And shiny black ravens on chimney smoke lanes
It’s November, which means we just had an election. The only thing I’m going to say about that here is this: If your reaction the Democrats bungling yet another election was to scream for mass deportation, advocate flattening Gaza(which only reveals your ignorance of what’s happened in Palestine already), or wish for women who didn’t vote for Harris to bleed out in a parking lot because they can’t get an abortion, you can leave now. You are not welcome here.
The “What Am I Working On/Things You Can Buy?” portion of the newsletter will be brief this time, because I’m basically still working on the same things I was working on last time. The Million-Colored Sun adventure will be coming soon and next month I’ll be writing at least 10,000 words on World Anvil for WorldEmber, but this month I’m mostly working on longer-term projects.
Recent Reading
Mark Twain’s Autobiography, 1910-2010 by Michael Kupperman—This novel/graphic novel combo is a good idea in theory and has some entertaining scenes, but doesn’t quite work because Kupperman either put very little work into trying to write like Twain or is terrible at literary mimicry.
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury—This book has been in my wishlist since comic artist and Margarita enthusiast Cullen Bunn recommended it on Patreon several years ago. While I don’t think Bradbury’s approach would work really well for me, it was still helpful to read his explanation of how he does it.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain—The Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn books were among the first novels I read when the grade school librarian let me check out books from the “big kids” section. I’ve read both of them at least once since then, and the failure of the Kupperman book got me in the mood for the real thing. I chose Huck Finn, then realized I didn’t actually own a copy. Since I expected Harris to win the election, this was a cause for minor panic—the Left has already “deplatformed” at least one book it didn’t agree with, and Twain has always been a prime target for book banners due his complete failure to predict which words would be taboo in 100 years. I ended up finding a compilation that included both Tom and Huck, and I just finished the first book today. It holds up.
Recently Watched
On the TV front, I’m still on Vikings and about halfway through Sprung (more Greg Garcia research for my likely Zine Month project).
Terrifier is a throwback to low-budget 80s Slasher movies that’s at least in the same neighborhood as Ti West. I enjoyed it, but it’s full of gory scenes with gruesome practical effects, so probably not for everyone.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage Since the first Venom movie was better than I expected, I gave the second one a try. It was also pretty good.
Blue Ruin I read an article about Jeremy Saulnier several years ago and put a bunch of his movies on my wishlist on various streaming platforms, but this is the first one I’ve actually gotten around to watching. I liked it enough that I’ll probably watch more. It’s a revenge movie, but the protagonist constantly suffers the kind of mundane setbacks that you don’t usually see as plot points in a revenge movie.
Studio 666 is a movie about the Foo Fighters trying to make an album in a haunted house. You either want to see it based on that description or you don’t.
The People Vs. Larry Flynt I’ve seen this movie dozens of times, but it popped up last night when I was looking for something to watch and I watched it again.
That’s all I’ve got for now. See you next time.
TYTYVM,
Steve
©2024, Steve Johnson