Jay Lake: Writer

[movies] The Adventures of Tintin

I went to see The Adventures of Tintin [ imdb ] yesterday by myself, several successive plans to go with the_child and her mother having fallen through. I found the movie enjoyable but not fabulous, and wound up spending as much time thinking about production values and processes as I did about story. That represents value for my entertainment dollar, I suppose, but not necessarily as the producers and director intended.

Speaking of producers and director, I was struck by the number of Big Names associated with this film. Amblin Entertainment, WingNut FIlms, Nickelodeon, Columbia and Paramount. I pay very little attention to the business side of Hollywood, but this seems odd even to me.

The story was serviceable and entertaining, with only a few “come on, really?” moments. (The falcon chase scene was one of those for me.) I could have done with a bit less boozy bullshit from Captain Haddock, but there were plenty of clever and funny bits to offset my mild annoyances. It never really grabbed me, though, and I’m not sure what might have been changed in order to have grabbed me.

As i said, I wound up being a lot more fascinated by the production itself. There are whole stretches of this movie where it barely looks like animation at all. If not for an effort to maintain Hergé’s visual style with the characters (which was certainly the correct production decision in my opinion), the people would have been almost alarming realistic. Tintin himself, with his snub nose, is almost convincing, as are many of the background characters. I think with this movie, film animators have very nearly bridged the uncanny valley.

I’m specifically thinking back to the transitions in how the humans are rendered in the three Toy Story movies (1995, 1999, 2010). In the first movie, the human characters are cartoonish, caricatures really except for Andy himself. They don’t come anywhere near the uncanny valley. By the third movie, people look if not realistic at least convincing. They’re approaching the uncanny valley. Or compare Tintin to Polar Express [ imdb ], where I for one find the animation disturbing to the point of nightmarish, stuck deep in the shadows at the bottom of the valley. Tintin manages to gain a foothold on this side of the valley with its characters, reinforced by the nearly photorealistic animation of sets, props, vehicles, etc.

Honestly, for the story you could wait for the dollar theatre or the DVD rental. But if you’re interested in animation and the technology of cinema, The Adventures of Tintin is worth seeing on the big screen.

Tags: Child, Movies, reviews

Posted: 8:19 am Sun January 08 2012 | Comments(4) |

[photos] Your Sunday moment of zen

Your Sunday moment of zen.

Self-portrait by the Child. © 2007, 2011, B. Lake

This work by B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Photos, zen

Posted: 8:39 am Sun December 18 2011 | Comments(0) |

[personal] On writing, maturity and my personality

On the LiveJournal side of my recent post on perseverance [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ], inflectionpoint asked in comments:

Very curious about how your personality is an artifact of your middle age. Can you say more?

I responded:

This probably merits a blog post of its own, rather than a comment reply, but in very short form, I was a pretty introverted and clueless child, teen and young adult. Sometime in my mid-to-late thirties I finally shed a lot of those inhibitions and that social blindness and tuned in to the people around me. I actually credit my personal growth to the effort I put into my writing, but that’s probably somewhat arguable. I suspect it was an effect of delayed maturity more than anything.

mmegaera followed up with this comment:

I don’t think one’s level of intro/extroversion has anything to do with one’s maturity, to be honest, and it kind of bothers me to hear someone say so in that manner.

My response to that was:

I shouldn’t think so as a general rule, given that introversion/extroversion seems to be nearly an intrinsic personality characteristic, but in my case this was definitely so. I became more extroverted as I matured and better grasped the rules of social intercourse, so to speak. Presumably I always had the impulse to extroversion, but for years was very bad at expressing myself or knowing how to fit in. That’s what maturity gave me.

It’s undeniable that I have been a very different person since my late thirties than I was in my teens, twenties or early thirties. (For reference, I am 47 now.) I can’t speak for how others see me, but how I see myself has changed radically. I’m much more comfortable with myself and others, far more self-confident without being particularly self-conscious, much less concerned with how people see me or judge me, and generally a lot more relaxed and happier than ever I was earlier on in my life.

My experience of this transition is that it occurred at the same time that I was emerging as a working pro author. The transitions of writing and the business of my career opened doors in my head and heart that I barely knew were there. This centeredness and sense of self has been one of the great gifts that writing has given me.

Emerging authors famously go through a lot of transitions. The number of second book divorces and relationship collapses is legendary. My personal opinion is that this has to do with a shift in worldview as the writerbrain really engages and becomes an enmeshed part of the writer’s personality. Everything changed for me — life goals, daily habits and behaviors, basic outlook.

I really can’t say if it works this way for others. In fact, I’m quite curious about your experiences. Has writing changed your life? How? Was it for the better? Would you go back? Or are you just the same as you ever were?

Tags: Personal, Process, Publishing

Posted: 9:42 am Mon December 05 2011 | Comments(5) |

[cancer|conventions] Failing chemo, dropping by OryCon

Yesterday I failed out of chemo. Among other things, this means I’ll drop by OryCon today, probably noon to three. I don’t have a badge, so I’ll be loitering in the public spaces of the lobby, and possibly signing stock in the dealer room if someone can get me in there.

As for the chemo, my potassium levels were pretty depleted, but my blood chemistry and immune system were otherwise on board. My oncologist’s concern was that putting me through another round of infusion while my GI problems were still so very unsettled would likely land me in the hospital next week. An outcome to be avoided all around. So we’ve postponed to 11/18 for session nine of twelve. Which, since I had a ‘skip’ week coming up anyway due to Thanksgiving, doesn’t change the November calender. They kept me in the center about four hours anyway, infusing me with some potassium solution and rehydrating me.

I’m still pretty unhappy about the change, because I want this over with so bad. And to add injury to insult, I spilled hot tea on myself this morning. I thought I’d given myself a first degree burn, but swift and lengthy intervention with an ice pack seems to have helped considerably.

Anyway, I may see some of you during my brief appearance at OryCon today. Otherwise laying low at home all weekend, still ill.

Tags: Cancer, Conventions, health, Personal

Posted: 9:17 am Sat November 12 2011 | Comments(1) |

[personal] Not so much to report

Yesterday I took off from Day Jobbery, as I have been doing post-chemo now. Quiet day, other than a Neulasta shot, attending the_child‘s Halloween school assembly where her class performed “The Monster Mash” pretty hilariously, and watching a bad movie with H— last night. (Jet Li, whom I always enjoy, in The One, which I cannot recommend.) Weird dreams about giraffes and lions in New Zealand last night, as well.

Workie bits today and laying low. Hope your day is interesting and fruitful. Me, I’ll settle for calm. I’m not good for much more at this point in the chemo cycle.

Tags: Cancer, Child, friends, health, Movies, Personal

Posted: 5:31 am Tue November 01 2011 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Wednesday moment of zen

Your Wednesday moment of zen.

Cell block at Alcatraz © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Photos, zen

Posted: 5:50 am Wed October 26 2011 | Comments(0) |

[cancer] An index to my cancer blogging

Lo and behold, my recent project has borne fruit. I now have an index to my cancer blogging. This is an edited down links list, organized roughly by topic, with key posts highlighted in bold.

The goal here is both to help me find my own thread of thoughts preparatory to outlining a nonfiction project or two, and more importantly, to make my cancer blogging at least somewhat accessible to new readers.

One of the most moving and rewarding aspects of my cancer journey has been to hear from patients, their families and their caregivers about how my writing has helped mutual understanding, and sometimes provided words in situations where communication was difficult. These days I receive as much fan mail for my writing about cancer as I do for my fiction. So I felt it would be useful to provide a somewhat organized access to my blogging on the topic.

Doubtless I will be as dreadfully dilatory about maintaining these indices as I am about maintaining my bibliography, but at least it’s a start. I’ve put a link to the index in the sidebar of my LiveJoural as well as on the home page of my Web site. I will try to remember to include the index link periodically in my cancer posts as well, for the benefit of newer readers.

Meanwhile, well, at least there’s some coherence to a great deal of history over the past few years.

I am pleased.

Tags: Cancer, health, Personal

Posted: 5:40 am Thu September 29 2011 | Comments(0) |

[cancer] From the ICU

Lillypond, posting for Jay, “I am alive and well and befuddled”

Tags:

Posted: 6:33 pm Tue July 19 2011 | Comments(3) |

[cancer] On invisibility

Having come back from Readercon yesterday, I can confirm a phenomenon I first observed at the Locus Awards in late June. It is thus:

My hair loss from chemo has rendered me almost invisible. Or at least unrecognizable.

People I’ve known for years will walk right past me. Even if I wave or greet them, I often get the generic busy author nod with a clear lack of engagement. For a number of folks I had to either get within badge-reading distance, or state my name.

It’s a very peculiar feeling. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so anonymous. But without my hair, and especially without my beard, I simple don’t look like myself. I’m sure the effect is magnified by my chemo fatigue body language, which isn’t my usual energetic vibration state.

So far, I’ve for the most part found this amusing. At some point it will stop being funny and start being annoying.

Tags: Cancer, Conventions, Funny, health, weird

Posted: 5:04 am Mon July 18 2011 | Comments(0) |

[cancer|personal] Energy and focus

So the new drug regime of Zyprexa+Lorazepam really does seem to do the trick of getting me through the chemo weekend largely intact. The nausea has been a complete non-issue twice now. My bounceback is much more robust as well. Given that my prescription schedule extends through Monday night, I am irked by the logeyness and slowed mental acuity going into the post-chemo week, but those aren’t too severe. Of course, part of my being a bit ‘off’ yesterday surely has as much to do with pushing myself to travel on Monday as anything.

Still, yesterday I put in a full day’s work at the office while the_child bombed around with elusivem. We all had dinner together as well. I even managed to patch together a good hour of writing and WRPA even through brain fog. No ballooning due to weather issues, but possibly better luck today.

As for writing, I’d like to get this story that I’ve started completed to first draft in the next day or two. I have to noodle with another concept piece I’ve agreed to participate in. Then, hopefully by the weekend, back to Sunspin. I really want to make some progress before surgery takes me out of the game for a while, in less than three weeks.

Wake up, brain, wake up!

Tags: Cancer, Child, friends, health, Omaha, Personal, stories, Travel, Writing

Posted: 5:16 am Wed July 06 2011 | Comments(0) |