A Return to Middle Earth

I realized the other day that it is just over 20 years ago that the last of Peter Jackson’s trilogy of the Lord of the Rings was in theatres.

My wife and I went to watch each of the three as they came out one year apart.

Times have changed. We don’t go to the movies any more and haven’t for a long time.

Another sign of the times is that I bought the Super Long Highly Extended Versions on DVD, which enables me to go back to them every few years as I have done several times. DVDs are almost an archaic medium now, but there is the benefit, with worthy shows, of having a physical form to hold on to.

I felt the need to revisit the trilogy, not so much to mark their timelessness, but as a salve for the woundedness of observing current world events, with witless greed and cruelty in every corner. Why do people tolerate the worst of human beings as their leaders? Of course these matters are amplified by the news and social media, so we should recognize that, but the desperate state of human affairs in almost every quarter is still dismayingly evident.

I wanted to relive the trials of Middle Earth as a balm for the heart. A place to go where nobility, sincerity and honesty truly matter and make a difference. Despite the wars and battles and conflicts in the trilogy, the monsters and evil-doers meet their match in humble hobbits. The quest to destroy the ring of power is something no real-life politician, it seems, would ever countenance, but it is the propelling current of the story, which overcomes all obstacles, even orcs as ugly as Putin’s soul.

So this is fantasy, but the intimate suffering of the characters fighting to survive makes it come to life in a way not even Tolkien’s books quite manage on the page.

It may even help to look at the story as something that goes on in each of us. Deep within us Sauron-like forces may want to dominate, while Gandalf and the elves of our heart struggle for something more and better.

The inspiring part of the books and the films is that it allows that light to shine if only a little.

I first read the Tolkien books as an impressionable university student. Even now in my eighth decade, I can recall reading the trilogy in an upper bunk bed where two students from northern BC rented a room from a Victoria family.

But the films, as some have observed, even out-do their source material. They are truly a work of art, by a filmmaker who changed the entire industry with the risks he and his collaborators dared to make. Just keeping all facets of the story and characters firing through three long films is a remarkable achievement. And New Zealand! The mix of digital and real sets even now strikes wonder in me after having watched the movies a number of times over the years.

The question is: do I feel any better after watching these long movies, after spending over 12 hours with them? I have to say that I do.

For a good look at the making of the films, there is this article from Variety, “Lord of the Rings at 20.”

For detail on the differences between the books and the films, The Lord of the Rings Wiki has an in-depth look: “Tolkien vs. Jackson: Differences Between Story and Screenplay.”

Paste has an article on what the film trilogy does better than Tolkien’s books.

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Rewarding Reads – Worthwhile Online Journals

Over the past couple of years, I’ve found a few online journals that provide thoughtful, interesting, well-written commentary on a number of subjects.

With hope that knowledge of them might be rewarding to others, I will go through them here in no particular order.

The Conversation

First up is The Conversation. Subtitled on the masthead as “Academic rigour, journalistic flair,” it actually lives up to the billing.

It began in 2011 in Australia and now produces editions centred in a number of countries, including the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand and France.

The journal covers topics in Science & Tech, Culture & Society, Politics, Health and quite a few more categories.

Articles of interest that I’ve recently read include “The surprising reason why insects circle lights at night: They lose track of the sky,” “When is criticism of Israel antisemitic? A scholar of modern Jewish history explains,” and “Atlantic Ocean is headed for a tipping point − once melting glaciers shut down the Gulf Stream, we would see extreme climate change within decades, study shows.”

My interests are wide-ranging, and this journal manages to provide articles that touch on a lot of the areas that I would like to know more about.

Atlas Obscura

Next on my list is Atlas Obscura which bills itself as “The Definitive Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders.”

Recently it has taken a more commercialized turn. They are now organizing festivals and selling courses such as “Lockpicking with Schuyler Towne” and “Bird Taxidermy with Allis Markham.” I don’t think I’m their target audience for those ventures.

But there are still articles and short notes about many fascinating locations across the world.

Recent articles of interest: “For Hundreds of Years, People Thought California Was an Island,” “Mysterious Writing System From Easter Island May Be Completely Unique,” and the compilation article, “12 Amazing Athletic Competitions You Should Be Watching.”

The latter includes “Inside the High-Flying World of Estonian Swinging,” and “Meet the Man Who Wants to Make Sitting an Extreme Sport.” Extreme chair sitting sounds like my kind of athleticism these days.

Psyche

Since I have a degree in psychology and a life-long interest in matters bearing on culture and consciousness, the online journal Psyche fits my curiosity.

For instance, I’ve always thought Jung’s understanding of psychology to be the most profound of all the historical figures in that field.

The article entitled “For Jung, architecture was a tool to represent the psyche” I found engrossing. It asks the question, “How are we creating spaces for the forgotten dimensions of the mind?” To find out what that might mean, you’ll have to read the article.

A couple of other items I found of interest: “Innovative three-year-olds expose the limits of AI chatbots” and “What does switching from paper to screens mean for how we read?”

I found especially moving the article on “How one man saved 160 lives with an extended hand and a warm cup of tea,” when he intervened in suicide attempts.

Nature Briefing & Nature Briefing: Anthropocene

I subscribe to these lists of posts from Nature, in general, and also the Anthropocene category they offer (anthropocene is a term coined to describe the geological epoch that begins with significant human impact on the earth).

Some items I learned about:

– A glowing petunia, with genes from bioluminescent mushrooms, has hit the US market.

– The first rechargeable calcium battery has been developed.

– Student researchers have used machine learning to read text hidden inside burnt, unopenable scrolls recovered from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum.

– United States climate scientist Michael Mann won a significant defamation lawsuit, securing over $1 million in damages against two conservative commentators who disparaged his research and compared him to a convicted child molester.

– Hurricanes might need a new category. Due to the increasing strength of hurricanes, two scientists are recommending adding a sixth category to the 1-5 of the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale.

ScienceDaily

Since I’m writing science-fiction novels, I want to keep up with what’s going on in science. Often items in ScienceDaily as with Nature give me ideas to extrapolate from.

The site offers an email newsletter. Some recent items:

– Researchers 3D-print functional human brain tissue.

– By growing animal cells in rice grains, scientists dish up hybrid food.

– Why elderly adults lose billions to scams.

– Pain-based weather forecasts could influence actions. What?! This is about how weather affects chronic pain sufferers.

– Neural prosthetic device can help restore memory.

Quanta

Quanta Magazine is perhaps the most thought provoking entry on this list. The topics range from consciousness to bees to black hole information paradoxes. Sometimes the discussions are specialized enough to be beyond me.

Some articles of note:

– How Did Altruism Evolve.

– How to Build An Origami Computer.

– The Quest to Decode the Mandelbrot set, Math’s Most Famous Fractal.

– A New Spin on the Quantum Brain.

– The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality.

I realized on reading some of the math-related articles, such as the one about the history of the Mandelbrot set, that I don’t understand what professional mathematicians do at all. The mind, the mental processes, of a top-flight (or even a medium-flight) mathematician are difficult for me to imagine. How, in the rarefied intangibility of it all, while scribbling esoteric symbols on a blackboard, do they arrive at anywhere conclusive? And yet they do.

Hakai

Hakai Magazine has become one of my favorites and is worthy of wider notice.

It is based in British Columbia where I live. Launched in 2015, it explores science, society, and the environment highlighting coastal life around the world.

The name is inspired by Hakai Pass in the Hakai Lúxvbálís Conservancy, one of the largest protected marine areas on the west coast of Canada, located about 400 kilometers north of Vancouver.

Some of their articles:

– In the Face of Mounting Climate Risks, the Insurance Safety Net Is Falling Apart.

– A River Runs Above Us. A comprehensive article about atmospheric rivers.

– Working With Purpose, Forever. Or, how to keep shareholders from ruining your business. About a new model for business structures.

– Banking on the Seaweed Rush. Can seaweed do it all?

If any of these publications pique your interest, give them your attention, and in some cases your donations to help keep them afloat. Intelligent information is not so easy to come by these days.

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Note:

There are two more online journals I’d like to mention.

One is Noema. They “publish essays, interviews, reportage, videos and art on the overlapping realms of philosophy, governance, geopolitics, economics, technology and culture.”

The other is Aeon. They have essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture.

The Highly Implausible Jack Reacher

Although I have been a life-long admirer and would-be practitioner of science-fiction stories, I also read a lot of thrillers.

As a genre, thrillers have a wide range and the ones I enjoy most border on the literary. I’m thinking here of the intense emotional action and complex characters of Karin Slaughter, as one good example. Another was the long-running series by the sadly missed John D. MacDonald featuring Travis McGee which while formulaic in some respects created a character that seemed like a fully rounded human being.

The writing teacher John Truby in his book Anatomy of Genres puts thrillers and detective stories in one related category, although he is careful to distinguish the two.

To him detective stories are about asking questions, searching for truth and assigning guilt. The thriller story strategy is to place a vulnerable hero in a tightening vise and show them trying to escape by finding the truth. “In the best thrillers, the hero’s investigation into a potential crime also becomes an investigation into fear itself.”

Andrew Child and Lee Child

I remember reading many of the earlier titles in the Jack Reacher series and enjoying retribution being brought against the bad guys. And overcoming the fear caused by them.

The thriller series was authored originally by Lee Child for most of its books, and now by Andrew Child, his younger brother (although Lee still gets credit on the cover). It features ex-military policeman Jack Reacher and began in 1997. It has now gone on for 27 books.

Big and tough

Our hero Reacher is big, tough, and travels around at random without any belongings. He continually finds himself in situations where authority is being abused, or criminals have the upper hand, or violent conspiracies are afoot. He always impressively takes command and gets revenge or brings justice to despicable human beings, while protecting the more-or-less innocent. There is a predictable sequence of events in these stories, which I’m sure fans expect.

There came a point, though, a few years back (when Lee Child was still at the helm) when Reacher’s actions in a particular entry in the series became so improbable that I had to put the book down.

I don’t remember the title, but I do recall Reacher taking on single-handed without a proper weapon a score of bad guys in an impregnable bunker, and yes, without a scratch, kills them all in violent and brutal ways to save the day. (Violent and brutal consequences for the villains is one distinguishing mark of the series and I suspect increasingly so as the series goes on with the continued coarsening of our culture.)

But, remembering what I did like about the series, I picked up the latest recently, No Plan B. After reading it, I looked at the cover again and found a flattering endorsement by Karin Slaughter, a writer as mentioned I admire. This is a shame, since Slaughter’s work is head and shoulders above the Reacher books.

But this is a window into the publishing industry, where established authors must hype each other’s novels to the heavens in cover blurbs for marketing purposes. No doubt we’ll see lavish praise from Lee Child/Andrew Child on the next Slaughter novel. Whether these people actually read each other’s books is unknown.

The Reacher novel in question has on the back cover a full length photo of Lee and Andrew in leather coats posed to look as grim and ready to rumble as readers must imagine their hero to be.

A free spirit?

So who is this Jack Reacher guy? He roams around the country on buses or by hitchhiking, mainly, without any luggage or other belongings. He may have a toothbrush. No cell phone.

Clothes? Apparently he buys a new set whenever he needs them. ID? Expired military. Money? This is left completely unclear, but he always seems to have enough cash on him (no credit cards please) to pay for a hotel for himself and characters he protects. If you have ever tried to pay for a hotel room these days with just cash, you know how unlikely that might be, especially with out-of-date ID.

At the beginning of this novel, in a strange town, Reacher is interviewed by a police detective, who never asks about Reacher’s background or address, but somehow gets a copy of Reacher’s impressive, we’re told, military record. The detective supplies him with all kinds of information, eventually even pleading with Reacher for help in his investigation.

Reacher is a man in this portrayal with only a shred of an inner life. In this book he confesses to an interest in Civil War artifacts, but that’s about it. He has no friends, no companions, no lovers, although he will have sexual encounters with different friendly females on rare occasions.

He just wanders around really enjoying tearing bad guys limb from limb. We have to be glad that as far as we know, his gimlet eyes and hulking frame haven’t set on some innocent target by mistake or by enthusiasm. Although occasionally he can act like a bully.

But dealing with bad guys is his forte. Here’s a typical passage: “Its blade was only three inches long. But it was sharp. … Reacher held it up for Hix [a bad guy] to see. He said, ‘I watched you on the stage this morning. … Like you loved the attention. The cameras. So tell me this: Would the cameras still love you if I slice your nose off and make you eat it?’”

In this book, Reacher successfully invades a corporate-run prison and saves a prisoner being prepared for organ donation. Of course the prison is mightily guarded. “He was in the heart of enemy territory. Massively outnumbered. Competely outgunned.”

The writing style is that of very short sentences, which adds to the impact and pacing of action scenes, but becomes ripe for parody after awhile.

Contrast with Travis McGee series

Contrast Reacher with the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald, which Lee Child has acknowledged informed the creation of Reacher. (The last of the 21 Travis McGee books was published in 1984.) McGee is not a cop or private detective but a “salvage consultant” who lives on a houseboat. He’s big, formidable in a fight, but he has a life with friends and lovers and interests. Between action scenes he may even discuss philosophy.

The clients in the McGee thrillers/mysteries are people who have been taken advantage of (typically by unscrupulous or illegal means) and come to McGee for help.

As one fan puts it: “… The real pleasure of McGee’s colorful world comes from his inner monologue. Over the span of his adventures, McGee observes and comments on nearly every aspect of an ever-changing America. He also provides insight on the wonderfully fleshed-out characters he meets.”

“Fleshed-out” is not an adjective that many would apply to the characters of Jack Reacher’s world, including the big guy himself.

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Using Obsidian in Novel Development

Working on a novel doesn’t just mean the writing of it. At least for me, there is all the preliminary: the assemblage of ideas, notes about possible characters, scene glimpses, the main points of the story, and much more.

I’ve learned for myself after writing two science-fiction novels and preparing to start on the third, that I need to do this development work to have a topography for my imagination to explore as I write the thing. Not an outline (horrors!) but an overview that perhaps serves more as a comfort blanket than as a prescription.

(The first two novels are so far unpublished. Darn literary agents.)

This third novel is part of what I’m calling The Three Eras Trilogy. A few centuries ahead, a recently promoted detective with a secret that can kill him must solve several murders occurring around the completion of the Earth’s first space elevator. It has taken several generations to come close to finishing the structure. The human race, especially the tiny lunar colony, depends on what the space elevator can mean for the future.

The Earth has suffered from genetic engineering and artificial intelligence gone rampant and only recently restrained. Humans aren’t as plentiful as they once were.

The detective must solve these rare crimes in a society, and an organization, where the so-called genetically pure exploit and oppress the so-called mixed.

It can be difficult to keep track of all the different aspects of such a story. There’s the background research and notes necessary about genetic engineering, artificial intelligence (which by the way I’ve renamed “pseudo intelligence”), space elevators, being a detective, plot ideas, character possibilities, nature of the villains and a lot more.

In past projects I settled on some helpful software which I’ve chronicled in a post or two.

However, I ran across Obsidian at the same time as I started working on this novel, and it’s turned out to be very useful.

What is Obsidian?

Obsidian is an application available mostly free as a note-taking and knowledge database program. I use it on my desktop PC and everything goes on one of my hard drives. I back it up every day. It uses Markdown files which if the program and availability dies, can still be accessed by any text editor.

It has attracted many who are keen about Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) systems or Zettelkasten analytics, whatever those are. There are plug-ins available which can tailor the functionality in a lot of directions.

I’m more disorganized, and perhaps intuitive, about putting all my notes together. For me, what makes Obsidian useful are the internal linkages and the graphical representation, in the template I use, of those connections.

Obsidian also has a mind-mapping function known as Canvas, which I’ve just started to use. I already can see its creative utility, if you’re at all visually oriented.

I’ve looked up how some writers use the program. I’ve been impressed by how methodical and systematic they are. But that’s not how I work, on the whole. It’s like the difference between novelists called “pantsers” who start writing into the dark by the seat of their pants without an outline, and those who obsessively delineate the entire work before they start writing. I’m somewhere in the broad middle, but definitely lean towards the more anarchic, randomly organized, exploratory end.

How I use it

Here’s how I use it. I have set up a specific “vault” for the novel. It’s divided into three parts, usually, a folder/file listing similar to Windows Explorer on one side, the specific note created or added to in the middle, and on the right, a simple graphical display which shows what other notes are connected to the one I’m working on.

When I create the note, I link it to at least one other factoid or concept. That seems to keep all the information swimming about accessibly in the ocean of information that begins to form. Often one note will end up linking to a dozen or more related notes. At the same time, any note is also available in the rough folder categories I’ve set up on the side.

Webpages, documents, photos – all can be entered into a note.

Of course one can accumulate almost too much stuff, and begin to suffer from data overload. This is a point a recent Verge article makes: “Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter.”

The author goes on from that to complain about such apps, including Obsidian:

“When I had an interesting conversation with a person, I would add notes to a personal page I had created for them. A few times a week, I would revisit those notes.

“I waited for the insights to come.

“And waited. And waited.”

Unrealistic expectations

Unfortunately, the author seems to suffer from a combination of unrealistic expectations and impatience. Attention spans are getting shorter.

My experience with Obsidian has been the opposite. As the connections develop, new ideas can form from being knocked against by other ones in unexpected ways.

As I gear up to actually start writing this novel, I am going through all my Obsidian notes. I get reminded again of the good idea I wrote down long ago and where its flint sparks fresh ideas. I make new connections I didn’t see before. The mere juxtaposition of two disparate notes can lead to interesting places.

The Verge writer wants to incorporate something like the current versions of AI into note-taking applications. He thinks that might help, if only to summarize and brief him on his own notes(!). I have my doubts, from what I’ve seen of the current generation of AI.

I prefer to sort through my own ideas in Obsidian, and find what kernels of insight and imagination I might have inadvertently dropped along the way, or discover new ones.

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Note: A couple of interesting resources about Obsidian:

1) How I Use Obsidian As A Creative

2) Best Examples of How to Use Obsidian Notes in 2023

Pity the Poor Literary Agent

I now have two science-fiction novels completed, one a thousand years in the future, and the other set several decades away.

I’ve begun the routine of sending out queries to literary agents. 

Writing the novels has been such an effort, although rewarding, that it is difficult for me to imagine many people taking up that pursuit.  I don’t know of any people personally that have opted for this strenuous creative endeavour, even if expanded to the network of all my friends and acquaintances.

I think back to my well-educated work place, where many struggled to put together a coherent sentence, and hope I can be forgiven for thinking that novel writing is rare.

Yet when I read about the publishing industry, look at all the literary agents (there are so many), go to craft-of-writing websites and pay attention to the online critique association I’m in, it is clear a blizzard of would-be authors and novels sifts down non-stop.

This is revealed in the form-like rejections (I’ve gotten a lot) from literary agents. I get the feeling that the reason very, very few of them offer any explanation for a rejection is because they are quite overwhelmed by the volume of queries.

And this even given the popularity of the self-publishing route, which must draw off plenty of frustrated would-be authors to compete in the trials of e-book promotion and putting their work on Amazon.

I haven’t chosen to go that route, since I want to put my limited energy into writing, rather than worrying about search engine optimization.  I might end up going the self-publishing route eventually, but first I want to try the old-fashioned way of getting a literary agent to represent me to publishers.

Big Changes in Publishing

The publishing industry has changed dramatically, though, in the last decade or two.  The digital revolution has had a huge impact.  Especially with the rise of self-publishing and e-books, it was thought at one time that hard-copy books would go the way of vinyl LPs in music.  (With the revival of vinyl we can see how complicated these cultural forces can be.)

It hasn’t worked out that way.  Traditional publishers still have considerable marketing clout, and for many they remain the preferred route for getting one’s book to a wider public.  But the publishers aren’t very interested in dealing constructively with authors.  In the good old days, if a publisher thought a writer was promising and worth the effort, an editor might be assigned to help shepherd the novice to a more acceptable product.  From what I’ve read, such editors are no more.  Publishers expect a more finished product from the get-go. 

This means that a literary agent has to appeal to publishers with novels that they think will get an immediate positive reaction, including how trendy it is in subject matter or author.  Their livelihood is dependent on getting such positive reactions.

But it must be difficult to evaluate, decide to take on and then promote to publishers from the flurry of queries, and then manuscripts literary agents receive.  And coordinate all the work that goes with that.

This struck me hard recently as a result of exchanging novel critiques with others in the online group (Critters) I’ve joined.  These are drafts we trade with each other, in order to benefit from another set of critical eyes that (tragically!) may be of the very few to ever read these novels.

Of the three that I have gone over (or “beta read” as the jargon goes), all have been well written at the level of sentences, and spelling, and grammar.  Of course there are a few missteps here and there, but nothing terribly serious.

But as I read the works of these other would-be authors, it slowly becomes evident that there are structural issues, or characters really hard to understand, or emotional cul-de-sacs peculiar to the writer.  These problems don’t jump out immediately, but take considerable time and a close reading to become apparent.

In one case, the author has composed a story with wonderful characters, but it lacks an identifiable protagonist.  In another, it took reading most of the novel to understand that the writer wanted to recreate some kind of family emotional situation that kept the science fiction from making sense, at least to me.

I’m probably prone to the same faults. They reveal the difficulty of making a novel come to life in the reader’s mind.  And the difficulty for literary agents is to find by dint of their hard work, or by guess or by gosh, a work to stand behind. Pity the poor literary agent!

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