Why I Don't Like Blacks and Gays

In the wake of television presenter Eddie McGuire's spectacular foot-in-mouth blunder recently when he suggested on national radio that Indigenous football player Adam Goodes could be used to promote the musical King Kong, I thought now would be a good time to get something off my chest.

Firstly though for those who don't live in Australia (or have been hiding under a rock), McGuire's comment came after an incident a couple of days earlier when a young girl called Goodes an ape during a football game and he used it to draw attention to the issue of racism in sport. What made the whole thing with McGuire so bizarre was that he had played a big role in apologising to Goodes and taking a stand against racism, so many people were left going WTF when he said something so seemingly racist and offensive. I'm no Eddie McGuire fan, but I do think he was trying to make a joke about how this incident could be cynically used by the promoters of the musical to gain publicity, he just wasn't smart enough to pull it off or extract his foot from his mouth after his attempt at humour went down like a lead balloon. Instead he just panicked and made things so much worse.

But I digress. Back to why I don't like blacks and gays. Before you get too up in arms I have to be fair and admit that I hate whites and straights too, as well as coloureds and ethnics and refugees (although asylum seekers are okay). For some reason I have no problem with Christians, Muslims, Hindus or Jews and I don't mind African-Americans or Asians. If you haven't worked out yet that I'm talking about the terms, not the people they refer to then go to the bottom of the class.

The words 'blacks' and 'whites' have such negative connotations for me. They bring to mind race riots and the darkest days of the apartheid regime. They imply that race is the single characteristic that defines a person and they make everything seem so.....well, black and white. It's the same reason I don't like gays and straights, these terms reduce people to their sexuality alone. I'm much more comfortable referring to gay people or straight people. I read a book recently about a person with a disability, and I know that many in the paraplegic community are happy to refer to themselves as 'paras' while able-bodied people are 'ables' but I have problems with these terms as well, although I really have no right to.

For some reason religious labels don't worry me nearly as much even though they reduce people to a single thing, maybe because they don't have such a history of being used in a derogatory way.....except they actually do. Jew has a long history of being used as a term of abuse and Muslim has received a real beating in the media over recent years. Nationalities don't worry me either, except when a word like 'Leb' (Lebanese) becomes a term of racial abuse as it has in Australia. I like Indigenous because to me it has a real gravity to it and is so much better than 'Abo' which makes my skin crawl.

Classifying people on the basis of gender is so naturalized that it's not even noticeable, but the very first thing we do is divide people into male and female by referring to them as a boy, girl, man or woman. The gender division is so deeply ingrained in culture that to question it seems ridiculous, but this ignores the fact that many people don't fit neatly into gender categories or roles, and find them stifling (update: This article which I came across the day after I wrote this post is so interesting). I believe that in a more enlightened society gender wouldn't be as important as it is now, but sadly the world seems to be moving backwards in this regard. Just walk into any department store and witness the sea of pink clothes, dolls and accessories available for girls to get an idea of the identities they have to choose from - princess or skanky Bratz girl (seems a lot like the old virgin/whore division)

It's interesting that apart from words like rich, poor, working-class, middle-class, pleb etc, which aren't used that much to categorise people,  there are no terms to show where a person stands in the social order. Maybe it's because people like to pretend that class doesn't exist and we're all equal or it's harder to pin down someone's social class in the same way you can tell what their gender, race and even nationality are.  One thing I am sure of is that these are very good things to think about when writing if you want your characters to be multi-faceted and complex. This is where character profiles come in handy because you can develop a whole background which will give your characters depth and make them more realistic by considering their race/ethnic background, social class, religious beliefs, gender and feelings about gender roles, sexuality and disabilities and any discrimination they may have experienced in their lives. So many conflicts can emerge from these things alone that thinking about them is bound to generate plot ideas.

Pitch Perfect: A Review

First of all I have to admit that I'm a huge fan of good musicals, and not-so-good musicals (except Mamma Mia which was a step too far, even for me). Pitch Perfect is definitely not perfect. In fact many of the jokes fall flat and some of the humour is questionable, but overall I really enjoyed this movie!

When I started watching it my expectations were pretty low. After a shit day at work I needed a pick-me-up and was ready to forgive a lot of its sins if the music was good. The music is very good, and the audtion sequence with Kelly Clarkson's Since You've Been Gone is gold. Another stand-out scene is the improvised rif- off between the rival acapella groups. In a lot of ways this is Glee / High School Musical type of film, but at the same time it pushes the boundaries in a really clever way that will not alienate fans. It's both a parody and a tribute.

What elevated it for me was that some of the humour comes straight out of left-field and is completely unexpected. Most of the characters are weird and over-the-top, but they work, and Rebel Wilson's deadpan delivery of her lines is one of the highlights of the films (although I am getting sick of seeing her play exactly the same role in every movie she's in. Makes me wonder if she has any range beyond the funny fat chick). Anna Kendrick was perfect in the lead role and Skylar Astin is great too. (he's way too young for me to perve on but what a cutie).

The only sour note was the depiction of the predatory lesbian character who takes any opportunity to grope women. In this day and age it's disappointing that homosexuality is even an issue. The vomit scenes were pretty disgusting, but the scene were the women are all struggling to get away from Aubrey as she blows chunks is like something straight out of a horror movie. It's very funny, at least for a few seconds, but the "vomit angel" took it a bit too far. Both my husband and I agreed that the Treblemaker's performance at the end was actually better than the Bella's, but this is a mnor thing. Do I recommend this film? Most definitely woth a look.

A Tale of Two Formats

To kick the new year off I decided to read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.  Now I know I have 2-3 copies of this book floating around on my bookshelves and in the boxes of books scattered throughout my house. After half-heartedly scanning a bookshelf I decided to search for it online and I was thrilled to discover it was free. I knew some of the classics were free, but until I searched for this book I had no idea that so many of them were available. It truly blows my mind that the greatest books ever written are available at our fingertips for absolutely nothing. Have a look here for yourself if you don't believe me. It was like Christmas all over again and I spent a couple of hours merrily downloading everything I hadn't read (the only downside is that my TBR list has now grown dramatically when I was supposed to be reducing it this year!).

After I'd finished my downloading spree I was suddenly hit with a wave of nostalgia for all of my books mouldering away on shelves and in boxes. I'd always assumed that one day I'd resurrect these faithful friends and read them all over again. Most of them already came from second hand bookshops and their yellowing pages and musty smell only enhanced the reading experience in my opinon, but after I'd seen them online these most treasured of possessions began to look more like relics from a bygone era. In the past when people argued about ebooks vs hard copies I always claimed there was room for both, but after this experience I began to wonder if hard copies really are on their way out. I felt saddened by the thought of homes of the future with no bookcases or dog-eared novels lying around on the coffee table to be picked up and browsed through at leisure.

Fast forward a couple of days and I was reading my Kindle in 40 degree heat when it suddenly just gave up and conked out. I had to put it down to rest in a dark, cool room and even then it took a couple of hours to revive.  Nothing like this would ever happen to a 'real' book, which is made of much sterner stuff. Hard copy books laugh in the face of extreme temperatures and electricity black outs. They can be read by candlelight, dropped, thrown around the room and jammed into boxes without even leaving a mark. Kindles on the other hand can't even handle something as simple  as being accidentally sat on (as I can attest to after losing my first Kindle in a tragic accident which still brings tears to my eyes).

The moral of the story is don't throw away your old books just yet. Ebooks are convenient and great in their way, but technology is fallible, and it always pays to have a back up plan. I look at my bookshelves with renewed respect and I'm going to make an effort to pick up a 'real' book every now and then just to remind myself of how good it feels to hold something solid and tangible that has proven it can stand the test of time.

5 Reasons Why Flash Fiction Is Good For You

The other day I came across a magazine that accepts flash fiction of up to 800 words and it prompted me to try my hand at writing a really short story. Not only was the story fun to write, but it also made me realise just how helpful flash fiction can be in honing writing skills.

So here are five reasons why flash fiction is good for you:

1. It's actually very difficult to condense an entire story into 800 words. The story has to have a beginning, middle and end like any story, some descrption to set the tone and maybe even a little character development. It forces you to think very carefully about the structure of your story and this can only be beneficial.

2. When writing flash fiction you don't have the luxury of building a scene or using a lot of imagery. Every single word counts and there's no room for extraneous information that's not central to the plot. This forces you to trim back your writing to the bare bones and focus on individual words to a much greater degree than any other type of fiction writing. If you're anything like me you spend your time trying to bump your word count up as much as possible, so writing flash fiction will force you to approach writing in a very different way.

3. Because every single word counts in flash fiction the reader is aware that all information is meaningful. You need to lay down clues without making it too easy to guess the ending. I often get frustrated reading books that include a whole lot of pointless detail that does nothing to further the plot, or mysteries where no groundwork has been laid and the solution comes completely out of left field. Flash fiction can help authors produce much tighter, more logical writing.

4. Most flash fiction and many short stories have a similar structure to a joke and  the ending is like the punchline. In order to pull this off authors must be original and inventive.

5. Flash fiction is an ideal place to start for beginning writers who may feel daunted by writing longer stories. It allows you play around with your style an point of view while you are developing your own unique voice. For experienced writers it can be a great way to  hone skills and experiment between books. There is also a strong market online for this type of fiction, providing opportunities to reach more readers.

For all of these reasons I will continue to write flash fiction and maybe even post some of it on this blog!

Are You a Plotter, Pantser or Plantser?

Are you the type of writer who likes to have everything planned out in great detail before you set pen to paper and begin writing your novel or story? Do you create detailed character profiles and plot diagrams for every twist and turn well before you have composed the first sentence? Do you already know in advance what your themes are and how your characters will develop over the course of the book? If you answered yes to these questions then you, my friend, are a planner.

 

On the other hand if you start writing with no clear idea of where your story is going, who your characters are or even what the story it is about then you fall into the category of pantser. You thrive on uncertainty and see writing as a journey which is as exciting for you as it is for the reader. You delight in coming up with connections and ideas on the run and you give your unconscious a lot of leeway to create.

 

 

These are the two extremes of the writing world, but my guess is that most writers probably fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, making them plantsers. I'm definitely in the plantser category because I begin with a basic outline for each chapter and an overall idea I want to express, but I don't fill in the details till I actually start writing. Once I begin writing the story and characters change a great deal from my original plan. I believe in giving the unconscious room to play and for me the most satisfying part of writing is seeing connections I hadn't even realised were there, and the plot twists I didn't consider when planning, but which suddenly seem ideal. In a sense, writing is a lot like reading, and if your story doesn't entertain and thrill you as you're composing it, then chances are it won't thrill anyone else either.

I love the term plantser because it really captures the organic process of writing. Just like a plant a story has to begin with a seed planted in the fertile soil of the imagination, and as it begins to grow the roots develop to hold the story together and keep it anchored. Above the soil is the story itself, growing and blossoming in beautiful and often unexpected ways.

Everyone has their own approach to their craft and you have to go with what works for you, but I believe plantsers manage to avoid the pitfalls that come with being a planner or a panser. Planners risk overthinking things and losing spontaneity. Pantsers on the other hand often find that they start out with great enthusiasm but then come to a grinding halt because they don't know how to finish the story. Their characters can come across as superficial because they haven't spent enough time thinking about the motivations and how they will develop. I know this from experience because I have taken a pantser approach with my current WIP and I've found it far more difficult than my previous books. It's not approach I'll be taking again in a hurry.

I've discovered I'm a plantser through and through because this approach combines the best of both worlds. It provides a solid grounding to build on while also allowing the imagination to run free and do its magic. Who could ask for more than this?

What type of writer are you?

The Sound & Fury of Australian Politics

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

  William Shakespeare, Macbeth

I wonder what Shakespeare would make of the current state of politics? As a keen observor of humanity and its foibles he probably wouldn't be surprised at the greed, self-interest and hypocrisy that now dominate the political landscape, but I do believe even he would be shocked at just how juvenile and ridiculous political debate has become.

Scenes in Australian parliament this week demonstrate this point. Discussion has now been reduced to slanging matches over the misogyny of the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott. Recognising that Abbott has a major problem appealing to women voters, Labor has gone all-out with their campaign to portray him as a male-chauvinist pig with attitudes right out of the stone-age.

I have absolutely no doubt there's more than a grain of truth in these accusations, and misogyny is alive in both parliament and wider society. Julia Gillard has been subjected to crude personal attacks and name-calling that male politicians have never had to endure and I  must admitt did get some satisfaction watching her make Abbott squirm.  However, I also believe that this focus on gender and sexism is abeing used by both parties to distract attention from the real issues about the economy and the fact that neither of them can put forward a platform that people will actually support. Rather than acknowledge this, they have to focus on these issues, and that's why parliament has degenerated into childish insults and point-scoring. This article sums it up better than I can.

Those who lauded Gillard for standing up to the bullies have totally missed the point. This article portrays her speech as a "triumph of feminism." Is it also a triumph of feminism to force single parent families onto the dole when the last child turns eight, effectively cutting the income of the most disadvanged families in society, the majority of which are headed by women? There was nothing remotely spontaneous or 'real' about her speech. Every move is carefully orchestrated to hit Abbott in his weak spot with voters and to distract attention away from her support for Peter Slipper, and other important questions. The whole debate is calculated. Gillard is an extremely ruthless politician who will say or do anything to survive, and to see her as some kind of "every woman" finally standing up for herself is ridiculous.

It's not just parliament that has degenerated markedly over the past few years. The media plays a huge role in blowing controversies way out of proportion, and causing people to focus on what is basically a whole lot of hot air while the country goes to hell in a handbasket. I can't believe the number of news reports I've read recently where they quote from Twitter and Facebook. Journalists have taken to scanning through social media sites to find the most offensive comments which they then use to stir up a hornet's nest. I really do despair at the state of the media, politics and society in general, and it can't be denied that all three are in a state of decay.

Climate Change.....Coming Soon to Every Town & City Near You!

 

 

First climate change came for the polar bears and I did not speak out because I was not a polar bear.

(I was also too busy watching The Kardashians).

 

Then climate change came in the form of extreme weather events but I did not speak out because my home wasn't flooded or burnt to the ground. (And Fox news said the world was actually cooling, not warming, despite the amount of hot air they were personally pumping into the atmosphere).

 

 

Then climate change caused food shortages and many began to starve, but I did not speak out because I still had food in my stomach (And surely this was a third-world problem that could never affect me! They were always starving and dying in those countries, so it really wasn't anyting to work up a sweat over).

 

Then climate change came for the low lying nations and I did not speak out because I did not live in a low-lying nation (Although I did start to get a bit worried at this point).

Then climate change came for me and there was no one left to speak out. (Why the hell didn't anybody warn me about this before it was too late?)

 

The Evolution of Man