Archive | November 2017

Here Lies Daniel Tate: Book Review (spoilers)

Nov27

Here Lies Daniel Tate by Cristin Terrill has a great plot: Missing kid turns up years later, but can’t remember much about his past. Bit by bit, he tries to understand his family and what happened at the time of his disappearance. My first thought was The Face on the Milk Carton for a new generation!

No. But it’s much worse than that. The real plot is something else. Con man fakes being a missing kid now in his teens in order to get out of trouble. The main character in the story is a liar. Usually, a story involving an unreliable narrator leaves you questioning everything you just saw or read. If this was what the author was going for in this particular tale, for me it fell flat. The first few chapters promised a roller coaster ride that never really manifested. I read about halfway through in one sitting…and then forgot entirely about the story for days before realizing, “oh, yeah, I never finished reading that.”

So what went wrong? First, I just want to say that All Our Yesterdays, also by Terrill is fantastic. That story had me transfixed. With Here Lies Daniel Tate, it seemed like a great idea that wasn’t executed well. The characters were always viewed from a distance by our narrator, and because of that an emotional link is missing between the characters and the readers. The swearing annoyed me, but most swearing in books and movies does. I can understand trying to be realistic, but for me, it just got in the way of the story.

All that aside, after page 100 or so, Here Lies Daniel Tate gets really boring. Nothing happens. Okay, he goes to school, that’s what happens. And for writers, this is death, your story dies if your readers lose interest. Finishing the book was torture, it was no fun to read the rest and I didn’t understand why a vital component was left out: Keep your audience on their toes. Always make things happen faster or before the audience thinks they should. This rule applies especially to modern audiences, many of whom, like me, have a short attention span. I think a good editor would have spotted this problem. A good editor would have also spotted that unreliable narrator set up at the beginning, never delivered the twist calling the whole story into question. An author that does twists extremely well is Ian McEwan of Atonement fame. For a case study in unreliable narrators, please read that book or even just see the film. Another wonderful unreliable narrator book is The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan, and I reviewed that a February or two ago. I’m not saying every unreliable narrator has to end the tale with, “whelp, I lied…or did I?” but it’s just so, so much fun when they do.

Here Lies Daniel Tate had potential that was never realized, and I sort of wish we could dump it in the time machine from All Our Yesterdays to rewrite itself and try again.

SJWsADD: book review

Nov16

SJW. ADD. First of all, let’s just appreciate how well these acronyms go together. Is there a group that pays less attention to what’s happening in the real world around them? Is there a group less inclined to pay attention to details, facts, or truth?

Vox Day’s first book in this series, SJWs Always Lie, is an excellent opening primer to the thought processes of Social Justice Warriors and the tactics that accompany them. Every day it becomes more obvious that we are in a culture war. Blood has even been spilled in its name (yes Antifa, I’m looking at you), and the more power that is ceded to SJWs and their ilk in the public sphere, the more likely America is to see an actual Civil War II. One of the central points in winning a war is to know your enemy. If you know how they think, you are likely to know how they will respond in any given situation. Fighting in this culture war is not for the faint of heart. The battle is largely psychological, the attacks indirect, and the victim mentality in the enemy, strong. Anyone not dedicated to the unvarnished truth may hold out for awhile, but will ultimately be trampled. Kindness, compassion, sense of fair play–it will all be used against you, because SJWs are con artists with the very worst intentions, who parade them around as if they were the best.

I found SJWs Always Double Down to be an easier read than the first book. Maybe it’s because now that I’ve been reading Day’s blog, I understand his arguments better (when I began reading him, I kept thinking, “I like this guy, I like what he’s saying, but I don’t understand it!”). The writing and planning is more succinct in this book and the details about the whole Tor fiasco are left towards the end, which I think makes SJWsADD more relatable to the average Joe who understands something is going on but only gets his news from the MSM. In the introduction, Day explains the criticisms he’s gotten about using too many personal examples of battling SJWs, and, agreeing or not with that criticism, he was smart enough to put the most relatable examples first, those from the corporate and tech world. I like to write and inside stuff about how the publishing world works interests me, but even I got a bit lost with the telling of all the Tor drama–and it did come across as pointless drama at times. However, I now get that that is largely the point. SJWs create senseless drama because it helps them gain power. Few people relish conflict and will often give in to false cries and tears just to make them stop. Day and his posse didn’t just oppose the SJWs, they made them cry harder and longer than they wanted to by being even more committed to the drama than the SJWs, not to mention tiring them out. (For other examples of this, see Gamergate and any of President Trump’s scuffles with the media).

This is how the war will be won. It’s not for those who want to be nice (nice used to = stupid, if you keep that in mind, you’ll never be “nice” again.) Being committed to the truth is not “nice” in any respect today. The light of truth brings people’s own shortcomings up before their eyes, and no one likes to be confronted with their shortcomings. Sometimes when reading Day’s blog, I think, “can’t you just rip the bandaid off slowly today?” Nope, nope, nope. He wants to win the war, not waste time for the rest of us to collect our feelings. Our side can’t start to control the arena and the rules of the game if we’re hiding from the truth ourselves.

[i.e.: For a long time I wasn’t totally grasping what Day meant by his assertion that group identity is simply how the world actually works. It wasn’t until he started talking about the Tower of Babel that I really got it. God made the races, tribes, and nations and He made sure they would never build another tower again by scattering them across the face of the earth. Globalism is against God in every way, shape, and form. People are happier and safer living with their own kind, it’s just we don’t want to admit it today, even–maybe especially–among Christians.

Is God really happy when we disregard the welfare of our own neighbors in order to get a virtue boost by bringing over foreigners who don’t have the skills to succeed in this country and clog vital resources for actual citizens? And we don’t even care adequately for those foreign refugees! I live in Minnesota among many of them–and many are not able to work here, due to language and skill barriers, and what they are allotted in welfare in some cases barely covers rent. It all really is just virtue signaling, not actual virtue, and it’s hurting both sides. I’m sure that the powers that be in MN are determined to bring even more people over, not caring an ounce that they are selling their precious, formerly free country down the river. We know, they know, and the refugees all know they have to go back, but no one is making the first move. (On a positive note, this year I’ve seen a tremendous amount of American flags flying in Minnesota, not only outside homes and places of business, but quite a few stuck on pickup trucks, strategically placed to make those criers cry all the more!)]

The stories about a company soon to be converged were spot on. A couple of years ago, I thought I’d have to quit my job, I was so incensed they made us take an computer test to show us how “racist” we were, all the time claiming it was a voluntary test and then sending out passive-aggressive emails claiming our department or department head would get in trouble if we didn’t have 100% participation. I felt like I was in China again, with their “we happily invite you to this five-hour long mandatory meeting! We invite you to sing a song…for the Communist party!” Oh, and the test was rigged of course, trying first to get us to click certain races with certain words, then suddenly switching which side we were to click on so it would confirm their suspicions about our “bias.” Thankfully, I’ve only gotten small whiffs of convergence since then, and we haven’t had the “test” again, but it’s a big company with a lot of women and likely will be converged at some point. Fortunately, other companies who still understand their business purpose are waiting in the wings.

 

I also found the whole section on the Alpha-Gamma spectrum of, well, mostly males, to be very informative, especially the Gamma stuff. It explains a lot about the reasons behind people’s behaviors and what makes them attractive or not to the opposite sex. It explains a lot of the male SJWs in a sea of female ones.

SJWsADD will give you more ammunition in the fight against the power grab that is “social justice/political correctness.” I can’t wait for what will surely be the third book, SJWs Always Project!

Collective Guilt

Nov6

On the sins and sexual deviancy of Hollywood, much can be said. The shock among Hollywood’s own community is feigned at best. Whispers of abuse, sexual and not, child and adult, have wafted in and around the entertainment industry since its inception. It would not surprise many that these same things go on in the music industry, in the cable news industry, in fact in any industry where more show than substance gets the eyeballs looking and cash drawers zinging.

As a Christian, I sorrow over the innocence wiped away by such degeneracy. It would indeed be fitting for the perpetrators of such acts to have millstones tied around their necks and for them to be cast into the depths of the sea. As a Christian, I also sorrow over the sinners, the ones that still have some part of their soul that wants to repent, to live better, to be forgiven. It is perhaps the most unfathomable reaches of God’s love that were a pedophile to sincerely repent, he could be forgiven by and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On a purely human level, my jaw drops at the very idea. Drawn and quartered is much more like it.

But for more regular sinners, there’s comfort in the possibility of criminals being forgiven. It means we can be forgiven, too. It means I can be forgiven. It means you can be forgiven.

Along with all of the other oh-so-shocked Hollywood elites, are millions upon millions of viewers, listeners, watchers and consumers who heard the whispers, too. If asked how many films in existence in some way condone, glorify, or promote deviancy on any level, one could wryly answer, “Is there a single one that doesn’t?” Sin is as prevalent in the works of man and it is in every man’s heart.

Those of us who were, are, and remain Trump supporters understand that for some reason God is using this man as a winnowing fork. President Trump is smart, rich, talented, and good looking, but a of people are that, and they’ve never done nothing like this. There might be nothing more significant under Trump’s watch than the number of pedophile rings busted around the world. That is an amazing feat in and above itself. For the first time in a long people, someone in a powerful position cares about the damage being done to innocent souls. And he’s giving others who also care the backing and ability to do something about it.

But God’s winnowing fork cuts much, much deeper. It cuts to the heart. It separates joints and marrow.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV)

Those whispers about Hollywood, those stories, those movies that testified to what was happening behind closed doors and in some cases out in the open, who of us viewers of Hollywood movies, of American movies and TV shows, can honestly say we didn’t know? Are you really shocked? Really? Actors are asked to disrobe often, asked to simulate sexual activity onscreen, asked to enjoy pretend killing people, asked to swear and drink and behave abominably.  Who’s asking that of them, I wonder? Monsters live among us, we all know that, but who exactly those monsters are may be a little more uncomfortable for us to consider.

Thankfully, we are living in a time when many are turning away from such entertainment, and many are looking for cleaner fare while others are giving up TV and movies altogether.  For myself, I now watch Korean dramas, and although they might be cleaner morally, they tend to be fluffy and superficial. My addiction to consuming stories in some fashion will probably never wane. As much good as I’ve learned from stories, I’ve surely learned a lot of bad things, too.

Remember back in the 80s and 90s where it was if you listened to heavy metal or played Dungeons and Dragons, you were surely going to hell? We may laugh now, we may see both things as harmless, now, but the reality is people who get obsessed with their entertainment are often making idols out of them. This doesn’t happen to every person or in every case, but it does happen. Christian or not, putting entertainment above God,  and above the welfare of your family or fellow human beings is a sin.

We may never have done anything remotely like what Harvey Weinstein has done to his actresses, but we’ve likely watched a few films of his, films that promote living life in a way that is selfish and sinful. We’ve given him and people like him our hard-earned dollars all the while trying to ignore those whispers.

I titled this post “collective guilt,” but the meaning is really guilty individuals together making up a collection. You may agree with me or not, but the truth is that what we watch and listen to affects us, some more than others. And the money given for entertainment is sometimes used to fund the worse abuses. This is a strange and unique time in history when many, many people are starting to wake up from a long slumber of mindless consumerism. For once, they are starting to consider what they watch just like they consider what foods they eat. It merely may be that there are simply more choices for our attention out there, but it’s no accident that all of these Hollywood skeletons are coming out just when the public is finally tiring of immoral gutter stories and constant insults. Penny dreadfuls are no longer satisfying and we long for soul food, for stories where we don’t try to understand the monsters, we instead defeat them.

As a watcher, I’m guilty, if very obliquely, of funding Hollywood’s deviancy and degeneracy.  I’ve watched a staggering amount of movies in my 39 years.  As a writer, I’m not much better.  I’m closer to Jo March and her The Sinner’s Corpse than I ever will be to Little Women. And yet, stories, if we have them, should be fun, shouldn’t they? And how do we portray the real joys and trials of human life without glorifying the evil? Without dragging the audience down into the gutter to dwell there and get snatched away by clown from IT? Is censorship the way to go? Every freedom-minded person would shout a resounding “NO!” to that, especially if the censorship should end up being political in nature.

I can’t offer advice from a human standpoint. Humans aren’t very good at fixing the problems of sin, but God is. Here’s His advice:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV) 

Put the good things first in your mind and heart. Can we ask for better advice than that? Thank God for his advice, thank God for his salvation, and thank God that he saves and forgives even us! At the end of time our hearts will be laid bare, our sins will be pranced around by the devil for all to see just like Hollywood’s sins are detailed in the tabloids.  We have one hope, and that is Jesus Christ, who lived perfectly for us because we couldn’t, and for love sacrificed himself on the cross and paid for the sins of the whole world, even the very real human monsters. Talk about radical. Sexual deviance can’t hold a candle to that kind of radical. It’s not even in the same league. Final and full forgiveness. That’s better than any Hollywood film ever made.