The Normal People

This is from a writing exercise on creating character through using a character's main fear(s) and desire(s). I ran up against the 500 word limit, so it ends kind of abruptly.

When I leave my apartment, shutting the door behind me and walking into the desert night, I know that it is unlikely that I will be seen by anyone. I made sure to wait until after midnight to go outside. I know my nosy landlord always leaves by six or seven in the evening and my new neighbors are always noisy when they are around, so I know they must be out.

A great gush of air explodes out of my lungs in relief. The desert night is black and moonless.  There are no stars. There will be no prying eyes following me and wondering where I am going, who I am, why I am such a failure. No hushed voices will whisper and tell each other that I haven’t been to class in more than a week.

I am alone with the night and its blackness blankets me in warm comfort.

The twenty-four hour sandwich shop is only a few blocks away, but halfway there, the streetlamps return and there is a chance I will be seen by a few passing students up late. I slouch and pull my hat lower over my eyes and reach into my back pocket to make sure I have brought my wallet with me. A few steps later I reach in again, clutching the leather rectangle with my sweaty fingers. I must make absolutely sure it is there.  To get to the sandwich shop and order my sandwich and not be able to pay for it would be disaster. I decide to move it to my front pocket and keep my hand on it until I get there.

I can order my sandwich by number, so I won’t have to talk the person at the counter except for a few words. I count the number of words in my head. May (1) I (2) Have (3) a (4) number (5) five (6) please? (7). Seven words. All I have to say is seven words and I can have my sandwich. I can see myself saying it. I haven’t eaten anything but microwave popcorn all day. I run through the scenario a couple of times.

I have to brush aside a series of thoughts that open a series of doors that will only lead me back to my apartment without my food. It’s like an echo that I can hear in the distance even thought I try not to listen because I know it by heart.

I want things in life. Normal people things. And I see all these people, they go about their day talking about themselves and their hopes and fears and they just talk and talk and talk. And they seem to be better adjusted, betting functioning. And I can see myself joining them, ordering food, answering questions in class, expressing everything in such perfection. I will be one of them. Complete, whole.

My sweaty hand clasps the sandwich shop door and slips and I almost run into the door. I catch the lone sandwich maker watching me and I know nothing will change.

Character Questionnaire

Bernice Chauly Character questionnaire. "A Man's character is his fate"

Who am I?
What is my greatest fear?
What is my greatest joy?
What makes me angry?
What makes me sad?
What do I hate?
Who do I hate?
What do I love?
Who do I love?
What am I afraid of?

Do 4 minute free writing exercises for these based on your mood. The point is to find your voice by knowing yourself first, then you can create layered characters better.

October 5th, 2015

So here I am writing notes for the day. My intention is to write a lot. I want to capture a lot of details and thoughts that occur to me throughout the day. It's not meant to be a publishable work. I don't care if the grammar is perfect or the style worth reading. The point is to write. If you are reading this, and I have no idea why you would be, then enjoy, I guess...

I'm taking this online fiction writing class through the University of Iowa. It's free, so I figure there's nothing really to lose. However, I am already a week behind so I don't have a lot of time to write here. So my day in a nutshell: Laundry, gyros at the SOHO Cafe in uptown Minneapolis with David, and catching up the University of Iowa class. Also, I had a slab of apple pie with breakfast.

That's all for today. See you tomorrow!

The Perfect Defective

The Perfect Defective by Clark Casey

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Perfect Defective is a booze-fueled train wreck of a detective story. I couldn't pull my attention away even though the plot doesn't make much sense, the protagonist is a drunken misogynist jerk and the humor is pretty juvenile.

The Good: At least Casey's protagonist knows he's a drunken loser. He never gets anything right and has the nerve to make fun of his own loserdom. While juvenile, The Perfect Defective has some wit. There are a few laughs, or a whole lot of laughs depending on your taste in humor.

To the novel's benefit, Jack Hannigan is a well fleshed out character. He's rather offensive to pretty much everyone, but his character is interesting and engaging.

The Bad: The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The protagonist/narrator wanders around the novel's landscape drunk and without much purpose other than procuring more booze and sex. At times it seems like The Perfect Defective is a poorly constructed delivery vehicle for some crude one-liners.

The Bottom Line: The Perfect Defective's sense of humor isn't for everyone. It's crude and offensive but sometimes funny. Reader beware.

Disclosure: I was given a review copy by the author.

Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (The New 52)

Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (The New 52)

My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

OK, so first the obvious. Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (The New 52) has beautiful, iconic cover art. It's a beautiful image of all the Justice League members starting out the new 52's lineup. It's simple, sexy and does the trick, showing off the Justice League's new design. The focus is on the characters themselves, where it should be for this kind of origin story.

The interior art is equally good. It's sleek and sexy as Batman and Green Lantern battle a mysterious extraterrestrial enemy. Jim Lee has done an excellent job.

Since this is a Justice League origin story, it's all about the superheroes meeting for the first time.  There isn't enough time for a lot of character development, but immediately there is a difference between Batman's seriousness and Hal Jordan's joking and over confident personality. 

The dialogue here is what shines the most. The confrontation between Batman and Green Lantern is full of fun, snarky dialogue that doesn't take itself too seriously. The bottom line is that is it enjoyable. The best is this gem!:

 - Green Lantern: "What are your powers anyway? You can't fly."

- Batman: "No."
- Green Lantern: "Super-strength?"
- Batman: "No."
- Green Lantern: "Hold on a second... You're not just some guy in a bat costume, are you? Are you freaking kidding me?!"

Another gem is when Wonder Woman tries ice cream for the first time. Each of the characters get small moments like these and it's a lot of fun. Even Aquaman comes off as a bad ass. The league has a confrontation with a promising big bad that ends in a stalemate and opens up a mystery as to why the big bad wants Superman. Perhaps the confrontation is anticlimactic, but it's a good narrative hook from which to move forward.

From other reviews I've read online, it seems that a lot of people are upset by the Justice League reboot. It takes place 5 years in the past, and so compresses the entire history of the Justice League into a five year period. Some people are particularly annoyed that now Batman seems to have gone through 5 Robins in 5 years. Or at least that's how I understand it. None of this really bothers me. I don't think people should take it that seriously. 

Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (The New 52) is a promising start to the flagship DC title. It's super accessible for newbies like me. I don't have to know anything about the DC Universe to get into it, and for me, that's important.

Conscience of a Liberal

Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
My Rating 5 of 5 stars

Conscience of a Liberal gives a political and economic history of the twentieth century, highlighting the way economic inequality has been shaped by political activism by far-right "movement conservatives," who got their start in the 1960s but didn't come to political power until the 1980s. 

The Good: Krugman's book is well argued and written for a general audience. You don't have to have ever taken an economics class to understand his arguments and conclusion. Krugman goes into a lot of detail showing how "movement conservatism" has aimed to repeal the FDR's New Deal and create a new Gilded Age of economic inequality and has used race issues as a primary distraction, while promoting economic ideas that favor the wealthiest Americans and hurt most voters. It isn't possible to do these arguments justice in a short review. I recommend Conscience of a Liberal because it presents these arguments in ways that are both easy to understand and historically comprehensive. 

The Bad: Conscience of a Liberal seems dated now. Written in 2007, it doesn't reflect the rise of the Tea Party, Occupy Wall-Street, Citizens United or the dominance of austerity rhetoric currently floating around. That being said, I think a lot of these events fit in line with Krugman's general premises. 

As I said before, Conscience of a Liberal is written for a general audience, so a lot of the criticism against it has been that it is weaker on economic arguments and overtly political. However, this is the entire premise of the book: that political conditions have a great sway over the economy, particularly when it comes to inequality. 

The Bottom Line: Conscience of a Liberal is a great book that details the rise of economic inequality and the main reason behind it.

Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future

Robert Reich's book Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future is sectioned into three parts. In the first two sections, Reich offers arguments for why America's growing inequality is bad. The third offers ideas for fixing it.

Part one argues that growing inequality makes it impossible for America's middle class to consume as much as they produce without going into debt. The reason for the 2008 meltdown, he argues, was not that Americans had merely spent beyond their means or that Wall Street speculators had trashed the economy, though these he argues are true. Rather, "their (middle class Americans) means had not kept up with what the larger economy could and should have been able to provide them." This is the reason behind the economic collapse.

Part one is the best section of the book. Reich's analysis is concise, though well supported. The argumentation is spot on. He makes strong points, develops them and supports them without wandering too far from his central thesis. He doesn't simplify things, but manages to explain them well.

Part two argues that growing inequality will have dangerous social implications if nothing is done to change its direction. This section begins with a thought experiment involving a fictional future party of populist radicals. The argument he makes here is that capitalism has to be saved from itself. If the middle class can't achieve the things they used to, radicals will harness their populist anger and the end result will be the destruction of the economy and capitalism.

The specifics of this thought experiment are a little silly, though not entirely implausible. It's also a drawback that he lumps all of the populist anger together into one category. That's a little insulting to middle class intelligence actually, but maybe he is right. In any case, his main point that capitalism needs to be saved from itself is poignant.

Part three cobbles together a lot of small possible solutions, notably changes to tax codes, getting money out of politics and a complete expansion of medicare.

The drawback to section three is that there isn't a lot of connection among the small solutions he cobbles together. For the most part, none of them are politically possible either. Reich ends by suggesting that the only real way forward is if corporations and financial elite heed his warning themselves and save capitalism from itself.

The Good: Reich's analysis of the structural problem under-girding the American economy is spot on. His argument is well supported but concise at only 147 pages.

The Bad: Section two and three of the book simply aren't as good. Section two is purely speculative. The argument is valid, but the specifics get a little silly. Section three disappoints in its presentation of solutions. Few to none of the solutions are politically feasible.

The Bottom Line: Aftershock is required reading for any progressive wanting to understand the structural economic problem behind the economic meltdown and the barriers to fixing it.