Summer Reading

I haven't written here for a while. The combination of CRW3930 in Spring (a lot of work, but worth it) and a LIT4934 in Summer A (trying, but ultimately interesting, and I really liked what I was able to do with the last paper there) and work (insanely busy) demanded too much attention. But, the LIT4934 in Summer A was the last undergrad English class I need to take so I can start taking grad English classes for the M.Ed.

In the break between Summer A and Fall 09, I took my son to Kennedy Space Center for a program called "Family ATX" and we had a blast. We missed seeing STS-127 lift off because of the weather delays, but had fun anyway. If STS-128 slips a few days so the launch time is a little earlier, I'd really like to go see it. It's supposed to be a night launch. (Well, currently 1:30-ish AM. Maybe "dark launch" is more accurate.)

I also set about finishing Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy. I read Spring Snow a few months ago. In the past few weeks I read Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn and The Decay of the Angel. About 1000 pages in the last three of the four. I enjoyed the first two books of the four, I think because they were more about the characters and the culture. The latter two were more focused on Mishima's ideas and philosophy, which were increasingly depressing. The long discussion of Buddhism in Temple didn't bother me. It was the general tone. I've read that the books a sort of commentary of Japan. Given the switch from the first part of the book to the latter part, it seems Mishima considered WWII a turning point for the worse. Kawabata has a similar sense in his books, but his tone is more sad. By the time he hit Decay, Mishima's tone was unabashedly hopeless.

Without giving away anything, the fourth book ends by essentially saying, "Man is trapped in history. Everything is meaningless. We can't be sure anything we experience happened." Sounds a lot like Georg Buchner from a LIT class I took last Summer B. After I finished the last book I commented to someone that it wasn't surprising that he committed suicide (seppuku, no less) the day he finished it.

Now, with fall classes coming, I'm getting together books and starting to read ahead. Dunno what we're doing in ENG6019, but in LIT5934 (Robots, Monsters and Cyborgs), we're reading texts I'm really looking forward to. Two (I, Robot; Neuromancer) I've read before. I memorized Gibson's first line it's so perfect.

So I dove into Frankenstein, which I've never read, though I know I've seen a B&W version of the movie (can't remember which, just that it wasn't silent). I was expecting something tedious because of the age of the text, but it has been fun. I actually like older literature when I get back into that mode of reading/thinking. In ENG4013 last fall, the two books I liked best in that class were both set in pre-20th-century times, though written by modern authors. Mary Shelley's language and style is a bit older, but it is enjoyable. And, 100 pages in, the monster exists, but there hasn't been any lightning or electrodes (at least, not in the way they appeared in the movie). I'll see if they come in later, but since Victor Frankenstein has said that he doesn't want to reveal his secret knowledge (secrets man was not meant to know), and didn't use them when he created the monster, I'm thinking they may never appear.

And, I've already seen the rough connection to both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which I'm looking forward to reading) and I, Robot. Man trying to become a god (or godlike), creating "life," and suffering the consequences, suggestions of "secrets man was not meant to know," and so forth. Shelley's subtitle, "The Modern Prometheus," fits.

When I finish Frankenstein, I'm on to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If I finish that before class starts, I'll read The Picture of Dorian Gray, just to make sure I've gone through the "old" books in the class.

I also think I want to get a netbook. I have a large laptop and smaller work laptop, but the former is too much to carry around and only lasts a couple of hours on battery. The latter has restrictions and is kind of chunky. I want something small and light and long-battery-lived that I can use for writing, reading and browsing at public WiFi places, maybe watching the occasional fansub. I'm still looking around for the right cheap/light/long/features combo, though. When the netbook gets up to $400-$500, I might as well start looking at a 13" laptop for $700.

Ah. ENG6019 is listing one book. 320 pages. 220 literary terms defined. Looks like a dictionary of sorts. Hmm... Wonder what else we'll be reading. Maybe time to email the professor. The booklist update is new within the past couple of days, so maybe she's around.

CRW3930 - Ideas?

Writing doesn't really spin itself from nothing. Regardless of what writers say, ideas form as a result of bits and pieces of the real world colliding in the writer's head, consciously or not, and mixing into that magical stuff that the writer put on the page. This web of words may lead to something completely impossible in the real world, but it starts there.

So where do ideas come from?

Everywhere. Yeah. Really.

Today I read a news item about Mt. Asama in Japan spitting out an ash cloud that dusted Tokyo. Since I'm writing a story set in Tokyo involving yokai and other supernaturalness, it wasn't a huge leap to say, "Well, what if a peeved yokai caused that and my characters need to go pacify it." So I scribbled that down for later consideration.

Another news item talked about the Japanese notion that blood type is a predictor of personality. I knew this, but the news to me was that this wasn't traditional. (Which makes sense if you think about the chronology.) It was popularized in the 1970s. So I decided that my central characters will discount blood type. (Another note scribbled.)

Then I read about the guy at Shimo-kitazawa who performs manga, like a storyteller in the old days. My characters are into the old stories and traditions and... well, you see where that's going. (They're middle-school students who like manga, so this hits several points for them.)

So I say subscribe to a few news feeds about Japan if you want to write about Japan and can't actually live there. If you want to write hard science fiction, go for Scientific American and Discovery Channel, but throw in Wired and a gadget blog like Engadget. You never know what crazy idea will come out of them. (For example, Wired has a long article about the man who is sequencing and analyzing his daughter's DNA in an attempt to identify the genetic anomaly behind her medical problems. So many interesting ideas running around in that one.) For science fiction less focused on science, well, Wired is good for that too. They have several sections that discuss social considerations of technology from privacy to health risks to sex.

Research is another source of ideas. I've been reading books about yokai that take a more scholarly bent, looking at them as a cultural phenomenon. Obviously, I get ideas for creatures and behaviors there.

But then I ran across a haiku by Basho that described octopuses in a trap in "ecstasy" (according to the translator). Which made me wonder what might happen if my characters had to track down a (potentially tentacular) yokai who attacked couples visiting love hotels. (Of course, they'd have to go undercover. And they're both guys, not gay. Comedy, and possibly cross-dressing, ensues.)

Of course, I guess research points to another thing that helps with ideas -- knowing the subject reasonably well. I've read enough manga that I know I'm writing something that combines a slice-of-life manga (e.g. Here is Greenwood) with a fighting manga (e.g., Yuu-Yuu Hakusho or Ral-o-Grad) and a supernatural manga (e.g., Tactics or Yumekui Kenbun). I may bring in a rivalry (e.g., Naruto or Hikaru no Go -- yes, they are the same thing, just different weapons). That gives me a set of specific activities that are expected. For example, a school trip, summer break activities, one of the characters is in kendo and will be competing in a tournament (possible source of rival who happens to have yokai connections, right?), attending school, and, at the same time, dealing with yokai, kicking butt on a few, resolving issues for others that are causing problems.

Yes, it's a hodge-podge.

That gives me more places to look for ideas.