Intellectual jerk-off

Been awhile, yada yada. What prompted me to post was thinking about intellectual jerk-off. In particular the so-called post modernistic deconstructionist movement. Honestly, I'm over it. Have been for quite awhile. And I hope it blows off in the next decade or so, because frankly it's working against good writing. I think good writing is telling a good story. Good writing is certainly not over-emphasizing the format in order to gain the favor of a bunch of intellectual snobs, because you can choose the most creative and innovative format and still tell a very bad story. This seems to be the case with a lot of "contemporaries". And, really, snap out of it. Recently tried reading the latest Barbara Kingslover- "The Lacuna", and her trying to be all meta-narrative and post-mod really bothered me. Seemed like it could've been a good story but the rubbing of the format in my face caused me to throw the book aside. I'm not saying that using these methods episodically and where the circumstances call for them should be avoided. I actually encourage that. But "art for art's sake" isn't all that artful.

I like seeing directness in writing- basically, tell me the story you're going to tell me without wasting my time with pretension. I like seeing a multi-genre approach, because boxing writing up in neat categories is really rather fanatic. And I like basic good ol' writing ability and craftsmanship. That I think is all a truly contemporary piece of writing ought to be- direct, genre-bending, and well executed.

Peace out.

Bird of Prey: First draft finished

Just a little status update. My forthcoming short story "Bird of Prey" has finally taken a shape and form. After a pretty lengthy writing process that started before "Lena" was released on this blog, all the pieces have been stitched together into what is looking much more like a finished text. This said, there will be inevitably plenty of tinkering that the text will undergo before it's released on here, but I do anticipate to have that done fairly shortly. The current mark puts it at about 4,000 words, so it's somewhere between "End Dream" and "Lena" in size. Almost entirely made out of dialog, it meditates on our interactions, aspirations, and fantasies. Stay tuned! :-)

Sci-fi drama- the new mainsteam?

"Lost". Need I say more? "Battlestar Galactica". The resurgence of vampire chic mixed up with teenage hormonal imbalance. "Twilight", "True Blood", "The Vampire Diaries"... "Avatar", of course. Can't really skip that one, it became the highest grossing film of all time. A tree hugger film at that, which makes it all the more poignant. Even snooty high literature is bowing down. Yann Martel, David Mitchell- two of my favorite young writers more than dabble with sci-fi in such showstoppers as "Life of Pi" and "Cloud Atlas". Cunnigham's "Specimen Days"- another example of the permeation of the genre. And I love it, needless to say. Sci-fi is very dear to my generation, and it only follows that it will be catered to. Of course there is the larger trend of eclecticism in art, the blending of genres, media, styles. But that's a whole different topic. So get your sci-fi on. I know I'm doing it. :-)

Some big news

As I've mentioned before I was working on a script for a TV series. It's been about a year in the making, and has come along very nicely. However, over the course of the screenwriting I discovered that the accumulated material amounts to much more than a TV series script, and thought that perhaps it will be better rendered in another form. Here's my big news: I decided to try it out as a novel. It's a major project that will most likely take a couple of years to complete, and it is very challenging, and a bit scary. I'm going forward with it. In the current stages I will take the work already completed in terms of story, character construction, themes, scenes, etc. and work on designing a structure and format that would best fit the bill. I'm also starting a research reading list that contains everything from the King James Bible (at which as you probably guessed I will be taking more than a few stabs) to scientific articles on a certain kind of jellyfish. The tapestry of the novel is very rich and it reflects the zeitgeist. In its core is futility and the vanity of human thought.

In other news, "Bird of Prey" is nearing completion. "Fences" will be put aside in favor of the planned short fiction review. And the four pieces completed thus far: "The Breakers", "End Dream", "Lena", and "Bird of Prey" will be revised and sent off to journals for publication. Once that process is more or less complete, work on the novel will resume. Future pieces of short fiction, such as "Fences" will still appear but the main focus will be reverted back to my major project.

Wish me luck!

Bird of Prey: A Car's Musings on Human Suffering

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE HAVE TO TORTURE THEMSELVES AND FACE TERMINATION IN ORDER TO APPRECIATE WHAT THEY HAVE BETTER?
I DON'T KNOW. I DON'T NOT BELIEVE IT. A LIGHT SHINES THE BRIGHTEST BEFORE IT FLICKERS OFF. PERHAPS IT'S PART OF THE PROCESS.
COULD BE... I THINK IT'S A MATTER OF INTENSITY- THE HIGHER THE INTENSITY OF THE EXPERIENCE, THE MORE ATTRACTED PEOPLE ARE TO IT.
THAT'S ACTUALLY A GOOD POINT. AFTER ALL, PEOPLE ARE CHILDREN OF CHAOS, NOT OF ORDER. AND CHAOS IS AN ORDER OF A HIGHER INTENSITY.

Excerpt from "Bird of Prey", Ivan Danou © 2010

Bird of Prey: Couples and Fights

As mentioned earlier, BoP starts with a couple having a fight while driving back to Provincetown. As part of my research (gotta do your homework, kiddos!) I read several pieces of short fiction that depict similar situations. It's an experience most of us have been a party to, and the depictions seem to underline some commonalities. The repetitiveness of arguments, for example: all that needs to be said usually can be said very briefly; but resistance, unwillingness to cooperate, and outright stubbornness often get in the way; and so things are restated until they are beaten to death. Another thing is blowing things out of proportion- one thing leads to another and before you know it you're no longer arguing about the Tupperware and instead are tearing each other to pieces over money, kids, affairs, whatnot. I want to show some of that, but I am trying not to get caught up in dysfunctionality. Appealing as it is, it seems like easy drama.

Bird of Prey: Structure

"Bird of Prey" is shaping up nicely, and is about ready to go into the drafting stages. The story is written in a two fold format, the first part seeming pretty standard and familiar (married couple arguing while driving), the second part- an exercise at existentialism, surrealism, and the absurd. Both are strictly dialogs in the current version. I wanted to experiment with writing in a way that effectively removes the fluff as often times that is how my works start off- with dialogs that I later glue together with circumstantials. There is a lot of weight given to a writer's attention to detail, the ability to summon a vivid image that can engage a person's imagination to recreate it. And I do think that is incredibly important, and strive to be good at it. But I also think that often times dialog is downplayed in favor of what happens internally, thoughts, emotions, glances, movements; streams of consciousness that modern writers seem all to fond on. And yet, in the dry exchange of words, something. And I guess "Bird of Prey" is my meditation on that something. It's a risk, of course, and that's precisely the appeal of it. :-)

Bird of Prey: What happens to cars when they "die"?

Well, for the most part they end up in a wrecking yard (a.k.a. junkyard) where they are dismantled. After all useful parts have been salvaged a car crusher is used to make the remains more compact and ready for the scrap metal smelter. But some cars, some especially "good" cars, end up in a car graveyard (image above). A car graveyard is basically a resting place where a car owner (or shall we say aficionado) leaves his or her dead cars to the elements. Not particularly environmentally friendly, I agree, but sentimental nevertheless. After all the practice of giving cars personalities is quite common. For one, you surely know people who name their cars?

Bird of Prey: A Dead Possum on the Meaning of Life

I THINK I GOT IT.
GOT WHAT?
THE MEANING OF LIFE.
WHAT IS IT THEN?
WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW!

OH, STOP THAT! WHY DOES EVERYONE WHO CLAIMS TO KNOW THE MEANING OF LIFE FEEL THE NECESSITY TO BE ARROGANT ABOUT IT?
RELAX, I'M JUST TEASING YOU.
OH... WELL ALRIGHT THEN, BUT IT BETTER NOT BE SOMETHING LIKE 42.
NO, IT'S NOT 42. IT'S THIS.
THIS WHAT?
THIS- US TALKING.
THAT'S IT?
YEA, I'M PRETTY SURE... LIFE IS A DIALOG.

Excerpt from "Bird of Prey", Ivan Danou © 2009

December writing

"Lena" has been put to rest, or cook as some would say, for awhile. Future rewrite is likely but for now the focus is on finishing up a couple of other texts. The first one- "Bird of Prey"- I mentioned awhile back. It's a philosophical rumination on mankind's significance in the natural world, and a meditation on responsibility. The second piece is a story called "Fences" that deals with opinion forming, and the discrepancies there of. Once those two texts have been finished, I'd like to do a major revision, going back to "The Breakers", and then look into publishing them. Apart from "End Dream" which as a piece of gay fiction will be shopped accordingly, the other four will be sent to literally journals. The edited versions will not be posted online, and most likely, the texts will be taken down upon publication, but drafts and sample passages will still appear here on this blog. Stay tuned for "Bird of Prey" and "Fences".

Lena: Editing

Making some changed to Lena to make it more accessible to the American reader. I have taken the feedback (both negative and positive) into consideration and will make some adjustments to re-target the story from a Eastern European immigrant to an American audience. As I'd like for the American reader to get better insight into the character. One thing I would like to point out is that I don't aim to make the character likable or the opposite for that matter. The aim here is to be fair to a person's state of mind. Honesty above all.

Lena

Home

"One day I know we'll find a place of hope," PJ Harvey declares in her song "A Place Called Home". Yes, I am slightly addicted to her music, and it may seem like I'm trying to shove it down people's throats, but it's an interesting take on the concept of home. The dictionary entry gives plenty of definitions for "home" including "a place where one lives, a residence," "a place, such as country or town where one was born or has lived for a long period," "an environment offering security and happiness," " a valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin", etc. All of these definitions are familiar, needless to say, but for someone like me who has lived a nomadic life for such a long time now, the notion of home has become quite fluid. In these "modern" times, people have become far more transient, I think a return of sorts to how things were before civilization. While this new state of transiency is less survival related than it was back in those days, there still is a link. Both prehistoric and modern people wandered around seeking new opportunities. Exploration, entertainment, education, occupation, etc. have offset survival as the primary motivator, and yet the hope for something better has remained. So, I think a place of hope is a great way to think of home as. For one, no one is homeless in that scenario.

Lena: Regis

And then there was Regis. Lena's journey takes a trans-Atlantic turn when she goes to study at Regis University. A place that promises "learners (to) become leaders in the Jesuit Catholic tradition". Now you know, I'm going to take a stab or two at that. :-) I'm also debating whether to set that part of Lena's journey in the CO campus or perhaps the Las Vegas one. Might be interesting to play the Sin City vs Catholic values dynamic.

Lena: Behind The Scenes

The first draft of "Lena" ended up at the 5,500 word mark I was aiming for without feeling short-charged or bloated. I'm happy with the general direction of the text, but test reads, and frankly the passing of time will surely result in edits. I'm trying to steer away from overdoing the editing process. Usually the second draft is satisfactory. I remember reading Stephen King saying as much in the Foreword of his "Just After Sunset" collection of shorts. "Lena" turned out edgier than I imagined it, but that's just fine by me, and is also my most researched text to date (includes a lot of references). Makes for a nice pairing with "Bird of Prey" which despite being quite different (thematically and style-wise) I can't stop but think of as a sister story.

Lena: Preview

When Americans talk to children, there are only two questions, it seems, that children are asked and expected to know the answer to: what their name is, and how old they are. As if there is some sort of an unspoken code of conduct that dictates that those are the only two questions allowed, anything else is taboo. There is a very similar, imbecile code of conduct that Americans follow when meeting immigrants: they ask what your name is, where you are from, and what language you speak (unless you are lucky enough to be from a country like France or Japan, for example, in which case they usually, but not always, skip the latter). I have lived in America for eight years, and there are days when I can more or less tolerate this routine, but then there are day when it annoys me greatly, and today seems to be one of the latter.

Roadkills

According to Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People Newspaper, the following number of animals are being killed by motor vehicles in the United States annually:

41 million squirrels
26 million cats
22 million rats
19 million opossums
15 million raccoons
6 million dogs
350,000 deer

Lena: Vilnius

Part of Lena's story takes place/references Vilnius and in particular the Vilnius University (shown here), one of the oldest universities in Europe, established 1579. Back in those days Vilnius was the burgeoning capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which in turn was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a federation of sorts and one of the largest and most powerful states in 16th and 17th century Europe. The Commonwealth was later swallowed by the Russian and Prussian empires and Lithuania ceased to exist for over a century. The country was then briefly reinstated for several decades in the early 20th century, only to yet again become a satellite of Russia during the Soviet era. Lithuania became independent in 1990 during the collapse of the USSR and later joined the EU in 2004. This rich cultural heritage plays an important part in Lena's story and is integral to her character.

Lena: Klaipėda

I am simultaneously working on "Bird of Prey" and another text called "Lena" that tells the story of a girl from Lithuania that immigrated to the US and now lives in Provincetown, MA. Here is an image from the hometown I chose for her- Klaipėda on the Baltic Sea. This image was very inspirational in telling the story.

More changes

Chose a different template for the blog, I like the brighter outlook and the better utilization of space. I'd eventually like to streamline all feedback to here, but currently it's all over the place. I also have slightly changed the description to reflect the fact that I'm currently working on several writing projects simultaneously. I like doing the short stories as they offer immediate gratification, so to speak, in terms of completion, feedback, practice, and marketability. And I think that's benefiting and balancing off the screen writing.