Archive for the 'Books' Category

Kill Your Darlings (and Theirs)

Published on February 10, 2012 in Books, Movies and Music, Personal Development and Writing. 0 Comments

I’m currently reading Lee Sheldon’s Character Development and Storytelling for Games, and this passage hit me pretty hard.

If you can get to the point where your favorite game no longer entertains you, you will have taken a crucial step toward understanding how it worked its magic. It can be a sad moment and an exhilarating one all at the same time.

This wasn’t the first time I’d read this. Robert McKee makes it a point to pound this into your head in his book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting. But it was the first that it hit really me in a way I’d never thought about.

I got a degree in music composition. I studied music for years–or so I thought, until today. I spent hours copying manuscripts, from Bach to Stravinsky. Yet, I was never able to master the art of composition to the point where I could write the music I truly enjoyed and admired. (I could wrote a lot of what I liked, but more often than not I would stumble across a cool technique rather than putting it there purposely.) My teachers were great, taking the time to really show me how they did things. They encouraged me to study all kinds of music, from Purcell to Cage to Weezer to Rob Dougan. But I never sat there and broke down what I loved. I was always afraid, unwilling to take something I loved off that pedestal to brake it apart line by line, note by note, to see why it was that I loved it.  As a consequence I never learned what made them work for me so well.

This was to my detriment. I was a bad student. And I missed an opportunity to not just further my art, but also learn about myself and improve my skill in the process.

Lesson here: “Kill your darlings.” It’s not just about all those “awesome” scenes your wrote, but also about those awesome scenes you wish you had. The first you hack to death. The second you deconstruct to oblivion. This applies to music, games, books, and anything you want to excel at.

Ayn Rand’s Anthem: A Quick Review

Published on July 20, 2009 in Books. 1 Comment

Anthem Anthem by Ayn Rand

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Synopsis: The book first starts out as a dystopian socialist type of society where everyone refers to themselves as “We” (no concept of individualism). This, along with the main protagonist’s journey, mirrors that of Winston’s in Orwell’s 1984. Eventually, the main protagonist runs away from this society and discovers individualism. While the first part of the book scrutinizes the evils of runaway socialism and communism, the second part, the climax, exalts the virtues of selfishness. It’s like saying “The cure of Marx is Nietzsche.”

The book, while interesting from a psychological and philosophical point of view, nevertheless ends up as a diatribe, an ode to selfishness where the lesson taught is beat over the reader’s head; I at this point had to take a break from reading. While reading the conclusions I couldn’t help but think “this is wrong in SO many ways.” But I’ll give the book and author the benefit of the doubt: it was written during a time when the consequences of pure selfishness on a grand scale were as yet unfamiliar and unfathomable to the author. On a micro scale, the power of individualism is a great thing, and that which she exalts should be taken to heart by anyone: no one reading this should walk away without having learned something about the importance of individuality even when it runs counter to society. But this will to power, this rugged individualism shouldn’t be the basis of a societal system. In that sense I hope anyone reading this can see past her myopic fear of socialism and see the true danger: extremism and universal applications of a simplistic idea.

P.S.
If you’re into books check out GoodReads , and feel fee to friend me there if you see me around. I’d love to see what you’re reading.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Published on June 16, 2008 in Books, Life and Science Fiction. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max BrooksZombies. They’re sort of like vampires, but nowhere near as popular. Why is that? Aside from the fact that their mythology hasn’t yet been sexed up and corrupted, it’s because there’s not a lot of great zombie literature. Max Brooks’s World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War puts that excuse to rest. In short, it is to the zombie genre what Bram Stoker’s Dracula is to the vampire genre. And like with Dracula, if all zombie stories henceforth would use WWZ as a template, the literary world of the living dead will be a more enjoyable place. Continue reading ‘World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War’

Recent Book Purchases

Published on June 10, 2008 in Books. 2 Comments

Just put an order in with Amazon for a few books. Wanted to know if any readers have read any of these, and if so, what did you think?