Author Archives: Bob Evans

It’s Not Just the Person in Charge

I have finished watching the 10 episode documentary Hitler’s Circle of Evil and it was truly a fascinating journey. So interesting in fact that I look forward to seeing every episode again as I re-watch them with friends equally interested in history.

One of the aspects of the entire Nazi Germany history that this series had laid out in a clear manner is how important the people surrounding Hitler were to what happened.

From the very start of the movement through its transformation into a personality cult and onwards into a juggernaut of evil it was more than the hateful evil fuck Hitler responsible. Throughout the process he was surrounded by people who performed critical roles that shaped the ideology, energized the members, and brought the murderous cult to power.

What truly jumped out at me was how few of the people that held these powerful positions had any real competence or qualifications for their posts. To the man each chased individual ambitions, some petty and prosaic such as Goring’s looting of artistic treasures for his homes while others pursued their conspiratorial feats into mass murder. What not one of these men seemed to possess was a sense to duty to the country. Oh, they all professed a great love for their country, but their actions time and time again demonstrated their base, selfish, and evil objectives.

The fish rots from the head and Hitler was the center of the corruption. The inner circle was one of his own making and one that reflected his twisted views and hate filled perspective. For the members of the inner circle power flowed from their direct and personal relationship to Hitler, as those relationships waxed and waned so did their influence. I find it curious that these vicious, scheming, and treacherous men who moved so confidently against one another were simultaneously craven ‘yes men’ unable to tell their adored and feared leader ‘no.’

It is that relationship, cruel men who cower and bootlick; paying the source of their power for false flattery that fascinates me. It is the system that provided a platform for genocide and wars of aggression not simply the product of one madman’s maniacal delusion. Had there been strong institutions staffed by people not driven by personal, petty, purposes the entire Nazi government would have been impossible. Of course the Weimer Republic never had the chance to develop those deep institutional cultures and in the collapse of the German Empire the vacuum was filled with men and parties intent on power and money.

As a writer of fiction and a student of history the lesson that it is never just one man is a terribly important one. When I create worlds for my stories or when I look at governments around the world it will be important to keep it mind it is never just one person it equally vital to know who they surround themselves with, who is in their inner circle.

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Sympathy for the Devil

I have seen a few articles recently expressing how the villain of Marvel’s Black Panther is truly not a villain but a victim. These articles often call for Eric ‘Killmonger’ to be regarded with sympathy or even argue that the character may be justified in his objectives and methods.

(Minor spoilers for Black Panther will follow.)

I think in part this point of view is easier to arrive at if you are starting from a life history that echoes may of the ones that Killmonger experienced. (That is not to say you share the regal blood history but rather the one of prejudice and abandonment.) Over all having some sympathy for the antagonist is not a bad thing. An antagonist with a complex and compelling backstory is often relatable leading to a richer enjoyment of any narrative and often illuminating aspect of the human condition. There are also time when a less nuanced villain is required, when the character presenting the threat is more like an invincible force that a person with flaws and motivations. Killmonger is clearly deeply drawn character with very understandable motivations.

The fact that his motivations are understandable is not the same as saying that they are excusable. It is possible to understand with condoning and in fact that difficult balance is critical both as someone experiencing the world and as someone creating a fictional one.

Among the many non-fiction books I have read there have been several on the subject of serial killers. The history, study, and nature of serial killers is something I find fascinating and a subject that is often portrayed quite poorly in cinema. Serial killers do not simply wake up one day and start killing without ‘reason.’ (Reason here is a very loose term because what is compelling to them is often incomprehensible to those removed from their history.)

As the character, and monster Hannibal, said in The Silence of the Lambs, ‘Billy was not born a monster, but made one through years of systematic abuse.’ Is this not exactly the case with Eric Killmonger? Where Buffalo Bill’s abuse was heaped upon him by people close to him, and if you read about actual serial killers there is always a pattern of deep and prolonged abuse in their formative years, Killmonger literally was abused by the systems around him, both American and Wakandan.

I find Killmonger’s motivation fully understandable and I have sympathy for the character, but we must not confuse sympathy with excuse. Murder to sate a psychological wound is not admirable, not when performed serial killers, abused villains like Killmonger, and justifiably terrified ones like Magneto in the X-Men franchise. This to me is one of the defining difference between a hero and a villain; chasing their objectives a hero has lines that they will not cross while the villain is willing to make anyone suffer, no horror is too great, and their ends justify all means.

Killmonger was not wrong in the evils he saw in the world, but he was too blind to see that he himself had become that same evil. The character may not have understood the historical significance of one of his lines but the writer/director Ryan Coogler certainly understood the British Imperial echoes of ‘The sun will never set on the Wakandan Empire.’

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The Austin Bombings Appear to be Over

Over the past month Austin Texas has been subject to six bombings, killing and injuring several people. This morning news is reporting that the man responsible has died in an explosion as law enforcement closed in on him.

People in the area are warned to remain vigilant as the last couple of bombs had been sent via delivery companies and it is unknown if there are bombs currently in transit. The investigation is still on going and at this time there is no discernable motive.

Whenever these sort of random murders occur there is usually talk of mental illness but that is a conversation that starts in error and only progresses to greater and greater failures.

It is an understandable error. After all for most people conceiving the motive to lash out and kill strangers is incomprehensible and when we run into an incomprehensible act most people’s first impulse if to label the perpetrators as ‘mad.’

However they are not usually suffering from a mental illness, at least as defined by the current standard of the profession.

Motive is usually there but its incomprehensibility is usually a factor of the acts being several stages removed from the reasons. Like the mass shootings ultimately I think these things are reflections of a societal issues and how some individuals are finding it impossible to cope with our rapidly changing society.

That is not to say we should stop the changes in our society, even if such a thing were in out power. Standing athwart history and shouting stop doesn’t halt history it only gets you run over by it.

We may never understand the why and we do need to come to term with the limits of our understanding.

 

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Waiting on UPS

So more than ten years ago one of my favorite purchases was a region free DVD player. As you are probably aware DVDs are generally coded to play only in certain regions, this is so the rights for publication can be managed worldwide, but it does lead to the issue where thing you really really want to watch are not available in your region. My sweetie-wife is an anglophile and so buying a player that could playback DVD from around the world was a plus.

Over the last few years the region free player has been slowly failing. Sometime not playing, sometime playing but with the colors shifted. Thing came to a head when I purchased my new television. The new set has no component connections and attempting to connect the region free DVD player through other methods has failed.

This past weekend I researched and ordered a new region free player, but this time it is a capable of Blu-rays as well as DVDs. After all if you’re going to buy a new product, buy one that’s going to do more and last.

I have also already ordered my first international Blu-Ray, Quatermass and the Pit, one of my favorite SF films and not available in the US on Blu-ray. The disc should arrive today, sadly the player, coming by UPS ground, is scheduled for Saturday.

Oh well, I think I know my Sunday Night movie feature this week.

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Further Thoughts on Mass Shootings

This will not go too deeply into the weeds but I wanted to commit to a post a least a surface level analysis of what I have been thinking.

A basic assumption I am working with is that the mass shootings are a sociological phenomena reflecting a deeper and more troubling issues with how come people, primarily young males, are unable to cope with a culture that is changing. Going forward I see four major paths that can be taken.

 

1) Resolve the root cause, sociologically, that is producing people so hurt, so angry, that they lash out to kill indiscriminately often at the cost of their own lives.

2) Remove the implements by which they commit these acts.

3) Remove access to these implements by those likely to commit these acts.

4) Do nothing.

 

Route 1

In my opinion this is the best course but may simply be impossible. We may not have enough knowledge and skill to identify and repair the maladjustment. In addition there are an unknown number of persons for whom the damage has already been done and simply have yet to act upon this reasonless hate and anger.

 

Route 2

There are several problems with this course. The principal ones being that at heart prohibition is about punishing everyone for the misdeeds of a few. What are the criminal penalties for owning the banned items? How aggressively are these prohibitions enforced? If you are enforcing them then the millions that already in circulation remain, illegally, with in the population and undoubtedly some will find their way into the wrong hands. If you push to hunt down all of the banned items, then that requires a massive escalation of policing powers and activity and we already have serious issue with police powers. Some will point to countries like Australia but Americans are not Aussies and our population has already shown a rebellious streak when it comes to enforced prohibition. With million in circulation even discounting the afore mentioned issues more mass murder will occur as some will slip through the system.

 

Route 3

Again we run into practical application issues. To be as through as possible would require a massive amount of data on every person be at the government’s fingertips. This would probably best be achieved through a strong form of government ID, which would have all sorts of benefits beyond this issue, but used to track people’s purchases within the regulated sphere. This could be cross-referenced with now indicators, such as violence, spousal abuse, and psychological aberrations to deny access to these implements. The system would not work perfectly. There are those who would be false positives, denied access when they are no threat and there will be those who are not identified before their mass murder.

 

Route 4

This is the one we are following now. We do nothing of substance and the murders continue. There are some who feel ‘optimistic’ that nothing is the best course and that access to firearms will because easier over time. I do not agree. I feel, but cannot prove, that eventually there will come a breaking point and then something will happen.

 

There are no magic spells that will prevent these terrible murders. We are deep into a sociological sickness but that does not mean there is nothing we can do to lessen the trouble. What is important is that no matter what course you think is best remember that it is a first step not a solution and you must always ask, ‘what happens next?’ If you pass a law you must enforce it that means police must investigate, courts must prosecute, and prisons must be filled. And that’s for those who have not yet committed mass murder. There is no easy cost free solution to the troubles. If you want to ban thing, then you will have to chase down those items, enforce the ban, and punished those who refuse to obey. If you restrict access you have to track people, define the conditions that make them prohibited, and understand this will inflict upon the guilty and the innocent.

In both cases no process will be perfect and these terrible events will continue, but perhaps not as often.

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I’m Going to Hate the Kessel Run

In 1977 I was sixteen, already a print and media science-fiction fan, when, along with everyone else, my horizons were suddenly exploded outward with the release of Star Wars. That film helped launch the modern blocker buster and spawned a franchise that continues to dominate the box office to the current day. Later this year one of the spin-off movies we’ll get is Solo, the story of a young Han Solo and I expected, in fact I will be shocked if we do not, we’ll be treated to a cinematic rendering of the ‘Kessel Run.’

Back when Star Wars was first released there was no Internet, no home video, and information about the movie’s production could only be glimmered in interviews, publicity materials, and tie-in books. One of the fascinating bits I remember reading was the on stage story of how cast members repeatedly information George Lucas referring to Solos; now famous boasting that parsecs were a measure of distance and not time. In these stories Lucas always responded that he was well aware of that fact.

If you watch the scene I think it is quite clear what is going on. Solo thinks he has a couple of dirt farmer ignorant about space and he’s trying the BS them about how good his ship really is. He does not expect them to know what a parsec is. Obi-Wan’s face during the negation give it all away, he’s not buying that load of crap but he needs this passage and is not calling out Solo on his tall tales. It’s actually a wonderful bit of character as well as advancing the plot forward.

Somewhere fans decided that Solo must be telling a truth not BS and they began construct elaborate fan theories about what the ‘Kessel Run’ was and how Solo flew it in under a dozen parsecs. The delightful character moment has now been transformed into a piece of bad pseudo-science double talk and Obi Wan’s reaction ignored into insignificance.

I am certain that Disney/Lucas Film will make the ‘Kessel Run’ reality closing forever the original interpretation of that class and memorable scene. I plan to see Solo, I may even love the movie, but I will hate the Kessel Run.

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The Frankenstein Chronicles

My sweetie-wife and I have started watching a new Netflix series The Frankenstein Chronicles. Set in London 1827 the show is about a detective, John Marlott, played by Sean Bean we’ll see how long he lives in this show, as he investigates a series of bizarre strange occurrences. Given the title it is no spoiler or surprise that the inciting incident is when working a river smuggling case Marlott discovers a corpse of a small child that is actually composed of several different children. So far the trail has lead him to noted poet William Blake and author Mary Shelly. We are only a couple of episodes into the series but I am already impressed with the level of historical accuracy, a pleasant change from Penny Dreadful. It is always a pleasant turn when I investigate something in a historical piece that I think the authors may have gotten wrong and instead I come away with new knowledge.

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Watch Out for Prologues

One of the common pieces of advices heard around writing group and seminars is don’t writer prologues.

Prologues are short bits of narrative places before the opening scenes of the novel and there is great debate about their utility. In my opinion there are time when a prologue is required if you want the reader to fully understand the nature of your piece. Like SF Author Nancy Kress I think there is an implicit promise made to the reader at the start of any story and if you violate that promise you are likely to have an upset reader. The prologue can help ensure that the tone and expectations of the piece are well established before the meat of the plot has begun to unfold.

Think about the book, and even the television series, A Game of Thrones. Both start with a prologue where we follow a small band of ranger north of the wall encountering the first stirrings of the army of the dead. Except for the execution scene in chapter one we do not see these characters again. They play no major part in the plot and have no deep familial connections to any of the main characters, but this prologue is essential. Without that prologue we would not know that this is a world of magic and zombies. We are well aware of the danger that so many characters will spend so much time dismissing.

Too often this is not how writers try to use a prologue, but rather they often take a short cut into one of two broad uses.

World-Building;

The prologue will try to lay out too much of the history of the world, to give too much context for the viewer or reader and in the end bore them with a history lesson without emotional meaning. This is very tempting and it should be avoided. The real craft of world-building is laying the foundations just before you actually need them. Sprinkle them throughout the work in pieces to fall into place as the narrative unfolds both enlightening the reader and explaining the world but without stopping to lecture. This is is very difficult to do and so many people try to take a short cut and dump this stuff in the most critical place in the book, the beginning.

A Fake Action Opening:

Attempting to follow the advice to always open with action, writers will craft a battle oriented prologue, something composed action, daring, and high stakes, but all too often that is followed by a lack luster first chapter. Many times this will be the inverse of the World-Building prologue because the first chapter will be extensive world-building and the author has hoped that the prologue and its action will carry the reader through the tedious establishment and info-dumps of a poor first chapter.

In both of these case the prologue is a bandage on the more serious issue, either a lack luster opening or less than stellar world-building. The answer is not a prologue but fixing the root cause of the trouble.

There are good causes for prologue but make sure yours is not trying to fix a more fundamental trouble.

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No, Mr. Shapiro, Get Out is not racist

Recently a friend commented that he agreed with the conservative Youtube pundit Ben Shapiro that the film Get Out was racist. I had not heard Shapiro’s arguments and did not voice my disagreement. Now I have listened to Shapiro’s comments and I find them way off the mark and the error springs from mistaking a personal interpretation as authorial intent. Before I get into Shapiro’s comments I want to use a couple of well know films to illustrate what I mean by personal interpretation versus authorial intent.

1986’s Robocop is an amazing film, in many ways an early modern superhero movie, albeit one that gory, violent, and earned its R rating from the MPAA. In a scene where the audience is getting exposition about the character Robocop it is explained that he eats a rudimentary past to support his remaining biological systems. Johnson, one of the executive behind the project that turned a dead cop into a company owned cyborg, dips his finger into the paste, tastes it and pronounces it ‘baby food.’ His boss Jones, advises Johnson to ‘knock himself out.’ When I watched this scene in the theater I though it was clear symbolism that these men manipulating with lives were in fact children playing with th9ings that they did not understand. Later in the film when Robocop is recalibrating his targeting system and uses jars of baby food that his partner Ann Lewis had brought as target again I assumed the symbolism was clear, he would destroy the company that did this to him. Years later with the DVD I learned that the director had meant nothing of the sort. Paul Verhoeven revealed no underlying symbolism to the first scene and in the second the jars of baby food symbolized the children Lewis and Robocop could never have. Since there are no romantic elements in their relationship that intent took me by surprise.

My second example come from 1994’s The Lion King. A wonderful movie of old school cell animation The Lion King is about a lion cub, Simba that must overthrow his Uncle Scar who had usurped the throne. When Scar is assembling his plan and his minions, a pack of hyenas, to plot the murder of the King and his son, he sings a delightful song Be Prepared. In this fantasy world, unlike real life ecology where lions often steal hyena kills, hyenas are scavengers living off the scraps left over by the lions. Scar gets their loyalty by promising that they, the hyenas, will never go hungry again. When he overthrows the ‘natural order’ and makes himself king, he brings in the hyenas and the entire system collapses, plunging the kingdom into ruin and starvation for all until Simba defeats Scar and restores the balance, the circle of life.

Instantly it flashed to me that on interpretation, and this time not one I thought for a moment the producers intended, was that by bringing in the non-producers, the takers, Scar had overtaxed the makers and destroyed the economy. In effect this entire film could be taken as a subtle attack on liberalism and social safety nets. Hardly the sort of political message I would have expected and perhaps the reason the rumors are that the live action version will omit the song Be Prepared.

With those examples in place let’s return Get Out and Shapiro’s interpretation.

In Shapiro’s view the movie is about ‘black people who associate with white people eventually are drawn into white lifestyles and they become stereotypical white people.’

I have no doubt that this is Shapiro’s actual interpretation of the movie’s themes, but that is not the same as authorial intent. Just as with my take on the baby food in Robocop, Shapiro’s take is his own and not own that has been voiced by the film’s writer/director. Shapiro offers no support for this view that Get Out is ‘supremely racist’ than his own interpretation of the movie. An interpretation not supported by any textual analysis of the script or film. In the words of Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer ‘a radical reinterpretation of the text.’ I have heard, read, and seen many interviews with Jordan Peeleā€™s, Get Out’s creator and nothing the man has said lends any credence to Shapiro’s view. Just as Verhoeven’s intent is starkly different than my take, Peele’s intended message and theme is very much at odds with Shapiro’s views. I find it interesting that in those four minutes where Shapiro talk about the movie he emphasizes how funny the film is without ever touching on the fact that Get Out is a horror film. Yes, there is humor but the driving tone is one of dread, danger, and doom. It is fascinating that aspect of the movie seemingly has slipped Shapiro’s notice.

At meetings of my writers’ group I often comment that no honest critique can be wrong and for Mr. Shapiro I guess the movie is racist, but this speaks less about Jordan Peeleā€™s and his script than it does about the lens though which Shapiro viewed the material.

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New Television Series Discovery

This has been a rough cold and flu season for me. Last week I contracted another cold, Friday I was feeling poorly, Saturday was pretty bad and I sent friends home early at the end of Board and Card Game Night, and Sunday I barely made it out to the Noir on the Boulevard screening of This Gun For Hire. (A very enjoyable early noir and worth seeing on a big screen.) Today I woke still feeling pretty bad off and stayed home from work.

As I gagged on postnasal drip I watched Youtube videos and took in a new documentary series on Netflix, Hitler’s Circle of Evil. It’s a ten part series that focuses on the men closest top Adolf Hitler and the parts they played in the rise of one of the world’s most murderous regimes.

What makes this series particularly fascinating is the focus on the men who supported Hitler. We have heard endless examinations of Hitler’s life, his decisions making processes, and so on, but for the rest of that ruling clique we generally are only given glimpses of the others and then only in their relationship to the dictator. In this series each man is followed along his history from his origins into the halls of power and their eventual downfall. While they all served and followed Hitler, each retained their own motivations, goals and methods all of which repeatedly brought them into conflict with one another. It is very instructive to study this sort of history. They were all NAZIs, they were all anti-Semitic, but they were all very different in personality, powerbase, and outcomes.

For those who write fiction, particularly if you have ‘evil empires’ as part of your world-building, this series is must watch research. If can help you flesh out a cardboard evil empire into a realistic and terrible construction.

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