A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Five-Hundred-And-Seventy-Eight

As part of researching vampires, I began watching the Buffy TV series.  It was on when I was in college, but I never got into it despite having numerous friends who were.  After watching the first episode, I have some questions I want to research, largely to do with the design of the vampires.  I couldn't help but notice the very sharp, bony ridges that they seemed to give the creatures, details that made me think of lizards and other reptiles.  It may well be that I am just seeing that when no one else would, but I do wonder if there are any interviews discussing the specifics of the thought process for those elements.  I think that what really made me notice this aspect was the fact that the vampires are shape-shifters, as well.  The first vampire depicted is a normal woman one moment and then has a monster face the next and I can't help but notice that it feels a bit similar to the idea of reptilians that is put forward by certain anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.  I am probably going to far to see that connection, really.  I would be shocked if it was anything that was even slightly intentional, but I still can't help but observe it and wonder.  It is probably just that I have been researching these kinds of connections too long and am just getting overly sensitive about it.  Even so, I do wonder if there is not some link to the idea of the vampires looking like reptiles just for the sake of making their designs stand out.  I wouldn't be surprised if that aspect was partly intentional, though without any of the underlying implications being purposeful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Writer's Notebook, Day Two-Hundred-And-Fifty

Each of the three pieces I wrote today was a bit of a struggle to get going, if I am honest.  That happens, as I have mentioned, and my answer is generally to just wait it out, and the results vary.  A lot of the time, if I am really stuck, I might try to force something out, often it winds up being a bit meta, with me writing about being stuck without much in terms of inspiration, and it feels a bit like I am working scales in a way.  All the aesthetic decisions are there, they just don't always have a lot of purpose behind them, and that is fine in that context.  Essentially, I am just forcing myself to do the work, and getting it done, and I am showing myself that I can and will do it even if inspiration never strikes.  This can often take pressure off, and that lack of pressure opens up creative thinking and inspiration. Now, that is a fine thing for me to do, and I am likely to use that approach again many times in the future, but today I felt that I want...
Read more

Le Guin, Steering The Craft, Chapter Five: Adjectives and Adverbs (Exercise Five, Chastity)

A note of apology for my lateness with this.  I had expected to have time earlier in the day, but it was not to be, alas.  Anyhow, I am still a bit nervous about this exercise, though it is clearly of significant import to Le Guin, as she points out that it is the only exercise that she has given to all of her workshops.  That, of course, does not alter my feelings about it, excepting that I am aware of it as something valuable and worth doing, so the fact that it is a bit daunting might well be seen, through that light, as a promise of reward, perhaps.  The more difficult the task, the more one has to gain, at least by some logic... Exercise Five: Chastity Mr. Torino was in charge.  He had his way.  It was the way.  Desktops are clean.  Nothing but work.  No pictures: not your kids; not your girl or wife; not (as Allen recounted) your car.   None of that.  No plants.  No cartoons.  That is for home, this is work....
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, Two-Thousand-And-Fifty-Nine

I have been thinking about how I can discuss certain aspects of my poetry and the choices I make as a writer.  In particular, I tend to write without as much reliance on sensory details and descriptions, instead choosing more abstract depictions.  This is something that I know many writers would call an odd choice, as specificity seems inherently to demand the application of detail, but I tend to be a bit hesitant about relying on depictions that utilize the senses, as I find that approach somewhat problematic.  For one thing, sensory description is always going to be less than universal, and not only because of the reality that there are individuals who lack one or more sense.  In many ways, for me, the deeper problem is one related to language itself.  Our use of language creates our experiences in a very real way, though I can't necessarily offer a full explanation of what I mean by that right here, but using a word for an object bestows qualities on it....
Read more