NANOWRIMO 2010

This is my second year as a serious contender in NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month), and so far things have been going pretty well. I've managed to stay ahead of the basic word count, and the tale I'm spinning, in many ways decades in the making, is sailing along and surprising me more than a little. I had no idea these characters were going to light up like this and that I could keep from bogging down in details, which is all too often what derails my authorial efforts.

Fiddling With Essentials

When it comes to costumed superheroes it is always about the costumes and the people inhabiting them, never about just one or the other. The costumes of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman had already undergone significant revision from their original versions by the beginning of the Silver Age, yet it is such revised versions that are largely regarded today as their "classic" looks. This happened because the essential lexicons of the original versions of the costumes were carried over. Ridiculous as it may seem on the face of it, Batman must have pointy ears on his cowl batwing shrouds to be Batman, Superman must have a big red S on his chest and a billowing red cape to be Superman, and Wonder Woman must have the red bodice with gold appointments and blue shorts with white stars on them to be Wonder Woman. These aren't just decorations, these say who these characters are. Remove them, and the costumes are rendered mute.

It has to do with continuity. The original version of the Flash effectively disappeared from the comics racks at the start of the 1950s. The idea of the Flash was revived five years later, but as a new character with a new costume on what would eventually come to be understood as an entirely different planet Earth. And it proved the same for such characters as The Atom, Hawkman, and Green Lantern. This was re-imagining on an enormous scale, but years-long gaps between versions of these characters was enough to bring up an entirely new generation of readers that had no ready awareness of or investment in the originals.

Domestic Abuse, Nationwide

I'm for some things in the new healthcare legislation, I'm not for other things, but what I have no tolerance for are the hate factions that are using it as an excuse to rise up like rancid grease and spew on everything. They claim they love this country, but like abusive spouses they make that claim while yelling and hitting and breaking things and listening to nothing but their own rage. And how many of them really know, or would dare confront, what it is they're really mad at?

Catching Way Up

Much, much belated observance of the passing of "Uncle" Walter Cronkite on July 17, 2009. Funny how near that was to an earlier post of mine mentioning that he was still alive (as of that writing). We just never know.

After the Transition

I cannot say that I have ever been terribly fond of doing the IT on our home computer systems. Even with Macs, so many things can go wrong and will go wrong if you even look at them funny. I'd say it's better than being a greeter at Wal-Mart, but I've never been a greeter and Wal-Mart so what do I know?

How Things Go Sometimes

Nearly forty years ago a genuine musical genius/icon passed away, victim of a demented assassin. John Lennon's death was reported on CBS by none other than Walter Cronkite, who certainly knew of Lennon, but was clearly bemused by the outpouring of grief that followed his murder. Cronkite was not far from retirement by that time, but it was still nice, even somewhat comforting, that he was on the job while so much of the world was reeling from so senseless a loss.

Michael Jackson had his time in the sun, and is certainly an icon of sorts, but it's hard to call him a musical genius. And his death, while startling, is not remotely the tragedy that Lennon's murder was. Worse, his death is the latest thing to go up in lights at the top of the marquee of the trashy circus the news media has become. There's no "Uncle Walter" to provide sanity, much less dignity, to the proceedings.

It's ironic that both Lennon and Jackson died just as they were coming off hiatuses from performing and recording. We'll never know where they might've gone if they'd lived to see their comebacks through. But "Uncle Walter" Cronkite, as of this writing, is still with us, having enjoyed one of the longest retirements of any well-known TV anchorman.

The Way

The problem with trying to establish The Way is that going any way at all depends on where a person is and where that person wishes to go. Is there but one road, one bridge, one tunnel, suitable to the goals of each and every person? Can one road, one bridge, one tunnel get each and every person from where they are to where they wish to go? To suppose such for ordinary travel is blatantly absurd, as we can’t all be and aren’t all in one and the same place and heading for one and the same destination.

And yet, for the vastly more complex process of traveling from birth to death, there persists this idea that there can be only one Way. And while the case stated may suggest we all start from the same point and end at the same point, it isn’t nearly that simple. None of us share the same schedule, nor are we each blessed with precisely the same mental, physical, spiritual, educational, political and material resources for the journey—not at the start, not during the journey, and not at the end. No one life can be lived in exactly the same way as another, and no one Way will ever be sufficient to handle all the traffic.

Human history has demonstrated this more times than any sane person would care to count. Yet these demonstrations weigh like feathers on the consciences of those who insist that there is one Way and one Way only.  

So what is The Way? Depends…do you want get through life quick or take the scenic route?