Uncategorized

TV Storytelling Tropes In a Periodic Table

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A trope is a convention, sometimes a cliché, that may be used as a formula for a specific purpose in a story. The quest, foreshadowing, or the faithful sidekick could be considered tropes for their implementation within a story. James R. Harris has given us a periodic table of the information found on TVtroupes.org, weighting each item in kilowicks (thousands of links to the relevant page on the site). To give you a taste of this potential guard against clichés in your own stories, here are items organized under “Setting, laws, plots” with their popularity rating:

  • An Aesop 3.0
  • Serious Business 4.0
  • The Masquerade 1.7
  • Recycled IN SPACE 3.2
  • X Meets Y 2.3
  • Magic A Is Magic A 0.75
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism 1.6
  • Status Quo Is God 2.0
  • Call To Adventure 0.43
  • Redemption Quest 0.20
  • The Hero’s Journey 0.28
  • Saving the World 0.38
  • They Fight Crime .58

Of course, I picked the tame category. The plot device category has fun things like “Applied Phlebotinum“, an object or substance used to advance the plot. Here’s a good bit of dialogue as an example:

Nick Naylor: Cigarettes in space?

Jeff Megall: It’s the final frontier, Nick.

Nick Naylor: But wouldn’t they blow up in an all-oxygen environment?

Jeff Megall: (beat) Probably. But, you know, it’s an easy fix. One line of dialogue: ‘Thank God we created the, you know, whatever device.‘

— Thank You For Smoking

(via Fast CoDesign)

Goofing, Religion

Twelve Reasons Why God Can’t Get Tenure, Rebuttal

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Twelve top reasons why God can’t get tenure (from the Internet of Yesteryear)

  1. He’s authored only one paper
  2. That paper was in Hebrew
  3. His work appeared in an obscure, unimportant publication
  4. He never references other authors
  5. Workers in the field can’t replicate His results.
  6. He failed to apply to the ethics committee before starting His experiments on humans.
  7. He tried to cover an experiment’s unsatisfatory results by drowning the subjects.
  8. When subjects behavior proved his theory wrong he had them removed from the sample.
  9. He hardly ever shows up for any lectures. He merely assigns His Book again and again.
  10. His office is at the top of a mountain, and He doesn’t keep office hours anyway.
  11. When He learned that His first two students sought wisdom, He had them expelled.
  12. His exams consist of only ten assigments which most students fail.

Rebuttal: Why God Did Receive Tenure.

  1. The one publication was a Citation Classic.
  2. The Hebrew original was widely translated courtesy of the author.
  3. Being written before journals existed, references were hard to come by.
  4. Original treatises that found a new area often require their own monograph.
  5. Although research has been sparse since the Creation, the professor has taught a number of courses: Human anatomy 212; Ancient Middle Eastern History 101, 102; Hydrology 207; Human Development 350; seminar on Egyptology; extended field trips to the deserts between Egypt and Palestine; Politics of Theocracies 277; Military Science Special Topic: Use of Voice as a Municipal Assault Weapon; Criminology 114; guest lectures in the Vet School: Digestive Anatomy of Whales; Wisdom & Ethics 550; Special seminar: Fertilization without sperm; Winemaking 870; Healing by miracle 987; Theology 101, 102, 230, 342, 350, 466H, and 980.
  6. The substitute teacher (son) was highly committed to his work.
  7. The substitute teacher cancelled the original ten requirements.
  8. The twelve teaching assistants formed numerous discussion groups.
  9. The substitute teacher knew students names without an attendance sheet.
  10. The professor’s weekly Sunday lectures by surrogate instructors are attended by 974 million students.
Fiction, Publishing

Important publishing news that will change your life!

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The good folks at Nordskog Publishing have made my novel West Oversea available in e-book format now.

Your Kindle version is here.

Your Nook version is here.

Happy Easter.

Writing

Just Stop It, Writers

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Barnabas Piper tells us to stop writing about writing, because we don’t really have anything to say.

“When Stephen King writes a book about writing I read it cover to cover and then start over. And it is marvelous. When a thirty-something, barely published, Internet composer of public journal entries does so, it’s uppity.”

Yeah. Sorry about that.

Non-fiction, Publishing

‘Biblically Based’ Author Argues Against Biblical Morality

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Matthew Vines is not a new author. He has been around for a few years, arguing that Christianity and homosexuality are not incompatible. He has a new book coming out next week making the same arguments, but the bigger news may be who is publishing it. It’s Stephen W. Cobb, the chief executive of both WaterBrook Multnomah and the new imprint Convergent.

Cobb says the two imprints do not have the same audiences and editorial guidelines, so they aren’t the identical, but he does call the final shots for both. With Convergent, those shots are “nonfiction for less traditional Christians and spiritual seekers who are drawn to an open, inclusive, and culturally engaged exploration of faith,” such as Matthew Vines’ new book, God and the Gay Christian.

World Magazine makes a big deal about these imprints being unified under one corporate umbrella, but what strikes me as odd is Cobb’s insistence that he isn’t publishing heresy under the Convergent label. He claims Vines’ “believes in the inerrancy and the divinity and the correctness of Scripture,” so his book is “biblically based.” He says he intends to publish only biblically based books through Convergent.

How orthodox does a “biblically based” book need to be in order to remain based on the Bible? The Book of Mormon and the Koran are literally based on the Bible, but would we call them “biblically based”? If this is the main criteria, then I would understand a wide variety of views being published, but we expect more, don’t we?

How much orthodox stock do you put into this publisher or any publisher? Do you notice the publisher of a book and believe the topic, whatever it is, has been thoroughly vetted? Do you believe WaterBrook is still committed to “creating products that both intensify and satisfy the elemental thirst for a deeper relationship with God,” as their marketing people say?

Fiction, Reviews

‘Murder by Moonlight,’ by Vincent Zandri

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Vincent Zandri is producing a series of novels about Albany, NY private eye Dick Moonlight (I’m not kidding. That’s his name). Murder by Moonlight was the first I’ve read, and although I read it through and enjoyed it a fair amount, I find I didn’t really like it much.

Dick Moonlight is a private eye with a difference (aren’t they all nowadays?). He attempted suicide a couple years back, leaving himself with a .22 bullet in his brain which the doctors can’t remove. At any moment it might shift and kill him, so he lives with that.

In Murder by Moonlight, he is hired by Joan Parker, who was horribly injured in an ax attack in her home, one which killed her husband. At the time she told the police that her son Christopher was to blame, but now she’s changed her mind and wants Moonlight to prove the young man innocent.

A number of things irritated me in this book. One is the present-tense narration, which doesn’t actually spoil the story, but which I find an irritating affectation that adds nothing.

Secondly, the story wanders into the realm of ancient conspiracies, which I don’t believe in. People aren’t that good at keeping secrets, especially in large groups.

But most importantly, the hero/narrator, Dick Moonlight, got on my nerves. Many people in the story tell him he’s a jerk (they generally use more colorful language), and they’re right. He claims he has a built-in lie detector (again, he uses an earthier term), and feels that gives him the right to be insulting to anyone he doesn’t like on first sight — even when he needs a favor from them. That’s just bad detective procedure. What he is, is judgmental and tactless.

So though the story kept my interest (in spite of some weak writing moments and needless complications at the end), I don’t recommend it highly. On the other hand, it’ll keep your interest on a plane, if that’s what your needs are.

Cautions for language and adult themes.

Music, Religion

Yes, Even When He Is Silent

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Here we have the St. Olaf Choir with Conductor Anton Armstrong performing “Even When He Is Silent” by Kim André Arnesen. It was recorded at Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway on June 16, 2013

The piece was commissioned by the St. Olaf Festival in Trondheim, Norway (Olavsfestdagene), using a text was found in a concentration camp after World War II:

“I believe in the sun, even when it’s not shining.

I believe in love, even when I feel it not.

I believe in God, even when He is silent.”

But, Lord, do not be silent or allow us to be deaf.

Uncategorized

Swedish Book Review

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“Hype is an overrated and overused tool, but the power of compelling narrative endures, hence the sprouting of new Swedish literary agencies with names like Partners in Stories and Storytellers. They have an eye to lucrative film rights, of course, but few would deny the seductiveness of a good plot.”

The Swedish Book Review is out with several takes on books you may want to watch for. (via The Literary Saloon, the place to go for translated fiction.)

Poetry, Religion

Pilgrims’ Hymn by Stephen Paulus

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Pilgrim’s Hymn by Stephen Paulus

Even before we call on Your name

To ask You, O God,

When we seek for the words to glorify You,

You hear our prayer;

Unceasing love, O unceasing love,

Surpassing all we know.

Glory to the father,

and to the Son,

And to the Holy Spirit.

Even with darkness sealing us in,

We breathe Your name,

And through all the days that follow so fast,

We trust in You;

Endless Your grace, O endless Your grace,

Beyond all mortal dream.

Both now and forever,

And unto ages and ages,

Amen

Authors, Poetry

Poetry Reading with Aaron Belz

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April is poetry month, as I said before, and I learned late that the poet Aaron Belz was in my home town April 4. Here’s a video of his poetry reading in St. Elmo. Many of these poems are quite funny and contemporary. He even reads a poem he wrote the day before, which he slightly apologizes for. Belz got his undergrad at Covenant College, which is the Presbyterian (PCA) liberal arts college next to Chattanooga. He went on to get his Ph.D. at Saint Louis University and published several poems in several places. He pulls from common literary knowledge and daily life. His most recent book is Glitter Bomb: Poems.

Like I said, he’s funny. One of the poems read in the video goes:

“There is no I in team,

but there’s one in bitterness,

one in failure.”

He also offers a few remarkable palindromes at 13:40. Enjoy.

Book Reviews, Creative Culture