Author Archives: Bob Evans

A Grave Mistake

The American Civil War settled the question of State vs. Federal supremacy and ended chattel slavery in in the United States by way of the 13th amendment. In full the 13th amendment reads:

 

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

 

Over all this amendment corrected a serious sinful crime committed by the United States. I do not have a long list of things I consider to be an objective evil but slavery is certainly at the top of it. The evils of the race based chattel slavery reverberate throughout our society today and there is much to be done in addressing the wrong of the past and of the present.

However I do feel that the amendment contains a grievous flaw in carve out clause;

…”, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…”.

Prisoners in the U.S. penitentiary system earn a paltry wage that ranges from 23 cents per hour to one dollar and fifteen cents per hour. Prisoner engaged in labor are not simply just working for the state, a number of corporations engaged prison labor to make products and provide services to the open market. In California prison labor is used in fighting wildfires and those prisoners earn between 2 and 2 dollars per day. (To make matters worse the skills these prisoners learn in firefighting have no applicability once they are released as they are barred from being hired by state fire crews.)

The injustice is compounded when for-profit prisoner enter into the mix. The labor markets are distorted by corporations owning and running prisons that are themselves a source of far below market prices for labor. Add in the deep pockets from the large corporations for political donations and lobbying and in my opinion the situation becomes deeply immoral.

This week prisoner across the United States had begun strikes protesting these unjust policies; they need our support.

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WorldCon Report: Wrap-up

My sweetie-wife and I have returned home and the 76th World Science-Fiction Convention has now passed into history. This was not the best Worldcon I have attended but neither was it the worst. On most days of the convention there are enough panels of interest to not only keep me going to morning until night but also to create conflict with wanting to be in several panels at once with the exception being the final day on the convention. In the morning I attended two panels, one very interesting one on bleeding and how to control it, and then my sweetie-wife and I departed the convention for a local attraction, a science and technology museum. (That was fun and cool but not as cool as the tech Museum in Chicago where we saw a full WWII German U-Boat.)

The convention did what I needed it to do, it let me spend time hanging with cool friends, revitalize my flagging spirits, acquire valuable tips and resources, and inspire creative ideas for further projects.

I saw almost nothing the ‘protests’ that occurred on Saturday and aside from the final day being thin on programing I had a lovely time.

I am now out of conventions until LosCon over Thanksgiving Weekend but I have one writer’s workshop in January paid for scoping out the Cascade Writer’s Workshop for next July.

Today and tomorrow are for relaxation and then back to the day job and pressing my nose back to the grindstone.

 

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WorldCon Report #3

From my perspective yesterday represented to busiest day of the worldcon. I do not know the final attendance number but the halls were packed and for most rooms finding a seat was challenging. That said the panels were interesting, the friends were numerous, and the energy was electric.

I had great day, perhaps the most entertaining panel was the ‘Late Bloomers and Old Veterans’ discussion that focused on the fact it is never too late to get started in the field as an author. Certainly that had resonance with me, but also the panelists, all friends, had a particularly good time and the room often pealed with laughter. My sweetie-wife and I took a break from panels in the middle the day to have a lunch with a dear friend. This was a pleasant respite from the hustle of the convention and it is always good to spend time with friends.

A panel I attended for sheer fun was Spy-Fi a talk about the intersection of spec fic and the spy thriller genres. It was lively and presented a number of perspectives including a Mexican author gave us the view from Mexico where spy fiction is popular but is often presented as against both international crime and government corruption.

We took it easy in the evening, skipping the awards ceremony, and after a leisurely dinner, my sweetie-wife and me retired to our room where we watched Youtube videos from the British show QI.

Today is the final day of the convention, things are winding down and tomorrow we return home.

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WorldCon Report #2

Yesterday was another good day at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention.  The most irritat8ing aspect of this year’s con is that the convention has done a terrible job of estimating which size room which events panels require. Over and over again the room are stuffed to capacity and beyond. It is good that there are numerous panels of interest and having an alternate is very advantageous.

I have run into old friend that I generally see only at panels, fellow writers, fans, and scientists. Two most useful panels for me yesterday were Idea to Story and primer on how to work one into the other and that sparked some fresh though I have for a story that was having trouble making the leap from concept to tale, and ‘Houston We have a Problem…” which about trouble in space and how your prepare and deal with it. One of the panelist in addition to being a fan was an astronaut who had served aboard the ISS and gave tiny facts about life in microgravity that were quite useful. (Such as that people when they first get into zero g move around in a ‘superman’ pose, but as they get more experienced they transition in an upright posture which seems odd but turns out to be efficient.

Least favorite thing was an evening film ‘Black Wave.’ The filmmakers tried to combine the zombie apocalypse story with a Lovecraftian elder god from the stars plot by way of a found footage approach. It was terrible. 90 percent of the run time was used for bland exposition and points were driven home again and again as though they did not expect the audience to remember what had happened just ten minutes earlier. Though to be fair those ten minutes felt more like an hour.

I am looking forward to another packed day at the convention.

TTFN

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WorldCon Report #1

I am on vacation at the 76th World Science Fiction Conventions, held this year in San Jose California. We arrived on Thursday, the first day of the convention, but luckily hours before the con actually started. One reason to booked early morning flights. Unfortunately, the only hotel I could book for the entire run of the con is half a mile from the convention center, so we get a lot of walking in each day. It looks like the average will be about 5 miles per day.

Now if you frame of reference in the San Diego ComicCon then you are off by an order of magnitude in the size of this convention. SDCC gets something like 150,000 people attending and the WorldCon this year is looking at around 6000. However that is a plus in my book. The smaller size makes for a more social environment and it is easier mingle with the program participants. SDCC is fun for a lot of people but it is not my cup of tea. (Though I did have a lovely cuppa with the talent Gail Carriger yesterday. The tea cured my headache, so score one for the Brits praise for their beverage.)

I have attended some great panels, the most informative one was on medical emergencies in space and the challenges for stopping bleeding or doing operations, and I have some great leads on writers’ workshop that may help me through this difficult period.

I will not be doing a daily post during the conventions but I will try to check in from time to time with a few thoughts.

Follow my Instagram and Facebook for photos and quick hits.

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Movie Review: The Meg

Saturday night I used one of my weekly A-List movie passes to go see the silly summer movie The Meg and I was not disappointed.

The Meg has a very straightforward storyline. Deep-sea research exploring a newly discovered area of the ocean, deeper than the Marianas Trench, finds an unknown ecosystem and accidentally allows a Megalodon to escape. The movie stars Jason Statham, a former specialist in deep sea rescue now drinking away his troubles on the beaches of Thailand, an outcast because of his insistence that something lurks at the bottom of the ocean and responsible for a rescue that went badly. When the deep-sea research station Mana One finds them with a submersible trapped on the ocean floor, Jason is called out of his drunken retirement to save the crew. He does, the Megalodon follows them to the surface and adventure ensues.

Despite the inherent impossibility of the premise The Megturned out to be a fun Saturday night movie.  Unlike my movie of Thursday night, Juarssic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Meg never took itself seriously; never insistent on a real world messaging that undercut the sense of fun, and stayed within its lane of adventure and excitement.  Avoiding the ‘tried to hard’ camp of movies like the Sharknado franchise this movie’s tone is much more akin to 1999’s The Mummy reboot. Park your brain outside, luxuriate in the air conditioning, and enjoy the spectacle.

One interesting side effect the film prompted in me was considering what it might have to say about the moment in global history. Not from the story, as I said it strenuously avoided having a message, but rather thinking about its international production.  The Meg is co-produced by a Chinese film studio and that is evident not only in the setting, with the nation’s mentions being China, Thailand, and Australia, but when there is talk about calling in the military to deal with the massive shark it is the Chinese navy that is mentioned and not the U.S.N. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was just one small data point in the curve of the US being replaced as the premier global power. It is a lot to read into a summer thriller and yet the thought will not leave my mind.

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Movie Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

I decided to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdombefore it vanished from theaters.

That was a mistake.

Spoilers ahead.

Hands down this was the worst of the Jurassic Parkfranchise. The movie fails at the script level and crumbles further from there. The story opens several years after the disastrous events of Jurassic World. A team has come to the island, now in ruins, to get a sample from the magical dinosaur from the last movie. Despite being on an island full of voracious always hungry carnivores characters character work alone in the dark and when in the water don’t even use simple ‘fish finders’, you know Hooper had one in Jaws so it’s not unheard of technology, to warn them of approaching massive wildlife. This level of character idiocy permeates the entire script from front to back.

The plot of the film is that the island containing the park is soon going to be destroyed by a volcanic eruption, killing all the dinosaurs. The U.S. government, despite having no sovereignty over an island near Costa Rica decides to do nothing and that means no one is going to do anything and even just going there is illegal. (Don’t think too hard about it; even the movie ignores this stupidity after mentioning it.) Luckily as Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is giving up on saving the animals, Lockwood, Hammond’s silent partner, so silent he was not even mentioned in any other film, is willing to fund a rescue out of pure and noble concern. (To quote Wash from Firefly“Curse your suddenly and inevitable betrayal.”) Claire is forced to reunite with Owen (Chris Pratt) from the last film, their Happily Ever After ending in Jurassic World having been derailed because he didn’t let her drive the van. Gathering up a couple of NPCs with vital and specialized skills, they fly to the island to rescue ‘Blue’, the super solider variant of velociraptor. A rescue op is already underway on the island but they needed Claire handprint to unlock the abandoned computers network and Owen to track Blue. Once this is achieved the rescue team is revealed as bad guys doing this to sell the dinosaurs to weapon and drug manufacturers. (Because in this world nothing is more evil than capitalism, weapons, and making pharmaceuticals. Remember the villainous corporate backed storm chasers in Twister?)  Leaving our heroes and one NPC on the island to die, the villains load up their ships with dinosaurs and the NPC veterinarian to save the wounded blue. Heroes being heroes they escape certain death and get surreptitiously stow away on the bad guy’s ship by jumping a full sized truck from the dock to the departing vessel. (I’m not joking, apparently no aboard noticed a several ton truck jumping into the well-deck.)

There was nothing about this movie to hold my attention. Throughout the run time I was bored and never engaged with plot, story, or character. Luckily I used one of my three free movies per week to see this so I was out no additional funds.

I fully expect The Meg to be better, make of that what you will.

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Classic Noir Review: D.O.A. (1949)

Recently I discovered that there are a few Roku channels showing public domain Film Noir movies. Many of the films made by smaller and independent productions fell into the public domain when the companies failed to file for a renewal of the copyright and one such movie was 1949’s D.O.A. The 1988 Remake starring Dennis Quad and Meg Ryan borrowed the central conceit of the film but invented its own plot and mystery.

1949’s D.O.A. centers on Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien) an account who is unwilling to commit, that is marry, is long time girlfriend and secretary Paula (Pamela Britton.) Frank scampers off to San Francisco without Paula for a hedonistic vacation. The fun transforms into fear when he discovers that he has been poisoned and has at most a few days to live. Utterly at a loss to understand who would do such a thing or why anyone wants him dead, Frank begins a desperate search for answers as his hours dwindle.

With a strong compelling premise D.O.A. should have been a better movie, and certainly I have better memories of the 1989 remakes than I do for the original production. While boasting a good cast with the talent Edmond O’Brien carrying the weight of the film, the execution of the movie is flawed and undercuts what could have been a true classic. The directions are not up to even journeyman standards. Scenes of composed of shot/reverse shot that center frames the subjects robbing the sequences of emotional heft and power. The soundtrack carries an unfortunate element when Frank arrives in San Francisco looking for female fun and has not yet been poisoned. Each time Frank gives a woman his up and down elevator stare the score lampshades the emotion is an intrusive slide-flute ‘wolf call.’ The unpleasant sound pulled me out of the film every time it played. Worse yet that terrible tone was utterly uncalled for, Edmond O’Brien fully convened his character lecherous leer with conviction that required no assistance from the soundtrack much less such a ham-handed one.

Aside from the intriguing concept D.O.A. also has good cinematography with several night shoots that were not day-for-night but shot at night on the city streets giving those scenes a reality that enhanced the Frank’s danger as he dodged criminals and assassins.

Over all I enjoyed watching D.O.A. but ultimately this represents a good candidate for being remade as the original contained enough flaws to warrant taking another bite at the apple. After all it took Hollywood three tries to The Maltese Falcon right.

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Relativism, The GOP, and Me

 

For most of my adult life the Republican Party has claimed the mantel of belong to the philosophical school of moral objectivism while accusing their political opponents of belonging relativists.  As a quick thumbnail sketch of the two points of a view a relativist would agree with the statement that right and wrong, good and evil, are products of culture and can only be judge within a culture, that one should never describe another culture’s practice are wrong or right as you would only be giving a judgment based upon your only cultural prejudices. Objective morality, which is quite distinct from Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, argues that right and wrong exist independent of culture and some thing trans all cultures as wrong. During the cold war this point of difference often came up when discussing the Soviet Union, it’s client states, and it’s aggressive push to spread its totalitarian system throughout the world. It is the basis for Ronald Reagan’s famous pronouncement of the USSR as ‘an evil empire.’ Sentiments I did and still do agree with. The political system of the Soviets and other communist nations created a system of de facto slavery yoking entire populations to the state.

Over the last 17 years the GOP, driven I believe by a belief that winning matters more than anything else and a power negative partisanship have abandoned their morality for whatever they believe will win. And not all of this can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump. Trump had nothing to do with the GOP embracing torture, but it certainly invited him and his ilk into the tent.

Winning has pushed aside all other considerations. This is best illustrated with the following photographs.

Copyright Jeff Widener AP

Given a choice between supporting the men who ordered the tanks into the square are the man who stood in their path, the GOP and its base has thrown their admiration for the man sympathetic to the butchers not the protesters.

copyright Jeremy Pelzer; Cleveland.com

Given the choice between our geopolitical opposition and our own people these men have proudly proclaimed their preference. Yes, these are just two men, but they felt comfortable enough to make the shirt and wear to a GOP event. Polling has shown that among the GOP as Trump has gained the presidency the rank and file member have grown in their admiration of strong man Vladimir Putin. A man who uses the resources of his state to manipulate our elections and does so with challenge from our President.

Is this worth it? Is your tax cut so valuable that you side with dictators and butchers? Is your fear of gun control so great that we must consort with such governments and men? Is that seat on the Supreme Court so valuable that the principals of self-rule and human rights must be abandoned?

What great crisis forces such drastic and damaging deals?

None, that I can see.

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The Schrödinger Trope

The following post has moderate spoilers for the film The Atomic Blonde starring Charlize Theron and Directed by David Leitch.

There are lots of tropes in writing and popular media but an interesting effect takes place when a character occupies several tropes at once. In Atomic Blonde Theron’s character Lorriane while on an undercover mission to East Berlin works with and has an affair with Delphine a French agent also working a mission in Berlin. Delphine, played by Sophia Boutella, is very inexperienced as an intelligence officer but her and Lorrain form a close sexual relationship. As the film moves from the second to the third act Delphine is killed.

Delphine and her death occupy possibly three different well-worn cinematic tropes.

The Junior Partner:

Often in spy and action movies the main character will receive vital assistance from a less experienced character with the protagonists acting as a mentor for the novice. Very often as the situation escalates and after the junior partner has obtained vital information for the plot and as the writers raise the stakes the story’s antagonists will kill the Junior Partner. Over the long run of the James Bond franchise he has left a trail littered with expendable Junior Partners.

Bury Your Gays

This one, in my opinion, divides into two major categories. During the period of the Motion Picture Production Code when gay and queer character could not be clearly identified as such, characters that were understood to be gay came to bad, usually, lethal ends as ‘punishment’ for the sinful lives. After The Code was abandoned and replaced with the Motion Picture Rating System the treatment of gay character changed from condemnation of the characters to condemnation of the society that ostracized them. Often the gay characters still came to bad and usually lethal endings but now it was meant as a tragic statement on their abuse at the hands of uncaring society. Either way gay characters came to repetitious, clichéd deaths.

Now It’s Personal

In action adventure movies the protagonist is often a reluctant one. He, and it is nearly always a he with this trope, wants to avoid the trouble of tackling the antagonist and simply wants to live his life. When this happens usually at the end of the first or second acts someone close to the protagonist will suffer terribly at the hands of the antagonist or their minions. Now with the stakes having become person the protagonist is motivated and propelled towards the conflict. (And too often sexual assault of the love interest in a common second act motivator.)

In Atomic Blonde Delphine’s death can clearly fit into the first two tropes. She serves as the junior partner to Lorraine, obtaining vital plot information, and then, no longer serving any real plot function she is dispatched to raise the stakes. As she and Lorraine became lovers over the course of the film, and Lorraine is clearly marked as bi-sexual by her relationship with male characters earlier in the film, Delphine certainly fits into the gay character doomed to death trope. The third trope applies less clearly as Lorriane is fully motivated throughout the film.

What I find curious is how a person’s personal filter colors their perception to tropes. Delphine fit cleanly into The Junior Partner and Bury Your Gays but people rarely mention both, it is nearly always one or the other and which trop they cite as the active trope, usually irritating them for it presence, is nearly entirely a function of their lived life. This better than almost anything else typifies by often repeated comment that ‘no honest critique can be wrong.’ Art is an alchemical reaction between artist intent, random circumstance, and each person in the audience own lived life; that is what makes art so magical and transcendent.

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