St. Stephen's Day

Happy St. Stephen’s Day.

Ever wonder why the hymn “Good King Wenceslas” is sung around Christmas? If you go through the hymn, there is not one word about Christmas. It is actually a St. Stephen’s Day hymn, which is December 26^th. This gets associated with Christmas, which is a good thing, otherwise it might not be sung. The same thing happens with St. Nicholas’ Day, which is December 6^th. So now you know why he is associated with Christmas.

For me, this was a good day of rewriting. I was rather satisfied with a particular scene (less than a chapter) involving two characters in my novel Day 10K. I had hired two freelance editors (more on that in a later post). The first said that in her opinion, this scene slowed down the story. The second one said he saw no point to the scene. So after thinking about it a little, I deleted the scene and summarized the essential information in a few sentences in a later scene. It’s important to listen to professionals (or beta readers). If they have problems with the same scenes, it may be best to cut.

Barnes & Noble had a sale of one-third off all hardcovers today. I had seen a slim hardcover that looked interesting, but it cost $23.00, so I thought I would look for a used copy. But when I found out about the sale, I decided to buy the new copy. In addition, since I’m a member, that meant an additional 10% off. I was surprised that the total before tax was $11.50. That is a lot less than a third off and a tenth off. It turns out there was a promotional sale of 50% off for it. Would the promotion have been good on any other day? Shrug.

I’ll have to let you know what I think of it.

Here is a random street sign. Anything odd here?

Book Review: My Dear Hemlock

My Dear Hemlock by Tilly Dillehay

Canon Press, 2024, 182 pp.

Tilly Dillehay’s My Dear Hemlock is her concept of a female version of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. For those who are not familiar with that novel, it is a series of letters from a senior demon named Screwtape to junior demon Wormwood on how to tempt a particular man. What Dillehay has done is pen a series of letters from a senior demon who has taken female form, Madame Hoaxrot, to a junior demon who has also taken female form, Hemlock. Hoaxrot gives her best advice to Hemlock on how to tempt a particular woman.

Objections to the very idea of the book have been juvenile.

·       -  The writing cannot be on a level with C.S. Lewis’. Dillehay does not pretend that it is.

·      -  We don’t need another Screwtape Letters. Dillehay firmly believes there are temptations particular to women.

Having dismissed the objections to the very existence of the book, I have to say that for the most part it didn’t really reach me. I don’t think this is mostly because I am not a woman. Although I like the concept, the insights it gives on how a woman might be tempted did not strike a cord with me that much.

But here is a part where she does sound like C.S. Lewis:

You asked which is better: to encourage your woman to start a fight with the husband about what he did, or to encourage her to ignore what he did and punish him with silence. The answer is—yes. Honestly, it’s little matter to me which she does, as long as her heart is cooled and hardened toward her husband and the Enemy. (p.17)

The concept of demons not caring which opposing choice a human takes, so long as it is wrong, is much like The Screwtape Letters.

Since this is an updated version, we find out the demons like smartphones. “Social media has made it possible for her to do something, to take concrete steps to pursue the fame she desires.” (p. 38) “And her husband’s eyes will never provide the inflation of regard she requires.” (p.39) Serious articles have been written on how too much smartphone use can erode relationships, but this captured it nicely.

The letter I found most interesting was “On Envying the Pastor’s Wife.” A new pastor comes to the woman’s church, and the pastor’s wife is kind, wise, and attractive. She is constantly invited to dinners. The other women of the church are paying attention to the pastor’s wife, not to the woman being tempted. Madame Hoaxrot finds this to be “Pure comedy.” (p. 133) The hope is that this woman will become envious. The ways that envy can become hatred were insightful.

Hoaxrot’s letters seesaw back and forth between the woman falling for a temptation, or completely avoiding it or even repenting. I suspect that despite my tepid reaction to it, many will find it interesting.

Dolly the Vampire Slayer—Reprise

Dolly Parton has been in the news a lot recently. In October, the State Department granted her the 2024 PEACE Through Music Award. Then in November, she was #1 in Billboard’s 100 Greatest County Artists of All Time.

This gives me enough reason to reprise my 2020 post, Dolly the Vampire Slayer.

________________________________

Or this could be called “Slay Belle.” So this is the convergence between Dolly Parton, country music star, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Dolly Parton rocketed to fame with her hit song “9 to 5,” which was the centerpiece of the 1980 movie of the same name. She became famous not only as a country singer, but as a symbol of what nowadays is called female empowerment.

Then there is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is the TV series that jumpstarted the subgenre knows as urban fantasy. Were there some urban fantasy novels before Buffy? Sure. But it was the Buffy series that made urban fantasy an overwhelming subgenre in novels, movies, and TV shows.

So how did that happen? It turns out Dolly Parton was an uncredited producer of the original movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That’s right. And Dolly’s company financed the TV series. It was Dolly Parton behind it all the time! 

 photo by Eva Rinaldi

But what if Dolly hadn’t done that? See my post What if Buffy had Never Been? to see how life as we know it would be different. Meanwhile, you can see every season opening for Buffy below, including the musical episode.

Then you’ll definitely want to see my post Buffy the Vinyl Slayer.

Magazine Reviews

These stories are from the November/December 2024 Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, and the November/December 2024 Analog magazine. If these are not still in your bookstores, you can order them from their publishers.

In Asimov’s, the cover story is “Murder on the Orion Express” by Peter Wood. It’s a catchy title, but other than the fact that it’s a mystery, it bears no resemblance to an Earthly train. It’s on a one-hundred-and-twenty-five-year trip to Orion, and it’s Ava Martin’s shift to be out of stasis as a ship cop. And it’s just her luck that a murder occurs on her watch. The ship is divided between two political parties, neither of which listens much to Ava. The leader of one party is missing. A recording shows the other leader killing him with a photon gun and shoving the body off the ship. But the other leader points out none of the photon guns have been removed from the armory in years. So what is going on?

Wood deftly goes from segments on the murder mystery to segments on the mutiny, thirty years before. The mutiny isn’t that important; Ava mainly has roommate problems. Her roommate purposefully stays out of stasis long enough to outrank her. This does not help when the roommate comes out of stasis again and tries to one-up Ava during the murder investigation. This story works well as a collision of different personalities.

I think the best story in Asimov’s is a much shorter one, “Deep Space has the Beat” by Mary Robinette Kowal (and yes, it’s another catchy title). This is a contemporary story, wherein Isolde, an engineering major, has opened a dance club. The title has to do with how all the wall screens show images of deep space. But someone is sabotaging her opening night by turning some of the wall screens into porn. And a big investor is going to show up in fifteen minutes.

Isolde has psoriasis on the back of her neck, which acts up during stress. She has to constantly fight the urge to scratch the itch, which turns into a crawling burn as she tries to figure out who is sabotaging her. This is a good story for people (like me) who don’t know what that condition is like, and for people who like the club scene.

In Analog, the best story is another mystery, “Mirrorstar” by Sean McMullen. The Mirrorstar is a massive space telescope, wider than the Earth. Only three dozen people are in the Habitat area. The main character is Dr. Connell, who is a doctor and had been a forensic pathologist, so he can serve as a detective if the need arises. It certainly does when one of the crew in a distant part of the telescope has her body temperature go down to minus one-twenty Celsius. This appears suspicious when a distant camera shows her to be naked. But then it turns weird when her body is shown to be covered in brown fur.

Things get even stranger in “Mirrorstar” before there is some resolution. I can’t say I find it completely satisfying. Also, there is the overall attitude that people still on Earth are somewhat barbaric compared to the people in the telescope. But McMullen has an interesting style, combining careful investigation with terse conversations with co-workers.

I Voted

 

Labors of Love: Megalopolis, The Apostle, Coriolanus

I have not seen Megalopolis. I know that a lot of people walked out on it, while some critics found some artistic merit. This is not a negative blog, so I will draw no conclusions about it. My point is that it is a labor of love.

Francis Ford Coppola spent decades working on this movie. Instead of a production company shouldering the cost, he reportedly sold part of his wine business to finance it. This is what makes a movie a labor of love: A man considers himself a visionary (women don’t tend to do this), he spends years working on a project, and he cannot convince people in the business to pony up the funds for it.

These labors of love usually don’t work. The visionary isn’t as great as he thinks he is. Years of work poured into a project doesn’t make it great. And there are usually good reasons why people in the business do not want to invest in it.

Having said that, I have seen two labors of love that have worked.

The older one is The Apostle. This was written by, directed by, and starred Robert Duvall. He had had a career high when he won an Oscar for Tender Mercies. He then had a good but ordinary career after that. Somewhere in there he was working for years on this labor of love. Producers turned him down because they said audiences didn’t want to see a movie about religion, so he had to use his own money.

He plays a holy roller preacher who is a raving egomaniac. No matter what he does, he considers himself a servant of God, though he admits he is a “womanizer” and commits a horrific act of violence. Farrah Fawcett gives a surprising turn as his wife, who wants a divorce. Contrary to what some people have said, this is not a story of redemption. He christens himself The Apostle and starts a new church.

Critics and audiences alike consider it a masterpiece. I was astonished by Duvall’s fearless acting. You really need to see Robert Duvall as a holy roller in the rural South.

The other triumphant labor of love that I have seen is Coriolanus. This was directed by and starred Ralph Fiennes. I believe he spent five years on this project. He didn’t pony up his own money, so I may be contradicting myself here. But he made the controversial decision to show the story in modern dress, using modern military equipment. I usually detest such things (there was one modernized version of Hamlet that I truly hated). But I was suitably impressed by this version of Coriolanus.

Purists will note that whole swaths of dialogue from the play were left out, as they decided to make a trim, taut story. His mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and his wife (Jessica Chastain) are turned into fierce women, which is fine by me. Warning: One character commits suicide, which was not in the play, and may be disturbing.

So choose a labor of love and see what you think.

Movie Review: Reagan

Reagan is a biography of Ronald Reagan, an actor who became a two-term governor of California and a two-term president of the United States. This is a more traditional sort of biography: There is no attempt to go smoothly from one major part of his life to another. Instead, it focuses in great detail on certain strategic moments. For instance, it completely skips his negotiating with Congress to pass massive tax cuts that made the economy prosper. But it focuses in surprising detail on the Reykjavik summit with the Soviets to reduce nuclear weapons, down to his wearing an ordinary suit despite the cold, to look more like a leader.

The movie wisely does not cover the fifty-three films he made. Instead, it focuses on his successful attempts to prevent Communists from taking over the Screen Actors Guild, a struggle that many of his fans are not aware of.

The theme of Reagan is his unfaltering opposition to Communism. He did what he could when he was governor of California, but it was when he became president that the movie compellingly shows his victory after victory.

Reagan was completed in 2021. Dennis Quaid, who has had quite the film career, had reached the level of gravitas by then to portray the president. There are uncanny scenes in the film when he sounds like Reagan, and he even looks like Reagan for a few moments. Penelope Ann Miller does a sprightly job of portraying his wife Nancy. For fans of Kevin Sorbo, he does a brief appearance as the minister of the Disciples of Christ church where Reagan was raised.

Some have accused this movie of hagiography. (The proper use of this term has to do with pious accounts of the lives of saints. In movies and literature, it is a highly critical term that means a biography that portrays the subject as someone who can do no wrong, and which leaves out any problems.) This is not true. Reagan spends a surprising amount of time on his making schlock commercials at the bottom of his acting career, so that he bitterly referred to himself as a “clown.” It also shows the Iran-Contra scandal, and Reagan finally admitting in a speech that his administration had indeed traded arms for hostages. And it does show the tragic nature of his Alzheimer’s, when he could not remember he had once been president.

This movie should be recommended to everyone who is too young to remember those years.

The funniest line in the movie occurs after Soviet Premier Brezhnev dies, followed in quick succession by Andropov and Chernenko. A frustrated Reagan slams down a phone and asks, “How can I establish communications with them when they keep dying on me?”

These were crucial and dangerous times, and the movie shows us Ronald Reagan’s role in them.

Best Book Report on The Great Gatsby

So many teachers are enthusiastic about their students using A.I. to write their book reports for them, I’ve decided to help out by supplying source material. Remember the garbagè in, garbagè out effect.

The Best High School Book Report on The Great Gatsby

(public domain)

Any book report on The Great Gatsby or its sequel, Tendonitis, must answer these key questions: 

1) When Jay Gatsby says Daisy’s voice sounds like money, is that a compliment?

John Steinbeck gives the best answer: “We can’t prove the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg symbolize God.”

2) Did Gatsby make his fortune by bootlegging during Prohibition?

Hemingway, as he rowed, chanted: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  

3a) When Gatsby demands that Daisy say she never loved her husband Tom, what does she answer?

George Orwell replied: When Scarlet O’Hara said “Fiddle-dee-dee,” she was not referring to the Scarlet A on her chest, but to The Red Badge of Courage.

3b) When Daisy strikes Myrtle with Gatsby’s car, is she trying to kill her, or just preserving her own life by not bothering to swerve enough?

Gilgamesh retorts: “Why does Nick Carraway have a bigger part than Jay Gatsby? Why does Faulkner think his mother is a fish?”

4) Why were the soccer leagues underwater in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?

Jane Eyre insists, “The harpooner was varsity, not JV.”

There we have it. The definitive high school book report on The Great Gatsby.

Characters in The Lord of the Flies

Editing

One of my manuscripts is Day 10K, a science fiction novel for adults with some humorous elements. On the advice of a couple of professional beta readers, I need to get people down from their spaceship to a colonized world faster.

The main problem was chapter 4. The entire chapter has good writing, but much of it was getting in the way. A difficult decision for a writer is not so much getting rid of bad writing, but getting rid of good writing.

So after taking out chunks, chapter 4 went from nineteen pages to nine pages. More work will be done on chapter 5, but the changes to chapter 4 were the largest.