One Step Around the Corner

Creators of genre fiction do not deal with regular everyday reality.  For example, noir or westerns, both of which could be entirely rooted in the real, will not remain there entirely.  There is some shift to the side.  There are considerations for mood.  There are considerations for genre conventions.  There are even considerations for author bias.  Those biases can take the form of the political, patriotically cloaked, and bigoted type discussed last week.  They can be less inappropriate biases than those too.  Then there are the personal biases formed in the direction of enjoyment and excitement where the creator enhances certain aspects for a better story in keeping with their own wants and desires in entertainment.  The bias may also be theme or message related.

Bigoted bias need not be about race or religion.  Some biases are economic--the rich versus the poor.  Some are intelligence motivated--leaning toward the literati or the cognoscenti and away from the ignorant and uneducated.  Some, perhaps too many, are directly political within the same country--Republican versus Democrat, Liberal versus Conservative, Left versus Right.  There is also the one-sidedness and accompanying struggle between capitalism and socialism.  Any of these, singularly or in tandem, form the basis of numerable character archetypes.  In turn these characters confer their views onto the narrative.  This is true whether one or more of them provide the narrative voice or there is an unrelated narrator.  That is unless that narrator provides voice, comment, or contrast otherwise.

Here is where the bias may be purposeful within the narrative.  A story's theme, or the message it looks to convey to the audience, it's very raison d'etre, can exist to illustrate, shine a bright spotlight on the injustice of such a bias, or to perpetuate it. News media isn't the only place where an agenda is pushed by focusing on certain segments of an issue, or group.  Of course angling to create tension within, distort the worldview of, and otherwise negatively influence the audience is a despicable thing to do.  Doing it within the populace of the created fictional world though is an exciting proposition.  Doing it provides the structure upon which to foster enticing plots, character-developing dilemmas, and at the higher level of the audience to forward themes, morals, and message.

Mood: valiant.

Music: Dream Of Mirrors by Iron Maiden and The Gunslinger by Demons & Wizards.

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Freedom Fries and Liberty Measles

The points of view to which people ascribed to are often strange things open to change at the fickle drop of a hat or the frightened switch of political winds.  There are a few historical examples of this that were as swift a change as a fad and lasted just as long before otherwise fading into obscurity.  These changes fall under the scope of propaganda and fit in all friendly-like with nationalism of the dark stripe that shares a bed with rank racism.  The case is made in defending choices like these that the opposed lack patriotism, morals, and make even their grandmother's sick.  Side with them or with the so-called enemy, no fence sitting is allowed.  Of course such cowing is never seen as such, and the possibility that it is an overreaction is entirely outside the possibilities of reality.

These points of view changes hinge on transferring ideas, or exchanging them.  A 2003 political disagreement with France, for instance, led American Congress to force menu changes to include items such as 'Freedom Fries', and 'Freedom Toast'.  They could not do away with such iconic foods as such, but the name could certainly be changed.  A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.  A similar backlash against Germany around WWI led to some people renaming Dachshunds as 'Liberty Dogs' and talk of cases of 'Liberty Measles'.  To untangle the need to change the names from the impression that these are good, wholesome, American things was impossible.  It was convoluted logic to rename the measles rather than use it to lay blame, but the initial base logic was specious to begin with.

The measles example is indicative of the length that was gone to in distancing things.  Changing the name altered its perceived origination and excluded the discoverer's and the disease's heritage.  It also protected any fine, upstanding citizens from the stigma of contracting something from somewhere else, no doubt--in the view of ignorance--from someone who was not so fine or upstanding.  Us versus them paradigms take many forms beyond just these two examples.  They colour and taint perceptions and twist reality subtly.  When they are not so clear, so easily spotted, they can be put to good use to create conflict and tension between characters in plots and settings.  Or in the alternative they can provide otherworldliness to the most mundane of scenes and peoples.

Mood: drained.

Music: Desert Rain by Iced Earth and Ashes to Ashes by Blind Guardian.

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Practical Lawn Mowing and Red Glass Doorknobs

The following article contains spoilers for The Lawnmower Man (1992) and The Sixth Sense (1999).  If you have not seen either of these films and wish to see them unhindered of foreknowledge please return back to read us next week.  Thank you.

Impressions and insinuations can be an important part of the story telling process.  As much as writing is best when it shows not tells there are different ways to show ideas and concepts.  Scenes where some fact is apparent but unspoken, the elephant in the room as the saying goes, are effective on different levels.  They can be very illustrative of the story's reason for the scene and at the same time demonstrative of different points both in line with the scene's raison d'être and counter to it, or at least on a different vector.  What happens when the proverbial elephant is camouflaged and nowhere to be scene, but still, say, smelled?  The taint is still there.  When the illusion of the camouflage is pierced and the information revealed understanding shifts.

Anyone who has seen the two versions of the movie The Lawnmower Man has seen the difference that a few extras scenes can make.  The director's cut of the film presents some characters different than the theatrical version does.  Father McKeen is more balanced character, caring as well as abusive of Jobe.  In the longer cut Mrs. Angelo is less abrasive and more sympathetic.  She doesn't leave half way through the movie never to be seen again.  Her shooting death by The Shop agents is stronger justification for Dr. Angelo's shock and horror than Jobe's disassembly of the agents.  These small changes smooth out the film, provide deeper characters and alter emotional undercurrents.  The two versions are different and divergent, something that can be put to greater use.

The Sixth Sense does not rely on deleted scenes.  It changes the meaning of scenes and revises events in the audience's understanding in flashbacks after the revelation that Dr. Crowe is dead.  Scenes play out exactly the same; same characters, same events, same outcomes, and same dialog.  The meaning though is different because of the missing information on the first pass through the scenes.  The situation that makes this reality shift happen is very specific in the Sixth Sense and all pointed toward Crowe's condition.  This need not be true in every case.  There is great leeway afforded by not hinging the changed meanings on a single twist but on several scenes and varied alterations.  This process can all be geared toward a particular story type or used to enhance any type.

Mood: predatory.

Music: Know Your Enemy by Green Day and You Give Love A Bad Name by Bon Jovi.

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What Is Not There Now Is

Last week the discussion revolved around footnotes, endnotes, and other forms of annotation possible with e-books.  It ended with mention of DVD-style extras, such as deleted scenes, and ancillary information in novels.  The first question the idea of deleted scenes being shipped out with a book is why?  If the scene was worthy of inclusion in the book why is it not directly included?  There are a few reasons for this.  In writing circles there is something referred to as killing your darlings.  It is something that comes in up when authors are asked about how they write, and editors in what they do beyond error checking and sprucing up with a word change here and there.  It refers to cutting out your favourite scenes in your books because though they are cool they do not serve a purpose.

The caveat usually missing from these discussions is that there have to be many times where an author's favourite, darling, scene does serve a purpose and thus would not be cut out.  In general there is a second flaw to these discussions; the usefulness of scenes is equated to the plot.  Not every scene needs to be important to the plot and were it so things such character development and defining important parts of the setting would be neglected unless they added to the plot immediately.  Pacing is another factor that can be important rather than focusing the direction of everything toward the plot in what is usually an increasing frenzy.  Raising the bar on tension and action is a powerful tool for an author but contrast and breathing space shouldn't be neglected either.

Beyond non-plot involvement these deleted scenes may have been deleted because they affected the pacing of the story.  Movies often cut scenes to fit a specific run time, or because they slow down the pace.  On a different tangent the events showed too much too soon, were too intense, or otherwise were better suited until later in the narrative, but of course are tied to events in their original position.  These deleted scenes are included in the extras because the director likes them.  They are interesting or they add a new dimension to the story.  Dimension adding options can include features like sub-plots, and bits of characterisation not pertinent to the plot.  Come back next week and get closer to the answer to why include these scenes outside of the natural flow of the story?

Mood: even.

Music: Hallucinate by Def Leppard and Mama Weer All Crazee Now by Quiet Riot.

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