick with it, there is no topic that cannot be made into killer song. Highlights: Colussus, Never Fight a Man With a Perm, Danny Nedelko, and Love Song.</span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#1) Rifles and Rosary Beads - Mary Gauthier: This one is a weird one for me in the sense the songs concern experiences I don’t have. Each of these tracks details the struggles and pain of veterans of foreign wars, often filtered through the singer-songwriter’s incisive and plain-spoken voice. Tracks like “Soldering On,” however struck me on a profound level. The observation that one set of skills that kept you alive cannow slowly kill you is one that I am very familiar with. Even though it feels slightly uncomfortable to identify with songs of veterans rather than simply appreciate them, I have to be honest about why I’ve enjoyed this album so much. Although I probably no right to claim this, I nevertheless feel as though these songs spoke to and comforted me in a time when I really needed that message. </span></span></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-21476139038720324502018-11-03T07:34:00.000-07:002018-11-03T07:34:57.833-07:00Situation in Doubt<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although I regularly attend a variety of conventions around New England, Arisia has always felt the closest to 'home.' It's the convention that the vast majority of my close friends attend, the first con to give me panelist spots, and the first con I started volunteering for. I haven't made as big a deal about this on this blog as I might have, but I became the Writing Track Manager for Arisia over the summer. This represents a great deal of work, some really cool opportunities, and another way, I figured, to give back to the community that meant so much to me.I invited fellow writers who I wanted to see on panels I wrote. I reached out to friends who had not attended in a while to see if they might want to attend this year. I did my best to create the best damn writing track that's ever been put on at Arisia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And last Thursday all that fell apart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I absolutely believe Crystal Huff, Maura Taylor, and all of the other accounts of rape and abuse occurring in the Arisia community. The details are also too similar not to see how a very flawed process caused very real pain to people who absolutely should not be suffering even more pain. That stain will linger on Arisia and its community for a very long time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When it rolled around to Sunday and I didn't see the Corporate Board taking this situation seriously enough I offered my resignation to Programming. This was one of the hardest individual actions I've ever had to make but I also feel like I did not have a choice. I can not profess to believe in what I believe in, and be a part of an organization not taking clear and decisive action to create a safe and welcoming community for everyone. They didn't give me the sense that anything was going to change or at least not change fast enough, so I walked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm not the only one, obviously, and perhaps the collection exodus of panelists, attendees, volunteers, and track managers finally managed to convince the Executive Board that something drastic was needed. The resignations announced earlier this week was exactly the step I was hoping they would have taken on Saturday or Sunday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So that left me with a tough decision. Arisia 2019 and indeed any future Arisia convention now stand on a knife's edge. If you have come to conclusion that Arisia should disappear, I cannot really argue against you. I'd only suggest that a lot of good would go down with the ship. Arisia clearly did not live up to its own ideals but it has also offered a real community open to differences and different perspectives for many years. I, as an individual, still want that community to exist. So, I rescinded my resignation and resumed work as the Writing Track Manager.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm not good with situations this much in flux. There's nothing I can say that completely explains how I walked away from something one day and then came back two days later. I don't think reason can always explain our actions. Emotions are involved here. I WANT Arisia to continue. I understand that despite whatever I or anyone else does, Arisia may cease to be after this year. That's a very real possibility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All I'm saying is that I am NEED to work to give the convention another chance. I've rejoined the Writing Track and I will continue to work to create the best panels about writing speculative fiction that I can for 2019. If mess this convention created is not something you can forget, forgive, or overlook, I understand and absolutely support your decision. Arisia, collectively, really stepped in it and there's a lot of work to be done before I would ever recommend this convention to anyone again. That said, it's my home, and when I see my roof's on fire, I'm going to pick up a bucket.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If this decision angers you, I accept and respect that. I can't change it and as long as you're willing to discuss it with me in a civil and respectful way, I'm willing open up a dialogue with you. What I am not willing to do is try my best to use what's good about Arisia to fight what's bad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">***</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whew.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's a few other things going on in the world obviously. Elections. Electioneering. The occasional awesome television show.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't vote Republican. I haven't ever voted for a Republican. I don't think Republicans represent an ethical or moral option for this country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This year I will go one step farther. The only defensible decision with a proto-fascist is hard at work destroying the institutions, values, and reputation of this country is to vote Democrat or parties caucusing with the Democrats. Don't vote Green. Don't vote Independent (unless that's the only other choice besides Republican). Vote for the only force that could possibly provide a check on this child-abusing monster: as many Democrats in every level of government as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look, the president has literally denied the fact that thousands of people died in Puerto Rico because their deaths represented a political embarrassment. When a person tells you that your life only matters in relation to his success or failure, believe them and vote accordingly. </span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-42472647217011952522018-10-28T15:08:00.001-07:002018-10-28T15:08:13.745-07:00Resignation from Arisia <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the events of this weekend, I have resigned as the Writing track manager for Arisia, Inc. 2019. I feel a profound sense of loss and disappointment for a community that has been an important part of my life for several years but no longer feels safe to me.<br /><br />I will say more about this when I feel the time is right. At the moment I just feel defeated.</span>Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-57000446916418774092018-10-14T07:31:00.000-07:002018-10-14T07:31:34.634-07:00Short Take Reviews for October 2018<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm going to try to collect together a random assemblage of things I've been reading recently. As usual my interest falls on things I enjoyed rather than things I didn't. For the most part, reviews are for me a way to process what I'm experiencing for my own endeavors. That said, the world is full of movies, television shows, novels, songs, and short stories that I wager some have never heard of. For that reason, I hope you might find some value in these write-ups.<br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPInultSd81CecOZ85DDJrK3zf3JjG8diatST-04jS_tJ3wfWCeE5GR1BATxs9S5rsowyeA4Y-OkBNouBvKikNHHMG0A7MhTuW4fMRfgliTuCflqUxh_NwTAA1bFzh7aeInesuMxfw5GE/s1600/IMG_5917.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPInultSd81CecOZ85DDJrK3zf3JjG8diatST-04jS_tJ3wfWCeE5GR1BATxs9S5rsowyeA4Y-OkBNouBvKikNHHMG0A7MhTuW4fMRfgliTuCflqUxh_NwTAA1bFzh7aeInesuMxfw5GE/s320/IMG_5917.HEIC" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Assemblage by Morgan Crooks (2018)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Joy as and Act of Resistance by IDLES. I bought the IDLES other album after seeing it still mentioned in music review sites months after its release. With acerbic, strangely jubliant song shards like Stendhal Syndrome and White Privilege, this album worked an unexpected magic upon me. I found my self growing increasingly taken by the juxtaposition of harsh art-punk songs overlaid by singer Joe Talbot's sing-shout anthems. Joy as an Act of Resistance is the same as Brutalism only more so (if that makes sense). There is something appealingly middle-brow about IDLES. They are not afraid to shout about food, dancing, and friends but at the same time you'll hear references to artistic movements, political causes, and emotions not typically lashed into service for punk songs. A bracing and compelling work of life-affirming noise.</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />The Fragment by Warren Fahey. This falls firmly into the realm of guilty pleasures. I like techno-thrillers and I especially enjoy techno-thrillers about interesting and plausible monsters in distant and unexpected locations. Think King Kong's Skull Island or Jurassic Park's Isla Nublar. The set up here is that the titular 'fragment' is a small forgotten island in the middle of the South Pacific which has retained a vestige of a radically different ecology from the rest of the planet. During the course of the novel, various scientists, media types, politicians, and military officers realize they will very quickly have to deal with the island or have what it contains destroy the rest of the planet. The characters here are thin in places, offensive in others. The plot is strangely structured and riddled with convenient contrivances. I found myself repeatedly tugged free of the narrative by nagging suspicions this book was even less than the sum of its parts suggested. And yet. And YET. I have to admit I had little trouble getting to the end of this story if for no other reason than the monsters it introduces and describes in vivid and appalling detail are so effortlessly inventive and wild. If you are a fan of Michael Crichton (and despite my best efforts I am), and enjoy descriptions of predatory, extravagantly weird creatures, this is the book for you.<br /><br />The House of Small Spiders by Weston Ochse (Nightmare Magazine). This is a actually a pretty nasty piece of work but I found myself really getting into this tale of slaughter, haunted houses, and supernatural revenge.<br /><br />Maria’s Children by Tobi Ogundiran (Dark Magazine). A short story I enjoyed for its continued development of the theme of place and sacrifice. In an astonishingly short amount of time, this story does a great job setting up a unique setting (a village on the coastline of an unspecified African country) and the Shirley Jackson-esque bargain the inhabitants make to ensure their wealth and prosperity.<br /><br />Iron Fist 2 (Marvel on Netflix). Talk about improvement. It would be one thing if the second season of no-one's favorite martial arts super-hero merely trimmed away the excess and concentrated on adding more fight scenes. But to be honest, if THIS was the first season and there was nothing else available about Danny Rand, I'd rank Iron Fist as one of the more enjoyable Marvel TV properties. Danny Rand is still a bit of a pretentious creep but the first correct decision the show makes is giving plenty of reasons to care about Danny. We see that he has a genuine although troubled relationship with Wing. We see his effortlessly altruistic and committed to taking the difficult course in order to preserve peace and avoid bloodshed. This is all very, very welcome. But what really makes this show is the supporting cast. From Wing and Mysty Knight, to Davos' rise as the Steel Serpent, to the endlessly interesting sibling dynamics of Ward and Joy this is a show that establishes and commits fully to its own vision of the Marvel universe. And I have to say, if I could simply excise all that happened in the execrable first season, I might be even more effusive about this series. Sadly, that is not possible. The first season happened and watching it is sadly necessary for enjoying this season. Mediocrity has consequences.<br /><br />Colette. Wasn't sure what to make of this movie as an English language movie about something superlatively French. I've told a few people about my seeing this movie and nearly all of them (and I guess this reveals a lot about the circles in which I travel) mentioned the tag line from a movie Jerry Seinfeld sees. And although the titular character never goes to Milan nor Minsk, she does have an arc within the movie that seems intensely "art house." It makes me sad to say that, because it would be nice if the exploration of a young woman's journey as an artist and an independent human being wasn't the sole dominion of movies shown at Kendall Theater. Because, well, this movie kicks some serious ass. Keira Knightly plays Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette who moves with her husband to turn of the century Paris. By ghost-writing up her own experiences as a young woman living in the French countryside, she creates a potent 'type,' a way of being and living in the male dominated society, that inspires millions of other women. The story is complicated by the fact Colette is married to Wily, an unapologetically boorish and endlessly fascinating Parisian character who alternately helps Colette and oppresses her. In forging her own path forward artistically, sexually, and socially, Colette must first confront the nature of her relationship with her husband.</span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-75838696420211994662018-10-04T14:27:00.000-07:002018-10-06T06:34:01.694-07:00Review of "Rust Maidens" by Gwendolyn Kiste<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The problem with mirrors is when you don't like what you see, you have to wonder if it's the mirror's fault or yours.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibDy9dUuyr7dfJ9KWhK8jA_jlTssIre6vBt5ftVEB-ZQGlZz6rWA00v3fKDbfnPv0KdTjOGW913Ky9G2ByLEOE5y3OFeq9S_2dTkB1MEC_Zf6pGUtnJ-wNL-Tq15J4EXKX7B8MryoJTpM/s1600/81zgg5eA5xL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="907" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibDy9dUuyr7dfJ9KWhK8jA_jlTssIre6vBt5ftVEB-ZQGlZz6rWA00v3fKDbfnPv0KdTjOGW913Ky9G2ByLEOE5y3OFeq9S_2dTkB1MEC_Zf6pGUtnJ-wNL-Tq15J4EXKX7B8MryoJTpM/s320/81zgg5eA5xL.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Rust Maidens" cover 2018</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gwendolyne Kiste's debut novel "Rust Maidens" mentions mirrors directly only a handful of times, and yet I was struck by the idea of reflections as a motif in the novel. Whether opaque, chrome, or clear as day, the figures of this story lurch forward in a funhouse gauntlet of perception and twisted perspective.<br /><br /> Phoebe Shaw returns to her Ohio hometown to confront the regrets and horrors of her childhood. Nearly thirty years prior, the young women of her neighborhood exhibited a terrible affliction. The eponymous 'Rust Maidens' are a group of five women who during the course of the summer of 1980, transform into phantoms of urban decay. Their skin puckers and peels, rusted metal bits poke out from the corners of their bodies, and nails change to jagged shards of glass. <br /><br />The cause for this transformation and its effects are described with a level of detachment. Is this a metaphor, magical realism, or body horror? Or perhaps all three? The young women swallowed whole by the same decay picking away at their neighborhood are not simply symbols of that decay nor victims in a horror pastiche. Something I appreciated about this novel was how the idea of this strange uncanny affliction never sunk into simple allegory. The descriptions are too eerie, too specific, and filled with too much raw pain. This affliction is an inexplicable problem, a terrible focus of the narrator's attention and horror, but also simply the reality for the characters it affects. Kiste's matter-of-factness about the affliction reminds me of Kat Kotja's classic "The Cypher;" a bit of weirdness introduced into the narrative that the characters cannot seem to stop themselves from exploring and becoming contaminated by. Also similar to The Cypher, this bit of invention, the rust transformation, seems to point to a variety of interpretations while deftly skipping away from each at the last moment.<br /><br />The horror here is similar to the ones expressed in Kiste's excellent short stories, the dread that in losing others we are really losing pieces of ourselves. Gwendolyn Kiste has a talent for dream-like gothic horror and her favored style, a clear and concise prose foregrounding characters, leaves the paranormal curiously off-centered and fractured, as though seen through a broken mirror.<br /><br />Which gets us back to mirrors. Mirrors or reflections appear a few times in the novel, once in an allusion to the hazards of the urban legend Bloody Mary (which I took as a nifty allusion to Kiste's own fantastic novella "Pretty Marys All in a Row") and again when Phoebe describes Denton Street as a hall of mirrors, its past and present reflecting an infinite cascade back to itself. Still later in the story, Phoebe finds her reflection in the chrome glint of a Rust Maiden's lips, an image of herself reflected back to her.<br /><br />Various forces attempt an appropriation of the imagery of the girls and their uncanny affliction. The families of the girls, the religious figures in the community, and even the federal government all try to bend the affliction into a mirror reflecting their chosen prejudice. It's not enough that the girls suffer, their suffering must mean something. What Rust Maidens does quite powerfully is raise a potent symbol of this entropy while confronting the notion that this must be about politics or agendas. Phoebe exemplifies the intention, first and foremost, to interact with the Rust Maidens on a human level, through the relationships she has with them. <br /><br />"Rust Maidens" is a startlingly original first novel from an author with a steady and powerful voice. The risks it takes in developing its themes are fresh and original and pay off handsomely. When I think about this novel there are sections that seem to linger outside of the bounds of a printed page, as a curiously intermingled impression of regret and visceral horror.</span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-57369227791207896832018-06-16T07:56:00.001-07:002018-06-16T07:56:14.279-07:00Story announcement and notes for "The Emissary"<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My short story "Emissary" is now <a href="http://selenequarterly.com/index.php/2017/12/15/the-emissary-by-morgan-crooks/">available</a> over at Selene Quarterly Magazine. This is set in a post-apocalyptic Upstate New York beset by invaders from the West bent on conquering and enslaving whatever remains of civilization. In the face of this nightmare, a woman with very little faith in anyone around her tries to find someway of saving her town. Standing in her way is her husband, Jon Alban, a man she has every reason to doubt but that nevertheless might offer a way out of the crisis despite himself.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winter Burdens by Morgan Crooks (2018)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This story was written at the intersection of two ideas. The first was the sense of the main character, Darra, as a someone focused on saving a town she has very little faith in. The second idea was a retelling of a portion of Russian history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Darra as a character was tricky to write and while I'm not sure I quite got her right, I do hope that her struggle to the right thing despite a Cassandra-like awareness of the weakness surrounding her is at least interesting. I think the thing that really clicked for me about the character is that she alone realizes the sacrifice necessary to save her town is not simply a one-off gesture. The sacrifice must be repeated, celebrated, and maintained. One of the consistent critiques I've received about this story is the narrator's relative passivity. I absolutely recognize that critique as valid, but I'm hoping that the slow-burn aspect of her story pays off for readers. I would not personally describe Darra as passive. To me, she demonstrates the power of strategic patience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jon Alban, the husband mentioned above, is loosely based on Alexander Nevsky. Maybe inspired by is a better description of the final version in the story, but nevertheless this somewhat obscure corner of history fascinated me. The barebones outline of the actual story goes something like this. Alexander Nevsky was a prince in the Russian city of Novograd on the eve of the Golden Horde's invasion. The Golden Horde was rolling over the steppe as an unstoppable force grinding every city and civilization in its path to ruins. Nevsky, faced with this threat, did perhaps the only obvious thing: he capitulated. He pledged his fealty to the leader of the Horde and promised tithe taxes to the invaders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is interesting, at least to me, is that Nevsky is not remembered in Russia as a figure of surrender and cowardice. Far from it. In the wake of this capitulation to the Mongols, Nevsky railed the people of Russia to resist another invasion, this time from the West, by the Teutonic Knights. Meeting this new group with ingenuity and determination, he was able to save the Russian nation from total subjugation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think what this story provides is a parable about the usefulness of strategic thinking. I'm not sure if Alexander Nevsky was Machivellian as this little retelling suggests, but it does describe a person able to prioritize. Sometimes the world does not work out the way we intend and people are confronted with threats that cannot be surmounted. Is the better choice to fight to the point of utter annihilation or to resist only where some chance of success is possible?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't know the answer to that. I know in my gut there are certain threats that feel as though they must be resisted to the last ounce of strength. But the ability of people to resist is not infinite. Sometimes a people must pick and choose. I wrote "Emissary" as more of a question than an answer.</span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-2594975326078319462018-04-21T08:13:00.000-07:002018-04-21T08:15:36.145-07:00Story Notes for "Ghost Notes"<div style="direction: ltr;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week my story, "<a href="http://www.dimeshowreview.com/ghost-notes-by-morgan-crooks/">Ghost Notes</a>" appeared on the Dime Show Review website. Ghost Notes is one of a handful of contemporary fiction pieces I've written and only the third to be published. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The story was easy to write in some respects. While not fully autobiographical, the incidents described in the story exist with unusual clarity within in my mind. The version you can read is not all that different in broad strokes from the first draft. That is definitely not always the case with my writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What do I think this story means? At heart, I think growing up means finding room to grow. Something has to be displaced in order for an individual to find enough space to find themselves. The character in this story finds himself in a very claustrophobic situation, approaching the start of college with a sense of its possibilities without quite being able to imagine a world outside of the confines of his childhood room. I'm not sure if the ending is a happy ending for him or case of simple survival but it represents the encapsulation of a crisis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This story is also about music, a major passion of mine. I've been playing and listening to music for a long, long time and part of this story is a love letter to the tunes of my childhood. Part of the fun in writing this piece was revisiting that music -- cringing at some, celebrating others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A selection of songs I drew from as inspiration for this piece:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"One More Hour" by Sleater-Kinney: The album this is on was released about two years before this story takes place but the tone of passion and intensity compressed right down to the most combustible state rings true to me for this piece.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Little Room" by White Stripes: Another anachronistic song</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">that nevertheless summarizes the themes of this story with a bit more succinctness and verve than I can manage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"In the Garage" by Weezer. I could pretend that I'm somehow above this song or that its words don't strike me at some visceral level but that would be a goddamned lie.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Shaking Through" by REM. I was a HUGE REM fan in high school. Hell, I still am.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana for obvious reasons.</span><br />
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Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-51136744589187722522018-04-17T06:47:00.000-07:002018-04-17T06:58:01.022-07:00My story "Ghost Notes" now available at Dime Show Review<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am pleased to announce my story "<a href="http://www.dimeshowreview.com/ghost-notes-by-morgan-crooks/">Ghost Notes</a>" is now available at the <a href="http://www.dimeshowreview.com/">Dime Show Review</a>, free online to read!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ghost Notes by Morgan Crooks (2018)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite the title, this is represents a bit of a change of pace from other stories recently published, as it contains far more youthful nostalgia and guitar playing than my usual monsters and robots. It is one of my favorite stories I've ever written and I hope you give it a try. While there, give the other stories at Dime Show a chance - they are fantastic!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thank you to Kae Sable for choosing this story!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I will be putting together an author's notes post in the near future.</span><br />
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<br />Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-81827043013995104602018-01-30T14:44:00.000-08:002018-01-31T13:47:30.117-08:00Addressed to Speculation<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dear J,<br /><br />This is my third and final letter to you. You haven't replied to any of my previous messages and while I didn't expect you to, I think my desire to reach out to you has run its course. Perhaps not soon enough for your taste, but there it is.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glint Horizontal by Morgan Crooks (2017)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My intention in writing to you was never to hector or convince you of anything. The course you have taken with your writing is your own and, frankly, I celebrate it. Rather, it was my hope that we could have extended our conversation after that one meeting. <br /><br />Those who know far more than I about <a href="https://twitter.com/ClowderofTwo/status/956874538054246400">literary critique</a> have cautioned of the perils in assuming intention in the work of others but nevertheless I cannot but help read some echo of our brief conversation in some of your current work. Perhaps a certain perversity or even an obstinate disregard animated your recent writing. Perhaps this is hubris but your use of a certain style in recent stories suggests you have also placed some thought into what we discussed.<br /><br />If that is the case, I can only wish our conversation had been longer. I fear that I was unable to express with clarity my ideas. Sadly, your recent use of this style has gone badly off the rails.<br /><br />The purpose of epistolary techniques in writing, particularly in the case of speculative fiction, is to grasp for a sense of historicity. In plain English, when writers incorporate or employ fully the device of fictional letters, journal entries, or written forms other than straight up fiction, they are attempting to suggest that not only have the events in their story happened but in some respect mattered in a historical or social sense.<br /><br />I confess to a weakness for this literary style. I think I first remembered noticing it as something distinct and interesting in Stephen King's first novel, "Carrie." The use of interview transcripts, highlighted the mood of dread expressed by the story, suggesting long before the climax of the story that something of some significance would happen by the end of it. Certainly King uses foreshadowing in other works, "Pet Cemetery" comes quickest to mind, but the use of fictional documentary sources here suggests an author intent on a particular authorial voice. Beyond the events narrated in the voice of the protagonists, King adopts the guise of a historian, assembling what primary sources might remain after the fact to conjure some spirit of understanding.<br /><br />Like all literary techniques, epistolary techniques are prone to abuse and mishandling. Without naming names, some of our contemporaries seem to forget the central point of incorporating primary sources into fiction. It presupposes that some agency or authority located in the future of the events survives to carefully curate such sources and marshal them for scholastic endeavor. Without such an obvious agency, the use of epistles raises more questions than it answers and even undermines the speculative component of a story. To put this another way, all those letters and reference articles work in William J. Miller's "Canticle for Leibowitz" because by the end of the novel a civilization has risen from the ashes of nuclear war to assemble such records. In this way, the primary sources serve as foreshadowing of later themes of the story, adding to its pathos.<br /><br />If only everyone understood the power of such techniques.<br /><br />Your work too falls short of these aspirations I am afraid. To assist you in your future endeavors, because I do sincerely believe that you have talent and vision, I will commit to this letter a short list of those recent works I think merit your attention.<br /><br />Let's first discuss an excellent use of the journal style of Sam J. Miller and Lara Elena Donnelly's story "<a href="https://uncannymagazine.com/article/making-us-monsters/">Making Us Monsters</a>." The use of letters here does more than simply ground an unusual story in the everyday vernacular of the characters. It also suggests the impossibility of true communication. The letter passed between the two characters of the story are separated by time. But let's not forget, the letters here also work in the sense that they extend and deepen the reader's appreciation for the speculative elements of the story. By framing the story as a collection of letters, the writers here are addressing explicitly the way that history buries and minimizes records that don't fit orthodox readings. By excavating these fictional letters, the story draws parallels between the horrors of war and the thousand petty injustices that precede them.<br /><br />I'll point, as well, to the excellent story "<a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/bao_01_18/">The Lighthouse Girl</a>," by Bao Shu, translated from its original Mandarin by Andy Dudak for Clarkesworld. This story about a young girl sifting through the scattered memories of her childhood in an effort to to understand her troubled relationship with her father. Gradually both reader and the narrator learn this distance stems from a tragedy connected to her own origins. While the narrative and concept of the story are straightforward to this reader, its power comes from Bao Shu's decision to adopt the form of journal entries. By capturing discrete moments of a child's fumbling attempts to understand herself, we come to understand more of the process that lead to her creation. Journaling is act of self curation; insisting that individual events in a person's life are worth recording is in itself an act of rescue and escape. Here those two threads intertwine with the larger themes of the story.<br /><br />Short works able to pull off this trick remain rare, however. The issue is that the epistolary style, by its very nature, works at cross purposes to the demands of the form. A short story is a tale boiled down to its absolute essence. I am not original in desiring short fiction to contain not one single word more than absolutely required. And yet, incorporating a letter that only speaks to the events of a story comes off didactic and obvious. There has to be some 'noise' alongside the 'signal,' in order to convince the reader to put aside doubts to the letter, journal, etc.'s authenticity. But that noise, unless added with a deft hand, might also strike the reader as superfluous.<br /><br />Which takes us to the last work I would mention to you. Nightmare published "<a href="http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/head-box-implications-consciousness-decapitation/">A Head in a Box, or Implications of Consciousness after Decapitation</a>" by Lori Selke in their most recent issue. The story concerns a young, rising starlet struck down in the early portion of her career by a terrible accident. As a result of an unfortunate encounter with a suspended cable, this poor woman's head is taken from her neck in the most abrupt and precise manner imaginable. Selke relates this story in a manner similar to a collage: impressions and observations of the young woman's post-decapitation existence, arriving from a variety of sources. In one segment, the young woman's head makes an appearance on Oprah Winfrey, an event captured in a transcript. This is a clever use of the epistolary style requires the absolute minimum of description to get across its meaning to the reader while giving the reader a sense of the starlet's resumed fame. Here the question of where this transcript is coming from and what its relation is to the rest of the story is clear. The same narrator that is describing other events of the story is clearly also responsible for obtaining this fictional transcript. Its presence reinforces the voice of the story as one coming from some distance after the accident, able to consider subsequent events and arrive at some unsettling conclusions. <br /><br />I have taken more than enough of your time with these considerations. I do hope that you continue with your work in fiction. Although your latest work fell short of my expectations, I have great faith you will find a path forward. Who knows, perhaps some future biographer will include this letter as a moment of hilarious irony compared to your future success. I can only hope for such a fate.<br /><br />Yours sincerely,<br /><br />T</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Post-script: Hopefully you have enjoyed my essay on the epistolary style in recent speculative fiction. My intention was entertainment and so, while the short stories mentioned here are very much real and well worth your time to read, the author and recipient of this letter are fictional. </span></div>
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Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-18714775414744579052018-01-17T15:06:00.003-08:002018-01-20T08:06:25.326-08:00Post-Arisia 2018 Report<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think this was one of my favorite Arisias. First off, I had a bunch of panels, including a reading panel. That's always fun. In addition, all of the panels I went to were interesting, well-run, and gave me a lot to think about. I can only hope that my own contributions to Arisia were as worthwhile to the audience. <br /><br />I certainly had my fill of stimulating conversations. As always, this convention gives me that singular chance to catch up with both friends and the state of SFF in general. I was happy to catch up with Matt, Alex, John, and Melanie, as well as Wendee and Dan. I got to see a few familiar faces from the con circuit: Gillian Daniels, Andrea Corbin, and Gillian Daniels and I met a bunch of awesome writers and reviewers. I even got in a great session of RPG, playing Masks, a superhero RPG powered by the Apocalypse. I was happy to see the Indie Expo return to the con even though the offerings were some what slim this year. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />A few thoughts on the panels I participated on:<br /><br />Writing Horror, which was my first panel of the convention was a lot of fun. Chris Philbrook, as the moderator, kept the conversation going and we had plenty of constructive audience participation. Considering this was a writer's advice panel I think that was definitely a plus. I've put Hillary Monahan, Tom Deady, Chris Philbrook, and Douglas Wynne's work on my reading list. They had interesting things to say about the genre of horror and how to achievement chills in a work of fiction.<br /><br />I also got a chance to read with Douglas for the Horror Reading panel. Our work certainly seemed complementary. We had a little time towards the end of the reading to answer questions from the audience. To be honest, I thought this was one of the more rewarding moments of the convention for me. To be asked specifically about my craft helped stimulate ideas and future experiments.<br /><br />I had two panels on Saturday. The "It Came from the Past…" gave me a bunch of stories to read and the "Writing for Emotional Impact" panel had a terrific panel of writers as well as a big audience. Particularly this second panel really felt like a high point of a very successful convention.<br /><br />My wife Lauren MC'd this year's Geeky Belly Dance show. She did a tremendous job with her long-time creative collaborator Wendee Abramo and the performances were very strong this year.<br /><br />Both Lauren and I had panels on Sunday. If I can signal boost my wife for a moment, she is a tremendous public speaker, and the topic of the panel: Art and Illness is one that I know she cares deeply about. My panel came in the next time slot and was the year in review for Stephen King. This was the most fun I've had on a panel in quite some time. Griffin Ess did a great job as a moderator, Tom Deady, Genenieve Leonard, and Dierdre Crimmins were fantastic. We had plenty to talk about and also a great topic for a follow up panel if we should be so lucky in next year's Arisia.<br /><br />I had one final panel on Monday: Houses of the Dead which concerned Haunted Houses. I feel like we barely scratched the surface of good haunted house stories but the discussion moved easily and I thought my fellow panelists brought deep knowledge of this topic from both the practical level and the literature side. To put it more simply, this panel, like all of the others I was lucky enough to join, added value to the topic under question. It made me very happy to be a part of that.<br /><br />To back up a bit, I watched two panels on the state of Star Trek and Star Wars that left me with a great many feelings about the role of con panels regarding SFF. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Star Trek panel leaned about 75% against the most recent television series. Complaints ranged from the changes to the Klingons for this series, to how the two gay characters are depicted and handled in recent storylines. A full third of the panel was spent decrying CBS' subscription model for watching Star Trek: Discovery. The one panelist who enjoyed the show made some great points (i.e.: points about the actual story, its characters, and relationship to ST canon) but overall I was struck by how similar the tone in this panel was to the Star Trek panel from 2011 that I participated in. Back then Star Trek Into Darkness was the worst thing to ever happen to the franchise and no one was happy about it. Now fast forward seven years and Discovery is the worst thing that's ever happened to the franchise. Go figure. I don't want to minimize the complaints about Star Trek: Discovery. To be honest, I felt happy to have a chance to get a perspective on the series different from my own. The state of fanship for this franchise does appear locked in a state perpetual out-rage. Let's not lose sight of the fact Star Trek is a very entertaining, glorified kid's show about a future filled with goofy aliens and starships; if your vision of the future depends on Star Trek telling you what it should look like, you are always going to be disappointed. May I respectfully suggest that if you don't like the direction of Trek, please open your word processor and create something better. Seriously - I would love to see more energy devoted to improving this franchise than simply tearing down each successive version.<br /><br />The Star Wars panel, on the other hand, felt like a genuine conversation between fans about the actual work of art in question. Is The Last Jedi the best Star Wars movie ever? Possibly, possibly not. However, it was a sincere and well-crafted piece of art with some interesting flaws and a compelling message. The panelists universally approached this movie from the standpoint of what was the creative team's intention and whether or not they succeeded. I find panels that do that to be the most helpful, to be honest, both from the standpoint of an aspiring creator myself and a fan of SFF. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But mostly what I got from this convention were a bunch of books, movies, and television shows I'm chomping at the bit to read. After some gentle prompting from Laura Blackwell, I've decided to write down the titles that interested me from this weekend. Hopefully these are titles you've not heard about and might be willing to also give a look: <br /><br /><b>Novels now on my reading list (or pushed up a few notches) </b><br />"Head full of Ghosts" by Paul Tremblay. I've read "Disappearance at Devil's Rock" and loved it. I should have read this one a long time ago. <br /><br />"The Hollow Girl" by Hillary Monahan <br /><br />"Heart Shaped Box" by Joe Hill <br /><br />"Red Equinox" by Douglas Wynne <br /><br />"Haven" by Tom Deady <br /><br />"Colony Lost" by Chris Philbrook <br /><br />Sparrow Hill Road Ghost Series by Seanan McGuire. As described in the "Houses of the Dead" panel by Lauren M. Roy, this series follows a psychopomp on a journey across the roads of America. <br /><br />"Mr. Mercedes" by Stephen King <br /><br />"Gerald's Game" by Stephen King. Can't believe I haven't read this one yet. <br /><br />"Vicious" by V.E. Schwab <br /><br />"The Embedding" by Ian Watson <br /><br />"Kojiki" by Keith Yatsuhashi <br /><br /><br /><b>Short Stories </b><br />"Raise-the-Dead Cobbler" by Andrea Corbin. Appeared in Shimmer November 2017 <br /><br />"Maybe Look Up" by Jess Barber. Appeared in Lightspeed Magazine in April 2017 <br /><br />"The Whalebone Parrot" by Darcie Little Badger. Appeared in Dark Magazine October 2017. <br /><br />Dear David Storify: This is a bit of weird one, recommended by Andrea Corbin ahead of the "Houses of the Dead" panel. Basically this is a fictionalized (or possibly not) tale of a haunted apartment. Available here: (<a href="https://storify.com/moby_dickhead/dear-david">https://storify.com/moby_dickhead/dear-david</a>) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Note: This post was updated from original 1/20/18 to add descriptions of panels I saw or in which I participated.<br /><br /> </span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-45400722655211676082018-01-10T13:59:00.001-08:002018-01-10T14:11:43.782-08:00We Have Always Lived in Haunted Houses<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As my final pre-Arisia post, I'd like to tackle ghosts. Metaphorically, of course, because ghosts are intangible and also don't exist. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spectral Ripples by Morgan Crooks (2013) (picture of Chihuly sculpture)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I don't believe in ghosts. Not the sort of ghosts, anyway, that float around decaying old mansions or scare impressionable media personalities. Physics, at least the way I've grown up understanding it, precludes the existence of energy that cannot be detected reliably. Put another way, physicist Brian Cox <a href="https://futurism.com/brian-cox-if-ghosts-existed-wed-have-found-evidence-for-them-by-now/">stated</a> that if ghosts existed the Large Hadron Collider would have almost certainly found one by now. <br /><br />So, when I say I'm a fan of ghost stories and tales of haunted houses, am I being hypocritical? Possibly, but I also think one can appreciate ghosts and haunted houses in a different way. Even though they might not exist in a 'peer-reviewed' and 'experimentally replicable' fashion, phantoms absolutely exist as a potent symbol of the past. <br /><br />When we talk about ghosts what we're really talking about is that annoying quality of the past to simply refuse to fade away. Ghosts scare us because the suggest the horrors of the past retain the power to disrupt and distort the present. We are possessed of ghosts and the houses we live in are just as much theirs as ours. <br /><br />This year had a bunch of ghost-themed stories, including two that I counted on my yearly best-of list. I'd like to first revisit the way S.P. Miskowski handles ghosts in her amazing novel I Wish I Was Like You," but also weave in a discussion of Gwendolyne Kiste's Pretty Marys in A Row. Although the latter isn't precisely a ghost tale, it shares a great many of that genre's themes. <br /><br />Part of the reason S.P. Miskowski's "I Wish I Was Like You" came in as my favorite novel last was its inventive treatment of ghosts. This is a story narrated by a vengeful phantom, and includes some intriguing world-building later in the novel about how ghosts interact with the world of the living. They are not powerless shades, as rendered by Miskowski, but capable of driving the living into madness and death. On the other hand, they no longer have the power to create. The tragedy of this novel is only complete after the narrator dies, because it is only in her afterlife that she has the freedom to say what she wanted. Unfortunately, as her wraith blinks forwards through years and decades, she can only speak the truth about things falling more and more into the distant past. <br /><br />"Pretty Marys All in A Row," a novella written by Gwendolyn Kiste, also addresses themes of phantoms of the past. The entities in this story are not precisely ghosts but more like the embodied spirits of certain nursery rhymes and urban legends. Nevertheless, each of these spirits has the power to haunt the living world, even drawing sustenance from the terror and violence they create. However, I read Kiste's intention here is to show how the ghost of a thing is not really the same thing as the person the ghost represents. In various ways it becomes clear that Kiste's spirits each had separate, unique lives before entering their strange predatory afterlife. The tension of this story stems from concern this Mary has over the living from her actual past and her sisters she provides for. The narrator's living past haunts her spectral present. <br /><br />This theme of the predatory, illusory past appears in a variety of works, including "The Shining" by Stephen King and "Beloved" by Toni Morrison. In both books the spirits of the past want something from the present. In the case of Beloved, the ghost of Sethe's two-year-old infant causes her home to become "spiteful." Overtime, Sethe's guilt over the baby's death and her own trauma at the hands of slave owners and slave catchers begins to drag her back into the past. By the end of "The Shining" (the novel) the apparitions of the Overlook Hotel have so possessed Jack Torrence that he forgets his duties as a caretaker and allows the hotel to explode. The movie version of course suggests that Jack becomes absorbed by the hotel, even appearing in a photograph from the roaring twenties. The victims of the past join the past. <br /><br />Thomas Ligotti's treatment of ghosts is altogether different but no less potent. One of the best descriptions of his approach appears in the very short story, A Spectral Estate. Here, an unnamed narrator roams through an old ramshakle house, describing the subtle discomforts pervading the house. By the end of the piece the reader is left with the uncomfortable feeling Ligotti wasn't describing a physical structure so much as the warped and haunted chambers within the human mind. This is of course in keeping with Ligotti's dour philosophy; specifically the idea consciousness is as much a curse as anything, an appalling genetic mistake. We are our own ghosts, haunting the lonely realm within our skulls.</span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-12886217546498791832018-01-08T15:14:00.002-08:002018-01-09T14:10:40.247-08:00Writing for Emotional Impact<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In addition to a panel on writing horror, macabre, and supernatural tales, for Arisia 2018, I'm also in a panel entitled "Emotional Impact - Making Readers Care!"</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">End of Day by Morgan Crooks (2017)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Assuming for a moment I've written stories containing characters readers care about, what advice could I give to aspiring writers?<br />To repeat a bit from last post, my big three pieces of advice are rather simple and self-evident:</span><br />
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<li>Read Everything</li>
<li>Write as Much as Possible</li>
<li>Reflect on Your Art</li>
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To paraphrase from the previous writing advice post, <b>read</b> everything simply means an aspiring writer must first be a diligent reader. You must be a fan of those books generating a strong emotional response.<br /><br />As you begin to figure out what you like and don't like in stories and other types of literature, begin to <b>write</b>. I do not think you need to write every single day to be a writer. I also don't think you somehow stop being a writer if you put down the pen (so to speak) for a day, week, year, or decade. However, like any there craft, practice is important. If you get stuck, find one of your favorite stories and copy it down word for word. Watch how a writer you respect manufactures a certain emotional response and try to do that.<br /><br />Which gets us to my last more or less universal piece of advice: <b>reflect</b> on your art. Partly this means you should think about what you do. You should be intentional. This also means asking questions. It means you should seek to take apart each thing you read, word-by-word, to see how it ticks.<br /><br />Now for some best practices that I can't guarantee help in all circumstances but do strike me as useful in creating works with emotional impact<br /><br />Write from the emotion, not about it. Emotion is not something you describe to a reader it's something you make the reader feel. Don't say what emotion a character is experiencing, describe her actions, mental state, and speech so clearly that there can be no mistake what the character is experiencing.<br /><br />Become a student of human emotions. Your emotions. The emotions of the people around you. The emotions recorded in art and research. Start a journal where you describe how emotions feel, what people look like when they have emotions, and the turns of phrase in literature summing up each subtle shade of emotional response. Shamelessly raid this journal when you feel tempted to describe a character as 'sad,' or 'happy,' or filled with nostalgia.<br /><br />Study how other writers make you feel emotions. Obviously you want to learn how to create strong emotions to add weight and drama to your work but you also want to be able to capture nuance. There is as much power in a quiet moment of dread as there is the final shock of discovery. <br /><br />Aim for conflicting emotions. I find the works that truly grab ahold of me are ones where I'm not sure exactly how I should feel, I just know that I feel something deeply. My go-to example of this is William Faulkner's final scene of his novel "The Bear." I actually wrote a bit about this in a very old post in Ancient Logic, expressing my love for how this scene describes a hunter's rising jealous mania while still preserving the moment in kind of pastoral sheen of beauty. This scenes tugs a person's heart in conflicting directions. Such complicated responses form strong bonds with the reader.<br /><br />Junot Diaz and Ken Liu are two writers I believe craft and sustain emotional impact routinely in their works. "The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is one of my all-time favorite novels and contains the full range of human sentiment: anger, love, despair, humor, and peace. A far shorter but no less devastating work is "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu, a spare tale of investing a single crumpled paper tiger with all tragic impact of Greek tragedy.<br /><br />When you write emotions, you must, on some level feel those emotions. You don't have to have experienced exactly the same thing as a character. How many of us have been trapped inside of a bomb shelter with a murderous blood-thirsty rat, as is the case in Premee Mohamed's macabre flash fiction piece "<a href="https://themolotovcocktail.com/about/archive-vols-1-3/vol-7/flash-fear/sixteen-minutes/">16 Minutes</a>." This story, despite its few words, expertly establishes the fear and claustrophobia of the narrator before drawing the noose tight around his neck. This effect happens despite Mohamed never once using the words 'afraid,' 'terror,' or 'trapped.' The narrator's increasingly frantic attempts to assuage his guilt and isolation manifest as pleas for more time and the bewildering attacks of the rat.</span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-69145152060548591762018-01-07T18:43:00.000-08:002018-01-09T17:30:41.620-08:00Updated Schedule for Arisia 2018<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next week is Arisia 2018 and I'm on a few panels you might be interested in. In addition to my first couple of writing panels, I'll be joining in conversations about ghosts, haunted houses, and Steven King. If you find yourself at the convention, please consider stopping by! <br /><br />In order of occurrence with location, time, participants and brief panel description: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Writing Horror, the Occult, and the Macabre </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bulfinch (3W), 8:30pm - 9:45pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/108058">Chris Philbrook (moderator)</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/104798">Hillary Monahan</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/108054">Tom Deady</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/108057">Douglas Wynne</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/97610">Morgan Crooks</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From the revival of Stephen King's dark fantasy series 'The Gunslinger' to long-running post-apocalyptic dramas such as 'The Walking Dead,' horror is hot ... it just lurks under different names. Come learn how to use the horror conventions to ramp up suspense, weave the supernatural into your stories, use real-life elements to prey upon your audience's fears, and how you can create your OWN dark and edgy worlds where no character is safe and morality is not always clear. <br /><br />Horror Reading Panel </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hale (3W), 10pm - 11:15pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/108057">Douglas Wynne</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/97610">Morgan Crooks</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Douglas Wynne and I will be reading their own work of terror and suspense. My plan is to read excerpts from "Implicate Order" and two other flash pieces published this year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />It Came From the Past…<br />Douglas (3W), 8:30am - 9:45am<br /><a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/96700">Morven Westfield (moderator)</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/103382">ML Brennan</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/104798">Hillary Monahan</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/108064">Darcie Little Badger</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/97610">Morgan Crooks</a> Ghosts often appear in stories as signifiers of old crimes, guilt, and injustice that needs to be corrected. In this panel, we'll face the accusing ghosts, the avenging ghosts, and the ghosts who remind us of things done wrong. Why does the ghost work so well as a visitor from the past? How can ghosts lead readers to a better understanding of injustice and history? What ghosts need to be summoned to remind readers of what has gone on before?<br /> <br />Emotional Impact — How to Make Readers Care<br />Faneuil (3W), 1pm - 2:15pm<br /><a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/27686">E. C. Ambrose (moderator)</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/101696">Timothy Goyette</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/103382">ML Brennan</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/20057">Jeanne Cavelos</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/97610">Morgan Crooks</a> No matter how great your plot is, if the readers don’t care, you’ll slip to the bottom to the to-be-read pile. Come learn how to use emotional stakes to add conflict to every page, use transformational arcs to create an inner struggle, delineate compelling flaws without losing reader sympathy, make your audience connect on a primal level, and create stories and characters that break readers’ hearts and keep them turning pages.<br /> <br />2017: The Year in Stephen King<br />Burroughs (3E), 8:30pm - 9:45pm<br /><a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/106208">Griffin Ess (moderator)</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/102657">Genevieve Leonard</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/108054">Tom Deady</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/20243">Deirdre Crimmins</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/97610">Morgan Crooks</a> 2017 saw the release of both "The Dark Tower" and the first chapter of the remake of *It*, both long-awaited adaptations of two of Stephen King's most iconic properties. Additionally, "The Mist" made its way to television screens. It was a busy year for fans of King's stories, but was it a successful one?<br /> <br />Houses of the Dead: Haunted Houses in Fiction<br />Alcott (3W), 2:30pm - 3:45pm<br /><a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/106218">Andrea Corbin (moderator)</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/12138">Gordon Linzner</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/5412">Leigh Perry</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/93545">Lauren M. Roy</a>, <a href="https://konopas.arisia.org/#part/97610">Morgan Crooks</a> Many popular genre staples, such as Shirley Jackson's "Haunting of Hill House," Mark Z. Danielewski’s "House of Leaves," and many of Stephen King's works, feature haunted houses. What is it about a confined haunted space draws us in and keeps us hooked? And what can this tell us about ourselves?</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-84130456734425945132018-01-07T07:47:00.001-08:002018-01-08T15:18:31.304-08:00Writing Horror<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm wary offering advice to other writers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">First of all I've got the whole imposter syndrome thing and whatever advice I give feels like a good way of revealing how little I know about anything. Second, what I've learned mostly relates to solving problems in my own writing. What advice does a dog have to offer to a duck on how to swim? </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spiral Structure by Morgan Crooks (2017)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, for Arisia 2018, I'll be participating on a panel of doing just that - giving advice to aspiring horror writers about writing horror. <br /><br />So, what truths can I impart? <br /><br />Some advice feels absolutely true, if a bit self-evident. <br /><br /><b>You must read</b>. If you're trying to write horror then you must read horror. Not just one novel. Not just one author. You should make a sincere effort to read everything by everyone. The more recent the better. The classics are always going to be there, but if you want a sense of where your stories could fit, you need to see what is being published out there. <br /><br /><b>You must write</b>. I do not think you have to write every single day or anything like that. You'll find a system that works for you. But I would suggest that the more you write the better. It is possible you are that one pristine genius who can regurgitate the next shining masterpiece of horror the first time you plop your butt in front of a blank screen. My experience suggests practice is important. So, write down your ideas. Finish whatever you start. Don't be afraid to write outside of your comfort zone. And even when the world has shown you how little interest they have in you or your writing, heroically refuse to stop. It's that simple. <br /><br /><b>You must reflect</b>. Carve out some space to think about what you read and what you write. Did you really like a book? Why? What specifically did the writer do to make you enjoy the work? Did you hate a short story in "Nightmare" or "Clarkesworld" Why? If you hated it so much, why do you think it got published? Someone liked it, what about it interested an editor? <br /><br />Beyond those simple prescriptions, I've a few other thoughts about horror writing specifically. I'm not sure if these are universally true but they do help me remain focused while writing horror stories. <br /><br />First off, <b>be specific</b>. I'd embrace the idea that horror fiction is about specific people facing specific problems. Nothing destroys the effect of horror more quickly than generic characters facing some generic horror. To borrow a piece of advice Kelly Robson reports receiving from the famous editor Steve Barnes: if you have a character, think of the worst problem for them to face. If you have a problem, think of a character least prepared to face that problem. Go. As an example I'd give Laird Barron's excellent short story "Proboscis" about a washed-out actor named Ray and the unseen things hunting for him. It is own particular strain of isolation mixed semi-fame that draws in the monsters and it's own failures as a person that make him particularly susceptible to them. <br /><br />Second, <b>strive for empathy</b>. Be a fan of your characters, even the terrible ones. Understand that decent people make horrible mistakes and the worst horrors stem from honorable intentions. Tom Deady's "Pink Balloon," (available in the "Hardened Hearts" anthology, centers a family tragedy with supernatural undertones on a single plausible character. Whether he deserves the punishment or not, the reader is invested in Dave, willing to follow along with the consequences of his decision. <br /><br /><b>Play fair</b>. If you're writing a horror story clue the readers in on that fact. You're not spoiling them; you're telling them to pay attention because they're going to encounter unpleasantness. You know that feeling of "Don't go in there!" That's not a bad thing. You want your readers aware, on some level, that they are watching a car crash play out. I'd point to Gwendolyn Kiste's "40 Ways to Leave your Monster Lover," (also in "Hardened Hearts") as an example of a writer supplying exactly what a reader needs to know. Written in second person, a tricky POV, Kiste describes at each step along the way what the character could have done to avoid the onrushing collision. <br /><br /><b>Establish isolation</b>. Whatever the peril is, it's always worse when you think you're facing it alone. This doesn't have to be physical isolation. It could be a societal situation preventing the protagonist from getting help. In "<a href="https://hillaryjmonahan.com/free-stuff/">Rawhead</a>" for example, Hillary Monahan describes a protagonist aware she needs to make a terrible choice on her own, that bringing in other people will simply result in her own son's death. <br /><br /><b>Survival is not a reward</b>. Think Ripley's PTSD regarding the xenomorphs in "Aliens." Facing something uncanny is a trauma and traumas cannot be undone by simple survival. In my own story, "Implicate Order," I endeavored to leave the reader with the impression that the main character was not going to be "okay" simply by virtue of surviving. The thing that almost killed him is going to linger in his dreams and imagination for a long, long time. <br /><br />To conclude, everything in the post was written with the intention of helping aspiring writers. If it meets that aim and helps you solve a problem in your writing, then I'm glad. On the other hand, please don't allow anything I've written here to dissuade you from telling a story in your own way. Rules are meant to be broken. <br /><br /> </span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-17057812760753191162018-01-05T09:42:00.003-08:002018-01-05T09:42:59.453-08:00Stephen King's 2017
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite the release of a single novel and a few short stories, 2017 has to rank up there as one of the more Stephen King ascendant years. No less than four movies based on his works appeared, including one of the most successful horror films of all time, the first part of IT. </span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start;">'The Mist' (Stephen King) by Dementall.deviantart.com</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, with King, for every high, there are plenty of lows and 2017 also provided a number of examples of how to do his works wrong. <br /><br />But let's start with the good stuff. The movie adaptation of IT, directed by Andres Muschietti and starring a number of talented young actors (including Finn Wolfhard of "Stranger Things" fame) really captured, for me, a lot of what I liked about the original novel. Being scary certainly helped, but with King, the horror slice is never really the whole cake. What makes King King, at least for me, is the combination of earthy, believable characters with lurid, "Tales from the Crypt" style horrors and an ever-present sense that the universe just doesn't care who lives and who dies. It's tough to describe any story with a homicidal, cosmically powerful murder clown as naturalistic but nevertheless, the best King works find a way of making both characters and gruesome scenarios plausible. <br /><br />And that's what worked for me about IT. Compared to the source material, I think it's safe to say Muschietti's movie was considerably cleaned-up. However, the raucous, raunchy banter of the Loser's club did survive the translation. The movie also nailed the way horror is depicted in the novel, visceral and gross but with a strain of black humor. Similar to Stranger Things, IT seemed to understand what makes King's novels an inseparable part of the 1980s for a certain demographic. <br /><br />I'd also rank "Sleeping Beauties," King's collaboration with this son Owen as one of the successes for this year. Which parts were Steve and which parts were Owen are tough to distinguish but the whole fit very comfortably within the rest of the father's works. <br /><br />In the novel, a mysterious disease (perhaps curse would be a better description) causes all the women of the world to fall asleep under a fibrous shroud growing from their skin. Disturb this shroud and the sleeper awakens into a violent, murderous rage. As men adjust to the idea of a world devoid of women, violence and depravity grows more and more rampant. The themes here, concerns for the down-trodden of society and the ease with which prejudice breeds violence, would be familiar to any reader of Carrie, Gerald's Game, and Misery. The novel also marked the first time in a while I've read the 'bird's-eye omniscient' voice King used to employ regularly when describing carnage stretching across an entire society. Think of how King described the spread of the Captain Trip Superflu virus in the beginning of The Stand: King's authorial voice takes on the tone of a fiendish hyper literate eight-year-old narrating an impending pile-up of Hot Wheel cars. The ending (always a weakness for him) is serviceable here and resolves the themes of the story. <br /><br />Finally, in terms of successes, I'd have to mention the two Netflix adaptions released this fall. Gerald's Game is the better of the two, but 1922 has its own grim pleasures. Both are interesting for how the producers tugged King's sprawling prose into compact and highly focused stories. "Gerald's Game" in particular really moves considering the source text contains long passages of interior monologue and hazy recollections. But perhaps that's the secret to any successful King adaption. You can't run from the prolix but you can't succumb to it either. The rambling, semi-stream-of-consciousness is what gives King's work its weight. In a story like "Gerald's Game," it's important to really understand Jessie Burlingame's past traumas to understand how her situation fits into a larger story. The past is really the present. <br /><br />Which takes us to the two big failures for King adaptions this year. The first is Dark Tower which the less said about the better and the second is The Mist Television show which appeared on the Spike network. <br /><br /> The Dark Tower movie I've not finished. I think the basic problem is that the show-runners really wanted to have a movie called The Dark Tower but they didn't want to tell the actual story of The Dark Tower. The funding, actors, and production were all top-notch but The Dark Tower is not really like the other novels of King's work. This was King's conscious attempt at writing his own Lord of the Rings so even when compared to other doorstoppers like "The Stand" and "IT" the Dark Tower series is on a whole other level in terms of volume. It's also important to realize that The Dark Tower series weaves into all of his other fiction almost like a fictionalized concordance of the Castle Rock Universe. You cannot fudge that central role of the series in King's work through a series of half-hearted Easter Eggs. The subtext here is the text. <br /><br />That's also the original sin of Spike's The Mist series. But really this series fails on so many levels I'm surprised I managed to get to the end of it. First off, The Mist novella was one of my favorite King stories of all time. The small town politics, mixed with the pressure-cooker setting of a super-market besieged by mysterious things prowling outside really worked for me. I think the movie version (2008) was nearly as good and as King even said, probably had a better ending than the novella did. <br /><br />Now, imagine a team of writers and show-runners having this property turned over to them, scrolling through a page or so of the wiki for the movie and basically deciding, 'You know what? Let's do something completely different.' I will give them one thing, they definitely included the mist. There is mist in nearly every shot and the show runners seem convinced that the mist, whatever it is, is the real killer. There are no awesome parasitic spiders, no giant land crabs, and no Cthulhu monsters strolling over the landscape. There is the mist and the nightmares that each person seems to conjure out of it. It's one of those situations where everything that reminded me of the movie was done better in the movie and everything different from the movie either bored me or offended me. I'm going to mete out an extra dollop of outrage for the handling of the lone gay character of the series and his eventual reveal (SPOILER, but really what's the point? Anything I do to dissuade you from watching this is probably a public service) as murderous rapist. Besides not convincing me they've ever read the story, they also apparently went out of their way to avoid conversations with actual human beings. <br /><br />So, in summation, for King 2017 was a big but also inconsistent year. Where creators adopted the overall theme and focuses of the author, their work tended to be more successful. Where they think they knew better than him, they tended to fall apart. I'm not saying that King is the greatest writer who ever lived or even the best horror writer who ever lived, but he does have a particular technique in telling his stories, and more often than not it's that technique which makes his stories work.</span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331172036421362099.post-78356102879754921252017-12-31T07:56:00.001-08:002017-12-31T07:56:28.606-08:00Alive in 2017<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a long, strange year comes to a close, I guess the big emotion I have right now is simple gratitude. I got a bunch of stories published this year, from way back in February with "Killing the First Gods," in the A Book of Blasphemous Words anthology to "Promontory" in the fantastic A Breath in the Sky anthology, to "The Boy in the Picture" and "Implicate Order," in Grievous Angel and Lamplight Magazine respectively. I've never left a year feeling more certain of my dedication of time, emotional energy, and creativity to the act of writing than this year. I don't know what 2018 will bring in terms of my stories but I can't help but feel a degree of cautious optimism.</span><div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bone Necklaces by Morgan Crooks (2017)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I feel optimistic perhaps because I see how much talent is out there producing the kind of fiction I love reading. It is not possible to list all of the writers active out there right now without feeling I'm slighting someone so I'll just say that if you like the kind of weird speculative fiction I do, you can't help but think there's a lot to love out there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I went to Darwin, Australia to see my brother and his family. It was a long trip but absolutely worth it. I returned home feeling very appreciative of where I live and who is a part of my life.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />I feel good about my family, my home, and my friends. I feel good about my job and my hobbies. I feel as though a great deal about my personal life is doing pretty alright, thank you very much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In one version of this post I went onto a long diatribe about the president, his allies in the Congress and courts and generally vented about how awful other parts of this year have been.<br /><br />But you know what? The New Year is nearly here and I'll spare you.<br /><br />I hope 2018 is a better year for you than 2017 and no matter who you are, congratulations on surviving this year.</span></div>
Morgan Crookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17300531363519164632noreply@blogger.com0