I’m taking a brief break this week from the Literature You Should Know posts to share some reflections on a topic that came up as I prepared to teach a poetry-writing class. Most of us found this blog through and want to talk about culture because we’re content creators of a conservatarian bent. But whether you’re a poet, novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, TV producer, songwriter, or blogger, I want to ask you one simple question:
Who’s your audience?
No matter what we write, we write for an audience, even if it’s only an audience of one. It doesn’t matter whether you immediately close the document without saving or burn the paper you’ve just written on—you wouldn’t put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard unless you wanted to say something to someone else. And audience awareness becomes all the more critical when you publish, regardless of medium.
Granted, the question need not arise at the outset. Sometimes you have to get the idea written before you figure out who you’re writing it to. And sometimes the audience you have in mind when you start writing and the audience who’ll appreciate what you have at the end of your first draft are vastly different, in which case you have to decide whether to keep going, revise heavily, or start over from scratch. Sooner or later, though, you’re going to need to figure out who your audience is, if only to make sure the marketing campaign takes the right path.
For example, when it came time to hash out a cover design for my novella , I didn’t have a clue what I wanted because the story mixes so many genres at once. Is it fantasy? Alt-history? World War II? Western? Trying to cram them all in would make for a terrible mess, but what should appear and what shouldn’t? I knew what the local market would find most interesting, but my cover artist knew that a broader market would be most interested in another aspect entirely! Fortunately, my rambling about where I plan to take the rest of the series helped her prompt me to look for other covers I liked in the historical fantasy field, and that got us on the same page at last.
Audience awareness doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be afraid to say something. It does mean you have to figure out the best way to say it and be willing to defend your choices if and when you receive any backlash. I know, for example, that some people in my hometown will pick up Look Behind You simply because I wrote it and be Shocked! at the fantasy elements (especially a Christian writing about Nazi necromancers!!!), generally because they’re unaware of the history I’ve incorporated. So I try to give fair warning when I talk to people, and I’ve written a blog post explaining that no, I’ve not gone off the deep end… and I’m leaving it at that. Caveat lector. Conversely, I’m sure there are people who’ll read the book for the Nazi necromancers and find other elements too Christian! And, well, caveat lector again… I went to Baylor, after all.
There are limits, though, to which caveat lector applies. One is the point at which it runs up against “show, don’t tell.” A long-winded digression on why people can’t just do the right thing isn’t going to be nearly as effective as Merry challenging the Ents to take action against Saruman in movie-verse The Two Towers or a group of cowboys conversing over a meal and a beer, expressing their dismay over the townspeople’s unwillingness to risk their own lives to help a neighbor. (I used the latter scene in , if you want to see how it works.) Another limit is the point at which the message becomes more important than the story. A conservative/libertarian message isn’t any more attractive in this regard than a liberal one. If you’re writing only to people who already agree with you, it might not matter so much. If you’re trying to reach a liberal audience, though, it’s more important that the story be good—if you want to make a point about the ticking time bomb dilemma, for instance, write something like 24. Get the liberals sucked into an engaging adventure and then watch them squirm as they grapple with its implications.
You can’t reason people out of a position they weren’t reasoned into. But you can make them question their assumptions with a well-told story. And it’s easiest to craft the right story in the right way if you know your audience.
Begrudgingly, I’ll put Michigan State up here. Although they play in what I consider the weakest of the major conferences, and despite the fact that three of their out-of-conference games are Jacksonville State, East Michigan, and Wyoming, they do have one make-or-break game: Sept 6th vs 
Anyway, before I become too cynical, the trailer for his new film titled “
communication to be had, except for the text displayed on screen, the trailer almost plays out like a two-and-a-half minute montage over chillingly effective music. Each character is introduced utilizing some form of technology as a means of communication, as opposed to face-to-face communication. And therein lies the purpose (which is driven home pretty hard from the first five seconds of the trailer). If you can’t already see where I’m going with this, it’s essentially about the effects that technology has on our lives. That’s what I gathered, although it did leave me wanting to know more. Job well done for that. It also seemed creatively effective to have no dialogue spoken throughout the trailer, perhaps to enforce the overall idea that the film is about a lack of communication between people today.
I won’t mince words with you: I hate movie theatres, and I hate myself for it. I don’t know how it happens to me, but I become some cynical old curmudgeon when my film-buff of a husband asks if we can go see the latest flick, and it’s quite a visceral response. But it wasn’t always this way. I remember quite often going with friends to the movies and seeing big blockbusters for the first time on the big screen: 
Netflix has turned a movie theater into a large living room with an even larger cover charge. And it’s a real double-edged sword, because I love Netflix. I love knowing that I can access films (a lot of them 
And the film before that? 
How could free people willingly subject themselves to a monstrous tyranny? That’s the question Swiss author 
Biedermann’s bluster falls flat, however, when a homeless former heavyweight wrestler named Josef Schmitz politely forces his way into Biedermann’s house and asks permission to spend the night. Even though Biedermann has just read a newspaper article stating that the arsonists’ MO always begins this way, he’s too terrified that Schmitz will hurt him—or worse, think ill of him—to throw Schmitz out or call the police. Schmitz even gets material for emotional blackmail when the inventor asks to see Biedermann and Biedermann tells him either to sue or to kill himself. Using a mixture of sentimentality, flattery, and appeal for trust, Schmitz manipulates Biedermann into letting him sleep in the attic and hiding the fact from Babette.
The local fire department serves throughout the play as a chorus, commenting on the action and even breaking with classical convention to speak directly to Biedermann and warn him of his danger. Despite the ominous tone of their contributions, however, their point is that the entirely foreseeable end of the play is also entirely evitable. Even when Biedermann has to admit his suspicions to himself and to the audience, he clings to the desperate false hope that if he just stays on the firebugs’ good side, they’ll spare him. But then he turns the tables on the audience at the end of his soliloquy by asking, “What would you have done, dammitall, if you were in my place? And when?”
So naturally last weekend, I re-watched Hook—that critically derided Peter Pan sequel that has a 30 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The premise of Hook could have been better executed, sure, but we still have some terrific moments, particularly when adult Peter remembers his happy thought and rediscovers his ability to fly—one of my all-time favorite scenes of any movie. The emphasis on the importance of family is a great focal point, especially since that was “the one joy from which (Peter) must be forever barred,” according to the J.M. Barrie novel. The big battle finale is tremendous fun, even if it does go on a little too long and I’m not quite sure how that crocodile eats Captain Hook. Was it even supposed to be alive?
It’s been a long time coming. A very, very long time. Ever since the first “Sin City” was released in 2005, there have been talks of a sequel based on the graphic novel franchise, this one subtitled “A Dame to Kill For.” Early rumors wanted 
favorite trailers to this day. So, perhaps my expectations were already set at an unrealistic high. But I must digress for now. The opening of this trailer sets a familiar tone to its’ predecessor, but as we are introduced to the characters one by one, it is clear that the stakes are rising. Multiple storylines intersect here, each one centered on revenge. Marv (
An adequate summary of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s is far beyond the scope of this post. There are too many 
Already fighting a fever and crippled with guilt over seeing the logical, practical consequences of his philosophy, Ivan suffers a major psychotic break. Alyosha nurses him through the night, but when Ivan finally appears at Dmitri’s trial the next day, he’s so incoherent that even his revelations of the truth are dismissed out of hand. Without another witness to confirm any of what Ivan says, the peasant jury convicts Dmitri, and the judge sentences him to twenty years in Siberia. Ivan has already arranged for Dmitri to escape to America, and he tells Alyosha he could never kill himself; but his repentance has come too late and at the cost of his health and sanity.
It’s no secret 
A further note on the tone makes Guardians of the Galaxy especially fascinating in the Marvel canon (and I say this as someone versed in the films with little knowledge of the comics). The universe of Star-Lord, of Ronan and Xandar, feels much more like Star Wars or the 
It is set in a society modeled right out of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”. Everything is peaceful and serene; there is no crime, violence, or poverty; and overtly ‘happy’ citizens go about their routines.
And it’s not just the script… This movie should have presented the film-makers with a ton of opportunities show the audience what it’s like to experience powerful new emotions after a lifetime of monotony, but none of the aesthetic choices do those moments any justice at all. Throughout the film we go from black & white to color, and the music & sound design go from virtually non-existent and grow increasingly prominent, but given that we’ve already seen this technique in films like The Wizard of Oz and Pleasantville, it’s not remotely innovative stuff.
The Little League World Series begins today, one of our nations most beloved annual sporting events (along with the National Spelling Bee 
The mood of our country and perhaps the world in 1979 doesn’t seem to be all too different than what we’ve got going on now. From an American Ambassador being killed by Muslim extremists, to commercial airliner tragedies, to news reporters being killed, to US backed governments being toppled by radicals, to gay rights topping social headlines, to rising energy prices and plummeting Presidential approval ratings (President Carter’s rating in June of ‘79 sat at a cool 28%), present day is more like “second verse – same as the first.”
(Portland, OR and Santa Monica, CA cry tears of joy). After a couple of more horrible successors to Carter, John Ritter portrays President Chet Roosevelt (a distant relative certainly) who is elected by the people based on one simple platform “I am not a schmuck.” And like most politicians before him, he can’t even seem to keep that one promise. Ritter’s performance offers up in my mind what a Joe Biden presidency would look like. Especially when President Roosevelt passes a group of Chinese tourists on a tour of the Western White House in Marina Del Ray and tells them how much he just loves Chinese Food. He even concludes his addresses to the nation with “I’m your president, and I love you.”
Harvey Korman’s character, a pill popping TV star named Monty Rushmore (see, the puns fly at you a mile a minute) is hired to be the host of the telethon. He’s chosen over a popular game show host, 70’s TV legend Chuck Barris, who’s latest game show is having people guess the size of each other’s genitals. (America, whatta country!) Rushmore is the star of a hit tv sit-com where he plays a widower raising a young son. Aww, I know. Both father and son are cross-dressers too.
Unless you’ve been abstaining from all things entertainment for the last decade, you have definitely heard of 
Now the man is back with what is gearing up to be yet another massively-hyped blockbuster. The newest trailer for “
massive tug of heart strings as Cooper consoles his young daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) as she struggles to accept the fact that her father will be leaving her for what could very easily end up being years…or forever. The sentimentality is extremely touching here and reminds us of the talent that Nolan has for creating relatable characters. As Cooper reaches the depths of space with his fellow astronaut Brand (Anne Hathaway), we see them confronted with some seriously stellar images (pun partially intended) that I can only describe as being beautifully terrifying. We end on yet another deep, emotional voiceover from Cooper saying, “We’ll find a way. We always have.” Wow. This trailer has made me feel a serious rollercoaster of emotion…in less than 3 minutes. There’s something extremely intriguing, mysterious and overwhelming when thinking about space and time travel. And that’s a level of mystery that Nolan has succeeded in creating…at least with this trailer.
About two weeks ago, I started reading “” a collection of essays, speeches. interviews, and newspaper articles written by Hayao Miyazaki. For those of you who don’t know, Miyazaki is one of the biggest reasons artistic animation is taken seriously in the U.S. Miyazaki animated several blockbuster hits such as “
Akira Kurosawa’s 
Caponsacchi denied it. The court sent Pompilia to a convent in Rome until her health failed a few months later, then allowed her to return to the Comparinis’ house. By December, however, the reason for Pompilia’s flight and breakdown became clear: she was pregnant. The Comparinis arranged for friends to hide the baby, fearing Guido’s reaction. And on the night of January 2, 1698, Guido and three accomplices broke into the Comparini villa, killed the Comparinis, and fatally wounded Pompilia. The attackers were arrested later that night, caught literally red-handed.
The climax of the poem is Book X, in which the Pope reviews the case. He admits that none of these narrators are reliable, but their testimony has revealed enough about their character for him to discern the truth. Thus, he acquits Pompilia of infidelity, praises Caponsacchi for his courage, and denounces everyone who failed to help Pompilia. He then confirms Guido’s death sentence because he sees no other way for Guido to understand his soul’s peril and repent. And in Book XI, once Guido’s alone with the friendly priests who’ve come to hear his last confession, his mask comes off, revealing the unrepentant sadistic psychopath beneath. Not only does Guido renounce his faith and confess to having hated Pompilia all along, he even rages against the idea of his son supplanting him.
But let’s focus on books. That’s what lately.
3 – Are you willing to invest your own money? True, Amazon charges you nothing for putting your book up for sale. But unless you’re also a talented graphic designer who also possesses the rare skill of being able to objectively edit your own work, you’re going to need to engage the professional services of freelancers. Be ready to shell out hundreds of dollars for editing, and at least another hundred (probably more) for a quality cover. And then you’ll probably want to set aside some money for marketing, too.
When I first heard that Marvel was contemplating a 
Wit, humor, and directorial vision have always been Gunn’s strong-points as a writer and director, and it’s exactly what Marvel needed to launch a title like Guardians.
This plot sounds like it’s ripped from the headlines, and it could have been—twelve centuries ago. The rampaging enemy in this case is the Viking horde, and the story itself is 
If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen this and the rest of the plot. I don’t blame the film when a trailer reveals too much; I bring up the trailer because it so elegantly shows how disappointingly simple the movie is. I do blame the movie for masquerading as an unprecedented treatise on life. It’s like Besson saw the best shots from