Writing is caring

By CherryX (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Something prompted me to start writing my novel* again.  Actually, a lot of somethings, including some personal experience.  But the tip of the iceberg was reading the first chapters in Notes on Life and Letters by one of my favorite authors (Joseph Conrad).  Interwoven in his discourse are two interrelated, simple points for writers:

1. Don't be pretentious.  Stay on the same level as your characters and avoid reigning over them.
2. Care about your characters.

This made me realize I am very good at liking my characters and very bad at caring about them.  Because writing is caring, and I had stopped writing.  One asks, "Why should I care?  Why should anybody care?"  That is where humility - intellectual humility, as Conrad puts it - comes in.  Be humble, and write for the sake of writing.  Don't be too lofty to immerse yourselves in your characters' world.

Putting it in a different perspective - let's say I don't care about my book that much.  But don't I care about my characters very much?  For me - who am drawn to character-driven books - this is the deciding point.  I love my characters.  Therefore, I will write their stories.

*Quasi-steampunk/alternative universe, with hints of dystopian/futuristic.  My sister has also been asking for the next installment of my Dracula retelling, so I'm going to be returning to that project, too. 

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Pain and Posture

My mom always told me to sit up straight.  My violin teacher always told me to relax my shoulders.  Now that things have come to a painful (pun intended) turning point, I wish I had given it some more thought, years ago.

This quarter I have had classes only twice a week, which means that, on those days, I am sitting for almost ten hours straight.  And who'da thunk, it hurts.  It hurts pretty bad.  I'm not one of those enviable people that can sit in a sort of trance; I have to move around and change position constantly.  It doesn't help that chairs are designed for taller people.  Naturally, the one sitting position that becomes the most painful is sitting up straight.  My upper back aches, my tight shoulders want to curl forward, and my neck invariably begins to feel rigid.  (Yes, I'm a wimp.) 

It is always more comfortable to slouch, but I don't want that anymore.  Pride (the healthy type) and pain have stepped in and made me realize that I don't want to look or feel horrible if I can help it.  I'm determined now to build up my strength until good posture feels more comfortable, like it should.  I also want to correct my "forward neck" while I still have a chance.  Better late than never.

Incidentally, these issues have become part of the stereotypical image of a computer programmer, hunched over a monitor.  There's a lot of truth in it, though; when I spend so many hours obsessed over code, it is easy to be distracted from watching my posture.  (Fortunately, I'm a creature of habit, so once I get a good habit started, it should become subconscious.) 

I guess what this post is about is my recommendation that, if you have posture problems, don't postpone correction.  You can put up with the physical unattractiveness indefinitely, but the physical pain that will come in these situations - whether you sit in lectures, at work, or at home on your laptop - is another thing entirely.  Take pictures of yourself, look at yourself in the mirror, etc., to identify your posture problems, and build up stamina when it is still relatively comfortable and convenient to do so.  You just don't want to wait until pain becomes your motivation.

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Paperman (short film)

All right, Disney, whatever happened to these kinds of films?  Now we know you can still make them.  I'm watching it again, it's that cute.  ♥

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Why The Hobbit Makes the Perfect Valentine's Day Movie

{February 13, according to Fandango, appears to be the last day The Hobbit AUJ will be showing in theaters.  (In Java programming, we would call this an "off-by-one" error.)  Still, this post is totally legit if you celebrate St. Valentine's Day early, or stretch it out over two days.  :)  Here goes.}

Though I would find any excuse to re-watch it, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey really qualifies itself as a great Valentine's Day film.  This, for the number one reason: a central theme in the story is love.  At face value, The Hobbit is only a lighthearted fantasy saga with some fairytale villains and a comedic unlikely hero, who has a love/hate relationship with the idea of "going on an adventure."  But the core of the story, through which it serves as a perfect prequel to The Lord of the Rings, is much deeper: it is built on the ongoing conflict between good and evil, vengeance and forgiveness, and hatred and love.

* * *

As Balin wryly puts it, there's nothing heroic about him or the other twelve dwarves who show up for "An Unexpected Party" at the hobbit's home.  Bilbo Baggins would agree; he is disgusted by his unwanted guests and feels quite superior in about every way (especially table manners).  The one exception is their kingly leader, Thorin Oakenshield.  He is a proud dwarf dead-set on fulfilling his seemingly crazy plan: to retake - from the dragon Smaug - his ancestral home and fortune that is buried inside the Lonely Mountain.

Though he knows well their several faults, Thorin respects and loves his followers like brothers; his simple and only request of them is "Loyalty, honor, and willing heart.  I can ask no more than that."  He puts aside his pride because he loves his people, and they stick by him with loyalty equal to his own.  Eventually, Bilbo is also persuaded to help him.

In a similar vein, the wizard Gandalf's loyalty to a free Middle Earth is so strong that it forces him to endure scorn (and later, persecution) from his leader, Saruman, in order to plead with him for its safety's sake:

Gandalf refuses to ignore his own Churchillian intuition, and instead insists on explaining what he has learned about the growing evil, not because it is comfortable but because it is true.  His self-sacrifice in The Hobbit is a relatively small one, yet without this first step he would not be able to give more, as he later does in The Lord of the Rings.  Gandalf's love is a fatherly love, and one wedded to preparedness.
 
For, as he tries to tell Bilbo, enemies will appear where none are expected, and in unexpected forms.  At the start of his travels, Bilbo can hardly comprehend the idea of having enemies, or wishing to deal them death.  He soon finds this becoming increasingly easier. What catches him completely unawares is the temptation to hate, seemingly justified by the fact that the one he hates is his would-be murderer.  It is only after an immense mental struggle that Bilbo overcomes this hatred and learns to love his enemy.  After this, and only afterwards, is he finally able to have mercy on one who is determined to kill him.

The Hobbit, then, is not an obvious choice for Valentine's Day movie night, yet repeatedly love plays a vital role in the storyline.  Even true romantic love, despite its absence, is related to each of the types of love in The Hobbit: they are all gifts given unselfishly, as sincere love always is.

Source: google.com via Susan on Pinterest  | Eowyn and Faramir, from The Return of the King

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.  But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.”
- The Fellowship of the Ring

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