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Feb 22 2012
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book review, Entertainment, fantastic points of ignorance, literature, The Writing Life, Writing

The Thinker’s Thesaurus

We like words here, don’t we?

Chuh-huh… yeah! That’s why today’s fantastic point of ignorance goes out to all of you wordsmiths, literators, storyweavers and spelling bee champions out there. I asked for free stuff this Christmas, things like carols and cider and snow cones and oral stories involving hearts five sizes too small but my Grandma’s a gift giver like most of my family. She bought me a copy of The Thinker’s Thesaurus.

Touché, granny. Touché.

Here’s the thing, I’m a recovering academic. I root out ivory tower talk when it rears it’s out-of-touch head. I also doubt I’ll be publishing a story, a non-fiction feature or even a poem in the New Yorker any time soon. Though I’m an avid reader, they’d scoff at my work if it ever managed (against all odds) to land a manuscript on their desks. Because of these disqualifications, I find little practical use for such a book as The Thinker’s Thesaurus.

Don’t even care.

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Feb 20 2012
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fantastic points of ignorance, impulsive pastimes, literary interpretation, The Writing Life

Firefly: Power and Poise

Saturday, February 18th, I lost my Firefly virginity.

I waited right around seven years to do this – ever since I stepped onto the college scene and my newfound friends began badgering me to watch the show. I borrowed the series from a friend, sat down on my Saturday at 7:45am and watched the series straight until 9pm. Yes, I was that hooked. This show’s amazing, and I completely understand why Firefly fans beg so often, so long and so convincingly  about making a second season.

It’s like all of you told me all these years that there was gold in them there hills, but I blew you off because, let’s face it, there’s always gold in them there hills. But seven years later I walk over the tops of them there hills on the first open Saturday it crosses my mind and find out what you meant was “there’s gold on them there hills.” Lying around. In hunks and nuggets and bars. What you meant was “take a walk over this hill and pick up all the friggin’ gold you want, dummy.” That was Firefly for me, walking around and finding gold everywhere. That’s why I imbibed all of it in a single day: gold rush. Three things stood out to me: a lesson, an interpretation and a longing.

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Feb 17 2012
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censored opinions, Entertainment, literature, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: World Building

Ever look at one of these, these, these or these?

Fantasy writers perfect cartography. We have Tolkien to think for that, for he coined the phrase “cartographic writing” – writing from the map. You create the world, the mythology of the world and then you write with a character inside that world. Unfortunately, many fantasy writers focus so long on the what and the where that they neglect the who and the why questions. Good answers to these questions create great stories. Today, we turn to the fantasy writers to teach us about trade, authority, ceremony, and ethics.

Trade

What can your characters do to make a living? Awhile back on Twitter, I asked people to list out medieval professions. Piper, Karl, Matt and I came up with the following list:

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Feb 15 2012
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Alchemy, Entertainment, impulsive pastimes, Kingkiller Trilogy, literature

Kingkiller Nigreddo: Wind

“So Taborlin fell, but he did not despair. For he knew the name of the wind, and so the wind obeyed him. It bore him to the ground as gently as a puff of thistledown and set him on his feet as soft as a mother’s kiss.”

Wind’s fairly important in this book. I could argue that it’s even more important in WMF, but that detours us from our goal (Remember, the “continue reading” is to protect Kingkiller virgins from spoilers).

Why wind? Why mention the control of wind and even inversion of wind? What’s wind to do with alchemy?

During sublimation, a vapor escapes the mercury. The alchemist must capture that vapor and through solution and distillation turn it into water. If you looked at the Emerald Table, you’d see the fourth law: “The wind carried it in its womb, the Earth is the nurse thereof.” Maier thought this means that sulphur (the masculine) is carried inside Mercury (the feminine) as the raw goods of the work. In the middle of sublimation and distillation, we see Hermes flying through the air like wind. Here’s Zoroaster’s Cave:

Our stone in the beginning is called water; when the body is dissolved, Ayre or Wind; when it tends to consolidation, then it is named earth, and when it is perfect and fist it is called Fire.

They also called that mercurial mist the zephyr, and it often symbolizes the white stone of the albedo. The Alchemist by Ben Jonson refers to Sublet’s puffer, Face, as billowing the flames. “That’s his fire-drake,/ His lungs, his Zephyrus, he that puffes [sic] his coals [sic].”

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Feb 09 2012
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Alchemy, Entertainment, fantastic points of ignorance, Kingkiller Trilogy, literary interpretation

Kingkiller Nigreddo: He said to the stone, “Break!”

Further into our first Taborlin the Great story, we see Taborlin trapped in a windowless stone cell. Nevermind that the cell evokes images of coffins and tombstones (more Nigreddo death-to-the-old-life imagery), we’re interested in the magic!

But Taborlin knew the names of all things, and so all things were his to command. He said to the stone ‘Break!’ and the stone broke. The wall tore like a piece of paper, and through that hole Taborlin could see the sky and breath the sweet spring air.

In alchemy “stone” as a singular entity refers to the philosopher’s stone the vessel or protagonist transforming from common to holy or lead to gold. A “stone” is a prima materia that has gained the Midas touch and provides the aqua de vida.

But we’re not talking about a stone but stone as an element. Taborlin knew the name of the element “stone” and could control it… as in the title The Name of the Wind. For Lindy’s advice on the matter, we need his “rock” entry. Rock stores the prima materia - the philosopher’s stone. Robert Fludd named the stone “a spirituall [sic] rock of pure transparent saphir [sic].“

Translation: the rock holds the good stuff. Continue reading →

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Feb 03 2012
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censored opinions, Entertainment, literature, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: Emotional Structure

Our stories breed three species of emotion.

These three species unearth the temperament of our stories and life perspective as we write. One species, the Cynic, rides the downward trend of the world. The Cynic sees everything ending stoic and stark. Another, the Visionary, envisions an uphill battle. There’s a hill to charge. Once we take it and stand on top, we shall all be kings. The last species, the Paradoxical, trusts neither in hope nor revels in despair but meditates on the fascinating contradiction called “life.” He thinks you can get your true love, but only if you die for her. You might achieve success in the financial world, but only after you sell your soul. You could earn honor for your family by submitting yourself to public disgrace.

These three species (The Cynic, The Visionary, The Paradoxical) influence every realm of story: novels, screenplays, plays, documentaries, old radio, commercials, TV series, the miniseries and narrative performance art. They “prove” their ideas through subtle swelling swings in emotion:

Whatever drives your current work, whatever thought you aspire to smuggle into your audience’s mind, start on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. Your story will swing wider and deeper, back and forth between the positive and negative ends of your story spectrum until climax. Some stories end up, some end down and some end with the bittersweetness of real life – both beautiful and grotesque, wonderful and awful. Continue reading →

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Feb 01 2012
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Alchemy, Entertainment, Kingkiller Trilogy, literary interpretation

Kingkiller Nigreddo: Blue Fire

“When he awoke, Taborlin the Great found himself locked in a high tower. They had taken his sword and stripped him of his tools: key, coin, and candle were all gone. But that weren’t even the worst of it, you see…” Cob pause for effect, “cause the lamps on the wall were all burning blue!”

We pulled up a stool next to Old Cob, Graham, Jake and Shep and leaned in, waiting alongside the smith’s prentice.

“Do you know what that meant boy?”

The smith’s prentice nodded said the word.

“That’s right,” Cob said approvingly. “The Chandrian. Everyone knows that blue fire is one of their signs.”

Well we’ve made it a whopping half-page into the reread and landed on another alchemical prospect. Blue flames. Cold fire. The alchemical blaze. Flames colored the opposite color of flames. This comes up often in Kingkiller, too often to count since the Chandrian antagonize Kvothe more than anything or anyone else.

The alchemists called it “azure” – the bright sky blue of modern home decor and graphic design. This color saturated the alchemical water and mercurial fifth element so often that the sapphire became a HUGE symbol when Parcelsus brought it over from the Cabbala. Others like Thomas Vaughan thought the alchemical water held “a certain inexpressible Azure like the Body of Heaven in a Clear Day.” If the protagonist sports a blue shirt or other garb, it supposedly reveals the pouring of tincture on top of melted lead to transmute it into silver or gold.

Translation: When we see azure in heavy alchemy books, we learn the goals of the perfected protagonist. Continue reading →

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Jan 27 2012
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censored opinions, literature, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: Protagonist

Ever watch a fat soprano shatter a wine glass with her voice?

It’s called resonant frequency – the pitch at which something vibrates. Everything has it – the table I’m typing on, the car keys hanging from my carribeaner and the engine block on my car that, judging by the smell of burning rubber, may or may not need a check up.

Friggin’ serpentine belts…

Vocal chords vibrate a column of air to its resonant frequency, allowing the sound to fill your mouth with song and then enter the world by leaving your sound hole. I wonder if musical mothers ever use that phrase in vain? “Shut your sound hole!” If the frequency exiting your sound hole matches the exact resonant frequency of, say, a glass? BUM-CHINSH go shards and wine all over your table.

The glass says “that sounds like me” and explodes in an emotional encounter. Protagonists are the songs we writers sing, the notes that resonate deep in the caverns of our readership’s soul. Each of us is a glass begging to find something that “sounds like me.”

Protagonists come good or bad, evil or righteous, living right or dead wrong. They can be rich or poor, powerful or weak, accepted or rejected. Regardless of looks, they must resonate. They must sound like us often enough that when their story finds the breaking point at climax, we too shatter. Analysts dub that phenomenon “catharsis” – our human desire to discharge emotion in one satisfying purge.

I offer four solid words to describe protagonists: volition, ambition, predisposition, qualification, and fortune. Continue reading →

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Jan 25 2012
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Alchemy, fantastic points of ignorance, Kingkiller Trilogy, literary interpretation, literature, mythology, Writing

Kingkiller Nigreddo: Felling Night

I addressed the prologue elsewhere, so we’ll start with Chapter One:

“It was felling…”

Stop.

When ripped from mommy-context’s grasp, this creates double entendre, piggybacking on what came before. We could say, “A man waiting to die was felling.” Lumberjacks fell trees, but a felling is the amount of wood they fell in a given season. If double entendre, then he used “fell” verbally – to chop down. “The broken tree” is one meaning of the Ademic Maedre, Kvothe’s other name.
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Jan 24 2012
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Alchemy, Kingkiller Trilogy, literary interpretation, Writing

Kingkiller Alchemy Reread: Disclaimers & Housekeeping Before We Start

Before I go on a posting rampage and dig into the nigreddo-gritty of The Name of the Wind, let’s lay out my assumptions:

1. Rothfuss mentioned in his bio that he dabbles with Alchemy in his basement. That means one of three things. He could mean that he often attempts to turn Pb into Au through metallurgy. If so, he’s avoiding the question – much like the witty “I stand exactly 10,000 feet tall” – as the grammar of chemistry does not translate into the grammar of Alchemy.

He could also mean he practices neo-gnostic esoteric alchemy in hopes to purify his soul and reach enlightenment. Though that crops up in cities like Seattle and New Orleans, I doubt Rothfuss cares much since he’s a staunch ethical relativist, inconsistent as that may seem with his more-than-relative stances and statements.

The third “dabble in Alchemy” nods toward literary alchemy. I say “nods” because, like many other PoMo writers, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. If he mentions his alchemy dabbling literarily, then alchemical symbols do not hide under ever rock and draccus cave. I write with that assumption FOR EVERY SINGLE POST. I have no clue which symbols he intended, but the beauty of writing shows up when author exposes a theme and reader applies insight in myriad ways. Interpretation looks neither like reader’s response or author’s intent, but a dance between their telepathic bond. That said, we’re searching for alchemical potentials and their potential implications, nothing more, nothing less.

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Jan 18 2012
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book review, Entertainment, fantastic points of ignorance, literature

The Secret Life of Houdini

As a kid, I ingested Houdini biographies like most kids ingest chocolate. As a kid, Houdini snatched up Robert Houdin biographies like most kids snatched up wallets. I found myself taunting my brother to handcuff, shackle and hog tie me to my own bedposts and lock the door just so I could escape through the bedroom window and go wash dishes until he found me again. Houdini contorted himself as often as the manager at The Welsh Circus allowed him to. I practiced card magic, he practiced card magic. In my youthful ignorance, I delved into spiritualism & communicating with the dead. When I grew up, I wanted to be just like… well… you get the picture.

“But Lance, you’re not Houdini! Get over yourself.”

No crap, Sherlock. (You might that joke in a moment). I recount my childhood superhero to show the deep, intimate connection I have with the whole of Eric Weiss’s life, from Hungarian Eric to Harry Houdini. Every bit of this book taught me about myself while it taught me about him. Beyond the straightjackets, metamorphoses and lock picks sits a melancholy choleric pensive who struggled between arrogance and honest ambition, service and secret service Continue reading →

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Jan 13 2012
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censored opinions, Entertainment, literature, news

Bottom Secret: The New Self-Disclosure

Their stories evoked laughter, tears and head-nods. Their stories moved us regardless of a good telling or literary profundity.

Their stories moved us because they were theirs.

I refer to the terminus of Mark Scott’s seminar on Self-Disclosure. At that point, Dr. Scott invited us to share our stories – the ones that mattered. Mark received his DMin in the self-disclosure of sermonizers. He calls it “the collective lean-in” – that moment where the audience realizes that the speaker’s sharing something personal, something immanent, something that happened to them. “I was on my way to Vegas. . .” and the audience sets aside their doodles to listen.

But unmitigated disclosure does more harm than good, according to Mark. Things like, “share your scars, not open wounds,” taught us how to leave our current struggles off the stage. Mark compelled us to unbosom our scars, citing ancient texts. One black book under his arm betrays the fruit of his study, its yellow highlights accenting characters who spill the beans.

Psychotherapists listen. People need to share their heart more than they need advice, so counselors help people by letting others feel heard. Sharing, in this context, is caring – especially letting others share.

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Jan 04 2012
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Entertainment, fantastic points of ignorance, humor, literature, movie review, pronunciation, video

Pronunciation Manwell

Let’s play word association:

American

We naturally think of the word:

Hospitable

Right? Isn’t that what we, as a culture, are known for? Because of our legendary hospitality and care of strangers, they made a channel on YouTube to help foreigners along with their pronunciation of common American words. Like Jake Gyllenhaal:

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Dec 28 2011
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C.S. Lewis, Entertainment, fantastic points of ignorance

Protesters, Watchmen and Boarding School Boys

from watchmen wiki

Watchmen.

No wonder Time listed it as one of the 100 best novels. This thing rocked me to my core. When I set aside my philosophical biases, Moore & Gibbons continued to entertain me with this neo-noir graphic novel. My friend Alex Giltner, another fantasy writer, once said, “I don’t want to write about epic battles like Tolkien. We don’t live in that world. People don’t fear invasion anymore. They fear the little red button. They fear some guy in a room somewhere escalating everything to DEFCON 1.” Watchmen capitalized on that notion, balancing their world on a high wire, teetering toward apocalypse. Pessimistic like 90% of noir, Watchmen snaps a portrait of American society where everyone corrupts everything – a society where the watchmen need watching. In the midst of this brokenness, a former team of retired heroes go their separate ways to unearth an apocalyptic plot. Nihilistic and broken, this series asks the question: what is right?

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