Category: writing

Weird stuff in the in-basket

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Internet, writing2 Comments

If you have an e-mail account, chances are weird stuff shows up in your in-basket unless you paid somebody $10000000 to install blockers from multiple companies to make sure weird stuff doesn’t get delivered.

  1. One scam is an e-mail from somebody you’ve never heard that has the word “confirmation” in the header. I never open these because I know it’s somebody trolling for customers by making me think I already ordered something from them.
  2. Then there’s the header that says “Did we do something wrong?” These come from companies I may or may not have ordered from, but haven’t bought anything recently. Half of them come from people I’ve never heard of. These also go in the trash.
  3. Then there are the astrologers and Tarot readers who send me messages like, “I’ve been thinking about you lately because the universe has a message for you. See my free reading to see what it is.” I click on some of these things out of curiosity. The readings generally tell me I’m all-powerful, have high energy levels, and am destined to do great things. All I have to do is pay $29 a month to learn how to unlock my potential. Occasionally, I respond by asking, “If I’m all-powerful, wouldn’t my power show me what to do?” They say that most people just need a little help like jump-starting a car. Ah, so that’s how it works. It’s time to select the “unsubscribe” option.
  4. Malcolm, we heard from girls on the street that the little blue pill is no longer doing its job to fix your ED problem. I don’t respond to these because I don’t consort with “girls on the street” and I I did, I’d have to get my wife’s permission. That’s not happening. If I did respond, I’d say, “Sister Fortune already sold me I’m all-powerful, so that means that I don’t have an ED problem.”
  5. Malcolm, according to our records you’re trying to make a go of it by being a writer. If what doesn’t work, we’d like to enroll you in our fast-track grave digger’s course. Lots of people are kicking the bucket these days, and you can earn good money getting rid of the bodies. Free shovels to the first 100 people who ask about our program. I respond, “The object in the picture is not a shovel. If you think it is, you can’t help me.” I don’t hear back from them after that.
  6. Dear Mr. Campbell, did you write the article entitled “Telling the Difference Between a Spade and a Shovel”?  Seriously, I get a lot of inquiries like this because I’m a writer. Most of these are legit,  but not as much fun as those e-mails that are scams.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of satire, magical realism, paranormal, and contemporary fantasy novels and short stories.

Remembering ‘Elizabeth R’ today

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn history, writing

Of all her work, I most liked Glenda Jackson’s  (9 May 1936 – 15 June 2023) portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in the 1971 BBC TV docudrama more than any of the others in that role.  Helen Mirren is a favorite of mine, and she did a good job, but I like Jackson’s work better. Jackson is probably best remembered for “Women in Love” and “A Touch of Class.” We can only guess what else she might have done as an actress had she not been gone almost three decades during her political career.

Since I’m of Scots ancestry, I take a dim view of the English Monarchy, and so “Elizabeth R” impacts me because I not only liked the acting but have always disliked Elizabeth I. My feelings about her are fueled in large measure due to her illegal imprisonment and execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Like a modern soldier or political figure, Mary’s first duty was to escape (as I see it), so punishing her for plots (the Ridolfi and Babington plots), against Elizabeth as crimes instead of acts of war was unconscionable.

As you can tell, my bias in favor of Mary over Elizabeth is very strong. That’s why I remember the TV series. Watching it, I could have spat nails. Much later in history, don’t even get me started about the “troubles” in Northern Ireland.

“Elizabeth R” was the catalyst for multiple debates between my wife and me. She took English history in college and was very knowledgeable about the monarchs and issues. She could never quite understand my dislike of Elizabeth I for being as strong as it is, almost as though Elizabeth I were still on the throne causing more problems in Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere. Few historically controversial people stir up stronger emotions in me than English monarchs, especially those constantly fighting Scotland.

I’ll miss Glenda Jackson, of course, as a politically astute MP and a very talented actress even though her figurative journey to the years between 1558 and 1603 will always be first in my memory of her.

—Malcolm

Click on my name to find my contemporary fantasy, magical realism, and paranormal books and stories. None of them are set in Scotland, though perhaps they should be.

We lost a literary giant

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

Since reading is personal and visceral and very subjective, I cannot say what drew me to Cormac McCarthy’s novels year after year.  I liked his plots, his mix of minimalism and lyrical passages, the closeness of the land in his work, his ear for authentic dialogue, and a writing approach that dragged readers kicking and screaming into some of the most beautiful and the most violent tales they ever experienced.

As quoted in Wikipedia, In 2003, literary critic Harold Bloom named McCarthy as one of the four major living American novelists, alongside Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. His 1994 book The Western Canon had listed Child of God, Suttree, and Blood Meridian among the works of contemporary literature he predicted would endure and become ‘‘canonical’“. Bloom reserved his highest praise for Blood Meridian, which he called ‘the greatest single book since Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying’“, and though he held less esteem for McCarthy’s other novels he said that ‘to have written even one book so authentically strong and allusive, and capable of the perpetual reverberation that Blood Meridian possesses more than justifies him. … He has attained genius with that book.'”

Oddly enough, his Pulitzer Prize Winning novel The Road is probably my least favorite, though I like journey stories in general. In many ways, I think it got the Pulitzer for the same reason actors sometimes win Academy Awards: the powers that be realize the recipient should have gotten the award for an early book/movie and hand out the honor as a last-ditch chance to even things up. I would have picked Blood Meridian over The Road, but I wasn’t consulted. <g>

There are quite a few McCarthy retrospectives and homages online today. It’s nice to see them because there are times when I think he’s “underread” by people who prefer lesser stuff and don’t think of him when new titles are announced.

I liked the subhead in the story in The Atlantic: “The worlds depicted in his novels are not built for mortal humans like you and me.”  CNN said, “Despite accolades, McCarthy remained relatively obscure for much of his career; as recently as 1992, 27 years after his first book was published, the New York Times Book Review said he “may be the best unknown novelist in America.”

Typical of his work are these quotes:

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

“War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.”

“Your heart’s desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.”

“A man’s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”

“That night he dreamt of horses in a field on a high plain where the spring rains had brought up the grass and the wildflowers out of the ground and the flowers ran all blue and yellow far as the eye could see and in the dream he was among the horses running and in the dream he himself could run with the horses and they coursed the young mares and fillies over the plain where their rich bay and their rich chestnut colors shone in the sun and the young colts ran with their dams and trampled down the flowers in a haze of pollen that hung in the sun like powdered gold and they ran he and the horses out along the high mesas where the ground resounded under their running hooves and they flowed and changed and ran and their manes and tails blew off of them like spume and there was nothing else at all in that high world and they moved all of them in a resonance that was like a music among them and they were none of them afraid neither horse nor colt nor mare and they ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised.”

McCarthy always gave us a story and left us with divine PTSD.

–Malcolm

PEN AMERICA AND 3 OTHER FREE SPEECH GROUPS FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN 1ST AMENDMENT HERNDON V. NETFLIX CASE

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Threats to Press Freedom, writing2 Comments

Legal Filing Argues that Netflix Can’t be Held Liable for Depicting Suicide in Fictional Series Under 1st Amendment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 13, 2023
(NEW YORK) – PEN America, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) on Monday jointly filed an amicus brief to support the First Amendment rights of Netflix in a lawsuit over the series 13 Reasons Why, which depicted suicide.

Netflix is being sued for damages following a 15-year-old girl’s tragic suicide after watching the series. The  lawsuit filed in 2022 by the girl’s father, John Herndon of Livermore, CA, alleged that viewers were not adequately warned or shielded from the show’s content. A federal judge dismissed Herndon v. Netflix in 2022; Herndon has appealed.

In its amicus brief, the four free speech organizations argued that the program is fully protected under the First Amendment and therefore Netflix cannot be held liable for the death.

The brief states: “Suicide is an enduring, though tragic, facet of human existence. Many great works of literature, history, and religion depict it, and those works are routinely taught to teenagers.  For just some of the most famous literary examples, consider Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Julius Caesar, as well as the novels Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Les Miserables, The Catcher in the Rye, and The Great Gatsby. … Yet all the books, plays, and films that include such suicides are of course fully protected by the First Amendment, whether or not they include minors among their audience, and however they may be sold or marketed.”

Kate Ruane, Sy Syms director of the U.S. Free Expression programs at PEN America, said: “Understandably it is difficult to adhere to principles when faced with a tragedy like this one. But to hold Netflix liable in this case would violate constitutional protections, court precedent and, in addition to chilling Netflix’s speech, would undoubtedly risk chilling the speech of other writers, filmmakers, artists and creators on sensitive topics like suicide, drug addiction, or mental health.”

“The plaintiff’s demands fail to take into account the far-reaching ramifications of excluding groups of ‘impressionable audiences’ from essential conversations, blocking student journalists from engaging and informing their peers in an era already fraught with misinformation,” said Jonathan Gaston-Falk, staff attorney for the Student Press Law Center.

FIRE Attorney Jeff Zeman said: “Freedom of speech isn’t the freedom to speak in a vacuum; it necessarily includes the right to promote your speech to an audience. Whether it’s Romeo and Juliet, Dead Poets Society or 13 Reasons Why, fictional works that portray difficult topics like suicide don’t lose their First Amendment protection just because their creators seek to find an audience.”

-30-

‘Songs of Innocence and Experience,’ by William Blake

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn poetry, writing2 Comments

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was scarcely known during his lifetime, was considered mad by those who were aware of him, sold very few copies of his work, and was buried in a mass grave with borrowed money. Now that he can no longer profit from his works, he’s considered favorably as a poet and engraver.

His introduction to this volume of poems, written and engraved in 1894, shows the style of the work. Readers definitely need the illustrations in order to enjoy the intended scope and meaning of the work.

This edition promises the engravings that belong with the work.

From the Publisher

“This stylish reissue of Blake’s timeless work is sumptuously packaged in burnt-orange casing with gold sprayed edges, which allude to the treasures within.

“Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a rare and wonderful book, its seeming simplicity belying its visionary wisdom. Internationally recognised as a masterpiece of English literature, it also occupies a key position in the history of western art. This unique edition of the work allows Blake to communicate with his readers as he intended, reproducing Blake’s own illumination and lettering from the finest existing example of the original work. In this way, readers can experience the mystery and beauty of Blake’s poems as he first created them, discovering for themselves the intricate web of symbol and meaning that connects word and image. Each poem is accompanied by a literal transcription, and the volume is introduced by the renowned historian and critic, Richard Holmes. This beautiful edition of The Songs of Innocence and Experience will be essential for those familiar with Blake’s work, but also offers an ideal way into his visionary world for those encountering Blake for the first time.”

Wikipedia notes that, “Geoffrey Keynes says that Blake, as the prophet ‘calls the Fallen Man to regain control of the world, lost when he adopted Reason (the ‘starry pole’) in place of Imagination.’ Earth symbolizes the Fallen Man within the poem. Blake (‘the voice of the Bard’) calls him to awake from the evil darkness and return to the realm of Imagination, reassuming the light of its previous ‘prelapsarian’ state. Reason (the ‘starry pole’) and the Sea of Time and Spece (the ‘watr’ry shore’) “are there only till the break of day if Earth would consent to leave ‘the slumberous mass'”

As a reader biased in favor of Blake’s work, I feel that time spent with this volume is time well spent.

—Malcolm

Did you read ‘Flowers in the Attic’ or pretend that you read it?

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing2 Comments

Of course, I read it. After all, there was a war on, I was addicted to Southern Gothic by running with a bad crowd and was working for an employer who tapped my phone (not because I read the book, though I’m not sure about that).

I like the Wikipedia comments about the book: “A review in The Washington Post when the book was originally released described the book as ‘deranged swill’ that “may well be the worst book I have ever read”. The retrospective in The Guardian agreed that it is deranged but called it “utterly compelling.”

Sure, there were claims that it might have been based on a true story. I didn’t care. There were also claims that its author V. C. Andrews was as messed up as her novel. I saw that as a plus. People are still arguing about such things thirty-seven years after Andrews died. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? I think people want there to be fire even though the evidence about real fire is rather slim.

Last year the New York Post said, “Real life of ‘Flowers’ author VC Andrews was as creepy as her gothic novels.” The post based that view on a book about Andrews: “While the new book “The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story” (Gallery Books) by Andrew Neiderman may not be as salacious as “Flowers in the Attic,” it’s surely worth its own Lifetime Original Movie.”

I don’t think so, but the reporter never called me for a comment.

While one can hardly say the book is “just good clean fun,” everyone wants to find some reason anyone would write such a novel, and then follow it up with more or the same.

How or why it all happened seems irrelevant to me as an author.  The story stands for itself. What it means and/or what the author meant are the kind of swill we get from English departments that think novels must be explained–and possibly the authors as well.

Flowers in the Attic was, for me, a compelling story.

–Malcolm

Potpourri for Sunday, June 4

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri, writing2 Comments
  • As I read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, I’m happy to say this novel is a dream. And yet, it’s hard for me not to think of Holden Caufield with quotes like these:  “The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.” “People love to believe in danger, as long as it’s you in harm’s way, and them saying bless your heart.”“Sunday school stories are just another type of superhero comic. Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal.” The Christian Science Monitor review says, “Her exquisite writing takes a wrenching story and makes it worthwhile. The details are difficult, but they are never gratuitous. She thrusts the reader into the midst of real-world circumstances – especially the opioid epidemic – and she compassionately demands that we not look away.”
  • As I work on my novel-in-progress, I notice once again that finding a year-by-year timeline for whatever you want to know seems impossible. I can find overviews. I can find out how things work today. But finding out what happened exactly in any given year is a hell of a lot of trouble. Right now, I’m wondering what the standard morphine dosage was in 1955. I guess I’m going to just throw a dart at the morphine history and hope for the best when it comes to oral usage or injection. It’s been around for a long time.
  • Three of the characters in my novel served in Korea. Good news: I have Jeff Shaara’s Frozen Hours and The Last Stand of Fox Company. These books help me keep up with battles, timelines, and the mess General MacArthur made of the whole thing. If I had been Truman, I would have gotten rid of MacArthur long before the first battle. News from Korea comprised some of the first stories I saw in newspapers and in newsreels, so I would have bought these books even if I weren’t using them for book research.
  • My wife and I have most of Billy Joel’s recordings. However, since I don’t live in or near New York City, I didn’t realize how long Joel has been at Madison Square Garden. I read in today’s Guardian that, “Billy Joel will conclude his monthly residency at Madison Square Garden in July 2024, with his 150th-lifetime performance at the venue. ‘It’s hard to believe we’ve been able to do this for 10 years,’ Joel said at a news conference on Thursday. ‘I’m now 74. I’ll be 75 next year. It seems like a nice number.'” Heck, I’m older than Joel. Maybe I should start cutting back on all my books and blogs.
  • For the home viewer, we want the writers’ strike to end so that we can keep watching the stuff we watch. According to Variety, “The Directors Guild of America announced a tentative deal with the studios on Saturday night, providing pay hikes and an improved residual for international streaming. But a summary provided by the DGA makes no mention of pegging the streaming residual to viewership. That indicates that residuals will continue to be the same on streaming platforms — whether a show is a hit or a flop.”
  • Every time I make Waldorf salad, I think of the Fawlty Towers episode in which Basil is asked by a guest for Waldorf Salad but has no clue what it is. I grew up in a family that had this quite often, so I never understood why Basil didn’t know–other than the fact he’s English and those folks aren’t known for edible cooking.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of novels that can be found on Amazon here.

Yes, I still watch ‘Survivor’

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn television, writing

If you’re still watching “Survivor,” then perhaps you’ll understand that since I did not grok Yam Yam that meant, according to my experience with this show, he would end up winning. And now we read that the next season will feature 90-minute episodes instead of one-hour episodes. I’m not sure I can cope with that much “reality.”

However, I want to quickly point out that we do watch quality programs like the three-day documentary about FDR. The producers and directors did, I think, a great job capturing many hours of a man’s Presidency and the years leading up to it. We learned about him many years ago in school, but documentaries with actors playing the lead roles clarify those dusty memories from history class.

Upcoming is another Ken Burns film.  I think we’ve seen all of them because we enjoy the superb storytelling and great cinematography.  The “American Buffalo” will air on October 16 and 17. According to Burns’ website, “This film will be the biography of the continent’s most magnificent species, an improbable, shaggy beast that nonetheless has found itself at the center of many of our nation’s most thrilling, mythic, and sometimes heartbreaking tales. It is a quintessentially American story, filled with a diverse cast of fascinating characters. But it is also a morality tale encompassing two important and historically significant lessons that resonate today.”

I don’t think American TV is all schlock even if we watch some of that. If you have some guilty TV-watching pleasures, feel free to confess them in your comments.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the four-book series of novels that focus on Florida Folk magic, i.e., hoodoo. Save money by purchasing all four novels in one Kindle volume.

Climate Change – Is Resistance Futile?

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Climate Change, writing

If you watched Star Trek, you saw the spaceship built like a giant cube. You know that this cube attacked everyone in order to assimilate them into the cube. Those in the Borg gun sites were told: “Resistance is futile.”

I think of this when I think of climate change. Individually, have we decided that resistance is futile; or, as Robert Swann said, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

I do not think Marianne Williamson has a chance of becoming President. But I do think her statement on her website about climate change is worthy of consideration:

“Our biggest crisis regarding the climate emergency is humanity’s massive state of denial that it exists on the scale it does. Yet a willingness to recognize the depth of the problem is a prerequisite to our solving it. It is a psychological and moral challenge to face the horror of what stands before us over the next ten years should we not act; yet there – in our standing raw before the truth that it confronts us with – lies our only hope for surviving it.

“And our environmental crisis is not only climate; it is also water, air, food, and soil. Our earth is like a body beginning to experience an all-systems breakdown. The glacial ice melt is so extensive that the sheer weight of melted polar water is changing the shape of the earth’s crust.”

The problem is so huge, all most of us can do is hope that some smart person will come along and fix it. We balk, though, at many of the proposals because they are inconvenient and ask us to greatly change our habits and our attitude about what the environment needs to survive. In some respects, people use a similar excuse to the one they use when they don’t vote: “My vote won’t make any difference.” And so we say, my “green car and green house” won’t make any difference.

When millions of people think this way, then we’ve basically written off the planet and decided that while the planet will support us, it won’t be here for our children and grandchildren. “Kids, it was just too much trouble to leave you a viable world.”

So, we’re sitting here watching it happen as though doing anything about it is futile.  I have to say, I don’t understand this attitude.

—Malcolm

 

 

 

 

‘The Old Lion,’ by Jeff Shaara

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

The television documentary “FDR” is a wonderful introduction for those who aren’t familiar with the events leading up to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election as President or the programs he instituted to end the Depression. Since his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt is part of that documentary, it bought to mind Jeff Shaara’s latest historical novel about Teddy Roosevelt, The Old Lion which was released on May 16.

Shaara’s historical fiction makes no pretense of serving as autobiographies of the primary characters nor even a definitive history of people and events. This book is no different. It brings to life a man and his times in the way well-written historical fiction does best: through a story, or multiple stories, that show readers what happened in an understandable way.

From the Publisher

“In one of his most accomplished, compelling novels yet, acclaimed New York Times bestseller Jeff Shaara accomplishes what only the finest historical fiction can do – he brings to life one of the most consequential figures in U.S. history – Theodore Roosevelt – peeling back the many-layered history of the man, and the country he personified.

“From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, from the waning days of the rugged frontier of a young country to the emergence of a modern, industrial nation exerting its power on the world stage, Theodore Roosevelt embodied both the myth and reality of the country he loved and led.

“From his upbringing in the rarefied air of New York society of the late 19th century to his time in the rough-and-tumble world of the Badlands in the Dakotas, from his rise from political obscurity to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, from a national hero as the leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War to his accidental rise to the Presidency itself, Roosevelt embodied the complex, often contradictory, image of America itself.

“In gripping prose, Shaara tells the story of the man who both defined and created the modern United States.”

Kirkus Reviews wrote, “A glowing tribute to a Rushmore-worthy president. The Old Lion himself would have called it “dee-lightful!”

The Historical Novel Society wrote, “Readers will find no surprises in the plot of the novel, but they will come away with a greater understanding of Roosevelt and his place in history. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and those interested in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.”

Newsday wrote, “Midway through Jeff Shaara’s ‘The Old Lion: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt,’ Roosevelt, “a tornado of energy,” whirls about the White House on Christmas Day, 1901. He entreats his wife, Edith, his children and others gathered there to dance along. As one guest, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, observes, “It is apparent to those of us who love him that the president is 6.”

“Roosevelt’s childlike enthusiasms enliven Shaara’s appealing and spirited portrait of the 26th President of the United States. Replete with the author’s vividly imagined Western showdowns, cavalry charges and jungle expeditions, “The Old Lion” entertains the 6-year-old in all of us.”

The book is a welcome addition to the libraries of fans of historical fiction.

–Malcolm