Couth or Uncouth?

[cedar_grove]

From The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.

Another name for God
Is surprise.
-Brother David Steindl-Rast

It seems that any moment of interest or pain or adversity can surprise us into the larger totality of life, breaking our current limits and allowing us the chance to redefine ourselves in regard to the larger sense that is upon us.

(From 21st April)

I was finally able to sit down and finish the treatment for Use'ara: Thirteen Stars today. In actuality I set myself the challenge. There would be no getting online until after I had done it. It had been 'almost finished' for far to long and today it would be finished.

I was stalling, and the reason I was stalling is that the ending, as I had currently had it set out through the outline, felt a little too much like Deus ex Machina to me... and that just wouldn't do. I mean I know (because I know the backstory of what happened 'off camera' so to speak in the original outline) that it wasn't even approaching anything close, but... because it happened 'off camera' the reader was not privvy to that information. I decided that it needed to be told as a part of the ending, but worried that this would a) further complicate matters and b) make the story too damn long. Surprisingly, far from complicating matters it allowed for a much more ordered approach to the climax and denouement of the novel, although it does add quite a chunk of story. As it's sci-fi/fantasy, this isn't necessarily too much of a handicap, but we'll have to see how it all turns out now that I"m in a position to start writing.

The second 'surprise' of the day came in the form of another 'germ' of an idea, which I've put into the 'development' file. It came in part because I was thinking of Option C the short that I had thought to send to Daily Science Fiction. It provides a key point of the premise behind the backstory for one of the characters... a woman being punished for her continuing use of a forbidden faculty - her imagination. What happens to this woman after that revolves around the future of humanity, and the 'help' (or hindrance) of an immortal (be that angel or demon is up for debate right now), but anyway, the working title for the project is In Humanity, yes, a play on words, and we'll just have to wait and see what comes of it.

Lastly, Mir and I went to see Black Swan today. Actually we went out on a date (a really nice date with way too much chocolate cake and popcorn), but the last part of the date was a trip to the Varsity to see the movie... and while it was a good movie, and one I enjoyed a great deal, I'm afraid I just don't see what all the fuss was about. I found myself getting proufoundly irritated at the mother, but that was about the most visceral reaction I had through the whole of the film. It was well acted, though a little too 'arty' in some places for my taste, but I certainly don't understand, or didn't experience, the deeply disturbed or thoughtful experience it gave to others. Does that mean I lack couth?

Hmmm.

Comments

[mirrani.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that was a date. Was it really? Wow. :) Clueless male here thinking a trip to the mall, grocery and a movie thrown in is something special. ;)

I should throw movies at you more often. :) Gnomio and Juliet is at the Varsity now. ;)

[cedargrove.livejournal.com]

Yes please, I want to see Gnomio and Juliet!