Day: April 21, 2014

I had an interesting exchange with a student who is still convinced that climax is a completely separate matter from plot. I did a quick and fairly extensive internet search to see if I somehow missed something about the relationship between plot and climax in my years of continuing study. I’ve missed a bunch of stuff, but nothing about climax being a completely separate entity from plot. The climax is a direct result of plots, subplots, and specific interactions between characters.

Climax is one of five key plot points in a story. You start with the exposition, move into the rising action, climax, and then on into the falling action and finally the resolution. This could also be a recipe for sexual intercourse, considering the similarities between the stages. Given that comparison, separating climax from the sequence would make the climax meaningless. There is no context. It is reduced to a forced moment of presumed pleasure with no sense of how we got here or where we go afterwards.

I’m ranting, of course, but the moment truly reflects the modern lack of understanding of story. I don’t truly believe the future of writing is in any real jeopardy I just think that I’m often physically surrounded by an audience of readers who have lower standards than the readers I tend to write for–especially the Shadowrun readers who will yank your beating heart from your chest if you tread on the foundation of Shadowrun. Those readers get the purpose and nuance of climax and why it cannot be separated from plot in any meaningful way.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. An American won the Boston Marathon! I mean an Eritrean… It is truly amazing and wonderful to live in a country where you can become a member of that country and represent that country no matter where you are originally from. There is a certain beauty here which is lost on those who scream angrily about how immigration is destroying America.
2. Wow, still ranting…

Ten minutes on the clock. Lets see what develops….

Magic is something I’ve spent a remarkable amount of time thinking about. It represents my latest writer’s block and lives at the core of my understanding of how we as sentient beings interact with the universe. What is magic? I can start with what it isn’t. The stuff that Copperfield, Angel, and their ilk do is not magic. That is illusion; the use of familiar technologies and a slight of hand in an unusual fashion in order to create the appearance of something magical i.e. something that can only be explained as supposedly beyond the realm of ‘normal’ sentient ability. People are magical by that same definition: ‘Magic’ Johnson, the magical touch of certain stock traders, the voice of a singer such as Adele.  Magic is our oft paltry attempt to recognize and explain the ethereal connection we have between each other and to the universe itself. Moreover magic use can then be defined as our ability to reach into that connection and draw from it the ability to act on the physical (and often metaphysical) universe in ways that make far exceed normalcy.

I’ve always wanted to be a magician. I want to understand more about why I am here and shape that understanding; weaponize it, if you will, into a force that I can use to create a better life situation for my family and for myself. If magic is shaped from willpower I can see why I am presently no mage. I’ve spent quite a spell talking–preaching to the blog–but not acting. I pronounce and proclaim and make wonderful net thunder but do little to manifest that spell into reality.

And I say then as I say now: This must change.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Getting sick was an oddly useful experience. It put into focus many of my routines, rituals, and daily experiences. I’ve always felt trapped by daily life, as though the things I do each day comprise so much of my day as to hold me back from experiencing a brighter life. I also came face to face with my chemical dependency. My coffee addiction is quite severe. I drink it out of habit but I also depend on it to keep me functioning past normal operating parameters. Without it I was not able to perform past a certain hour. From this I can ascertain that any creative activities done beyond that hour (i.e. beyond the pale) are to be considered wasted energy. It is high time I got a great deal smarter about understanding not only my body, but my mind.