Chevrotain

I found out about this animal recently. Upon discovering a couple friends hadn't heard of it, I figured I'd post about it here. It's essentially a deer the size of a cat.

(image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Isn't that cute? Now go learn about this sprightly little guy!

My NaNoWriMo Entry, Plus Some Enlightening Old Thoughts from Max Barry

Every year, someone of some description who knows I'm an author asks, "are you doing NaNoWriMo?" Every year, my answer is simple: well, no. The next question is, inevitably, "why not?" I've made up a number of answers to this one, all of which are true. I'm busy with school, I have another novel I'm writing, and so on.

Back in 2010, no doubt under identical questioning, Max Barry gave the best answer of all: "I think it makes you write a bad novel." He said he doesn't like saying that but he's absolutely right. Admittedly, using his 2,000 word per day target outlined in that article results in writing more than 50,000 words per month. It's also done when one actually has a month available, not forced into November. I've used word targets extensively, just always over the course of a few months. Besides, if I have an idea in October that's so great, why would I wait until November 1 to kick it off?

Regarding the 15 writing techniques, End-to-End (#12) was used for Inside the Rift (2009) and Void (2011), whereas Jigsaw (#11) is being used for State of Sin (2014). I'm a night person, not a morning person, and I generally need to work at home. I used to listen to music years ago but no longer, and perhaps the occasional coffee or whisky splashes down my throat as I write.

November's Book: I Am Legend

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Horror (1954 - 96 pp.)

I Am Legend occupies a weird space in literary history. It's too late to be Dracula yet too early to be about zombies. It's far past the Victorian era of Gothic revival yet predates the slasher movie by a solid 24 years. (For anyone wondering why I'm being so exact, it's a reference to the release date of the original Halloween, which I consider to be among the greatest horror movies ever created.) Yet here it is, vaguely in the same era as a book like Brave New World or 1984. Perhaps that's the kind of book that makes the most sense as a comparison for it.

The dominant theme in the book is that of the self and the other, at least from what I can tell. Who is the in-group? Who is the out-group? Why do they differ? Consideration of why we maintain our selves and others is important to consider when reading I Am Legend, especially in light of the racial issues present in America at the time of its writing. Much of the rest of the book deals with the difficulty of dealing with one's own mind: "He turned away from the bar as if he could leave the question there. But questions had no location; they could follow him around." (44) Such a thought is chilling, as it makes the reader consider his or her own unanswered questions. Being left alone with them is almost as scary as the vampires besieging our protagonist, Robert Neville.

The question I am certain every scholar has asked bears repeating here: what if instead of Neville being a human and all the other characters being vampires, the situation had been reversed? What if Neville was the only vampire and everyone else was human? The reader's perception of Neville would likely be very different.

This is a very easy read. A few hours should be enough for anyone, even when re-reading some of the key passages like I did. It teaches the reader plenty about the human condition but not much else - but then again, I'm sure that's just an issue of the book focusing where Richard Matheson wants it to focus. As an aside, the Peggy Lee lyrics from her classic 1948 single "Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere" humanize Neville in a way almost anything never could.

Ease of Reading: 8
Educational Value: 5

October's Book: To Kill a Mockingbird

Astonishingly, I hadn't read this one yet. A little less astonishingly, events prevented me from writing this entry until now despite having actually finished reading the book on Halloween. To the benefit of all my American friends' consciences for now knowing I've read To Kill a Mockingbird, here it is:

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Literature (1960 - 257 pp.)

More than enough has been said about To Kill a Mockingbird, and I have read almost none of the many binders full of essays and book reports filed on it. Therefore, I will be brief. The storyline is easy to follow and well-told, with the plot acting as the defining feature of the book. The setting is convincing, the characters less so. Atticus Finch is the most essential Mary Sue I have ever read, and the antagonists - however defined, but the Ewells will suffice - have so few redeeming qualities they are barely human. The blatantly clear good versus evil dynamic in such a socially complex setting dampens the conflict, as none of the characters ever seem to be torn up about anything. Mrs. Dubose is possibly the most human character in the whole book, mainly because Atticus explains why she is to Jem and Scout partway through. If there is one thing I can possibly add, and I presume someone has thought of this well before I have, it is the observation that Atticus is basically Eddard Stark. Doing right and accepting blame to a fault crosses over multiple genres and time periods, it appears.

The quotation from the book that resonates most with me is one from Atticus a short time before the famed trial: "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." (103) It's something I have found true in my life and I am sure many others who have read the book in its 53 years of existence have as well.

This is an easy read, with a couple points taken off for the occasional Southernisms that make us Northerners pull up a dictionary. The book, while educational in the sense of providing a telling picture of interwar Alabama, is not a traditionally educational book in the way some of the others I have read for this blog are. As a side note, the anti-Hitler comments on page 223 seem more like they are from 1960 than 1935. In 1935, Adolf Hitler's various actions were either not nearly as publicized or simply not done yet. That a family in small-town Alabama would even know who the leader of Germany was at the time seems surprising, let alone that it would take that particular view toward the particular issue mentioned (i.e. reasoned opposition to his persecution of the Jews).

Ease of Reading: 8
Educational Content: 5

Observance of Virtues and Rejection of Sins

Today, I did something I've been meaning to do for almost a year now. I listed the seven cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins, and then listed how I observe the former and reject the latter. I then listed corresponding ways I can improve, whether becoming more virtuous or less sinful in the area I identified. I made a spreadsheet with four cells for each virtue and sin. Here's a blank version in case you're motivated to try it. As with all things of this nature, my finished version is blissfully private. It was a great experience, though - really enlightening. It forced me to think. I like to think of it as a Christian version of something like, say, The Happiness Project.

This I Believe: Pain Passes But Memories Remain

An essay I submitted to This I Believe is now on the site. Here it is!

Full text:
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Pain Passes but Memories Remain

Matthew - Toronto, Ontario Canada

Entered on May 15, 2013

Themes: self-knowledge,setbacks

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When I was 22, I broke my elbow two days before a scheduled flight from Toronto to Minneapolis. The X-ray tech in the ER described my prognosis as “very painful”. Forty-five minutes of surgery later, I had a plate and six screws in my elbow. Shortly thereafter, I received a potent blend of Demerol and morphine that kept me going through the following two nights in hospital. I told my mom to tell the people I was slated to see in Minneapolis about the injury. I would have called them myself but I was bedridden, frail and periodically hallucinating.

I was determined to make the trip to Minneapolis. I also knew my parents were going to Vancouver to visit my dad’s side of the family at the end of the month, and I really wanted to go with them. My dad’s father’s health was failing, and besides, I hadn’t seen most of his side of the family in four years. My aunt and uncle’s daughters were growing up so quickly, I didn’t want to miss a stage of their adolescence. The fracture unit staff at the hospital told me I couldn’t fly in a full cast – there was a worry of my arm expanding in midair – so I had a half cast put on.

I flew twice in that half cast, thrice if you count a hop from Vancouver Island to the mainland. I spent an extra week in the cast so I could make the Vancouver trip. Those trips ended up being some of the most valuable of my life. In Minneapolis, I got a better idea of where I wanted to move. (It ended up not being Minneapolis, but I still loved the city.) In Vancouver, I got to see my dad’s side of the family for the first time as an adult. Most importantly, it was the last time I ever saw my grandfather, who died a year and a half later. My dad had urged me to come to Vancouver, even though it would have been so much easier to get the half cast off a week earlier and stay home. To this day, I’m glad I took my dad’s advice.

I learned some valuable lessons from that month. One, that I was tougher than I’d realized; a person can really fight through even the most painful adversity. Two, that my pain would pass but the memories from those trips would remain. Three, that family can make almost anything worthwhile, even flying across Canada in a half cast. Four, that opportunities aren’t always there, so to take them every chance you get.

September's Book: Heat Wave

Heat Wave by Richard Castle
Mystery (2009 - 274 pp.)

Heat Wave is the first tie-in book to the hit ABC series Castle, which premiered a few months before this book's release. I was a latecomer to the show, only starting to watch it at the behest of a friend a few months ago, so this whole mystery-writer-joins-the-cops thing is still relatively new to me. I'm hooked, though.

The book is basically a textual Castle episode. Journalist Jameson Rook rides along with Detective Nikki Heat, bearing absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to writer Richard Castle riding along with Detective Kate Beckett. The characters, setting and plot are almost carbon copies of the show - set in New York City, a high-profile homicide with lots of twists and turns, and lots of bullets flying. Rook is cheeky, Heat is tough, the other main characters Raley and Ochoa ("Roach") have the same great characters their TV equivalents have, and the bad guys don't have many redeemable qualities. The character of Casper is an interesting one of a type not often seen in Castle episodes, which is a highlight. However much you like Castle, that is exactly how much you will like this book. The writing is very stock mystery but it works perfectly as a portrayal of how the pulp author Castle writes rather than attempting to tie some kind of literary masterpiece to a show that simply isn't about them. I got over the imperfections as soon as the plot started advancing.

As a bonus, there's a fake interview with Richard Castle at the end. It's hilarious. I was in stitches the whole time. Whoever wrote this book, a mystery ABC is keeping from us all until an undisclosed future date, has Richard Castle's personality down pat.

Completely unrelated to the book, I just had to listen to the Martha Reeves & the Vandellas classic "Heat Wave" while writing this entry. Having known the song since childhood, it played in my head a little every time I saw the book's cover.

Ease of Reading: 10
Educational Content: 1