#24 News, Dunkirk, and Talented Monsters
Hello. And welcome to the 24th issue of my newsletter, Notes From Table 30. I’m Jack Cameron, but you know that. Some of you asked if this newsletter is still a thing. It is. But it appears that under my current workload I can only get these things out about once a month. And this one wasn’t easy.
What I’m Up To
Since last issue, I’ve started teaching a class as part of my MFA in Creative Writing Program. It’s a class focusing on outlining large projects. It’s all online. I have eleven students. Some are writing novels. Some are writing screenplays. Some are putting together campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons. Many of them are more talented than I am, but I’m sharing my knowledge and love of outlining with them and they seem to be getting a lot out of it as am I.
Because the class is virtual I ended up getting a subscription to the video conferencing program, Zoom. This means that I can have unlimited virtual gatherings and I’d like to get my money’s worth out of it. So I’ve decided to start hosting weekly gatherings. I would love if you (yes, YOU), joined me sometime.
If you’re interested in talking to me in what passes for face to face in 2020, let me know what days and times work best for you.
In other news, my short story, Best Friend Material, has been accepted by Goddard College’s literary journal, The Pitkin Review. I’m genuinely excited about this because it means that I managed to get the phrase ‘death fart’ into a literary journal.
I also had the pleasure of editing a few pieces for Creative Colloquy’s seventh printed volume of fiction, poetry, and prose. There are a handful of items that are real gems.
Lastly, I’ve been slowly but surely catching up on writing about what will be another record year of homicides on my website, TacomaStories.com. If it weren’t for the email I get from family and friends of victims, I would quit this little endeavor. It’s soul crushing work in a year that seems hellbent on crushing our souls regardless.
And now for something completely different.
What I’m Watching
The latest Christopher Nolan movie available to watch at home is Dunkirk. After taking us literally to the other end of space in Interstellar, Nolan follows that up with a movie based on a historical event, the evacuation of Dunkirk by British and French soldiers. But this is Christopher Nolan so he chose not to tell the story linearly. Instead, he has created what are essentially three interconnected movies that we watch all at the same time. The first takes place over one week and involves one particular soldier trying to get off the beach at Dunkirk before Nazi troops show up and kill everyone. The second takes place over one day and involves one particular civilian boat as it makes its way to Dunkirk and back. The third takes place over an hour and follows one particular British fighter pilot.
There is a level of craftsmanship at work in Dunkirk that is difficult to ignore. Nolan evokes tension from every moment. The interconnectedness of the stories is flawless with repeat viewings giving careful viewers rewards in the forms of little nods of continuity. As always, Nolan insists on practical effects whenever possible and by doing so it requires the special effects teams to match that level of realism.
Nolan actually filmed on the beach where the evacuation took place. He even used some boats that participated in the real evacuation. It may be difficult for us to fully understand here in the twenty-first century, but if those 400,000 British and French troops had been killed by the Germans rather than rescued by dozens of boats, the outcome of World War II might have been very different. In many ways the story of Dunkirk is the story of one of the most heroic defeats of all time.
Dunkirk is full of great performances, Tom Hardy spends almost the entire movie in his fighter plane with a mask on and yet manages connect with the audience because he’s just that good. Mark Rylance is someone who is naturally authentic. I believe he’s this local fisherman just like I believed he was a Russian spy in Bridge of Spies or a big friendly giant in The BFG. Many of the central roles are played by young unknowns which helps add to the realism. These aren’t thirty-year-old actors pretending to be eighteen years old. These are teenagers reacting to Nolan’s real explosions on the beach.
Dunkirk is a masterclass in filmmaking by one of the greatest directors alive today. His relentless quest for authenticity coupled with his exploration of time and perception have resulted in some of the most compelling films so far this century. I’m looking forward to seeing Nolan’s latest movie, Tenet, but that’s not likely to happen any time soon. I haven’t decided what filmmaker I want to focus on next.
What I’m Thinking About
Years ago I wrote and self-published my first book, Ruin Your Life. The subject matter in that book was so irreverent that I felt an unknown author didn’t stand a chance of getting that manuscript published by traditional means. For a self-published book, it was a modest success. Most book stores won’t carry self-published books even now, when self-publishing has lost a lot of its reputation. Back then, at first, I couldn’t find anyone interested. But then, I was invited to be one of a handful of local creators to do a book signing at my local comic book shop, Comic Book Ink. This shop was run by a man named John Munn.
I first met John when I was a teenager. He was a few years older than me and ran with some of the same theater people I ran with. Both of us had our first marriages at Tacoma Little Theater. Both of us got divorced not that long after. Both of us joined some others and drank heavily on Karaoke Night at the local El Toro’s. I rarely got up to sing. He’d sing Hotel California every week.
After the book signing, I thanked him for letting me, a lowly self-published author with no real credits to my name, join these other more established fellows. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “You belong.” At the time, that meant the world to me. It was something I would think of years later with fondness.
When Comic Book Ink fell on hard times, I wrote about it on social media and wrote about him for my Tacoma Stories page. I did everything I could to help him save his store. When he finally closed his doors, I went there on one of the last days and gave him a copy of one of my unpublished novels.
In recent years, we haven’t talked much. After Comic Book Ink, John took over managing duties of Lakewood Playhouse. I saw a couple of shows there, but even local theater tickets were often outside of my budget and I wasn’t one to take advantage of a friendship and ask for comps. When I did see him, he was always charming and kind.
This past summer he abruptly resigned from Lakewood Playhouse. I asked around. Rumor had it that it was due to some accusation of sexual harassment or maybe even sexual assault from well over a decade ago. I had trouble believing it. And to be honest, I desperately did not want to believe it. I reached out to John and asked him about it. His denial reassured me though I knew how rare it was that victims made up such accusations. I told him that I was still his friend.
Months went by. Then a couple of weeks ago an article appeared online in a local paper. It wasn’t one victim from years ago. I was multiple victims from years ago and all the way up to this summer. There were text messages. There were witnesses. There was corroboration. Worse, the stories of the handful of victims who came forward were eerily similar. He’d invite them over, get them drunk, ask sexually inappropriate things, and go from there. Most of these individuals were decades younger than him and worked on plays he was producing. My heart broke.
I’m not good at much. I have a talent for writing. I’m a good father. I have a knowledge of comics and movies to rival most anyone not in the industry. And I’m a good and loyal friend. I don’t cut friends off lightly. When my friends fuck up in big, public ways, I want more than anything to be there for them. But I’ve also been there for friends who were victims of people just like John Munn.
So as much as I wanted to be there for my friend, I could not help but think of his victims. I could not help but think that supporting him would be denying them. I could not help but think that it was the fact that he is such a kind and charming man that he was allowed to behave like this for so long and not be stopped so he could get the help he so clearly needs and stop the victimizing of these young women. And I couldn’t help but think that any failure of friendship was not on my part. It was on his.
Because the truth is that he lied to me and he hid who he really was from so many of us. We weren’t his friends. We were his cover.
For years I’ve been thinking and researching and talking and just wondering what we as a society should do with talented monsters. I’ve been a fan of Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Woody Allen, and others who, it turned out were talented monsters. Now that it’s someone I know personally, I still don’t know. John has a wife and two kids. He’s lost his job. He’s not likely to get another one in theater. That article hasn’t gotten much play because it’s behind a paywall. This isn’t. It’s not lost on me that there is the possibility that my writing about it may actually make things worse for my former friend. Unfortunately for him, this is how I process things I have a hard time processing. I write about it. And again, I wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for his actions.
Shortly after the article came out, I posted it on my Facebook page. And then I heard from a couple of acquaintances not mentioned in the article who, it turns out, were also victims of him. They thanked me for saying something. I feel some complicity in failing to see John for the danger he was. He was someone I vouched for in the past. I don’t think writing this absolved me of any of that. I don’t think it works that way. I don’t know how it works.
I don’t know what, if anything, happens to John next. The local police say that the statute of limitations has expired on the cases they have evidence for and the more recent allegations lack enough evidence to make a solid case. In some instances what he did was simply immoral and not illegal. I know that what I want is for his victims to have all the support and help they want.
And I still want good things for John because I’m someone who believes in harm reduction and personal redemption. But that requires him to admit what he’s done, face his demons, and find ways to make amends. I hope he can get help with that and become the person so many of us thought he was. But until then, I have lost another friend.
- Jack