What an amazing piece of nature Yet, reflecting the other side of its torture A place of inspiration Yet, the site for depression The commonality or all visible interactions Yet, the disparity of all information The presence of life abounds Yet, the absence of death abounds A creation of the living and non living essence Yet, a design of vacuum residence
Title: One Man’s Deep Words
Adapted from a book by Chimezie Ihekuna (Mr. Ben)
Screenwriter: Robert Sacchi
Genre: Drama
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Mr. Griffins, six feet tall, handsome but frowning, always in a suit, middle-aged Euro-American Philosophy lecturer at the University of Maryland, was good at what he loved doing most: lecturing all levels of philosophy students. He was so knowledgeable in the subject that most students saw him as the best of all philosophy lecturers at the Department of Philosophy. However, ‘Professor’, as he was popularly called, was plagued with a challenge. He was tired of following the “by the books” tradition. Professor looked forward to a time when Philosophy would pay back the dues he had paid to it – to come up with ideologies that would stand the test of time.
Charles and Kelvin were freshmen at the university studying Philosophy. From their first to their final years, they have been under the tutelage of Mr. Griffins but realized his displeasure despite his teaching proficiency. This got his students unhappy with him. It soon got to the point that one of his students, Adam, during an hour-long lecture, amplified Griffin’s innate desire by asking: “Mr. Know It All, when will you come up with your own ideologies?!” This stirred a wind of change that affected his personality completely.
Inspired by Adam and Sandra, his wife of twenty years, and encouraged by his students and friends Charles and Kelvin, Mr. Griffins wrote the most thought-provoking, national and international bestselling, philosophy-based book the university has ever recorded in its history – One Man’s Deep Words. He was awarded the university award for “Most Outstanding Lecturer of all Time.” Along with being a highly regarded philosophy text, his book influenced other departments of the university in many ways.
After writing a thesis based on his bestseller, he was awarded a Doctorate Degree in Philosophy. Three years later, he retired and wrote full time. With his name poised over every nook and cranny of Maryland and different prizes to his credit, Dr. Griffins has now written four great works, which have been reviewed in the Washington Post, Seattle Times, New York Times, ABC, Fox and a host of other major media outlets. He has been interviewed on podcasts and radio programs and in magazines by most media outfits in the United States and some in Canada.
Universes In The Sky Lying upon obsidian ground A Pneuman child stares at universes Like stars in the night sky The spiraling of galaxies and the crashing of cosmoses Are but flickers Explosions of physics and feelings Are but distant episodes What comprises totality for many Is just a point of amusement
Anthony David Vernon's publishing credits include A Great Fire (2020 Cabinet of Heed), The Warrior King (2020 The Mindful Word), Seven Scripts (2021 The New Mystics), and An Echo An Echo (2021 The Drabble).
HERO VS. VILLAINS
“Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
So, Martin Scorcese compares Marvel movies to theme parks. And honestly, what a mood.
True, this isn´t exactly the newsworthy material, Ricky Gervais discussed Scorcese´s top-notch diss of superhero culture movies during his monologue at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards.
But it recently popped up in my recommended videos because the Youtube algorithm works in mysterious ways and got to thinking – is it just about shallow screenwriting and the allure of cheap CGI action, the mindless fun?
And I realized that the problem of Marvel storytelling runs even deeper than the genius director conveyed to us out loud – that it heavily influenced the type of novels we get to read – and it´s not exactly Marvel´s fault … Not entirely.
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS
One-dimensional characters or flat characters do not change or grow from the start of the story to the end. Their purpose is to highlight the main character, to be a plot device, or a tool, and they typically are simpletons with a one point of view on life – they only see one dimension – hence one-dimensional characters, hold a simple and small perspective about life or the situation in the story. Their character is often used as a literary device to keep the narrative moving – many times when the script has written itself into a corner, or the writer has run out of effective ways to move the plot forward.
Now, Marvel, from the three-hundred and seventy-two movies total from which I´ve seen eighteen, does not suffer from one-dimensional characters on the hero side of the story. All the good guys go through trauma, they learn, they grow, they develop new opinions (ehm-ehm- some of them).
Marvel has been criticized for sucking at writing an effective villain but the problem is not the villains, the problem is the root of the Marvel storytelling – the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad.
One would think that they would take their own advice and write all the villains the way Loki is written – which is the reason (not the only one, yeah, Tom Hiddleston is awesome and all that) why audiences flock to him so much. He has a strong motivation, he´s smart and his character is a rainbow of personalities – just like a regular human being, which makes him likable and most importantly, relatable.
But Marvel is not the inventor of one-dimensional characters.
William Shakespeare is.
Benvolio from Romeo and Juliet, Gertrude from Hamlet, Shylock from The Merchant of Venice very effective plot devices with one stubborn character feature that poses an obstacle to the protagonist.
However, Shakespeare didn´t have Hollywood studios behind him to balance out the lack of personalities in his stories with raging beam in the sky and generic CGI armies. To give a complete experience to audiences, he had to support the narrative by creating strong protagonists, interesting antagonists, and villains with complex personalities (Lady Macbeth, Hamlet, Portia). And when you do that, your story not only allows for the one-dimensional character to make sense, it makes it even more immersive and realistic – because we all know that one blank person who is just sort of … there. Existing, with one opinion on all the debatable, morally grey, complicated stuff we deal with in life.
And that´s why people will never have such a raging allergy if a Marvel movie turns out bad and will keep watching them and paying for the next one and the next one and the next one.
Low stakes, low damage.
Now compare that to a show heavily driven by character development where there are no villains and heroes like the Game of Thrones.
Feel like re-watching it? No? Me neither. And no one can blame us. That show became un-rewatchable due to replacing the complexity of the human heart with a hero vs. villain storytelling and adding some explosive Marvel-type action as the final lethal, cyanide-like icing on the cake.
IN BOOKS
All the teenage apocalyptic series. Thank you for your time, good night.
….
I really didn´t want to get into this but there is no better example than the popular doomsday book series where children hunt each other in a world that no longer resembles a rational society. And they gave us all the subsequent movie franchises in which those very same teenagers are at least twenty-six years old, of course.
However, there is a silver lining on the horizon in a form of Shadow and Bone. I´ve never read the books but the popular fantasy book series The Grisha has been picked up by Netflix and the first book has been adapted in a form of a limited TV series.
And if the source material is as strong as the adaptation, we might just be plunging out of the lazy storytelling brought about by the likes of Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey.
DOES I AM CECILIA DO BETTER THAN THAT?
Cecilia used to think that being born to a small fortune, accompanied by chrysanthemums on the way from the hospital and surrounded by exploding fanfares of affection, would set her up for a never-ending life of lottery wins, parades without rain, and smooth slides on the slopes of adoration. She never realized how slippery that slope of adoration was. Maybe money was not the root of all evil. Family dysfunction was.
As promised last time in the first article, I would reveal a little bit behind the story and the inspiration behind writing this YA novel.
The hero vs. villain in the Marvel movies is something that was always on my mind and tried to avoid during writing. Blurring the lines in the protagonist/antagonist/villain/anti-hero characterization. Not just because it´s a lot of fun but because it makes for a rich experience.
When you find yourself disliking the hero yet rooting for them anyway, or loving the villain yet understanding that they have to be stopped – the writer is probably doing it right.
I am Cecilia is now available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/I-am-Cecilia-Zara-Miller-ebook/dp/B094519D7T/ref
You can follow me on Instagram @zaramiller_author, or on LinkedIn under Zara Miller for more news and swoon-worthy fiction content. Looking forward to meeting you all!
Under the Sky
Sky observes daily
Below it.
Many walkers
Looking around do not
Know about the gateway to man-made heaven.
It should not be a poem every time to
Talk about sky, rain and the sun.
Cracks on my ceiling
Climbs down to my spine
I search coherence in my papers
Grasses are gentle
Thorns sometimes pain the eye
Without pricking the finger.
Most of the time it is the beating heart
Afraid of the vastness above the clouds.
Homeless World
Homeless still people live
No lights are lit to turn off
No sheets and high held pillows
To wipe the tears.
No time to set an alarm for the morning
No morning to rest for the day.
How to live without staring at the ceiling?
Makes me wonder about the stars
Sky of vast blanket can rain
Can cause the unwanted pour
Still life is carried
To sail like the every other leaf
Swept by the rain water.
Sanctions I walk my dog four times a day. There is nothing special about such a routine, but if I tell you I feed my Loulou Spitz at the expense of my nutritional intake, would you call me insane? This is my outfit for these daily strolls, a woolen jumper to match her fluffy coat, a baggy jeans due to heavy weight loss, and hair in a knot for absence of gloss. We wait for justice to ascend its throne, for sanctions to be lifted for a sun-born dawn, for wreckage to be sifted to salvage unburied bones, for the return of electricity to current-less bulbs, for the advent of bread to hungry households without the discord that long queues invoke, for our dignity to be restored. If I fly, I will first class For eleven years, we have played our portion of the Hunger Games, and having survived these plights, who says I am ready to depart from my own homeland for a better world? I might, but not before I am equipped with a beautiful, stone house and a well-fed bank account, a life to return to should you humiliate me as you did in past times, for we will always be refugees in your own misapprehending eyes. If I fly, I will first class, but I am done with flights. They evoke a poor student’s unhappy times. Instead, I shall travel in a luxury car and have as many stops as there are stars in our night sky, accompanied by my un-quarantined little dog, even if it takes years to reach the designated house, which should be totally devoid of other inmates and accessories that remind me of a poisoned past. You will probably respond by stating that I am in position to dictate what I like I say: “Suit yourselves, for having blasted our lives, you cannot make things any worse”. Bonne Chance ! Reminiscence [In memory of my father] A few words would sum up my childhood: strawberries, chocolate, toys, and a rowing boat, a chimney whose logs roaring glowed, the huge mirror before which I danced in our hall and rivers across which we tried to build bridges of stone. My dad had Da Vinci up the wall. He played his golden trumpet and silver saxophone. He prepared our breakfasts, our evening popcorn and set up a banquet for us before he dined outside our home. He never grew tired of wearing blue, enchanting us with his aftershave and Brut, and I could not help wearing his expensive perfume despite his gentle pleas to stop depleting his fragrant store. His few business trips abroad brought us accounts of travel that enthralled, the Château of The Count of Monte Cristo and the glamorous yachts of Monaco. He looked like Rock Hudson in his teens. Some opt for resemblance to James Dean. I say regardless of his handsome mien, he was the most generous dad that ever breathed. Finales Finales vary in their various tints: the tragic, the comic, and the open-end. Very few can boast an apocalyptic bend or a happy content. Those that are weaved on misfortune’s wheel appeal to the lachrymose, the morose, the realist, who attribute their plights to a vengeful god like the afflicted Mayor of Casterbridge. Those that are blessed with a humorous twist lend each mishap a sardonic concept, breeding a troop of permanent grins on contorted lips. The open-end titillates each wit, some wishful thinking to compete with a naturalistic trend, leaving the interpreter caught up in net of inner conflicts.