Shouts From Down Under

Reflections of noise...will we hear or listen?

There are mirrors. Have you ever seen the two movies Mirrors and Mirrors 1..2.. (?) is it a sequel? Anywayyy...

Be warned they are very mind bending, and the warning label does say STRONG HORROR / VIOLENCE.

But, horror doesn't quite "cut" it.

See, this type of horror, I believe, cuts deep all right. It plumbs the depths of the caveman fears in us. A deep primordial thing, yes a fear like dogs have of thunderstorms, this is what is cleverly taken advantage of in this movie.

There is a cool thing that can be developed in a story, a long story I think would be the only one that could do it. If you have something in the story from the beginning that is always there, fair in your face, right up until the end. It never changes, but is mentioned a lot. Then right at the end, that thing, whatever it is, suddenly does what the author intended all along.

It's a very startling event, and I've seen it / read it, and noted the effect that I felt, and wanted to be able to do that in my writing. Yes, I wanted to sneak off with this technique, or at least, remember it and maybe used it to good effect some day.

This happened in two books that I have read. One I can remember the author of, is Michael Crichton's Spares. At the beginning, story set wayyy in the future, they have malls so big they constantly fly. People live in them permanently. They are so big they have a hundred or more storeys and their own levels, castes, hierarchy, post codes etc. But one day, one broke down. Remember, this is all on the first couple of pages of the novel / story. So, it stayed long enough for people to get sick of it being in one spot, so they moved out. This turned into weeks, months and finally, the city it had landed in basically plumbed it in. It was a fixture.
The story continues, most pleasantly i might add, and the authors technique also extends to every single page being FULL of words. No spaces at all. This is odd, unless you consider that the style is insanely paced, hard hitting and totally no let up. It's fantastic.
And finally, after the story is almost finished, and you think its all over red rover, the MALL, that was plumbed in there, that was broken down, the huge flying monstrosity, was repaired, but a robot who had been lost for decades in the bowels of the thing, searching for part abc that when found, it stuck it into a RAM slot somewhere, and bingo, the huge thing started up again.

And...after a few hours or was it minutes of warning sirens, it flew again. ripped all the plumbed pipes and wires out I suppose, it flew off into the sunset.

So, that was one experience.

There was another story where in the beginning there was a blind guitar player. He was there, unassuming in the plot, a minor character, only mentioned in passing like somebody a tourist would see near the shops, a busker . The story goes on as stories do, and then, right at the end, the blind guitarist actually DOES something. It's the major twist in the plot. He stands up and walks. He was never blind, and he is far from harmless. Now, instead of "blending in" he becomes the main character. Oh yeah. He kicks butt.
His guitar hides a machine gun, the neck covers a barrel. He shoots. Etc.

Getting back to my reference to the movies Mirrors, and in the comments on the previous post, "Does anyone listen anymore?", I was thinking of jack-tyler 's thoroughness in looking up my comments etc and referring back to them. I try to be like that with reviews; checking out people's bio's, a quick peruse of their port, their general things such as membership date and age if it's there.

These things don't or shouldn't matter, but it gives you an idea of how you think they'll receive criticism, and if you can be "more honest" than not. Sounds conceited and condescending really, and hey, I'm nobody to be telling others what they've done wrong, particularly in the grammar and punctuation side of things.

And as far as publishing goes, and all the stuff behind it, I really have no idea. My limited writing knowledge comes from Dean Koont's non fiction book called Writing Bestselling Fiction, which I believe is packed full of timeless trade secrets. But perhaps it's not the bible of novelists that I think it is.

Whatever. Some of my knowledge or drive in writing, comes from seat of the pants experience in my life so far. And from reading everything I could from a young age. I can still hear my dear sister, (8 years my senior bro is 10 yrs older) getting me to repeat the right way to express the word Geography.

Blimprider's digging for facts and insight to "me" made me thing of people in general and their listening ability, or willingness.

Life is fast paced. Busy-ness has the whole world in its trap, it seems. Even way out in the sticks, on the huge plains of country in the USA, Australia, Russia I guess, China, everywhere, the land extends for miles, isolation, etc, but modern elements intrude even out there. Peace that was a given out there, is fast becoming a thing of the past, unless you are really lucky to avoid politics, council laws, etc etc etc. (OK, I'm a grumblebum but I hate this over-controlled world we live in)

So do people really listen anymore? Does anyone take the time to do things properly, and to listen to others? I find it a struggle to slow down, to remember what is valuable. What is really valuable is time for others.
We can't always get along, that's for sure, but we can still get along, if that makes sense. Disagreements have a way of sorting out eventually, because stuff happens.

One thing I'm glad of here, is that when people like Blimprider talk about the winter of their life, well, we're all heading that way, and I can hear the train whistle blowing as my train gathers pace on THAT track. Oh yeah I can hear the tracks a clackin and the stoker is a singin' and I'm lookin for the handbrake but it seems to have dimmed, or is it my eyes?

The point of mirrors is, a blog is like a one way mirror. But what if it was two way? Like the mirror in Mirrors that extra creepy movie? Two way, meaning that not only do I say stuff, but people say stuff, and the disagreements or differing views become a film that we pierce, a membrane that falls away, a veil that is rent in twain as it says, and though there is our way or the highway, and we all feel we are right, and no one else is, maybe we can use these times to cross that barrier.

We can really listen. It doesn't hurt. Hurt just comes from fear, fear that our opinion won't be heard, or be listened to more like. Fear that somehow our thoughts on something don't matter.

But they do. Just...just check the writing on the wall, on the police cars, on the street signs. Make sure it's written the right way...

Sparky