Author: photog

Cannibalism Returns to the Western Hemisphere

photog Current Events , ,

Regular readers of this site know that the appearance of cannibalism is my benchmark for declaring the onset of the apocalypse in the United States.  Well, we’re not quite there yet but it has broken out in Haiti which is only about a hundred miles from Florida.

“It is now thought that 80 percent of the Haitian capital is controlled by these gangs.

Describing the violence in the country, a journalist on the ground told Daily Express US that cannibalism has been witnessed on the streets as the violence reaches “unprecedented” levels.

Speaking anonymously, they said: “Haiti is living in a total chaotic situation right now. It is total chaos everywhere, especially in the capital where I am right now.”

Well, well.  I seem a lot less crazy now!  The fact that the most powerful of the gang leaders is nicknamed “Barbecue” tells you everything you need to know about the future of Haiti.  Even around here keep an eye on anyone who gets large deliveries from companies with the letters BBQ anywhere in their names.

Transgender Hubris Through Lear

photog Book Reviews, Current Events, Movie Reviews, Reviews , , , ,

Andrew Klavan is a gifted writer. He breathes emotion and conviction into his arguments and they ring true. In this essay he interprets transgenderism and other manifestations of “transhumanism” through the stories of Lear and Prospero in Shakespeare’s plays.

What he points out is the hubris that confused men commit when they ignore that they literally are not God.  When we pretend that the definitions of human life do not apply to us we set ourselves up for the catastrophe that will follow when we attempt to ignore these boundaries.

“We have now reached the nadir of that mode—or the zenith, depending on where you stand. This is that moment that Nietzsche talked about, the “catastrophe” of a civilization awaking to find its foundations gone.”

Klavan sees King Lear as the cautionary tale for human hubris and rejection of the natural order and The Tempest as a fairy story about restoring it.  Well, I like Shakespeare so I like when a gifted writer uses it to make a point.  Bravo Andrew.

Hamlet Scenes

photog Literature, Movie Reviews, Poetry, Reviews , , ,

I was rewatching Olivier’s Hamlet today. So I picked out the scenes I thought were noteworthy. The characters are so strange to modern audiences and the plot so improbable. But there are some scenes that are iconic. Many will recognize the famous quote or the scene. My favorite is the gravedigger’s scene. Alas, poor Yorick. Shakespeare’s fools and jesters are obviously his favorites and always have the best lines.

Anyway.

To Thine Own Self Be True

That is the Question

The Play’s the Thing

I Knew Him Horatio

But Let It Be

Angry Old Joe and Better Things

photog Current Events, My Fiction, OCF, photog's Corner , ,

I scanned through about five minutes of Joe Biden’s “old man shouting at the camera” routine.  Well, he didn’t fall down or begin speaking literal gibberish.  But I found it intolerable after just a few minutes.  I guess it could be summed up as Ukraine, abortion and January 6th.”  Okay, let’s see how that works out for him.  Maybe everyone will forget that their jobs are being given to illegal aliens that are also assaulting and murdering their wives and daughters.  And maybe they’ll forget that everything is now twice as expensive as it was during Trump’s term in office.  So maybe the Dems will be able to win the November election by fraud.  I guess we’ll see.  But it’s time to look around and spend our time thinking about and doing things that we consider important.

And that goes for me too.  Serializing my incomplete novel has been an interesting experience for me.  It has taken me a lot of time to get about half way through writing it and you kind of forget how you thought up various scenes and bits of dialogue.  So, seeing the beginning again is an odd case of seeing it with new eyes.  I guess I’ve been pleasantly surprised with what I’ve reread.  It seems to hold up pretty well.  Of course, you always find small mistakes and even inconsistencies that have to be tweaked.  But all in all, it isn’t half bad.  And that is immensely gratifying for me and gives me the encouragement I need to start banging away at the second half of the story.  And this rereading has also given me some new insights into some additions that I need to make to fill in some holes that I now find in the story.  It really was necessary to get about this far in the story before I could have enough perspective about the tempo and the balance of the various story lines.

Of course, the hardest part for an author is to find a publisher and/or a market for his literary offspring.  After listening to a podcast about how incredibly difficult it is to get self-published science fiction novels “recognized” on the Kindle site I think I’ll try to see if I can interest any of the traditional publishing companies in my deathless prose.  After all, who could fail to recognize the brilliant writing, the deep psychological truth in the characters’ underpinnings and the timeless quality of the epic struggle between the King of the Mole Men and the faceless, soulless minions of unspeakable evil?  Wait a minute.  Is mole-men two words or a hyphenate?

Well, regardless.  Thanks to all that have plowed through the chapters and please feel free to send along criticism and thoughts on how you think the story should proceed.  I’ve only put up on the site about two thirds of what I’ve already written so there’s still a bit to go but I’m sure many people can guess some of how this story proceeds.  There is an inexorable logic to how a clandestine war is prosecuted and where the dramatic tension needs to exist.  Suffice it to say that things need to start going wrong for our heroes pretty soon.  But I’m sure everything will be resolved by the final chapter.

Or maybe not everything.  There’s always got to be a sequel you know.

 

“Oh if I were the King of the Mole Men, Not queen, not duke, not prince.

My regal robes of the Mole Men, would be satin, not cotton, not chintz.”

Guest Contributor – Ed Brault – 08MAR2024 – Some Kipling

photog Ed Brault, Guest Contributors, Literature, Poetry , , 
I have eaten your bread and salt.
I have drunk your water and wine.
The deaths ye died I have watched beside,
And the lives ye led were mine. 

Was there aught that I did not share 
In vigil or toil or ease - 
One joy or woe that I did not know,
Dear hearts across the seas ?  

I have written the tale of our life 
For a sheltered people's mirth,
In jesting guise - but ye are wise,
And ye know what the jest is worth.

-R. Kipling