I’ve been thinking about JJ Abrams quite a bit lately. Watching Fringe again (and for the first time when it comes to the last two seasons) feels like walking through his mind in a way that makes me feel that I’ve always been walking alongside him. He has a number of shows and movies that pepper our publicized reality in a way that make him our pop culture default. He is, however, an 80s guy whose television history matches my own in some ways and I can see the echoes reverberating through the multitude of Disney Universes.
When I think about Abrams I think about my own fictional worlds and where they come from and what inspired them and what they represent. I also feel, to a certain extent, unmoored. I consumed far more fiction when I was school-aged than I do now that I have school-aged children. There are many reasons why it is true and less why it continues to be true. One thing that remains ever present is the desire to explore worlds that are not my own and shape worlds that are. That is, in part, why I write science fiction and (allegedly) fantasy.
Some Thoughts:
- Men make women uncomfortable. It happens in a number of ways that are tied to perception. When a man looks up and sees someone walking by, does that woman pull her coat tighter around herself? Does she smile? Does she shoot back a stare or look of anger? What determines that response. I believe that response is partly based on how the man looks and how the man looks at the woman and the history of that woman’s reality leading up to that moment. I think it is a thing that is worth exploring in story. Somehow.