The Alien Next Door

How Are You Telling Your Story?...Part 2: Voice and Narration

2012-01-25T13:42:00.000-08:00

The term “Voice” describes various aspects of a writer’s expression in story; it includes your unique writing style and the style you’ve chosen to adopt for the particular story you’re telling. The voice of your story is influenced by your audience—youth, adults, crazy people, etc.—as well as the subject matter and general overall theme of the story.

Voice is the feel and tone that applies to: 1) the story or book (narrative voice); 2) to each character in that story; and 3) the author’s own voice (authorial voice; in business it’s called the brand), which you carry with you in every work. It is the combination of all these “voices” that make each of your works unique. Think of a fine artist, a painter like Vincent Van Gogh, whose unique painter’s “voice” was apparent in all his Impressionistic works. The wild swirls of light and texture characterized all his paintings; yet, each individual work expressed its own unique message in Van Gogh’s artistic journey.

Authorial Voice

You express your authorial voice and the voice of your story through tone, perspective, style, language and pace. All of these reflect your intent and are ultimately expressed in the story’s overarching theme. The overarching theme is ultimately the author’s theme, the “world view” — the “so what part” — of the story. The principal character and minor characters will carry variations of the main theme, each with his or her unique voice. Invariably, the voice of the story reflects the author’s philosophy, biases and message.

Writers generally struggle in the beginning to obtain their unique “voice”, often adopting the voice of a writer they admire. Although this can help a writer define their own voice (by illuminating what they like and strive for), it can also retard an author’s unique self-expression. It is so much easier to use another’s proven formula; the danger is that you may never escape from beneath the shadow of your hero. In the area of science fiction, which I write, the internet is rich with “fan fic” (an endearing term for works based on already established stories, worlds, characters, and styles.) Many fan fic writers will not emerge from the shadow of unoriginality to find their own voice. So, take heed and be mindful of your own voice. Determine what is important to you and you will find your voice.

Narrative Voice

Narrative voice belongs to the persona telling the story. Which persona you adopt in narration depends on what kind of story you are telling, and the kind of emotional atmosphere you wish to achieve, says Crawford Kilian, Canadian author of over a dozen novels. The persona develops from the personality and attitude of the narrator, expressed through the narrator’s choice of words and depictions. Depending on your choice of POV (see my previous article on Viewpoint), the narrator of your story can be one or several main characters or you, the writer. More on this below.

Character Voice

It’s important to give each character a distinctive “voice” (including use of distinct vernacular, use of specific expressions or phrases, etc.). This is one way a reader can identify a character and find them likeable—or not.

In a manuscript I recently reviewed, I noticed that the characters spoke in a chaotic mixture of formal and casual speech. This confuses the reader and bumps them out of the story. Each person’s speech is typically consistent, reflecting their ethnic and regional background, who they hang around with, their education, history and biases. Consistency is critical; it helps readers identify with a character. They will abandon a story whose writing—and voice—is not consistent. So, my advice to this beginning writer was to pick one style for each character and stick to it.

Voice incorporates language (both speech and body movements), philosophy, and humor. How a character looks, walks, talks, laughs, is all part of this. Let’s take laughter for instance: does your character tend to giggle, titter, chortle, guffaw, belly-laugh? Does she usually put her hand over her mouth when she does? Does she do or say certain things when she’s nervous? See my upcoming article on body language for more detail.

Who Should Tell the Story?

When telling a story through the eyes of a single viewpoint character, it makes most sense to tell it through the main character, the protagonist, around whom the story usually revolves. She is the one who’s going to be chiefly affected by the events of the story. Ansen Dibell, author of The Elements of Fiction: Plot, asks the question: “Who is really at the story’s heart?” If you’re having trouble with the story of Sally and Norman from Sally’s point of view, perhaps you should try telling it through Norman’s point of view. Or perhaps your main POV character is a third person, looking on and, in turn, changed.

Narrating a story from an outsider’s viewpoint (the hidden protagonist as observer-narrator) —sometimes called displaced narrative — can also add an element of complexity and depth to a story. The Illusionist is a good example of this. This story, about Eisenheim (the Illusionist) and his beloved, is told through the cynical eyes of the city’s chief inspector, who learns to believe again through his “experience” of their story. Other examples include J.P. Hartley’s The Go-Between, Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Saving Private Ryan, My Beloved, Charlotte Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and Joanne Harris’s Chocolat.

Using a displaced viewpoint character to narrate a story works particularly well if you want to keep your main character strange and mysterious. Having an “outside” character tell the story of one or two other characters, also gives the writer a chance to add another thematic element to a story (the one belonging to the narrator). A story told through the eyes of a dreamer will be very different than one told by a ponderous thinker.

Other kinds of narration include:

• detached autobiography (narrator looks back on long-past events; e.g., To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)
• letters or diary (narrative told through letters, also known as the epistolary novel; e.g. my short story, Arc of Time)
• interior monologue (narrator recounts the story as a memory; stream of consciousness is an extreme form of this narrative, e.g., Ulysses by James Joyce)

How Many Should Tell the Story?

The use of multiple viewpoints is common among writers and adds an element of richness and breadth to a story. With each added character’s POV, readers are more enlightened to the thoughts and motivations of characters in a story. When you have several characters telling the story, this is called a rotating viewpoint. A few points to follow include:

• Alternate or rotate your differing viewpoints clearly (scene by scene, chapter by chapter, or part by part)
• Don’t change viewpoints within a scene
• Separate different POV scenes within chapters with extra white space or some kind of graphic (e.g., ****)

References

Dibell, Ansen. 1999. Elements of Fiction Writing: Plot. Writer’s Digest Books. Cincinnati, Ohio. 170pp.

Killian, Crawford. 2003. “Narrative Voice”. In: Writing Fiction: http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/fiction/2003/07/narrative_ voice.html

Munteanu, Nina. 2009. The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! Starfire World Syndicate. Louisville, KY. 266pp.

How Are You Telling Your Story?...Part 1: Viewpoint

2012-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

The story’s viewpoint can be told from several perspectives and which one you choose can be critical to how your story comes across.

Different stories lend themselves to different narrative styles and point of views (POVs). In his April 2000 article in Fiction Writer entitled “First Blood, Third Person” David Morrell warns that some writers may “select a viewpoint merely because it feels natural, but if you…don’t consider the implications of your choice…your story might fight you until you abandon it, blaming the plot when actually the problem is how you’re telling it.”

The viewpoint choices include:

• Omniscient
• Third person limited
• Second person
• First person

Omniscient View

The omniscient view is the broadest view. Through this viewpoint the narrator describes everything and everyone and may drop into any character at any time, and — in the case of a beginning writer — all too confusingly in the same paragraph.

While this POV is the easiest one to use it is really the hardest to master. In the wrong hands, this viewpoint can be as intrusive as it is distancing. And it is prone to polemic. In the hands of a masterful writer, this viewpoint can make for the most powerful and rich storytelling. Epics of any kind, especially epic fantasies or historical epics, lend themselves to this style. The omniscient viewpoint is particularly suited to a story that is “large”, where ultimately the main character is not any particular protagonist but “the story” itself, or a society or world or time period. The writer must still somehow achieve connection and intimacy with the reader to succeed with this viewpoint. You can do this through lyrical and compelling narrative, poetic language and powerful imagery.

Limited Third Person Viewpoint

A story told through limited third person POV is narrated from one or a few key characters (though not at the same time) by revealing not only their movements but their thoughts and feelings (e.g., he struggled up to his feet, giddy with pain). When starting out, it is often best to adopt this style, which is generally more personal, appealing and least confusing. So long as you respect the readers’ need for clarity by keeping to one POV per scene, you can choose to enter into the heads of as many characters as you wish. It is the norm to use chapter, section or scene breaks when changing from one POV to another.

This style of narrative is the most common one used in contemporary books, particularly genre books, thrillers and action/adventure books. Through conflicting perspectives of your characters, you can swiftly paint a rich tapestry of tension for both characters and reader.

Second Person Viewpoint

This second person viewpoint (“you”) is not often used, mostly because it is both distancing and less easy to read. Although it is a narrative often used in conversation (e.g., “you never know what you’re gonna get with a box of chocolates, do you?”) this style of narrative is harder for readers to embrace and get close to the story’s characters. This viewpoint works effectively in certain artistic situations when you wish to purposefully impart a distance to the narrator, due to their own limitations, infirmity or situation.

First Person Viewpoint

The first person point of view is both the most limiting perspective (told only through one viewpoint) and most personal and revealing (of that viewpoint character). This viewpoint works well in literary fiction where the main character’s thoughts and issues are the key focus in the story. When the character who changes the most is the one telling the story, this makes for very compelling reading.

Many detective stories are told in first person to great effect. The reader is right there with the detective, solving the mystery. The first person viewpoint is also the preferred POV for memoirs, for obvious reasons.

One thing to keep in mind, particularly when narrating through the first person POV, is the reliability of your character. You need to decide how reliable your first person POV character is in telling the story and how you will impart this to the reader. Writing through a character’s faulty perception of the world (and of themselves) provides a writer with an incredible opportunity but also an incredible challenge. You can only go so far with an unreliable character before losing your own credibility as a writer — and losing the reader in the long run. Obviously, you need a balance.

If you are struggling with your story and can’t quite pinpoint what is bogging it down, try changing how you are telling it. Change the viewpoint and see what happens.

References:

Munteanu, Nina. 2009. The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! Starfire World Syndicate. Louisville, KY. 266pp.

2011: Love in the Time of Chaos

2012-01-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

If you were asked to sum up 2011 in one photo which one would you choose?

When I made the decision to distill the past year into one quintessential “moment” captured in a photograph, I was faced with a multitude of choices. I could have chosen a photo that captured any number of significant events from the personal to the global:

… from the decision to re-adopt my male cat to the global nuclear crisis that originated in Japan. There was also “Arab Spring” when oppressed citizens toppled long-standing regimes and sent government officials fleeing, from a street vendor’s fatal protest in Tunisia to the bloodless coup in Egypt and civil war in Libya. Japan suffered major earthquakes, a tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis. U.S. commandos assassinated Osama bin Laden. Prince William married Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey. Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer at 56. Greeks, Italians and British rioted in the streets against unfair government policies while these same countries struggled with the threat of bankruptcy. After recovering from being shot in the head, Representative Gabrielle Gifford returned to office. Thanks to social networking, “Occupy Wall Street” spread from New York City to the entire world with the synchronicity and potency of a self-organized virus. Indeed, one Egyptian activist described it this way: “we use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world.”

I chose none of these events; instead, I chose a young couple lying on the street, locked in a passionate kiss — oblivious to the charging crowd and the riot police struggling to contain them.

It is a powerful demonstration of how, amid the rubble of violence, love focuses us.

The photo was taken by photojournalist Richard Lam after a Stanley Cup hockey game in Vancouver. Amid the chaos of violence, looting and destruction and himself buffeted by riot police, Lam didn’t even realize what he’d shot until his editor later pointed out that the two people weren’t hurt but kissing. It was incredibly surreal because of its paradoxical nature.

Even though Lam didn’t overtly recognize what he’d witnessed and captured on camera until it was pointed out to him, he’d felt it and participated in it. A defining fractal moment. When what we are and what we do focuses into one remarkable moment. The photo went viral on the internet hours after it was posted.

Perusing the various online news sites and blogs, I was struck by some of the comments, particularly by those who questioned whether the photo and associated story was newsworthy. The young man who was found and identified as Scott Jones of Perth later revealed that they had been knocked down by the riot police and he was just trying to calm down his girlfriend, Alexandra Thomas, a recent graduate of the University of Guelph in Ontario.

Love in the time of chaos … It’s a story worth telling over and over again.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

2011-12-25T00:38:00.000-08:00

Today is Christmas! I'm back in Vancouver for a while to spend Christmas with my son and friends. It's balmy here. We drove country up to Whistler to find snow. It reminded me of a snowy Christmas I'd had several years ago in Vancouver and here's what I posted...

...A few days ago, on the Winter Solstice, a dump of snow covered the Earth in white billows. Huge flakes drifted down from heaven like confetti in a breeze.

We are having a white Christmas—the first in over ten years here in Vancouver (on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada). And I love it.

I love how the snow wraps everything in a blanket of soft acceptance. How it creates a dazzling face on a dark Earth. How it refuses to distinguish between artificial and natural. It covers everything—decorated house, shabby old car, willowy trees, manicured lawn—beneath its white mantle. I love how it quiets the Earth. Have you ever gone for a walk in the fresh snow? Boots crunching… snow glistening in the moonlight…

Snow is magic.

It reveals as it cloaks. Animals leave their telltale tracks behind their silent sleuthings.

Snow is playful.

It beckons you to stick out your tongue and taste the clouds. Snow is like an unruly child. Snow is the trickster. It stirs things up. Makes a mess. It is the herald of change, invigorating, fresh and wondrous. Cars skid in it and squeal with objection. Grumpy drivers honk their horns, impatient to get home; while others sigh in their angry wake. Boys (of all ages) venture outside, mischief glinting in their eyes, and throw snowballs. Others, fearful of the chaos and confusion that snow brings, hide indoors out of the cold.

Snow is Christmas.

It brings out the best and the worst in people. The Christmas season—whether you are a Christian celebrating the birth of Jesus or of another faith celebrating the season of Joy and Giving—provides each of us with the opportunity to be exactly who we are and who we are meant to be. It is a time to be genuine. A time to be sincere. A time to be REAL. A time to make the best of our lot and be thankful: whether we are celebrating a turkey feast with a family we don’t get along with, alone in a new town, or working the night shift in a busy firm. It is a time to be thankful for the gifts we have been blessed with, even the hardships. Especially the hardships. For they are ours to carry. Ours to make into something wonderful.

MERRY CHISTMAS everyone!

New Trailer for "Outer Diverse"

2011-12-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

Check it out! It's BOSS!

And go nominate Costi Gurgu for the Aurora Prix Award for Best cover art. He deserves it! You can nominate him on the Aurora site starting January 1, 2012, when the nominations open. Looks like you have to be a member to nominate. Used to be ANY Canadian could nominate works for the Aurora. I might have my information wrong, so go check out the site on January 1st to nominate Costi for his splendid artwork to produce the cover of Outer Diverse.

How to Hook Your Reader and Deliver

2011-11-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

A great story opening arouses, delays and rewards. Constructing a compelling beginning—often called a hook—is a common challenge for even established writers, and one of the most important parts of a story.

The opening of a story should sweep the reader into the story like a tidal wave. It doesn’t need to be wild action. It just needs to compel the reader to want to know more. This is accomplished by engaging the reader with “intrigue”. In his article “Three Ways to Keep Your Readers Hooked” in the April 2001 issue of Writer’s Digest, Joe Cardillo suggested that the three elements of hooking a reader resemble the steps he uses to train his Samoyed puppy: 1) arouse interest; 2) delay, then 3) reward.

The writer arouses interest in the reader by providing enough detail to get the reader to ask questions. Now they want something. You tease them with the delay; that keeps them reading and turning the pages. It also gives them the chance to try to come up with the answers themselves. The reward comes in stages. Don’t answer all their questions at once. That’s what the book—the story—is for. The reward, parceled out in stages, lets the reader know that you can deliver and will ultimately provide them with a fulfilling story at the end. The beginning of your book sets up a covenant between you and the reader, a covenant for a journey you will take together toward resolution.

There is no beginning without an end. In her book The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit (Revised Edition, Perigee Trade, 2002) Elizabeth Lyon suggested that the beginning of a novel should “reflect the entire book. There should be a tie-in [between] the beginning and the end”. This is sometimes called “framing” a story, where the principal thematic problem is given in the beginning and then resolved in the end. In his book, A Story is a Promise (Blue Heron Publishing, 2000) Bill Johnson describes it as a promise to the reader.

“Dramatic story-issues revolve around issues of human need,” says Johnson. “The need to be loved. To have control of one’s fate. To feel a sense of purpose. To be able to overcome obstacles. To be able to grow and heal from life’s wounds. To understand and make sense of the events of life.” He warns that “if you can’t name the issue at the heart of your story [the theme], it risks being unclear to your audience.” And this needs to be identified, at least intuitively for the reader, at the beginning of the story. You do this through intrigue in the beginning and pointing out through scene what is at stake or at issue in your story.

Additional things to consider in openings include:

• Avoid starting your story at “the beginning”: instead, start mid-way, when something is already happening—preferably to someone important in your story and at the pivotal point when you provide the “story promise” pertinent to the theme.

• Quell the urge to put in a lot of information about setting, character and situation: get things in motion first, then reveal here and there. Let the details unfold with the story like a flowing piece of artwork.

• Trust your reader: novice writers have not yet gained the confidence to trust that they won’t lose the reader in the beginning if they don’t tell them everything right away. The key is to choose just enough to whet their appetite for more. And, yes, it is critical what you choose. What you choose should relate to your story’s theme and its story promise: the problem.

A great opening is a seductive tease, deliciously delivered; it promises an exotic ride that only you can fulfill.

Recommended Reading:

Cardillo, Joe. 2001. “Three Ways to Keep Your Readers Hooked”. Writer’s Digest, April, 2001, volume 81, no. 4.

Johnson, Bill. 2000. A Story Is a Promise. Blue Heron Publishing. Portland, Oregon. 187pp.

Lyon, Elizabeth. 2002. The Sell Your Novel Took Kit. Revised Edition. Perigee Trade. 320pp.

Munteanu, Nina. 2009. The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! (Chapter B) Starfire World Syndicate, Louisville, KY. 264pp.

A Hero’s Journey: Part 2, Heroes and Other Archetypes

2011-11-09T21:08:00.000-08:00

The world of fairy tales and myth is peopled with recurring character types and relationships. Heroes on a quest, heralds and wise old men or women who provide them with “gifts” or motive, shady fellow-travelers—threshold guardians—who “block” the quest, tricksters who confuse things and evil villains who simply want to destroy our hero and her quest.

Jung adopted the term archetypes, which means ancient patterns of personality shared by humanity, to describe these as a collective unconscious. An archetype models a personality or behavior; a mother-figure is an archetype. This is what makes archetypes, or symbols, so important to the storyteller. Archetypes are found in nearly all forms of literature, with their motifs mostly rooted in folklore.

Assigning an archetype to a character lets the writer clarify that character’s role in the story. Archetypes are an important tool in the universal language of storytelling, just as myth serves the overall purpose of supplying “the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.” (Joseph Campbell). Joseph Campbell went so far as to describe the archetype as something that is expressed biologically and is wired into every human being.

Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey, lists the seven most useful archetypes for the writer.

The Hero

The hero sacrifices his own needs on behalf of others. He provides a character for us to identify with and is usually the principal POV character in a story, with qualities most readers can (or want to) identify with. The hero “transforms” through her journey as she encounters other archetypes on her journey, whether it is a physical journey or a psychological journey toward “home” (salvation or redemption) through sacrifice. The true mark of the hero, says Vogler, is in the act of sacrifice: “the hero’s willingness to give up something of value, perhaps even her own life, on behalf of an ideal or a group,” and ultimately for the greater good.

Heroes may be willing or unwilling. Anti-heroes are notably flawed characters that must grow significantly to achieve the status of true hero. Often the anti-hero starts off more like a villain, like Tom Cruise’s character in Rainman. The wounded anti-hero may be a “heroic knight in tarnished armor, a loner who has rejected society or been rejected by it,” says Vogler: Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. The catalyst hero shows less of a character arc, but precipitates significant change or transformation in other protagonists. A good example is David Adams, in Ben Bova’s Colony.

The Mentor

The mentor often possesses divine wisdom and has faith in the hero. He often gives the hero a “gift”, which is usually something important for the quest; either a weapon to destroy a “monster” or a “talisman” to enlighten the hero. A good example is in Star Wars, when Luke’s mentor, Obi Wan, provides him with his father’s lightsaber (Luke’s magic talisman).

The Herald

Heralds announce the coming of significant change, whether the hero likes it or not (and usually they don’t). They deliver the call to adventure. The herald is a catalyst that enters the story and makes it impossible for the hero to remain in status quo. Existing in the form of a person, an event, or just information, they shift the hero’s balance and change her world.

In Star Wars, Ben Kenobi issues the call when he invites Luke to join him on his mission to Alderaan. The herald also provides the hero with motivation. In Romancing the Stone, the herald for Joan Wilder comes to her as a treasure map in the mail, and a distressed phone call from her sister.

The Threshold Guardian

This archetype guards the threshold of “Separation from the Ordinary World” on the hero’s quest to achieve his destiny. Threshold guardians spice up the story by providing obstacles the hero must overcome. Threshold guardians are usually not the main antagonist. In the Harry Potter series, this role is fulfilled by Malfoy, Snape or Filch, even. They help round-out the hero’s journey and develop his character arc. The threshold guardian can be a “friend” who doesn’t believe in the hero or her quest. Ultimately, this is the role of the threshold guardian: to test the hero’s resolve in her quest.

The Shape shifter

The shape shifter adds dramatic tension to the story and provides the hero with a puzzle to solve. They can seem one thing and in fact be another. They bring doubt and suspense to the story and test the hero’s abilities to discern her path. Yoda in Star Wars is a bit of a shape shifter, initially masking his ancient wisdom with a foolish childlike appearance when Luke first encounters him.

The Shadow

The monster under the bed, repressed feelings, deep trauma, a festering guilt: these all possess the dark energy of the shadow. This is the dark force of the unexpressed, unrealized, rejected, feared aspects of the hero and represented by the main antagonist or villain.

Voldermort in the Harry Potter series; Darth Vader in Star Wars. These are shadows and worthy opponents for the hero, bringing out the best in her and usually demanding the ultimate in self-sacrifice (the hero’s destiny).The shadow force, if internalized by the hero, may serve as a threshold guardian, to overcome; ultimately challenging the hero to overcome her greatest weakness and prevail.

The Trickster

Practically every Shakespearian play contains a jester or fool, who not only serves as comic relief but as commentator. This is because tricksters are usually witty and clever, even when ridiculous. The comedy of most successful comedians touches upon the pulse of a culture by offering commentary that is truism (often in the form of entertaining sarcasm).

Recommended Reading:

Cameron, Julia. 1992. The Artist’s Way: a Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Penguin Putnam. 222pp.

Campbell, Joseph. 1970. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. World Publishing Co. New York.

Henderson, Mary. 1997. Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. Bantam Spectra. New York. 214pp.

Vogler, Christopher. 1998. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 2nd Edition. Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, California. 326pp.

The Hero’s Journey: Part One, the Hero & the Journey

2011-11-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

All stories consist of … common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies. They are known collectively as The Hero’s Journey — Christopher Vogler, “The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers”

“The Hero’s Journey” myth follows the three-act structure of the ancient Greek play, handed down to us thousands of years ago. Drawn from the depth psychology of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and the scholar and mythologist Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it duplicates the steps of the “Rite of Passage” and is a process of self-discovery and self-integration.

The Power of Myth & Archetype

Campbell recognized that myths weren’t just abstract theories or quaint ancient beliefs but practical models for understanding how to live. Ultimately, the Hero’s Journey is the soul’s search for “home”. It is a journey of transformation we all take, in some form. This is why the Hero’s Journey model for writing is so relevant and why it appeals to all readers.

Jung proposed that symbols appear to us when there is a need to express what thought cannot think or what is only divined or felt. Jung discovered reoccurring symbols among differing peoples and cultures, unaffected by time and space. He described these shared symbols as archetypes: irrepressible, unconscious, pre-existing forms of the psyche. Joseph Campbell suggested that these mythic images lay at the depth of the unconscious where humans are no longer distinct individuals, where our minds widen and merge into the mind of humankind. Where we are all the same.

The Hero’s Journey in Storytelling

Compelling stories resonate with the universal truths of metaphor within the consciousness of humanity. According to Joseph Campbell this involves an open mind and a certain amount of humility; and giving oneself to the story...not unlike the hero who gives her life to something larger than herself: "Anyone writing a creative work knows that you yield yourself, and the book talks to you and builds itself....you become the carrier of something that is given to you from … the Muses or God. This is no fancy, it is a fact. Since the inspiration comes from the unconscious, and since the unconscious minds of the people of any single small society have much in common, what the shaman or seer [or artist] brings forth is something that is waiting to be brought forth in everyone.” I call this tapping into the universal truth where metaphor lives. A story comes alive when these two resonate.

Vogler suggested that using the principles of myth, helps “create a masterful story that is dramatic, entertaining, and psychologically true.”

The Hero and the Journey

Heroes are agents of change on a quest. The hero is the ultimate altruist, sacrificing her life for the greater good. She is warrior and lover who slays the dragon of the status quo, so to speak. She enacts the ultimate in sacrifice in her quest to change the world (and/or herself). The hero’s task has always been to bring new life to an ailing culture, says Carol S. Pearson, author of The Hero Within. Julia Cameron reiterates this in her book, The Artist’s Way, when she describes the concept of art as a healing journey (not just for the individual but for a culture). This is because the writer/artist changes society by changing themselves.

Campbell describes a 12-step journey of the hero within 3-acts and influenced by five major archetypes (herald, mentor, threshold guardian, trickster, shadow and shapeshifter). Our hero starts her journey in Act 1 — in the Ordinary World — and will eventually separate from the Ordinary World in Act 2— entering the Special World, where she will transform through her many challenges. In Act 3, she re-enters the Ordinary World, changed, with her gift to the world. I’ll go into more detail about how you integrate other archetypes and the steps of the journey in “storytelling” in Parts 2 and 3 of this series.

For now, let’s concentrate on our hero and what her journey means to her. She begins her quest with one giant step. How does she do it? How does she muster up the courage and resolution to proceed (often against all odds) on a journey that promises only challenge and hardship. She does so because our hero, whether she realizes it or not, has faith in her quest (even if she may not have faith in herself).

In some versions of the Holy Grail quest, relates Pearson, the hero reaches a huge chasm with no apparent way to get across to the Grail castle. The space is too great for him to jump across. Then he remembers the Grail teaching that instructs him to step out in faith. As he puts one foot out into the abyss, a bridge magically appears and he is saved. Anyone who has left a job, school, one’s home town, or a relationship has stepped out into that abyss, separating them from the familiar world they’ve known.

Just as “the knights of King Arthur’s Round Table set off to seek the Holy Grail,” says Mary Henderson, author of StarWars: The Magic of Myth, “the great figures of every major religion have each gone on a ‘vision quest’, from Moses’ journey to the mountain, to Jesus’ time in the desert, Muhammad’s mediations in the mountain cave, and Buddha’s search for enlightenment that ended under the Bodhi tree.” The journey, and the abyss, is often not a physical adventure, adds Henderson, but a spiritual one, “as the hero moves from ignorance and innocence to experience and enlightenment.”

Here are the 12 steps of the Hero’s Journey:

ACT ONE: Separation

• Ordinary World
• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the Call
• Meeting with the Mentor
• Crossing the Threshold

ACT TWO: Initiation & Transformation

• Tests, Allies, Enemies
• Approach to the Innermost Cave
• Ordeal (Abyss)
• Reward/Seizing the Sword (Transformation and Revelation)

ACT THREE: the Return

• The Road Block
• Resurrection / Atonement
• Return with the Elixor

I’ll talk about these in more detail and show you some examples in Part Three of my Hero’s Journey series. Stay tuned for “The Hero’s Journey—Part Two, Archetypes” next week.

I teach an online course in “The Hero’s Journey” through my educational website, http://www.ninamunteanu.com/.

Recommended Reading:

• Cameron, Julia. 1992. The Artist’s Way: a Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Penguin Putnam. 222pp.
• Campbell, Joseph. 1970. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. World Publishing Co. New York.
• Campbell, Joseph. 1988. The Power of Myth.
• Henderson, Mary. 1997. Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. Bantam Spectra. New York. 214pp.
• Munteanu, Nina. 2009. The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! Starfire World Syndicate, Louisville, KY. 266pp.
• Pearson, Carol S. 1998. The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By. Harper. San Francisco. 3rd Edition.
• Vogler, Christopher. 1998. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 2nd Edition. Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, California. 326pp.

What a Con*Cept! Nina Launches Outer Diverse in Montreal

2011-10-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

Nina launches "Outer Diverse"

Last weekend I met old friends Toulouse and Vanessa in Montreal to attend Con*Cept 2011 at the Espresso Hotel and to launch my new book Outer Diverse, the first book of The Splintered Universe Trilogy on October 15th, the same day as its world release by Starfire World Syndicate.

Con*Cept is Montreal's Annual Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention on October 14-16, 2011.

I met Vanessa and Toulouse in the hotel lobby. Toulouse—cool cat that he is—pointed out the espresso machine behind the front desk and winked. I ordered a double shot of the strong brew and watched Toulouse down his single shot (a lot for a small stuffed cat) in three major inhales. If he was a SIM he would have shivered with elation and uttered the SIM word for “Arriva!” What an auspicious start to Montreal’s annual science-fiction and fantasy convention!

Ira Nayman

The 3-day con was smallish in numbers but made up for it with a huge heart, lots of character (or is that characters?), and a good selection of panels and workshops, including a workshop on World Building by yours truly.

Marie Bilodeau

I shared an interesting panel on Politics in SF (From Avatar to Zardoz) with comedic author Ira Nayman, writer and critic Kathryn Cramer, and Mark Shainblum, SF/F and comic book writer. I didn’t see Toulouse in the audience; I think he lured Vanessa downstairs to the lobby for more espresso—the lush! I followed with a panel called “Characters or Real People” with the effervescent Violette Malan, author of The Shadowlands, and Nanowrimo wiz Rebecca Blain. We were the real characters. Both Vanessa and Toulouse managed to show up for the launch of my space adventure-thriller Outer Diverse, espresso cups in hand. Well, we were in the Espresso Hotel...

Vanessa in the Dealer's Room

Vanessa is a master jeweler; she created and launched a jewelry line specifically for Rhea Hawke, the bold space detective of the series. It was astonishing! The dealer’s room was abuzz with interest for the clean bold lines of the Rhea Hawke Collection. You can find it featured in her online shop on Etsy.

Mark Shainblum with Toulouse

My World Building workshop was well-attended by a diverse crowd that ranged from a young teenage girl writing a dystopian science fiction novel to a retired physicist writing an urban fantasy. I got out my tablet and magic pen and embarked on my interactive power point presentation. Everyone seemed to understand my ninonian scrawl and asked great questions. We covered a wide range of topics from first contact and achieving realism to integrating world with theme and premise.

Toulouse finds some friends

Eric Flint, author of the 1632 Alternate History Series, was the Guest of Honor. Eric comes by his alternate history works naturally: he graduated Phi Beta Kappa form the University of California in LA, majoring in history. Despite his academic credentials, Eric took on a varied working life including longshoreman, truck driver, steel worker, meatpacker, glassblower and machinist. I'm sure all those positions provided fertile ground for storytelling.

Alan Draven and Vanessa talk books

Interested in buying one of my books, Eric asked me which was my favorite. His question took me unawares and I had to think. Books are like children. At one time or another each is your favorite. Realizing that he was looking for some guidance, I pointed out my environmental thriller Darwin’s Paradox. He ended up buying its prequel, Angel of Chaos. Funny that…

The con offered the regular meal of obligatory Doctor Who Panel, Klingons and Star Trek crew on shore leave, masquerade and dance, film and filking and—of course—never-ending room parties. Because this was Montreal—and Vanessa’s first time there—we dove into the city each night for a taste of Montreal culture and fine dining. Toulouse directed us first to an Italian restaurant on Cresent Street. The ambience was in perfect keeping with the con: the spatious restaurant offered a steampunkish-retro-industrial environs. We enjoyed an authentic Italian meal under high ceilings, surrounded by brick walls and one entire wall dedicated—like a tall bookshelf—to storing wine. Another night we strolled into Old Montreal and found several cafés to dine and drink (see Toulouse’s post).

Karen Dales and Toulouse

As with all good cons, Con*Cept provided a venue to meet old friends and make new ones. The only thing missing was a decent bar (but then again there were those room parties and all of Montreal!) I visited with the vivacious and award-winning author and wizard storyteller Marie Bilodeau.

Marie was there with her newest space fantasy adventure Destiny’s Blood, short-listed for the Aurora. Go, Marie! I also visited with Claire Eamers, who just published her story in Tesseracts Fifteen.

Nina signing Outer Diverse

Some new faces for me included the con-hopping Karen Dales, award-winning author of the paranormal series The Chosen Chronicles (see you at AdAstra, Karen!) I had the fortune of sharing a panel with the witty and elegant Violette Malan, author of The Mirror Prince—she’s such a snappy dresser! Then there was Ira Nayman (the witty superhero with vim, vigor and a few other things that I’m still trying to figure out…). And Mark Shainblum, the debonair and charming SF&F writer and comic book writer, who gave Toulouse some good advice about wearing black. I also met Alan Draven, fresh from comic con with his newest book, Fractured Time.

The dealer’s room was a cornucopia of fine jewelry, steampunk accessories, books, games and strange looking people. I felt at home.

Merci to Cathy Palmer-Lister, Marc Nadeau, Howard Picaizen, Rene Walling and all the other convention volunteers who made Con*Cept a friendly, warm and fun event.

p.s. Just looking at the pictures ... for a cat who spent a lot of time down in the lobby drinking free espressos, Toulouse sure got around! Way to go, Toulouse!

OUTER DIVERSE is currently available at Amazon (Canada, UK and USA), Borders, Barnes & Noble, Chapters and other quality bookstores near you.

GO BUY, GO READ, COME TELL ME...

Nina Gets a Look at Outer Diverse

2011-09-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

The universe is a very large place... But if you live in the Outer Diverse, like Galactic Guardian Rhea Hawke, it's even bigger... a lot bigger than she thinks, even... A lot bigger than I think...

I want to share my joy with you today...

I got my first look at Outer Diverse today when my publisher couriered me the proof. It arrived late this morning.

The door bell rang at 11 am and the courier handed me a package. I opened it and stared. The book was beautiful! I knew what it looked like; I'd been confering with the cover illustrator and designer, Costi Gurgu, for months. But I was still unprepared for the real thing. The raw power of the image and how it sat in my hands, soft and sleek and rich with colour.

For a writer, there's nothing quite like it -- seeing your book in its complete form for the first time, the tactile experience of seeing the fruits of your labor of love distilled into this wonderful package. It was a sensual delight that I embraced wholeheartedly. Like giving birth. It really is a lot like giving birth.

I should know. I've published five books. And given birth too. The similarities are, well, pretty similar... hehe... In every case, I felt an overwhelming sense of miraculous accomplishment with the help of very respected and competent individuals, not to say the least a divine hand. I still remember how, after laboring for many hours to deliver my son, I was overcome by such pure joy at seeing him revealed to me for the first time that I wanted 10 more just like him right then and there. As I looked upon the book cradled in my hands I felt the same kind of joy.

A writer writes because she has to. This lovely book in my hands was my reward.

Outer Diverse launches October 15th on Amazon, at Con*Cept and book stores near you. Outer Diverse will be carried by Bakka Phoenix Science Fiction Books in Toronto.

Canadian Writers: Call for Submissions for Short Prose Contest

2011-09-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

If you're a Canadian writer and you haven't yet published, this contest offered by the Writer's Union of Canada might be for you! It offers a substantial prize of $2,500. Check it out, details below:

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS for the 19th Annual Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers

$2,500 PRIZE

The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce that submissions are being accepted until November 3, 2011 for the 19th Annual Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers. The winning entry will be the best Canadian work of up to 2,500 words in the English language, fiction or non-fiction, written by an unpublished author.

PRIZE $2,500 for the winning entry, and the entries of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three Canadian magazines.

JURY Writers Kevin Chong, Anne Emery, and Sylvia Fraser will serve as the jury.

ELIGIBILITY This competition is open to all Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who have not had a book published by a commercial or university press in any genre and who do not currently have a contract with a book publisher. Original and unpublished (English language) fiction or non-fiction is eligible.

HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRIES: · Entries should be typed, double-spaced, in a clear twelve-point font, and the pages numbered on 8.5 x 11 paper, not stapled. · Submissions will be accepted in hardcopy only. · Include a separate cover letter with title of story, full name, address, phone number, email address, word count, and number of pages of entry. · Please type the name of entrant and the title of entry on each numbered page. This is not a blind competition. · Make cheque or money order payable to The Writers' Union of Canada. Multiple entries can be submitted together and fees can be added and paid with one cheque or money order, $29 per entry. · Entries must be postmarked by November 3, 2011 to be eligible. ·

Mail entries to: SPC Competition, The Writers’ Union of Canada, 90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1. Results will be posted at www.writersunion.ca in February 2012. Manuscripts will not be returned.

There ya go. Good luck!

Outer Diverse by Nina Munteanu

2011-08-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

My latest book, Outer Diverse, is coming out this fall and we are launching it at Con*Cept in Montreal in October and Hal-Con in Halifax in November.

I'm really excited about this book. It's the first of the Splintered Universe Trilogy. Here's a bit about it:

…Splintered Events, Single Destiny…
…An entire spiritual sect is inexplicably wiped out by Eclipse, the largest crime syndicate in the galaxy…
…Glitter Dust, a new seductive but dangerous contraband narcotic of mysterious origin and sold on the slipstream, is used by certain spiritual fanatics to travel to another dimension and “experience God”…
…An elite Eclipse assassin, known simply as the Rose, is entrusted with an eclectic hit list of prominent galactic citizens, including spiritual leaders, information pirates and dust traffickers…
…One of the Rose’s targets, an eccentric priest, prophesies the Suntelia Aeon, a catastrophic End of Age, triggered by the joining of twin souls…

Galactic Guardian, Rhea Hawke, fears that this dire resurgence of an ancient prophesy may be fulfilled at last. She suspects that these latest moves by Eclipse are linked to the return of the cruel extra-galactic Vos. The Vos invaded thirty years ago and would have destroyed Earth if not for the intervention of a benevolent but arrogant alien race, the Eosians, who have now claimed Earth for themselves as their price.

This is going to be Rhea’s hardest case yet—particularly since she’s been taken off the case and fired by her Eosian boss for her most recent in a legacy of bungled missions. And Eclipse is gunning for her.

Rhea’s desperate race to expose their plan before the galaxy falls again to the cruel Vos catapults her on a journey to the far reaches of the galaxy, where she will discover the shattering truth about duel twin worlds and her ultimate role in preserving or destroying them both.

Outer Diverse is scheduled for release October 15th 2011 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders and other quality bookstores near you.

Celebrating the Bitch: Thelma & Louise

2011-06-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis drove off a cliff into movie lore in Thelma & Louise. This “ground-breaking female buddy movie cum road-trip, crime spree and chase flick … deals with rape, a fatal shooting and sexual awakening, all to a country-rock soundtrack,” says Linda Diebel of the Toronto Star in her recent tribute to this Ridley Scott motion picture and its Academy Award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri. Thelma & Louise hit many firsts for women. It was one of the first movies to portray women using violence as an alternative form of action; it was the first to effectively show the raw power of women locked in friendship; and the first to depict a passionate choice for liberty in death vs. a compromised life.

From introducing Brad Pitt as a sex symbol to portraying women as independent and powerful, Thelma & Louise still resonates with a visceral message two decades after their iconic leap into the Grand Canyon. The ending, in which the pair lock hands and sail over the canyon in Louise’s 1966 T-bird convertible, remains controversial even now.
“People complained about our suicide,” said Sarandon in an interview with Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star. “But I didn’t hear a peep when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid did pretty much the same thing.”

Author/activist Judy Rebick, president of the feminist National Action Committee in 1991, liked the movie for its portrayal of a powerful female friendship. “They fought back…they were free. They liberated themselves,” she said in a telephone interview with Diebel. The movie showed Melanie Caplan, fragrance consultant in her 50s, that you can be powerful and not give in. “They controlled their destiny when women were [and still are generally] being portrayed as victims.” In a world where they are expected to be rescued by men, I might add. Near the end of the movie, the sympathetic Arkansas police detective played by Harvey Keitel—their shining knight—does try and fails to “rescue” them.

That’s what the controversial ending was about: not giving in. Not giving in to a false “god”. Not giving in to the imposed rules and strictures of an androcratic* world. Not giving in to feelings of unworthiness and victimization. Not giving in to the oppression of the sacred feminine wisdom, the goddess in all of us. Celebrating The Bitch.

Thelma & Louise stirred a controversy of duality and sexism that still boils today. Several critics condemned Thelma & Louise “as a man-hating film because [Louise] shot and killed a rapist,” said Sarandon. But, “how come they don’t call men ‘man-hating’ when they shoot and kill each other in hundreds of films?” she challenged. It’s like they’re saying they can do it because they’re MEN, but if women do it, then they’re unnatural, bitches, and man-hating. “A woman today is still seen as a bitch if she’s strong or in a powerful position.” Caplan confided.

Ariane deBonvoisin of the Huffington Post suggested that many women live with the "fear of not being relevant ... of not making a difference ... of working on things that don't really matter in the important times of transition we live in. We're hungry to be part of making things better. We want to create, we want to do what we love again and find our voice. We sense intuitively that we have a critical role to play in shaping the future of our world. And yet, so many of us give in to excuses of not being good enough, young enough, wealthy enough, creative enough ... we still play small, still give in to the "victim" archetype.

The conclusion of Thelma & Louise provided a potent metaphor of women’s power to choose and the liberating nature of exercising that power. Some literalists saw the end as a simple act of desperation; it was, in fact, a powerful victory over the mundane roles women often feel forced to play and endure. “They were taking it for all women,” Caplan said. “They stood for all women who had been made to feel not worthy and not as good as men…It was a rite of passage.”

Media often promotes rivalries among women at the expense of solidarity. This is where Thelma & Louise triumph: a kiss, a look, two intertwined hands and two women riding off a cliff into history. It is one of the best examples of powerful friendship and solidarity. Solidarity against conformity. Solidarity against subservience. Solidarity against victimization.

The end was indeed mythic. “We all know what gravity is,” a York university literature professor shared with Diebel of the T-bird’s final seconds over the abyss. “But they’re frozen there at the end, soaring” into the light.

“The film and that image electrified people around the world,” says Ouzounian. But did it change anything? If it did, it wasn’t obvious. “We’re never able to build up any momentum,” laments Davis. “Research shows that the percentage of female characters on screen has been the same since 1948. The percentage of female directors and writers is abysmal, still stuck in the single digits.”

Momentum requires that three things co-exist: 1) vision; 2) drive, and 3) solidarity. If we are going to change the world for the better, we need to do it together. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Vision and self. Find your passion and follow Gandhi’s maxim: “Be the change you seek in the world.”

Step 2: Drive and staying power. Fuel the drive of your passion by sharing your vision with others of like-mind.

Step 3: Solidarity and community. Find and create a community of like-minded people and share it with the world. Think BIG.

* androcracy is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as a system characterized by the political and social supremacy of men. In a previous piece entitled “Spiritual Ecology and the Lesson of Crete” I write: "[Riane] Eisler provides examples of sociobiologists who draw on nineteenth-century Darwinism by citing insect societies to support their androcratic (social and political rule by men) theories. If we are to truly rise victorious over the scourge of climate change—a function of our current lifestyle and paradigms—we will need to adopt a cultural evolution that embraces a partnership society heralded by new and renewed symbology, language and “myth”.

Spiritual Ecology and the Lesson of Crete

2011-05-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

If Gaia is our “Natural Mother” then Ecology is her language—Nina Munteanu

In a time when North American scientists and politicians are debating the pros and cons of a new carbon tax, theologian Sallie McFague contends that climate change currently poses a greater danger to the globe than Nazism prior to the Second World War (See my postscript at the bottom of this post). In a previous post, I described the debilitating psychological condition called solastalgia, a response to the loss felt in climate change-related impacts. McFague goes so far as to embrace a militant approach to the problem, urging citizens to dedicate themselves fully and be willing to sacrifice to save the planet’s eco-system. In her recent book, A New Climate for Theology, McFague espouses a spiritual attitude of gratitude and praise toward the natural world while adopting a radical war footing against global warming.

McFague widely defines “spiritual” to include the secular appreciation of nature. Rather than regarding God as a “being, McFague subscribes to the idea that God is the source of life, love and hope. A spiritual approach would provide the inner strength to tackle the worst effects of changing climate patterns, says Douglas Todd of the Vancouver Sun, who added, “I have been re-convinced of the necessity of a spiritual response to environmental problems.”

A spiritual connection with nature is nothing new. First Nations peoples have practiced it for millennia.

Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice & the Blade, writes of the ancient Bronze Age culture of Minoan (later Minoan-Mycenean) Crete (1,000 to 1,500 BCE), who still revered the Goddess. Citing Nicolas Platon, an archeologist who had excavated the island for over fifty years, Eisler writes of a society in which “the whole of life was pervaded by an ardent faith in the goddess Nature, the source of all creation and harmony”; this in a time when art extolled the symbols of nature—such as the serpent and butterfly, both symbols of transformation, rebirth and wisdom.

“In Crete,” writes Eisler, “for the last time in recorded history, a spirit of harmony between women and men as joyful and equal participants in life appears to pervade [in] a tradition that is unique in its ‘delight in beauty, grace, and movement’ and in its ‘enjoyment of life and closeness to nature.’ ” Despite the fact that they were surrounded by threats from an increasingly warlike and male-dominated world, Cretans remained an “exceptionally peace-loving people” and their art did not idealize warfare. Cretans maintained “an ardent faith in the goddess Nature,” writes Platon. “This led to a love of peace, a horror of tyranny, and a respect for the law. Even among the ruling classes, personal ambition seems to have been unknown; nowhere do we find the name of an author attached to a work of art or a record of the deeds of a ruler.”

“The differences between the spirit of Crete and that of its neighbors,” writes Eisler, “are of more than academic interest.” The lack of Cretan military fortifications and signs of aggressive war—in sharp contrast to the walled cities and chronic warfare that were elsewhere already the norm—provides a confirmation from the past that peaceful human co-existence is not just a utopian dream.”

Cretan art reflected a society in which power was not equated with dominance, destruction and oppression. I think it is no coincidence that gender equality and harmony is linked to the pantheistic value of nature. The appreciation of beauty, grace and harmony is a “feminine” characteristic, one that ambitious warlike and highly competitive exploitive societies have no time to cultivate.

Eisler notes that a “recognition of our oneness with all of nature” lay at the heart of both the Neolithic and Cretan worship of the Goddess. She adds, “Increasingly, the work of modern ecologists indicate that this earlier quality of mind, in our time often associated with some types of Eastern spirituality, was far advanced beyond today’s environmentally destructive ideology. In fact, it foreshadows new scientific theories that all the living matter of earth, together with the atmosphere, oceans, and soil [and I would add the universe] forms one complex and inter-connected “life” system.” Quite fittingly, scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis called this the Gaia Hypothesis—Gaia being one of the ancient Greek names of the Goddess.

At the same time that Riane Eisler was writing The Chalice & the Blade, Lynn Margulis developed her theory of endosymbiosis and suggested that evolution advanced through cooperation more than the Darwinian paradigm of competition (surely a “masculine” outlook).

Eisler provides examples of sociobiologists who draw on nineteenth-century Darwinism by citing insect societies to support their androcratic (social and political rule by men) theories. If we are to truly rise victorious over the scourge of climate change—a function of our current lifestyle and paradigms—we will need to adopt a cultural evolution that embraces a partnership society heralded by new and renewed symbology, language and “myth”.

For a few years I co-taught an environmental education course for primary and secondary school teachers. The course was intended to help teachers introduce environmental precepts and general awareness in all aspects of the primary and secondary school curriculum, such as creative ways to infuse environmental stewardship in courses from math to art. As much as I liked the integrative approach to this program, it is my belief that the “soft” science of Ecology should be taught as a basic course throughout a student’s entire school career (from Grade 1 to 12), giving it the prominence it deserves as a life-lesson mandate not unlike the three Rs.

Ecology is considered a “soft” science, because it integrates all other sciences and, as such, is more the study of relationships, links and consequence. As the study of ecosystems and the environment, Ecology lets us look at ourselves and how we relate to all other things, living and non-living, on this planet and ultimately the universe: the approach is only limited by our own perceptions. Ecologists study natural systems, which include all the systems in our society such as our economic systems, our social systems, business and financial models, cultural interactions and technological use. It behooves us to look to Nature’s Wisdom, to Gaia (our “mother”) for Her timeless lessons in our evolution.

If Gaia is our “natural mother” then Ecology is her language.

~~~~

Post script:

Nazi Germany, contends Riane Eisler, demonstrated the most violent reaction to the gylanic (e.g., society in which there is balance and equality between the sexes) thrust, proving to be the modern regression to the earliest and most brutal form of proto-androcracy and a foreshadower of a neo-androcratic future.

Like the Kurgans before them, the Nazis killed, plundered and looted—particularly in their wholesale slaughter of Jews. Likewise, they saw a woman, idealized by the Nazis as the hausfrau, as an “often pleasant domestic animal” (Nietzsche) to be used by men for sexual enjoyment, personal service, entertainment, and procreation. It was, in fact, Hitler’s plan to reward decorated soldiers with the right to have more than one wife as a warrior’s booty. According to the Führer, not only women but “weak” and “effeminate” men like Jews were the natural inferiors to his new race of “supermen”.

References:

Eisler, Riane. 1989. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. Harper & Row. New York. 296pp.

Castell, Alburey. 1946. An Introduction to Modern Philosophy. Macmillan. New York. 357pp.

National Day of Prayer

2011-05-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

Today is the National Day of Prayer in the United States. I know because, as I was driving through Detroit, I tuned into WMUZ Radio and heard it from Bob Dutko, host of "The Bob Dutko Show". The National Day of Prayer is an annual day of observance held on the first Thursday of May and designated by the United States Congress: people are asked “to turn to God in prayer and meditation.”

I was intrigued to listen to Dutko’s show because he was about to ask listeners of the program what they were praying for today. Dutko began by reading President Obama’s proclamation, who honored the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces “we recognize that it is because of them that we continue to live in a Nation where people of all faiths can worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience…As we observe this day of prayer, we remember the one law that binds all great religions together: the Golden Rule, and its call to love one another; to understand one another; and to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth…Let us also use this day to come together in a moment of peace and goodwill…Our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted, to make peace where there is strife; and to life up those who have fallen on hard times.”

Dutko launched into a passionate invective of what constituted “appropriate prayer” and by whom. Dutko proclaimed that only prayers delivered to our One True God delivered by true Christians were appropriate and beautiful. He did not consider prayers by Muslims or Hindus appropriate for today (reserved for true Christians) nor did he consider them beautiful because they were prayers to a false god. In fact, he considered this act of prayer “ugly”.

“The One True God is a jealous God,” Dutko reminded us, invoking the first of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-3: thou shalt have no other gods before me.

After taking several calls from listeners, Dutko proceeded to give us his prayer for today, which ran along the same lines as his introduction: he prayed that so-called enlightened Christians would change their misguided false beliefs that included Darwinian evolution, unconditional love, respect and inclusion of marginal groups like homosexuals and different races. Duco advocated a revival of the old fundamentalist Christianity that invoked Jesus as the savior of our sins.

Not only is this very unsporting of Dutko; it lacks respect for the majority of humankind (who are NOT fundamentalist Christians or Creationists).

It saddens me to hear that this very closed-minded exclusionary sentiment continues to prevail in the world during a time when peoples and cultures need to communicate with one another respectfully and with compassion. Such exclusionary sentiment is predicated on fear and fear-mongering and a hubristic sense of righteousness. God is not exclusively your God or exclusively my God; God is all things to all people. God may come to one culture as the personification of a wise man and to another as the divine Universe of Intent. They do not exist in mutual exclusion. Because God is God. Like so much in the Bible, God’s commandment to Moses—do not worship other gods before me—is best read metaphorically.

What did God really mean by “false gods”? How many of us cherish our personal possessions? How many of us worship our material wealth? How many of us obsess over our outward image (“It’s all about optics, Nina,” my old boss used to tell me)? How many of us are ruled by lust and other desires? How many of us vigorously compete for status (often at the expense of others). So, Mr. Dutko, what are our real destructive false idols? Allah? Yahweh? Vishnu? Shiva? How about greed, power-mongering, lack of compassion, and obsession over physical beauty—to name a few.

When we judge someone else’s faith as ugly, or exclude another’s reverence in a divine presence as less worthy than our own, we are judging and excluding ourselves from our own divine nature. For they are us.

Dutko mocking Hinduism or the Muslim faith as false or Florida pastor Terry Jones publically burning a copy of the Quran are not just the immature antics of bullies; they represent the most insidious form of terrorism on world peace.

So, here’s my prayer…

I pray that humanity may be graced by the wisdom to love purely, to look beyond the surface and the literal and see that deep down at the metaphoric level we are the same and all deserve respect and compassion. ALL OF US: Muslim, Jew, Christian, woman, man, child, animal and plant, water and mineral.

Our beloved Earth and her home, the Universe, deserve better. We all do.

Beam Me Up, Scotty: Teleportation, Schrődinger’s Cat and Quantum Entanglement

2011-04-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

What do the terms squeezing, photon subtraction, entanglement and homodyne detection have in common? Together, they represent the quantum manipulation that researchers used to achieve the first documented case of successful teleportation of quantum light.

In the journal Science last Friday, researchers reported that they had successfully transferred quantum information from one place to another without having to physically move it. It was destroyed in one place and instantly resurrected in another, “alive” again and unchanged. A notion exploited in the film Prestige, based on a teleportation invention by Nikola Tesla. It’s also pretty much what happens in the SF show Star Trek in which an object is “destroyed” atom by atom in one place then built or "beamed" back with the same pattern elsewhere.

It starts with entanglement of the quantum kind and an Austrian physicist named Erwin Schrődinger. In 1935, Schrődinger came up with a thought experiment in response to a paradox paper by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (called the EPR article). Schrődinger’s scenario of a cat that might be alive or dead inside a box, depending on an earlier random event became known as Schrődinger’s Cat. Schrődinger coined the term “entanglement” (Verschränkung) to describe a property of a quantum mechanical system (paired particles) that act together and behave like one object but remain two separate objects—like two ends of a teeter-totter. If entangled, one object cannot be fully described without considering the other(s). They remain in a quantum superpostition and share a single quantum state until a measurement is made. He proposed the notion that said cat remains both alive and dead (to the universe outside the box) until the box is opened.

In the Science paper, researchers from Japan and Australia led by Noriyuki Lee of the University of Tokyo studied wave packets of light that existed in a state of quantum superposition—in other words, they existed in two different phases at the same time. They successfully transferred quantum information without losing its integrity.

Superposition permits computers to solve multiple problems at once. This new, faster teleportation process lets scientists move blocks of quantum information around inside a computer or across a network. This will potentially revolutionize quantum communications and computing. Researchers say it will make high-speed, high-fidelity transmission of large volumes of information, such as quantum encryption keys, via communications networks a reality.

According to most scientists, what we won't see soon — or ever — is something that will ‘beam’ a person from one place to another. "There are way too many atoms," says Christopher Monroe of the Joint Quantum Institute. "At the other end of the transporter, you need to have some blob of atoms that represents Captain Kirk but has no information in it. I mean, what would that look like?"

NikolaTesla’s notion over a hundred years ago of light as both a particle and a wave formed the basis of what we now call quantum physics. Tesla also investigated the creation of a "wall of light" by manipulating electromagnetic waves in a certain pattern, which he claimed would enable time, space, gravity and matter to be altered at will and engender anti-gravity airships, teleportation and time travel.

So, here’s my question: is our imagination limited by our reality or our reality limited by our imagination?

Photos:
1. Noriyuki Lee and colleagues Teleportation Device
2. Transporter in the science fiction TV series "Star Trek"
3. Quantum Cat

What is Your Avatar?

2011-04-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

Have you seen James Cameron’s recent blockbuster fantasy, Avatar?

I first watched this visually stunning motion picture in the theatre with some close family friends. What first blew me away about Avatar was how beautifully and thoughtfully the jungle planet and its people were portrayed. I'm an ecologist and I recognized great expertise and detailed effort in the complex designs of the planet’s ecosystems. Upon further reflection, I realized how the simple theme of connectivity and respect was reverently and elegantly portrayed in a fractal relationship from environment to culture to story and from the opening frame of story promise to its eventual story fulfillment at the end. This was no simple action fantasy based on the simple plot of being at one with nature.

The choice of movie title and planet name, Pandora (see Pandora myth below) all figured into the subtle fractal-layered messages buried beneath the obvious tale,
aptly described by reviewer Anne Thompson as “disarmingly sincere.” The film’s opening sweeps us into a breathtaking panorama of Pandora’s lush and exotic jungle to the haunting notes of James Horner’s tribal score.

What struck me about the reactions of my friends, others I spoke with, and many reviewers, was that several panned the movie as cliché. “More impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling,” was the consensus of many critics. “Except for the great special effects, there was nothing new,” many lamented. “It’s an old story,” they said. What’s wrong with that? Isn’t everything an old story, which tells a metaphoric rendition of some universal truth? Aren’t the very best stories we tell based on ancient tales of morality? Which brings me to clichés. In Writing 101 we all learn to avoid clichés like the plague (oops, there’s a cliché!). But let’s look at clichés… A cliché is really a ubiquitously recognized metaphor (like the one I just used). Clichés arise, like stereotypes, from cultural and historical truths, told metaphorically through story. Essentially, a cliché is a metaphor. If you think about it, a cliché is a cliché because it represents a core truth in our culture that is repeated over and over because of its relevance to who and what we are. So much so that it becomes ingrained in our cultural expression. The best stories recognize elements of cliché in the telling of story. This does not mean that they avoid the cliché, per se. In fact, the best stories embrace cliché but use it in a refreshing way to provide a new perspective on an old story; one that deserves to be told over and over. This is the case with Avatar.

So, what’s the cliché in Avatar? The core story, of course. It is an ancient tale that explores the emptiness of greed and its cousin, fear. It shows the consequence of lack of connectivity (among ourselves and to all other things), and lack of compassion and openness to the unknown. In some important ways it is also about identity, honor and loyalty; how in choosing how we live our lives—whether risking our identity through obedience or risking safety through dissent—we create a legacy that we leave to our children and the world. On the surface the story is simple and clichéd: humans come to the jungle planet of Pandora inhabited by simple primitives, the Na’vi, who possess little technology (the quick assumption is that because they are not technologically advanced, they are simpletons). Showing the common disrespect and lack of compassion that many of us show animals, the humans willingly set out to destroy the Na’vi land and their homes to exploit the planet’s resources for themselves.

Enter our hero, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-marine who was recruited to replace his dead twin brother in the Avatar program—in which they are meant to inhabit an avatar native to gain the trust of the Na’vi to push them off a coveted mineral deposit. Jake takes the job for the prize of winning his legs back. He ends up getting their trust but at the cost of also falling in love with their culture and place and the chief’s daughter, Neyteri (Zoe Saldana) at the cost of his legs (I’m reminded of Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves). This propels Jake on a collision course with his concepts of loyalty, honor, and justice. And, ultimately, his identity. Okay, so you’re recognizing more plot clichés. Another cliché is the pristine “Nature wisdom” embraced by the natives that strongly reflects our North American native peoples. The Na’vi also worship a “mother” goddess (Eywa; Mother Nature) like many of our ancient pagan cultures.

Cameron’s intention was to create an action fantasy that was both visually stunning and mindful. “The Na’vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are,” said Cameron. And even though there are good humans in the film, the humans “represent what we know to be the parts of ourselves that are trashing our world and maybe condemning ourselves to a grim future.” He acknowledged that Avatar implicitly criticized the United State’s role in the Iraq War. “We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don’t know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America,” said Cameron. “I think it’s very patriotic to question a system that needs to be corralled.”

The human scientists of the film discover that the natives are harmoniously linked to one another and to their environment through Nature’s intelligent “network”. Words like “download” and “link up” suggest another “living” network: the Internet. Which brings us back to the name of the movie and all that it entails: Avatar.

Avatars aren’t anything new (see below). Today, anyone who writes a blog or belongs to Facebook, MySpace or any other online social network has an avatar. Perhaps you have several. If you play 3-D games in virtual worlds, you deal with one to many of them. Avatars are an icon or persona that represents you or an aspect of you on the internet and is usually represented graphically. Mine is SF Girl, which stands for science fiction girl—you guessed it, I write science fiction. Because I’m a writer and speaker, I use a head shot for my image. Many people choose something less “real” to represent their presence on the internet. My friend, Margaret, for instance, uses a little blue alien (Geez! I should have thought of that! LOL!). The point is, your avatar—both image and name—communicates your chosen persona to billions of people in cyberspace. This is how you’ve chosen to be recognized.

What is your avatar?

Meaning and History of Avatar:

In storytelling, an avatar is basically an archetype, representing a concept or quality. Avatar originates from the Sanskrit language in sacred Hindu texts, and is a term for divine beings sent to restore goodness to Earth such as Vishnu, the ever peaceful preserver of the universe, who maintains the cosmic order, Dharma. It translates as “incarnation” or “appearance” or “manifestation”. According to the Hindu texts, good and evil forces are usually evenly matched in the world; but at times the balance is destroyed and evil demons get the upper hand. Vishnu then incarnates in a human or animal form to set the balance right. Cameron’s Avatar (Jake Sully) basically “reincarnated” from one form to another to set the balance right.

The Myth of Pandora:

Cameron chose the name of the planet, Pandora, with deliberation. In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her, so he did—using water and earth. The gods endowed her with many talents: Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo music, and Hermes persuasion. Her name Pandora means "all-gifted."

When Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus gave Pandora to Prometheus' brother. Pandora had a jar which she was not to open under any circumstance. Curiousity got the better of her and Pandora opened the jar. All evil escaped and spread over the earth. She quickly closed the lid, but the entire contents of the jar had escaped, except for one thing at the bottom: Hope. Pandora was deeply saddened by what she had done, and feared Zeus' wrath. But Zeus didn’t punish her. Eventually, Pandora heard a voice from inside the jar pleading for her to open it a second time. Pandora did, and fixed her earlier mistake by giving humanity the greatest gift of all: Hope.

Bruce DePalma and Spinning Fields

2011-04-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

The precise application of Newton’s laws … have to be restricted to non-rotating mechanical objects in field-free space. In a gravitational field, the possibility of extraction of greater energy by a new mechanical dimension [rotation] opens up the possibility of an anti-gravitational interaction—Bruce DePalma, March, 1977

Some consider Bruce DePalma a 20th Century “Galileo”; in a single experiment involving rotation and spinning fields, he refuted Newton’s idea of inertia and Einstein’s theories of gravitation. But like many gifted, intuitive and visionary scientists before him, DePalma’s work was met with skepticism and censure by the traditional scientific community. Despite his recognized brilliance and MIT/Harvard background, DePalma’s exotic physics is considered subversive by his mainstream peers and has been ridiculed. It didn’t help that he led an equally exotic life that included experimenting with psycho-active drugs and that he harbored a rather volatile temper. DePalma’s work was applauded by the free energy community; however, he died unexpectedly in his early 60s in 1997 and his theories have remained unverified.

Was DePalma another misguided scientist or a misunderstood visionary? It took twenty years for Lynn Margulis to vindicate her theories and it took over 200 years for Lamarck’s work on soft inheritance to rise victorious from the darkness of scornful condemnation.

DePalma’s experiment with steel balls in 1972 showed that certain physical properties of an object are radically altered—both its mass and inertia—if it is rotated. According to DePalma, rotation produces a force field, specifically around the main axis of the rotating object, that he measured and called a torsion field or spin field. Time-lapse stroboscopic photographs revealed that the steel ball rotating at ~27,000 rpm flew higher and fell faster than the companion ball that was not rotating. DePalma had since conducted experiments on “bodies in rotation” including massive objects (e.g., over 30 lbs), spinning at very high velocities (~7600 revolutions/minute).

The phenomenon that DePalma observed—if verified—refutes Einstein’s theories of gravitation and Newton’s notion of inertia, which state that all objects, no matter what their mass, fall at the same rate because their inertia (the tendency to remain at rest when at rest and the tendency to remain in motion when in motion) is constant. "The behavior of rotating objects is explained simply on the addition of free energy to whatever motion the rotating object is [already] making. [Thus] the spinning object goes higher and falls faster than the identical non-rotating control.”

The phenomenon “presents a dilemma which can only be resolved or understood ... on the basis of radically new concepts in physics,” wrote DePalma in May 1977. Altering the properties of mechanical objects (i.e. changing their inertia) contravenes the conservation of energy, added DePalma, “because we have associated the properties of an object with the space which contains the object. The space which contains the object also contains energy.” DePalma contemplated that “we can attempt to extract the energy without worrying where it came from, or we can attempt to understand physics, ourselves, and the Universe by a new formulation of reality.”

Richard C. Hoagland “DePalma realized that the spinning ball was not about anti-gravity at all. That, instead, it represented a unique window into a far deeper reality ... re the very energy structure of space and time itself and the extraordinary possibilities of extracting that unlimited, free energy via a variety of appropriate technologies,” said Richard C. Hoagland of The Enterprise Mission. “One of our unfinished, on-going discussions (abruptly cut short by Bruce's tragic and untimely death, in 1997 ...) was a resolution of exactly where this free space energy was coming from,” added Hoagland. Perhaps, added Hoagland, " it is not really coming from 3-Space at all—but literally from a higher dimensional reality, made available in this dimension as a propagating torsion field distortion.”

DePalma claimed that the rotation phenomenon and its force field could be used in a number of different ways—the vibrations from the force field can be a cure for cancer; the rotating effect may be harnessed for the creation of an antigravity device and a 200-mile-per-gallon automobile. He suggested that it could eventually produce a world free from hunger, war and poverty. So, what happened?

Other Lost Magicians & Altruists in Free Energy: Nikola Tesla
Related articles of interest:
"What do the Planet Earth, the Human Brain and Schumann Resonance Have in Common?"
"Cymatics: Exploring how Frequency Changes the Very Nature of Matter and Energy"
"Dreams, REM, and Theta Rhythm"
"The Mozart Effect: the Power of Music"
"The Speed of Life--Part 2: the End of the World?"
"Creative Destruction: Embracing Contradiction and Paradox"
"Rupert Sheldrake and the Physics of Angels"

Polar Cities Reprised, Tsunami, tsunami, tsunami...

2011-03-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, February 22, 2008 to be specific, I posted an article on my now good friend, Danny Bloom (journalist, philosopher, scholar and activist). The article focused on his premise that climate chaos will ensue in the next few centuries and he posited that in the long-term future—several centuries and many generations from now—our planet might look quite different.

In the vein of Lovelock’s “Revenge of Gaia” and Shane Joseph’s “After the Flood”, both based on predictions of an unprecedented rise in water level due to global heating, Bloom believes in being prepared for what may come. He founded the Polar Cities Research Institute, intended to create modular polar cities designed to house post-climate chaos affected communities.

Well, it’s today: March 16th, 2011. And the entire world is focused on the present, horrified, on the immediate wave of perhaps one of the world’s most disastrous natural events—an earthquake and tsunami that took thousands of lives in highly populated Japan—and we remain poised in hushed anticipation of what may yet transpire at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant (a direct result of the earthquake and tsunami).

I woke up that day between 3 and 4 am PST, startled and disturbed by a nightmare of CHAOS. I can’t describe it any better than that. I felt more than saw people in despair, fleeing, frozen in horror as something tossed them into chaos. That was right when the tsunami battered the coast of Japan (at 3: 15 pm their time), scattering buildings like they were doll houses and killing thousands of people. When I was visiting my printer that morning and commented on the inclement weather, he said, “The world is angry.” That was when I first discovered what happened in Japan earlier that morning.

I had another dream once, a dream of a climate change disaster. I pray it doesn’t happen. The dream was clearly a metaphor. But, was it possible that I’d tapped into the larger consciousness, like my friend Paco Mitchel, dream analyst, suggested? Is it a warning about impending climate chaos? Danny talked about it a while ago…

I wanted to update the ongoing dialogue on climate change with some poignant observations and opinions by Danny, three years after his initial promotion of this idea regarding changing our scope and perspective—something we are in dire need of now.

Danny says:

I finally figured out why most people do not want to look at or think about the distant future—say 500 years from now, 30 generations from now—in terms of climate change and AGW, to top what ails the planet and the alleged runaway climate change that COULD lead to climate chaos in 2500....

The reason most people do not even want to engage with me on what I am talking about from my cave in Taiwan is this: most people are heavily invested in the present, and the very near future,iqw/TYJN5-wb6eI/AAAAAAAAETM/tjV01qAycIQ/s320/japan-earthquake-rms of owning property, having a wife or husband, children, grandchildren, inheritors of their DNA and their financial holdings and property, so Most people are so heavily invested materially and financially and property-wise and career-wise [think PHD dept, think job promotion] and also invested so heavily emotionally in their kids and grandchildren and spouses that they simply CANNOT and DO NOT WANT to go where DANNY BLOOM is pointing.

And of course, people like James Lovelock and George Monbiot and Mark Lynas and Fred Pearce and Tim Flannery and James Hansen and Jesse Ausubel simply don't wish to look at my ideas of polar cities for survivors of climate chaos in the year 2500, do not even want to imagine it, so they go into denial. Even good climate activists tell me to piss off.

The reason I can go there is because I myself have no wife, no kids, do not own a home, do not own a car, own nothing, have no financial investments or property holdings, no career, no job promotion wanted, no DNA heirs and no financial heirs and no property heirs. So while I am a sensitive person with a good EQ and an emotional attachment to my life and work and friends and climate acquaintances, there is nothing really holding me my mind back from looking at Lovelock’s future and imagining we might need POLAR CITIES for the 200,000 survivors of climate chaos in 2500, with 15 billion humans perishing in massive die-offs......I can go there and accept this, even as a mere thought exercise, which is, of course, because I am not invested in the present. Most people are heavily invested in the present and very near future so they cannot even hear me.

I realized this yesterday, when speaking with a very smart Indian thinker and urban planner in Singpore with wife and kids and good job and wonderful future ahead of him and great present now in his life, he simply did not want to even think about what I was saying: that India will cease to exist as a nation in 500 years because all Indians will have moved north to polar settlements, he did not even want to imagine this, because he was too emotionally and DNA-invested in the present India to want to go where I wanted to take him—even as a thought experiment. We had a good chat. But he simply would not budge. That is when i realized that I can do this , not because I can see the future, but because I am not invested in any way in the present and therefore can put ALL my mind into poking into future climate scenarios as a warning and wake up call. Interesting insight, no? Thanks, Sanjeev, for leading me there!

The Man in Asbestos by Krista Peterson

2011-02-12T00:35:00.000-08:00

Although humorist Stephen Leacock was not known as a science fiction writer, his short story “The Man in Asbestos – An Allegory of the Future” follows in the dystopian tradition of other writers such as George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. In Leacock’s story, first published in 1911, the narrator, a “passionate student of social problems,” purposefully falls into a deep sleep for more than 1,000 years so that he can see a future in which nature has been conquered and all human struggles are things of the past. When he awakes, a man clad in a suit made entirely of asbestos explains this new world to the narrator, who slowly comes to realize that it may not be such a paradise after all.

Several themes run through the story – the dangers of technology, the significance of work, and the basic need for health and community. Whether or not Leacock was aware of the extent of the dangers of the mineral, the guide’s asbestos suit stands as a representation of humankind’s hubris toward not only nature, but also public health. A history of asbestos written by professors James Alleman and Brooke Mossman reveals that commercial use of asbestos in the Western world began toward the middle of the nineteenth century, though it didn’t hit its stride until the twentieth century. For decades it was considered a “magic mineral” for its heat-resistant capabilities and ease of combining with other materials. At the 1939 New York World’s Fair, asbestos company Johns-Manville exhibited a giant “Asbestos Man” to celebrate the usefulness of the substance.

However, even in the time when Leacock wrote his story, it was known – though not widely – that asbestos could be dangerous, causing lung problems such as scarring, asbestosis, and mesothelioma cancer. Mesothelioma symptoms are dangerous not only in themselves, but also because they can be confused with those of less serious lung conditions until the disease is in its later stages. While it is not clear exactly how many employers or officials were aware of these dangers, it is clear that many of them continued using asbestos long after the risks were known. In fact, in 1930, the Johns-Manville company circulated an internal memo about worker fatalities attributable to asbestos, then several years later worked to suppress reports of these hazards in the media.

The natural environment has also suffered as a result of humankind’s momentary obsession with asbestos. Mining the mineral has caused significant damage to the earth and made entire towns – including Libby, Montana – completely unlivable. Both cats and dogs have been documented as suffering from mesothelioma and other lung problems as a direct result of asbestos exposure, and it is highly possible that many other animals are susceptible as well. Scientific American reports that asbestos is also by far “the most expensive pollutant in terms of regulation and removal,” drawing EPA funds away from other environmental problems.

In Leacock’s satirical story, the “conquest of nature” involves taming the weather with machinery, eradicating the need for food through extensive agriculture, and generally showing a disregard for the complexity of life on earth. Though the Man in Asbestos claims that humankind has stamped out all diseases, the very clothes he wears presents a significant health risk that he seems oblivious to. Mesothelioma life expectancy is tragically low – the American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate at between 5 and 10 percent. Though Leacock may not have known it at the time, he dressed his guide to the future in a symbol of efficiency triumphing over human and environmental welfare.

Recommended Reading:

Alleman, J.E. and Mossman, B.T. 1997. Asbestos revisited. Scientific American: 70-75.

American Cancer Society. 2011. Malignant mesothelioma. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/MalignantMesothelioma/DetailedGuide/malignant-mesothelioma-detailed-guide-toc

Brodeur, P. 1985. Outrageous Misconduct: The asbestos industry on trial. Pantheon Books

Brown, M. 2010. Asbestos contamination still taking toll on town. Associated Press. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37217275/ns/health-infectious_diseases/

Castleman, B.I. 1996. Asbestos: Medical and legal aspects. Aspen Law and Business: Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Author Biography:

Krista Peterson is a 23 year old student living in Florida. She is an aspiring writer with a passion for the health & safety of our community & environment. In her free time she enjoys reading, doing yoga, and playing with three 3 dogs. She is currently working on creating her own blog.

All Dogs Go to Heaven

2011-01-31T21:30:00.000-08:00

I’ve given Toulouse LeTrek the COOL Travel Cat lots of blog-time lately. It’s only fair that I give some time to dogs, like Oli. And this little tidbit I came across… So, I’d like to share with you this interesting exchange (Thanks, Cathy!):

On his cool blog, Father Joe contemplates this possibility:

“C.S. Lewis remarked that canine loyalty and affection oftentimes put human fidelity and friendship to shame. Because of this he thought that maybe dogs would be allowed to join their [human companions] in heaven. Critics contend that this is just another instance of over-blown English sentimentality. In any case, there is a growing consensus that the outer circle of hell is patrolled by cats.”

Let’s see what Toulouse has to say about that!

Christmas Yoga with Toulouse

2010-12-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

Here by popular demand is an 8-pose Yoga Exercise for Christmas given by my good friend, Toulouse LeTrek:

While Nina is busy doing Christmas things (probably eating and drinking herself silly), I thought I’d provide a public service to those of you indulging in the holiday festivities. Here is my 8-pose Christmas Yoga Exercise to help you gear up for all that Christmas cheer. It’s just the thing for a body bloated on Christmas pudding, turkey and baking.

Did you know that the word yoga means “union”. Yoga creates harmony by controlling your breath and holding your body in steady poses called “asanas”. Five key elements include proper breathing, proper exercise, proper relaxation, proper diet, and positive thinking and meditation. Yoga should be supervised by a qualified teacher. Don’t worry. That’s me.

So, first off, choose a pleasant, peaceful and spacious setting for your exercises. You might like to turn the lights down and light some candles and put on your favorite Christmas music (so long as it isn’t “I am Santa Claus” by Bob Rivers or “Takin’ Care of Christmas” by Randy Bachman). You can use a mat for extra comfort and give yourself lots of room. Then you need to do some stretching exercises …

The purpose of the Headstand is to rest the heart, which usually has to work against gravity and will likely do some extra laps this Christmas with all the cholesterol coursing through you from figgy pudding, turkey stuffing and eggnog. Some people think headstands heal everything. Well, it sure gives you a different perspective on things! And that’s gotta be good for you.

The Dolphin pose strengthens the arms and shoulders. It kind of prepares you for the headstand. I’m doing a great job, aren’t I?

The Plough pose increases overall flexibility, but it’s particularly effective for relieving tension in the upper back and shoulders; especially after you’ve been with the relatives for over two days...

Here’s the Cobra, one of my favorite positions. It does tons of good things like toning and strengthening the superficial and deep muscles of the back and abdominal regions. It also increases backward bending flexibility—something a cat like me does lots—and it relieves tension, especially in the lower back. Good for after you’ve been shoveling the driveway…

The Locust is a backward bending exercise that increases flexibility of the upper back and strengthens the lower back muscles. Holding the pose also massages the internal organs and makes them frisky—which you will be too; good for combating the “big meal” doldrums.

The Camel pose I’m doing here…well, I might have gotten carried away… lets you exercise all your back muscles and extends your spinal column by bending your back fully. It’s useful for increasing spinal and hip flexibility.

Here I am doing the Spinal Twist, which stretches the spine and helps the vertebrae regain their mobility. The roots of the spinal nerves and the nervous system get toned and provided with increased blood supply.

You need a lot of strength, flexibility and concentration to do the Peacock. As you can see, I have a lot of it! When the pose is held, your elbows press into the abdominal region, drawing fresh blood to the area and nourishing your internal organs.

Last but certainly not least, is the Final Relaxation, my favorite part and I do it well, as you can see… Relaxation is important because it leaves you with a calm mind and relaxed muscles. It allows the body to absorb the energy released by the asanas. You need to relax this way for at least five minutes. I’m so good at it that I do it for … well, hours.

Have a safe, joyous and meaningful “giving season”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Sensual Writing and Why I Love the Smell of Smoke

2010-11-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Last week, as I was driving down a winding country road on my way to Bridgewater from Lunenburg, I caught sight of the billowing smoke of a small fire. Someone was obviously doing some roadside autumn clearing.

Without thinking, I slid the window open and inhaled deeply as I passed through the billows. I was preparing to experience the exquisite “taste of home”. As I breathed in the aroma of burning vegetation, memories of outdoor campfires and old wood-burning stoves flooded in from my childhood. A goofy smile slid across my face as I bathed in the joyful innocence of adventure, wonder and the comfort of the hearth. I’d had a wonderful childhood and the smell of smoke brought it back to me in its full glory.

What does this have to do with sensual writing? Everything. That’s because writing is metaphoric. That is what storytelling is: sharing universal truth through metaphor, delivered from the heart, where these lie. Sensual writing doesn’t just involve making sure to include at least a few senses like sight, sound, smell, taste and touch in your narrative--though this is a good writing mantra. To write sensually involves much more than the simple description of a sense, though this is certainly the first step (and something all too often neglected by novice writers).

To not connect a described sense to a memory or emotion is to miss a very important opportunity as a storyteller: that of enlightening the reader on some aspect of the POV character experiencing the sense (things like their history, the quality and nature of their relationships, their viewpoints, education, prejudices, how and what they’ve experienced in their life).

Here’s what I mean:

EXAMPLE 1: Ben walked into the Grand Banker Pub and immediately caught the tantalizing aroma of garlic and pears amid the din of jubilant laughter, cackles and desultory conversation. The amber light enhanced the rich tones of nautical oak. He saw some friends drinking in the corner and sauntered toward them, smiling.

EXAMPLE 2: Ben hesitated at the Grand Banker Pub door, inhaling the exquisite aroma of garlic and pears amid the din of jubilant laughter, cackles and desultory conversation. For a moment he was back on the boat, reliving the party that changed his life. He’d stopped eating pears after that. He caught sight of his friends drinking in the corner, beneath the amber light. Like a sailor seizing a rope, he sauntered toward them, a huge smile pasted on his face.

The first example describes; the second example emotes. The first example describes the place well but it doesn’t provide us with any information about Ben, except that he likes the aroma of garlic and pears. We don’t know why. In the second example, his senses are used to hint at intrigue linked to memories that, in turn, are linked to the associated sense—in this case the smell of garlic and pears. This is the power of sensual writing.

Bringing it back home with the senses.

Other articles I've written here on how to improve your writing appear on the righthand sidebar of this blog. Here are some that are most relevant to this article:
1. The Novelist: Sensual Writing
2. The Novelist: The Importance of Setting

I also give an online course on How to Write Sensually through http://www.ninamunteanu.com/. Check the Online Course Semester Calendar for availability of this course.

Happy Birthday, Toulouse!... A Cat is a Cat is a Cat…Or is it?

2010-11-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

To celebrate his birthday today, I treated Toulouse to lunch at The Knot Pub in Lunenburg. The Knot is a friendly pub where locals go to eat homemade food and tell stories. According to the staff, “the person sitting next to you could be a scallop fisherman, Christmas tree farmer, Norwegian sailor, world famous actor, musician, painter, or scholar – you never know who you’re going to meet at The Knot! The outside looks a bit like a quaint little seafaring shack complete with port hole in the front door. Inside the pub exudes sea-shanty charm, with lots of local boat building oak, nautical brass fittings, copper pennies on the ceiling, flags and other nautical things. The place even has its resident ghost, a lady who apparently glides by, especially when you’ve had a few too many pints.

Sarah recommended the Knot's Ale, made by the Propeller Brewery, a lovely nut-brown ale rich in complicated flavors that quench your thirst.

We drank copious amounts of Knot's Ale over an exquisite platter of seafood appetizers. Then for our late lunch we chose their recommended Pub Club. We hesitated over their delectable home-cut fries then went with the Greek salad. They didn’t skimp on the feta and the dressing was tasty but not over-stated.

We lingered over our delicious lunch, feeling very happy and continued to pick at our appetizers. Our conversation wandered over a diverse tapestry of topics that covered our many adventures and landed on some very odd subjects indeed. Here are some highlights.

Of course the Caribbean cruise came up and the subject of Toulouse’s rather deft handling of a Harley Davidson Sportster during our tour of Cozumel:

“Where did you learn to drive one of those? And how,” I probed, “DO you negotiate the handle bar with only a… well… stuffed paw?” I felt a little like I was back on my sentient ship, Benny, interroga—er—interviewing Jean-Luc Picard or Lynn Margulis.

Toulouse shrugged and helped himself to the last olive. “Some things are not knowable in the visible world…”

I laughed. He was doing his Zen of Traveling thing again. “Like that deadly coral snake on the stairway of the Mayan Temple,” I added. “The one that you did the Jedi mind trick on …”

Toulouse smiled and stroked his whiskers. “Yeah, that one,” he said. I think he started to purr…

I then raised my third glass of beer to my feline friend and grinned with delight. “Happy birthday, Toulouse!” I must have said that for the tenth time.

Toulouse responded with the same enthusiasm he did the previous nine toasts: a vigorous nod, a hearty sip of his Propeller ale and a great big smile. “This time last year we were on a road trip across Canada and arrived in Nova Scotia in time to see her beautiful autumn colors,” he said.

“Yes, and on my last birthday, we were in Switzerland, celebrating a royal dinner made by a Prince in the pastoral village of Merlischachen. Then I got my birthday wish and we were detained by Eyjafjallajökull! For a whole other two weeks!”

“Ah, is that what happened? You made a wish?” Toulouse raised a brow (yes, cats have brows: check next time—if your cat lets you, that is…) and stroked his whiskers with a paw. “We made the best of our situation with a grand exploration of the true Switzerland, didn’t we?”

Our exploration of Lake Lucern and the Swiss Alps led us into truly enchanting places like the magical forests of the Wagetaler See. “We sure got to know the Swiss.” I laughed.

“And their café crèmes!” Toulouse said, purring.

It turned out to be perhaps the best trip I’d ever experienced. We’d given ourselves to the moment and all that it offered. And all because of a pesky volcano.

Toulouse helped himself to an olive. He cocked his head and studied me for a moment. “And weren’t we in New York around your birthday the year before?"

I nodded, remembering our walks through Manhattan and how Toulouse ended up on the butt of a Policeman's gun.

"And wasn't it Paris on a previous birthday of yours?”

I laughed again and leaned back in my chair with fond memories. “Yes, the city of lights! My favorite city in some ways, Toulouse… Your town. You showed me some of your old haunts. Remember the Jardin des Tuileries where we snuck in a bottle of red wine and soft camembert cheese and sat on a park bench to enjoy the best of Paris? We savored escargot, exotic cheeses and fine wine…every day!” I summoned my memory cells into overdrive. “And weren’t we in Niagara Falls on your birthday before that?”

Toulouse grinned like a Cheshire Cat… well, he IS a cat, after all. “You’d launched your book, Darwin’s Paradox in Toronto and were touring with book signings all over the planet, but mostly in Ontario…”

I laughed. “I never could figure out why Torontonians liked my book so much considering that my story had their own city practically destroyed by an industrial plague.”

“They like a good thrill,” Toulouse said. “The Niagara Falls hydro-electric power plant was the creation of Nikola Tesla, did you know? One of your heroes.”

I nodded. Yes, I did know. “He helped build the first hydro-electric power plant in 1895, which started the electrification of the world. He was way ahead of his time. A brilliant man and so misunderstood.”

“There’s a statue of him in Niagara Falls NY to commemorate the historic event. That’s where we met, remember?”

“How could I forget!” I said. “Seems like we’ve known each other for much longer.”

“Yes, it does, doesn’t it?…Well, we’ve had enough adventures together to last some people’s lifetimes…”

“And many more to come!” I added. “We haven’t been out in space together yet…”Then I blurted out, “Where are you really from, Toulouse?” He grinned and stroked his whiskers again. I knew he wouldn’t tell me. I hadn’t plied him with enough beer. “I mean, it isn’t every day one encounters a stuffed cat with such style and finesse…A cat who speaks six languages fluently and knows how to make a Café de Paris sauce…” I said.

“Did you know that cats were very sacred to the ancient Egyptians?” he said. I thought it a clever ruse to draw me away from the subject of his origin. “Cats were considered demigods. Anyone caught harming or killing a cat, even by accident, was put to death.”

I sipped my beer and couldn’t help wondering if this had anything to do with Toulouse’s history.“Like Bast,” I said proudly. “The Egyptian cat-goddess and protector of women, children and domestic cats.”

Toulouse looked impressed. “She was also the goddess of sunrise, music, dance, and pleasure as well as family, fertility, and birth,” he added. “She was known as the Light Bearer and the Lady of Truth.”

I had my little computer sitting on the table with me, as per usual, and as Toulouse helped himself to more salad, I surreptitiously googled ‘Bast’ and glanced at the information. Her credentials were impressive. I tapped my lips with my finger as though digging into my memory. “I seem to recall that her name means devouring lady. She has the body of a woman and the head of a domestic cat, doesn’t she?”

Toulouse nodded and I proudly went on, “She’s normally shown holding the sacred rattle, called a Sistrum, and she’s symbolized by the Wadjet, the divine, all-seeing eye of Ra.”

Toulouse nodded again. “Good googling, Nina.” He’d caught my wandering eye. “Yes, Ra gave Bast the Uraeus or serpent of wisdom,” Toulouse happily added. “According to Herodotus, Bast was a happy and benign Deity who brought good fortune, music, dance and joy to everyone.”

Remind you of anyone? I laughed and drained my glass. The attentive waiter brought us two more bottles of Propeller ale and a complimentary platter of fresh steamed mussels. I think he was listening in on our conversation and wanted to hear more.

“Did you know that Wadjet means whole or healthy?” Toulouse went on, taking his newly charged wine glass in his paw. “It’s also a symbol of life and resurrection. And therefore, thought to have healing powers.”

“I heard that the symbol was used as a measurement system for ingredients in medicines, pigments, land and grain. It could be divided into six symbols and fractions all to do with the various senses like taste, smell, and sight.”

“Yup,” returned Toulouse after a long sip of his beer. “The Rx symbol used by pharmacies originated with the Eye of Horus. The fractions symbolized the shattering of Horus’s eye by the god Sett into six pieces. The system of fractions is based on halves, starting with half of one then half of that and so on until you get 1/64.” He then leaned forward on his little paws. “ Did you know that when you add the symbols together the total comes to 63/64? Some scholars suggest that the remaining 1/64 represents the magic used by Thoth to restore Horus’s eye but others think it means that perfection isn’t possible.”

“What do you think?” I asked.

His big glass eyes sparkled in the rich amber light of the pub. “I think it’s a good metaphor for achieving spiritual wholeness. It takes a little magic to find all your parts and become whole.” Then he grinned that Cheshire Cat grin again and I began to wonder if he’d brought up Bast for more than to simply distract me. Wait! I was the one who brought up Bast!...

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Toulouse… :)

Galactic Party at the Lord Nelson Hotel!

2010-11-03T19:30:00.000-07:00

Imagine a royal palace on an alien planet in a galaxy far far away…add hundreds of bizarre and wonderfully costumed aliens from all over the universe and you have Hal-Con at the Lord Nelson Hotel.

Hal-Con at the Lord Nelson Hotel was out of this world!

Toulouse and I attended Hal-Con last weekend, where I launched my latest SF thriller Angel of Chaos and gave several workshops. Hal-Con is the prime science fiction / fantasy / comic & gaming convention in Halifax; after an over-decade hiatus, it returned this year to a sell-out crowd of enthusiastic fans. Over 1,200 fans poured into the splendid lobby of this historic hotel on Halloween Friday and formed a moving sea of elaborately costumed SF and Fantasy characters beneath its sparkling chandeliers. Aliens, characters, and robots from Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Iron Man, and many more universes milled about, entertaining hotel guests in the elevators, hallways, lobbies and Victoria Arms restaurant pub all weekend.

Located near the historic waterfront of downtown Halifax, the Lord Nelson Hotel provided one of the coolest venues for an SF con that I have experienced (and I’ve been to many cons all over North America). This recently renovated 1928 building radiated a traditional elegance that, together with its friendly staff, embraced the joyful “other” of SF/Fantasy fandom with charming maritime hospitality. Named after England’s greatest naval hero, Horatio Nelson, it is Halifax’s most historic hotel and frequent host to royalty, politicians and celebrities from all over the world. Celebrity guests have included the Rolling Stones, Keith Urban, Anne Murray, Jerry Seinfeld, Ozzy Osbourne and Paul McCartney.

While I attended to my duties as a writer, Toulouse met up with old friends and made new ones. We met lots of cool people, including Ramona and her two sons, Sterling and Milan—both gifted writers and illustrators from Nova Scotia. We met at the Nova Scotia Writer’s Federation table, where I’d parked myself to sell my books, and ended up at the pub to discuss fascinating topics like the role of the artist and the goodness of green smoothies. Toulouse and I spoke with Walter Koenig (who writes a cool comic series these days) and Denise Crosby (they played Chekov and Tasha Yar in the original Star) Trek). Robert Maillet from Sherlock Holmes was also there. Nathan Fillion surprised attendees with a telephone appearance to defend Mal in the “Geeks versus Nerds Debate” for Han Solo versus Malcolm Reynolds. Special guests also included Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbet, P.J. Haarsma, Coner McCreery, Drakina Muse, Matthew LeDrew, Kenneth Tam, Ellen Curtis, David C. Rhind, and yours truly. You can read about Toulouse’s experience in his article, Hal-Con and the Classy Lord Nelson Hotel, on his blog, Toulouse LeTrek, the COOL Travel Cat.

The workshop I gave on Friday was on “the Hero’s Journey”, a lecture I often give for its value to writers in identifying story arc and integrating plot with theme and character. The next day, during the launch of Angel of Chaos, I spoke of the writer’s journey and invoked Joseph Campbell, who suggested that the artist is like a shaman, who keeps our myths alive—those ancient myths “designed to harmonize the mind and the body” and bring us “home”.

I described my own “hero’s journey” as a writer. Choosing to be an author is like choosing to fall in love. To “follow your bliss”. To follow your bliss is to follow your heart. And to follow your heart is to let the divine touch you and come to bliss. The artist interprets the divinity inherent in nature and in all unseen things. This is ultimately our role: to communicate myth for today: to yield to the flame of rapture and, like Prometheus, bring that flame to Earth, through story. That is true bliss. Sometimes we are painfully burned by it. This is the paradox of “bliss”, because the spirit of sacrifice lies at the core of true bliss. It’s just like falling in love.

Follow your bliss. Find where it is and don’t be afraid to follow it. Take the journey…with me…

…We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world—Joseph Campbell