[A Pleasurable Headache] The first page is a promise
I seemed to gain a handful of new subscribers last week. I have no idea where they came from, but welcome! As the copy says, it's mostly links!
Shall we?
Links
Shop Talk: Jordan Harper Pulls Down the Blinds, Turns Up the Heat, and Writes Novels on Hotel Stationery
https://crimereads.com/shop-talk-jordan-harper-novels/
This interview with crime novelist Jordan Harper is almost a year old but I recently dug into it for reasons that will become clearer. The interview is quite process-centric so click away if you're into that kind of thing. Harper is a writer who has written in quite a few different disciplines, so it's always interesting to see how the lessons from each carry over.
I was listening to a podcast a week or so back where the fantastically talented S.A Cosby was a guest (go and read Blacktop Wasteland right this second). Towards the end of the interview he recommended Jordan Harper's newsletter, Welcome to the Hammer Party.
I'm seconding that recommendation here. Each edition of Harper's newsletter (so far at least) has concentrated on various aspects of writing. What sets Harper's musings apart, to me, is that he talks much more about the philosophical aspects underpinning the act of writing than the process itself. It's fascinating to read and I devoured all of the back issues in one sitting.
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Writing Advice From A Slush Reader
https://www.evelynfreeling.com/blog/writing-advice-from-a-slush-reader
Sticking with writing, this post from Evelyn Freeling does exactly what it says on the tin. It contains a plethora of useful advice for short story writers and writers in general. It also includes a reference to the prose version of comics' 'opening contract':
"The first page is a promise. In stories where the promise is failed, it’s most commonly because the story starts out about one thing and becomes about an entirely different thing by the end. For example, the story opens with someone mysteriously dead. In this case, the reader assumes the story will somehow reveal how that person died. In these kinds of stories, however, the plot takes hard left turns. For example, the protagonist becomes a vampire, but their becoming a vampire in no way reveals why the person from the first page died. Was the dead person drained by a vampire? Are they even dead or are they actually members of the undead as well? If the dead person doesn’t matter, why were they on the first page? Readers are left with too many questions and the story’s end doesn’t land with the necessary satisfaction or emotional impact."
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The Couple Behind TV’s Boldest Shows
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/20/the-couple-behind-tvs-boldest-shows
This is an extremely long, but interesting, piece on Robert and Michelle King, the minds behind TV shows such as The Good Fight and Evil. I have just started the first season of the latter and I am in like Flint.
You're Wrong About's Sarah Marshall on how to reclaim our misremembered history
https://www.avclub.com/youre-wrong-abouts-sarah-marshall-on-how-to-reclaim-our-1849012457
You're Wrong About is a podcast institution at this point. This AV Club interview with Sarah Marhsall, the show's remaining host, is a delight.
Alien 3
https://outlawvern.com/2022/06/20/alien-3/
I remember Vern from my early days on the internet reading Aint it Cool (kids, ask your parents). I only found out fairly recently that he's still around. His longform review of Fincher's (unjustly) maligned entry in the Alien* franchise is a good reappraisal of the work, including some discussion about the alternative takes and false starts on the project.
Given the negativity around the third film, I previously thought the movie was a flop. Reading Vern's review, that doesn't seem to be the case.
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‘Perhaps the Most Shameful Episode of the Pandemic
https://bylinetimes.com/2022/06/10/4-billion-of-ppe-to-go-up-in-smoke/
As I write this, the gammon class of Britain are mad that trains in this country are not running due to a strike across most of this week by the RMT union.
Almost every single interview with the head of the union, Mick Lynch, has consisted of desperate attempts to talk about anything but the matter at hand, or even why a strike is occurring in the first place.
This fiasco has produced such greatest hits as Piers Morgan repeatedly asking Lynch why his Facebook profile picture was of a fictional villain from a British puppet-based TV show from the 60s and a grasping Kay Burley attempting (and failing) to imply that the RMT would resort to violence eventually.
The powers that be, and by extension most of the media, in this country will do anything to distract from the totally corrupt shit show that is brazenly occurring on a day to day basis.
Case in point (finally), is the above article from Byline Times detailing a catalogue of corporate nepotism and ineptitude in relation to Britain's PPE efforts in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Points raised include:
- £4 billion worth of the PPE is going to be incinerated as it is not fit for purpose.
- At least £1.3 billion of this figure was spent illegally without authorisation by the Treasury.
- £673 million of that was spent on defective or counterfeit masks. Said masks are costing the government £3.5 million for every week they sit unused.
- 15'000 pallets of PPE is to be taken away for burning or recycling. The cost of that service will sit with the British taxpayer.
- Some of the masks purchased were made using Chinese state-imposed Uyghur Muslim labour.
- There is no complete record of the personal connections of ministers or officials involved in the procurement of the PPE.
In normal times this would the kind of scandal and corruption that would take down a government, or at the very least a Prime Minister. Now? Just another day.
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I'm off to find some PPE that works, see you in two!