Eldredge, John. Epic: The Story God is Telling. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004.
Did you ever feel you were acting in a play or a character in a book? According to John Eldredge, you are a character in a story that is actually happening. The author and protagonist of that story is God.
The story begins with love and relationship before the beginning of time. God, the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed and had perfect love and relationship within him. Most stories start somewhere in the middle; there are things that have gone on before that are in the background. Even the Bible starts at the beginning of humankind, but much has happened before humans come on the scene. Eldredge believes one of the wonderful things about God’s story is that we are invited to be part of a wonderful relationship that has already been going on for a long time.
Evil also enters the scene before man. The first fall is that of angels, and of a particular angel who pridefully attempts to usurp God’s place. This enemy of God became the enemy of men, too, and by deceiving the first couple, he introduced sin and evil to all of us. At the root of this is pride and the belief that God is not as good as he claims; we need to watch out for ourselves. We go off on our own and soon fall into all kinds of trouble.
Like all epic stories, this one has a hero. The hero is God, who rescues us from the destruction we have brought on ourselves. Jesus, God the Son, is the great hero and lover of humankind. He humbled himself, gave his all, suffered torture and death to save us.
Fortunately, this story also has a happily-ever-after ending. For those who respond to God’s loving rescue, there is an eternity even better than we can imagine. This story does not end with our spirits floating in the clouds as we sing hymns on an unending Sunday morning. God’s plan is for us to be perfect men and women (with spirits and bodies) reigning eternally with him over a perfect creation. The creation that was corrupted by sin will be restored to perfection, and God is calling us to live in that world with him.
So how do we live in this story? Eldredge suggests we keep three things in mind. First, there is more to this story than meets the eye. The world we cannot see is a bigger part of reality than the world we can see. Second, we are at war with a real enemy. He is the enemy of God and he is our enemy, too. Finally, we have important roles in this story. If we are to fulfill our roles, we must be alert and believe that what we do is important.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query All-Story. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query All-Story. Sort by date Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Friday, May 1, 2009
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
Card, Orson Scott. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. Cincinnati, OH: Writers Digest Books, 1990.
Accomplished speculative fiction author Orson Scott Card focuses this manual on the particulars of writing science fiction and fantasy stories. It contains advice that may be useful to writers of any kind of fiction.
To start, Card tries to define the realm of science fiction and fantasy. This is difficult. Once identified as a writer of speculative fiction, you may find it difficult to get your books marketed in any other category. On the up side, within the realm of science fiction of fantasy, you can write almost any kind of story. Science fiction and fantasy is defined by a mix of marketing, reader expectation and what writers produce; something readers of these books will have a feel for, but as a new writer, or someone new to the field, its useful to know what is expected.
Something unique to speculative fiction that Card gives much attention is world creation. All fiction creates a world of sorts, but a characteristic of speculative fiction is that the world of the story is significantly different from the world we live in. A writer of science fiction or fantasy stories must have a well thought out vision for his world and how it works; he need an understanding larger than what is minimally necessary for the story. This chapter contains practical advice on what works and doesn’t in world creation.
Something that sticks out to me is found in the chapter on story construction. Card writes about where a story should begin and end, depending on what kind of story it is: milieu, idea, character or event. All stories have all of these elements to some degree, but most focus on one. By understanding what kind of story you’re trying to write, you can know where to begin and end your story and how to set up and meet reader expectations. Reading this chapter I thought of several short stories and novels that I thought were very good and saw how they fit in these categories and how the authors made fitting decisions about where they started and stopped their stories.
Card’s advice on story construction is applicable to any kind of fiction. He draws examples from speculative fiction, and has writers of it in mind as his audience, but all kind of stories could be improved with this counsel.
Accomplished speculative fiction author Orson Scott Card focuses this manual on the particulars of writing science fiction and fantasy stories. It contains advice that may be useful to writers of any kind of fiction.
To start, Card tries to define the realm of science fiction and fantasy. This is difficult. Once identified as a writer of speculative fiction, you may find it difficult to get your books marketed in any other category. On the up side, within the realm of science fiction of fantasy, you can write almost any kind of story. Science fiction and fantasy is defined by a mix of marketing, reader expectation and what writers produce; something readers of these books will have a feel for, but as a new writer, or someone new to the field, its useful to know what is expected.
Something unique to speculative fiction that Card gives much attention is world creation. All fiction creates a world of sorts, but a characteristic of speculative fiction is that the world of the story is significantly different from the world we live in. A writer of science fiction or fantasy stories must have a well thought out vision for his world and how it works; he need an understanding larger than what is minimally necessary for the story. This chapter contains practical advice on what works and doesn’t in world creation.
Something that sticks out to me is found in the chapter on story construction. Card writes about where a story should begin and end, depending on what kind of story it is: milieu, idea, character or event. All stories have all of these elements to some degree, but most focus on one. By understanding what kind of story you’re trying to write, you can know where to begin and end your story and how to set up and meet reader expectations. Reading this chapter I thought of several short stories and novels that I thought were very good and saw how they fit in these categories and how the authors made fitting decisions about where they started and stopped their stories.
Card’s advice on story construction is applicable to any kind of fiction. He draws examples from speculative fiction, and has writers of it in mind as his audience, but all kind of stories could be improved with this counsel.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil
O’Neil, Dennis. The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2001.
Denny O’Neil has been writing and editing comics for decades. He is particularly known for his work on comics featuring Batman. He has also written novels and taught writing.
As the title of the book suggests, the focus is on writing for comics. Comics are unique in using both words and drawings (and sometimes only drawings) to tell a story. A comics writer must write with pictures in mind and, unless he is one of those talented people who can draw well as well as write, be ready to describe to the artist the pages, panels and images he will create to bring the story to the page. Comics are inherently a collaboration between the writer and the penciller.
O’Neil’s style is very informal and is advice is direct and practical. As and insider, he can frankly lay out the difficulties of writing for comics and the expectations a writer should have.
Even so, he is quick to point to point out there is no exact formula. A comics writer must be prepared to do what works. Even in scripting, there are two major types: plot first a full script. (Editors will probably prefer full scripts from new writers). Even when writing a full script, there isn’t a standard way. O’Neil reproduces pages from several scripts. They all contain the same type of information, but they all look a little different in their particulars.
O’Neil deals with writing both the single-issue story and the multi-issue story arc. As the editor of Batman titles, he oversaw one of the most long and ambitious story arcs in superhero comics. There is an economic advantage for writers and publishers in that good story arcs can have a longer life reproduced in trade paperbacks (or even hardbacks). Even in a long story, every issue has to be good and offer a point of entry for new readers.
To some degree, what makes a good story is the same in any medium. If someone is looking for a short, readable book on fiction writing and the practical matters of keeping readers interested and managing a complex tale, in comics or other media, this book will be useful.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days by Les Daniels, Chip Kid & Geoff Spear
How to Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon
Denny O’Neil has been writing and editing comics for decades. He is particularly known for his work on comics featuring Batman. He has also written novels and taught writing.
As the title of the book suggests, the focus is on writing for comics. Comics are unique in using both words and drawings (and sometimes only drawings) to tell a story. A comics writer must write with pictures in mind and, unless he is one of those talented people who can draw well as well as write, be ready to describe to the artist the pages, panels and images he will create to bring the story to the page. Comics are inherently a collaboration between the writer and the penciller.
O’Neil’s style is very informal and is advice is direct and practical. As and insider, he can frankly lay out the difficulties of writing for comics and the expectations a writer should have.
Even so, he is quick to point to point out there is no exact formula. A comics writer must be prepared to do what works. Even in scripting, there are two major types: plot first a full script. (Editors will probably prefer full scripts from new writers). Even when writing a full script, there isn’t a standard way. O’Neil reproduces pages from several scripts. They all contain the same type of information, but they all look a little different in their particulars.
O’Neil deals with writing both the single-issue story and the multi-issue story arc. As the editor of Batman titles, he oversaw one of the most long and ambitious story arcs in superhero comics. There is an economic advantage for writers and publishers in that good story arcs can have a longer life reproduced in trade paperbacks (or even hardbacks). Even in a long story, every issue has to be good and offer a point of entry for new readers.
To some degree, what makes a good story is the same in any medium. If someone is looking for a short, readable book on fiction writing and the practical matters of keeping readers interested and managing a complex tale, in comics or other media, this book will be useful.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days by Les Daniels, Chip Kid & Geoff Spear
How to Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon
Friday, November 19, 2010
Finding Your Writer’s Voice by Thaisa Frank & Dorothy Wall
Frank, Thaisa, and Dorothy Wall. Finding Your Writer’s Voice: A Guide to Creative Fiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
Thaisa Frank and Dorothy wall take an organic view of writing. It begins with the voice.
Voice is not something abstract. They mean a person’s actual, natural voice. It is our native instrument of communication and expression. Like a musical instrument or a singer’s voice, it can be mastered by practice and the developing skill of the instrumentalist or vocalist.
The early chapters of the book are devoted to getting to know your instrument. This is your raw voice. Voice has the advantage of being uniquely yours and fitted to you. Using your raw voice is more than just doing what comes naturally. Like mastering other instruments, one learns is range and the variety of notes and timbres it can produce. Several exercises are offered to help you get to know your raw voice and to explore all you can do with it.
The voice of the story is more like that of a composer. It understands the instrument, the raw voice, but it also engaged in making decisions about key, tempo, and amplitude over an entire piece and each movement and how it all fits together. The raw and story voices work together as the writer works, making writing improvisational, like a jazz musician using his instrument spontaneously while leaning on a mastery of scales, techniques and musical conventions.
Frank and Wall cover many of the things one might expect on a book on fiction writing: character, plot, point of view, tone, revision, and the writing life. In their book, voice serves the source and context of all these things. They spring forth from the raw voice of a person and are developed as a story by the polished voice of a writer. The craft of writing is developed on the job, working the materials supplied by the voice into stories.
Even in revising, there is an organic sense of spontaneity, improvisation and creative working within constraints. Revising is not a process of simple mechanics. It is a chance to creatively reengage a story, testing it with the creative force of raw voice and the helpful voice of internal editors who understand the workings of a story, a beautiful turn of phrase and how to get things write. Writers can easily get stymied at this stage, as they might at others, but frustration here is often an opportunity to take a story to a better level.
I should have given this book more time than I did (it was due back at the library). It’s a class for writers and, like most classes, getting the most out of it requires doing the homework.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Mastering Fiction Writing by Kit Reed
Thaisa Frank and Dorothy wall take an organic view of writing. It begins with the voice.
Voice is not something abstract. They mean a person’s actual, natural voice. It is our native instrument of communication and expression. Like a musical instrument or a singer’s voice, it can be mastered by practice and the developing skill of the instrumentalist or vocalist.
The early chapters of the book are devoted to getting to know your instrument. This is your raw voice. Voice has the advantage of being uniquely yours and fitted to you. Using your raw voice is more than just doing what comes naturally. Like mastering other instruments, one learns is range and the variety of notes and timbres it can produce. Several exercises are offered to help you get to know your raw voice and to explore all you can do with it.
The voice of the story is more like that of a composer. It understands the instrument, the raw voice, but it also engaged in making decisions about key, tempo, and amplitude over an entire piece and each movement and how it all fits together. The raw and story voices work together as the writer works, making writing improvisational, like a jazz musician using his instrument spontaneously while leaning on a mastery of scales, techniques and musical conventions.
Frank and Wall cover many of the things one might expect on a book on fiction writing: character, plot, point of view, tone, revision, and the writing life. In their book, voice serves the source and context of all these things. They spring forth from the raw voice of a person and are developed as a story by the polished voice of a writer. The craft of writing is developed on the job, working the materials supplied by the voice into stories.
Even in revising, there is an organic sense of spontaneity, improvisation and creative working within constraints. Revising is not a process of simple mechanics. It is a chance to creatively reengage a story, testing it with the creative force of raw voice and the helpful voice of internal editors who understand the workings of a story, a beautiful turn of phrase and how to get things write. Writers can easily get stymied at this stage, as they might at others, but frustration here is often an opportunity to take a story to a better level.
I should have given this book more time than I did (it was due back at the library). It’s a class for writers and, like most classes, getting the most out of it requires doing the homework.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Mastering Fiction Writing by Kit Reed
Friday, March 27, 2009
How to Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork
OCork, Shannon. How to Write Mysteries. Cincinnati, OH: Writers’ Digest Books, 1989.
How to Write Mysteries is a quick summary of writing crime novels from start to finish. It doesn’t deal much with what it’s going to take to get you to set down and do it, but it is full of advice on what make mysteries work.
To OCork, a mystery is a like a game you play with your readers. A mystery novel is puzzle and the reader is trying to solve it by figuring out who committed the crime, typically murder. The writer must play fair by providing all the clues needed to figure it out, but at the same time provide an interesting story that obfuscates and distracts.
OCork speaks of this in terms of the real story and the apparent story. The real story is the solving of the mystery. The apparent story is all the stuff the characters must go through, some directly related to unraveling the crime and some tangential, to accomplish it.
The book deals with the mechanics of writing a mystery novel: types of mysteries, plot development, style, character development, pace, dialogue and more. It also covers what to do after you've written your book: manuscript preparation, submitting to publishers and starting your next book.
OCork uses examples throughout to illustrate her point. Some come from published works, but many come from a story she makes up for the purpose of illustration. It’s not a novel, but it does illustrate how one thing builds on another, from plot to the full story. Using this common example shows how everything ties together.
In one chapter, OCork addresses the writer’s life. It is a lot of work. If you’re making a living as a writer, or hoping to, it is your work. That means making the sacrifices needed to do the work you want, but also enjoying the fruit of it.
How to Write Mysteries is a quick summary of writing crime novels from start to finish. It doesn’t deal much with what it’s going to take to get you to set down and do it, but it is full of advice on what make mysteries work.
To OCork, a mystery is a like a game you play with your readers. A mystery novel is puzzle and the reader is trying to solve it by figuring out who committed the crime, typically murder. The writer must play fair by providing all the clues needed to figure it out, but at the same time provide an interesting story that obfuscates and distracts.
OCork speaks of this in terms of the real story and the apparent story. The real story is the solving of the mystery. The apparent story is all the stuff the characters must go through, some directly related to unraveling the crime and some tangential, to accomplish it.
The book deals with the mechanics of writing a mystery novel: types of mysteries, plot development, style, character development, pace, dialogue and more. It also covers what to do after you've written your book: manuscript preparation, submitting to publishers and starting your next book.
OCork uses examples throughout to illustrate her point. Some come from published works, but many come from a story she makes up for the purpose of illustration. It’s not a novel, but it does illustrate how one thing builds on another, from plot to the full story. Using this common example shows how everything ties together.
In one chapter, OCork addresses the writer’s life. It is a lot of work. If you’re making a living as a writer, or hoping to, it is your work. That means making the sacrifices needed to do the work you want, but also enjoying the fruit of it.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Mastering Fiction Writing by Kit Reed
Reed, Kit. Mastering Fiction Writing. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest Books, 1991.
Kit Reed doesn’t believe there is a magic book that will tell you everything you need to know about writing. Her book, Mastering Fiction Writing, will help you get started and contains a lot of advice on making your stories better.
The first key is that learning to write comes from practicing writing. If you’re not writing, you’re not a writer. No story is perfect, so start writing and improve your work as you proceed.
An encouraging tip from Reed is that you already have a great storehouse of experience to draw upon as a writer. All the experiences of your own life, the lives of people you know and everything you’ve heard about and learned are the raw material you already have in your head. As a writer, you’ll use all of this, not directly but transformed for the purposes of your stories.
Reed is not a fan of plot, believing that stories are developed and preferring let her characters and what they want lead her. She does believe in outlining. An outline can help a beginning writer get a story in shape and avoid problems before starting. Even in the middle of a story, outlining can help with diagnosing problems and figuring out where the story needs to go.
The book also covers other common elements of fiction writing. This includes style, character, point of view, voice, rewriting and establishing your work habits.
A particularly useful element of the book is that almost every chapter contains a list of questions you can ask yourself about that element in your story. You could use these questions at any point in developing a story to help you recognize problems and create solutions.
The final chapter is also particularly useful. It deals with discipline. A writer isn’t going to produce stories, and especially not books, if he doesn’t do the work, deal with the problems and overcome the occasional boredom, hard work and temptation to quit.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
How to Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
No Plot? Not Problem! A Low Stress-High Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty
Kit Reed doesn’t believe there is a magic book that will tell you everything you need to know about writing. Her book, Mastering Fiction Writing, will help you get started and contains a lot of advice on making your stories better.
The first key is that learning to write comes from practicing writing. If you’re not writing, you’re not a writer. No story is perfect, so start writing and improve your work as you proceed.
An encouraging tip from Reed is that you already have a great storehouse of experience to draw upon as a writer. All the experiences of your own life, the lives of people you know and everything you’ve heard about and learned are the raw material you already have in your head. As a writer, you’ll use all of this, not directly but transformed for the purposes of your stories.
Reed is not a fan of plot, believing that stories are developed and preferring let her characters and what they want lead her. She does believe in outlining. An outline can help a beginning writer get a story in shape and avoid problems before starting. Even in the middle of a story, outlining can help with diagnosing problems and figuring out where the story needs to go.
The book also covers other common elements of fiction writing. This includes style, character, point of view, voice, rewriting and establishing your work habits.
A particularly useful element of the book is that almost every chapter contains a list of questions you can ask yourself about that element in your story. You could use these questions at any point in developing a story to help you recognize problems and create solutions.
The final chapter is also particularly useful. It deals with discipline. A writer isn’t going to produce stories, and especially not books, if he doesn’t do the work, deal with the problems and overcome the occasional boredom, hard work and temptation to quit.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
How to Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
No Plot? Not Problem! A Low Stress-High Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Stealing Plots
I previously wrote about “stealing”
characters. In that essay, I described
several characters
from popular fiction
and how they might be seen as variations on the same character template. I suggested that a writer
can modify and reimagine existing characters to create new ones. Actually, I think that is probably how most
characters are born, even if the authors aren’t consciously aware of it.
Similarly, plots
can be “stolen.” Some have suggested
that there are a very limited number of plots, so in a sense all writers are
stealing from a small pool. On the other
hand, there is a lot more to a story than just the plot, so it may not
matter. Let me illustrate the idea with
some examples.
A Christmas Carol is one of the most
popular, and I think one of the best, ghost
stories ever written. Charles
Dickens’ novella was first published in 1843. The story has been adapted to the stage (including opera),
many films,
radio,
television
(my wife and I are fond of the 1984 version with George C.
Scott as Scrooge),
comic
books, and numerous pastiches.
The plot is well known. Ebenezer
Scrooge begins as a miser. On a certain Christmas Eve,
he is confronted by the ghost of his former business
partner and three spirits who represent Christmases past,
present and future. The visions they show
him convince Scrooge that his single-minded pursuit of money
has deprived him of life. He awakes
Christmas morning as a new man committed to relating
to his fellow man and putting his money to use.
Let’s reverse Scrooge. Make him
an extremely generous person instead of a miser. In that case, he might be something like George Bailey. Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart,
was the generous man at the heart of It’s a Wonderful Life. His dream is to travel the world. Instead, he delays his dream again and again
to help his neighbors,
his brother,
and eventually his own wife
and children. It comes to a head when a mistake by his uncle
brings imminent ruin to the savings and loan George runs. Faced with ruin,
George sees himself as an utter failure.
He contemplates suicide in hopes that his insurance policy will rescue
his family
from financial ruin.
At this point, he receives a spiritual visit like Ebenezer. In this case it is a single spirit, an angel
named Clarence. Like the Christmas ghosts, Clarence shows
George a vision. This is also an
inversion of Dickens’ tale. Instead of
showing him a history
of missed opportunities and blindness to the needs of others, Clarence reveals
an alternate world in which George and his generous acts did not exist. His brother is dead. His wife is a frightened spinster (it’s hard
to believe Donna
Reed would have been overlooked by the marriageable
men of Bedford
Falls even holed up in the library with her glasses on). The people are mired in poverty because
he hadn’t been there to fight for access to credit
so they could build homes and businesses.
The town is under the thumb of the miserly landlord Mr. Potter,
himself a type of unreformed Scrooge.
Like Scrooge, George is changed by his vision. He sees that his life is worth something and
that his sacrifices bought him a lot of love. In the end, returned from his walk in the
dark alternate universe, that love is displayed by a return of generosity from
his many friends that saves him.
These beloved stories don’t have the same plot. However, one is a variation or alteration of
the plot of the other. This plot
archetype doesn’t have to be so serious.
Topper, either the book by Thorne Smith
or the movie
starring Cary
Grant, is an example of this plot played
for laughs. Cosmo Topper
is a banker. He is bored with his job. He is somewhat alienated from his wife who clings
to respectability. He has money and
status, even what might have been considered a good marriage in a time when
such relationships were as much about business as love, but he has no fun and
it is wearing on him.
The ghosts are a piece of work, too.
George
and Marion
Kerby are a wealthy
couple who die in a car accident.
Instead of shuffling off to the afterlife, they find themselves stuck on
earth. They have never done something
substantive, either good or bad, in their entirely frivolous lives. They decide to fix the situation by helping
their old friend Topper.
In this case, all the major characters are a type of Scrooge. Topper has let his job, money, and status
keep him from a life of fun and serious connection. The Kerbys had so little meaningful
connection to other people that they neither helped nor harmed another soul. Even Topper’s wife Clara has
sacrificed intimacy in her marriage to focus on social climbing.
So Topper is visited by spirits like Scrooge and Bailey. Instead of taking a serious look at life, it
is presents a screwball comedy. The Kerbys drag Topper into all kind of
risqué situations he would normally not get into. Misunderstandings abound and Topper is
embarrassed repeatedly. The ghosts are have
good intentions, but they are not very competent. Topper feigns irritation at the hijinks, but
in his heart is having a ball and doesn’t want the haunting to end. Clara feels humiliated by all the trouble
Topper is getting into, but fear of losing him to a wild life reminds her of
how much she loves him.
Through a series of screwy events, the characters undergo a
Scrooge-like change. The Toppers loosen
up and rekindle their love. They
discover that their intimacy as a couple is more important than jobs, wealth or
status, though they don’t have to completely give up those things. The Kerbys take responsibility for themselves
and their actions. They finally put
Topper’s needs ahead of their own and do something substantively good, opening
the doors of heaven.
You can probably see that these stories are related by more than
similarities in plot. They have a common
theme. All of these stories are about connecting to
others in relationships. Bailey is a
little different from the others in that he starts out blind to all the good
that has resulted from his seemingly humble touching of the lives of
others. Scrooge, the Toppers and the
Kerbys are isolated for various reasons, mostly of their own making, and need
to discover that relating to others is the main thing.
Google
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Pentateuch
The first five books of the Bible are collectively referred to as the Pentateuch, from the Greek for “five books.” In the Hebrew Bible, they are referred to as the Torah, from the Hebrew for “law.”
The Pentateuch is partly a book of laws. In the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy can be found the civil and ecclesiastical law given for the Israelite theocracy would be established in the Promised Land. Moral law also appears in these books, most famously in the Ten Commandments.
Some would say that “law” is too narrow an interpretation of “torah.” A better word might be “teachings” or “doctrine.” The contents of these books were meant to be taught and contain repeated instructions to remember and to teach the works of God to successive generations. Stories from these books have been told and retold for centuries.
These books contain more than law. They are history as well. In particular, they are a history of God’s interaction with creation and especially mankind. Genesis begins with creation and ends with Joseph, a key figure in history of the Israelites and, in some ways, a type of Christ. Abraham and his descendents are the main thread of Genesis in which we see God working to rebuild a relationship with sinful humanity. The remaining books with the Israelites eventual enslavement in Egypt to border of the Promise Land. The prophet Moses is the main figure of these books as God’s spokesman.
It can be easy to get lost in the details of these books. They are not as riddled with genealogies and “begats” as some suggest. Even so, sometimes there is a surprising amount of detail. The style in some sections can seem stilted to modern readers. Familiarity with Jewish traditions can bring some life into the sometimes dry descriptions of ceremonies.
Don’t let yourself be too bogged down by the details. Remember that they are important. As a believer, they are important because they are part of the inspired Word of Gods. As a reader seeking to understand these books, they are important because they were important to the people who wrote, copied, and even memorized these books for generations.
In addition, they are part of a larger story. It’s a good story, too. It is the story of the establishment of a people, and from those people a nation. All of this is part of a larger story of redemption: God working through history to rescue, redeem, and restore people who were enslaved to sin and sentenced to death for their wrongdoings. It is an exciting story and the Pentateuch contains important early chapters that help us understand the rest what comes later.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Deuteronomy
Exodus
Genesis
The Holy Bible
King James Bible
Leviticus
Numbers
Google
The Pentateuch is partly a book of laws. In the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy can be found the civil and ecclesiastical law given for the Israelite theocracy would be established in the Promised Land. Moral law also appears in these books, most famously in the Ten Commandments.
Some would say that “law” is too narrow an interpretation of “torah.” A better word might be “teachings” or “doctrine.” The contents of these books were meant to be taught and contain repeated instructions to remember and to teach the works of God to successive generations. Stories from these books have been told and retold for centuries.
These books contain more than law. They are history as well. In particular, they are a history of God’s interaction with creation and especially mankind. Genesis begins with creation and ends with Joseph, a key figure in history of the Israelites and, in some ways, a type of Christ. Abraham and his descendents are the main thread of Genesis in which we see God working to rebuild a relationship with sinful humanity. The remaining books with the Israelites eventual enslavement in Egypt to border of the Promise Land. The prophet Moses is the main figure of these books as God’s spokesman.
It can be easy to get lost in the details of these books. They are not as riddled with genealogies and “begats” as some suggest. Even so, sometimes there is a surprising amount of detail. The style in some sections can seem stilted to modern readers. Familiarity with Jewish traditions can bring some life into the sometimes dry descriptions of ceremonies.
Don’t let yourself be too bogged down by the details. Remember that they are important. As a believer, they are important because they are part of the inspired Word of Gods. As a reader seeking to understand these books, they are important because they were important to the people who wrote, copied, and even memorized these books for generations.
In addition, they are part of a larger story. It’s a good story, too. It is the story of the establishment of a people, and from those people a nation. All of this is part of a larger story of redemption: God working through history to rescue, redeem, and restore people who were enslaved to sin and sentenced to death for their wrongdoings. It is an exciting story and the Pentateuch contains important early chapters that help us understand the rest what comes later.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Deuteronomy
Exodus
Genesis
The Holy Bible
King James Bible
Leviticus
Numbers
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
Marvel
Comics has a long history in comic
books, especially superhero
comics. It’s first superheroes, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, debuted in
1939 and the
company is currently unrolling popular series of films based on a The Avengers,
a superhero team that first appeared in comics in 1963.
The extended, interconnected, iterative melodrama of Marvel’s comics is
a complicated fictional world. The real-world company has a complicated
history, too. It started as a scion of a pulp
magazine publisher
seeking diversify and is now a part of media powerhouse Walt
Disney Company. Sean Howe
provides a detailed history
of the company in Marvel Comics: The
Untold Story.
Howe divides the history of the Marvel into five major ages. He
discusses the early history of the company, but Marvel as we know it today
could mark its origins in the resurgence of superhero comics of the early 1960s, after a
post-World
War II slump that all but the most popular titles.
The succeeding ages roughly correspond to the decades. The 1960s marked
the birth of modern Marvel. The 1970s were a time
of artistic experimentation when comics, especially Marvel, were embraced on
college campus and in the counterculture.
In the 1980s,
kids who grew up reading Marvel became adults writing
the comics. It was also a time when corporate culture began to consume the
company—though the priority of making money, executive interference and
possibly shady business was something that went back to the days of the pulps.
This decade also marked a change in the way comics were sold, shifting from
newsstands and grocery-store spinners to specialty shops, which created
opportunities and problems for comics publishers.
The 1990s
was a period of excess. Comics creators were finally making money (at least
some of them were), but old contentions between publishers—especially
Marvel—and writers and artists
led to the rise of superstars spinning off to publish works to which they would
retain the rights. The growth in comics collecting encouraged marketing
practice, especially at Marvel, that eventually led to a bust.
Throughout this time, Marvel’s various owners had been attempting to
transition the company from a comics publisher to a media company that
leveraged its intellectual property in many ways. In the 2000s, Marvel has
done that. A criticism
often leveled against Marvel today is that the comics are driven by decisions
to make the characters marketable in other media, especially movies
and toys.
Comics have come a long way since I started reading them as a kid. For
one thing, they cost 10 times as much. Howe wraps up with the opinion that
Marvels products are better, and in some ways I agree. However, I think comics
often uses the words mature and adult when they are simply prurient, and that
the improvement in printing quality is not always accompanied by improvements
in story or art. I have mixed feelings about the multi-issues stories designed
for collection into graphic novels aimed at book retailers, but I think the
event-driven mega-crossovers that have become standard for Marvel and DC don’t move
me much—I’d rather read a good short story than an overblown novel.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Howe, S. Marvel Comics: The
Untold Story. New
York: HarperCollins,
2012.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
HeLa is
an immortal human cell line. It is immortal in the sense that the cells will
live and grow in culture indefinitely. Since it was first cultured in 1951, the cell line
has been an important part of medical
research.
It was used to develop vaccines for polio and HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). It
has been used to study cancer, HIV
(Human Immunodeficiency Virus), other diseases and drugs to treat them. HeLa
cells have made medical science
as we know it possible.
These cells came from a real person. Her name was Henrietta
Lacks. She was a poor,
black woman who went to Johns Hopkins
Hospital for treatment of what turned out to be cancer. The cells were taken
from a tumor by a doctor who was treating her.
Cancer took the life of Henrietta Lacks, but her immortality in the
form of the cell line has caused a lot of pain and distress for her
descendants. Rebecca
Skloot tells the story of Henrietta, her family,
the HeLa cells and their legacy in The
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
It is a bit unusual in a book of biography
or scientific history
to write in the first person, but is the approach taken by Skloot. In order to
emphasize the humanity of Henrietta, she tells a personal story of her research
and the relationship she develops with the Lacks family, especially Henrietta’s
daughter, Deborah.
This is important. It’s easy to get swept up in all the incredible
results that have been produced from developing and testing with the HeLa cell
line. It is harder to look at the individual lives on people, especially when
those people are treated with little respect by the scientists and physicians
who are benefiting from the cells taken from her mother.
These men saw little if anything wrong in what they did by taking the cells
and growing them. They were doing what was legal
at the time (and still legal) and in keeping with the ethical
standards of the time. There is still much debate over the ethics of using
human tissues in research. Though there are standards related to samples taken
from humans, the only legally binding ones relate to federally-funded research.
Issues of informed consent, ownership, and commercialization are still being
worked out. If you’re a corpse, the law is fairly clear. If you’re a
participant in a research study, legal and ethical standards assure some level
of informed consent. If tissues are taken from a living patient for purposes of
diagnosis or treatment, what can happen to those tissues is up for grabs.
I think this is a book worth reading. HeLa is an interesting scientific
story. The ethical issues related to research using human tissues deserves more
attention that it gets. I think the most important thing to remember is that
the things we do affect human beings. Science, law and philosophy
can become so abstract they are nearly pointless if we lose sight of how the
things we say and do, individually and as a society, affect the lives of real
people.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested it
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley
This fifth installment of the Scott Pilgrim
series of graphic
novels by Bryan
Lee O’Malley seems to me to be the Kim Pine story.
Kim is Scott’s ex-girlfriend and bandmate. She has enough troubles of her own
with a bad roommate, cheating boyfriend, and a sense of losing her edge as Sex
Bob-omb makes and album instead of playing musing.
In spite of this, Kim musters the selfless courage to help Scott and Ramona
get over their baggage and try to make their relationship work. She draws out
the best of friends often seem to be not worth the trouble, especially Scott.
She supports and encourages both, and helps them to connect when they can’t
seem to do it on their own.
Scott is being a jerk, as usually, through much of the book. He is
incredibly forgetful. I suspect it is a kind of Peter Pan syndrome. On his 24th
birthday, Scott vows to stop aging. He seems to have trouble forming new
memories. For all the progress he made in previous books, he is still resisting
the transition to adulthood.
Even with the focus on Kim, the story of the evil exes continues. Scott
defeats the Katayanagi twins, though in a different manner than the movie. This
is another scene of Kim’s selfless friendship.
Of all the books, this one has the sense of being “in between.” It is
in between the build and the climax to be expected in the final book. I think
O’Malley made a good choice in bringing in Kim so much in this volume. He was
able to move the story of Scott and Ramona along while also giving some space
to look around and not rush to the end. Scott is too messed up to make it on
his own, so it is nice to see one of them get some attention.
Bryan Lee O’Malley also wrote
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Writing for Comics with Peter David
David, Peter. Writing for Comics with Peter David. Cincinnati, OH: Impact, 2006.
Peter David brings his more than two decades of experience as a comics writer, including a well known stint as a writer of The Incredible Hulk, to bear on the subject of writing for comics. David’s book is mainly a guide to writers who want to break into comics, but it’s also written to appeal to comics fans who want a better understanding of their favorite medium.
To some degree, good writing is good writing, so much of the advice David provides could be useful to fiction writers in general. Conflict, character, setting, plot and pacing are things all fiction writers must handle. David draws on examples from other media, especially movies, to illustrate his points.
Even so, comics have there own conventions, traditions and techniques. David deals with some of the unique elements of comics directly such as script style, speech balloons, continuity and writing instructions for artists. Mostly, relevant techniques are dealt with as they arise in discussing writing for comics.
The main audience of the book is writers, so it deals with art, editing and other elements of comics from the standpoint of the writer’s place. All writers need to understand the craft of writing; comics writers also need to understand the craft of making comics since he not only writes a story, but also a script that gives shape to the final product, often page-by-page and frame-by-frame.
David’s advice can be taken more as guidelines as rules. One of his repeated points is to do what works. Even in his own writing, he adapts his script style and level of detail according to the story he is telling, the artist he is working with and the expectations of his editor.
Even though David doesn’t lay out one way, he does show the better ways and the danger zones. Someone wanting to write for comics will find a lot to help him do it well and possibly break into the tight market (including advice from a Marvel editor on pitching a story and detailed script guidelines from Dark Horse).
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
Peter David brings his more than two decades of experience as a comics writer, including a well known stint as a writer of The Incredible Hulk, to bear on the subject of writing for comics. David’s book is mainly a guide to writers who want to break into comics, but it’s also written to appeal to comics fans who want a better understanding of their favorite medium.
To some degree, good writing is good writing, so much of the advice David provides could be useful to fiction writers in general. Conflict, character, setting, plot and pacing are things all fiction writers must handle. David draws on examples from other media, especially movies, to illustrate his points.
Even so, comics have there own conventions, traditions and techniques. David deals with some of the unique elements of comics directly such as script style, speech balloons, continuity and writing instructions for artists. Mostly, relevant techniques are dealt with as they arise in discussing writing for comics.
The main audience of the book is writers, so it deals with art, editing and other elements of comics from the standpoint of the writer’s place. All writers need to understand the craft of writing; comics writers also need to understand the craft of making comics since he not only writes a story, but also a script that gives shape to the final product, often page-by-page and frame-by-frame.
David’s advice can be taken more as guidelines as rules. One of his repeated points is to do what works. Even in his own writing, he adapts his script style and level of detail according to the story he is telling, the artist he is working with and the expectations of his editor.
Even though David doesn’t lay out one way, he does show the better ways and the danger zones. Someone wanting to write for comics will find a lot to help him do it well and possibly break into the tight market (including advice from a Marvel editor on pitching a story and detailed script guidelines from Dark Horse).
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
Saturday, October 19, 2013
300 Books Reviewed on Keenan’s Book Reviews
I’ve
posted reviews of 300 books on this blog. It’s hard to believe. Here are links to the 50 most recent posts.
Further down are links to more reviews.
First
Time Reviews
Additional
and Expanded Reviews
Continuation
of list of 250 books reviewed
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