A Rain of Frogs

2007 seems to have been a year of polarization. Obviously in terms of geopolitics and economics, but those are subjects that rarely rear their heads at A Rain of Frogs. People seem to have had bad years in 2007 – just a bad year for many. Tragedies, failure to live up to their own and other’s expectations, and general malcontent. These thoughts seem to be prevalent on many of the websites I read.

For me it was both a good year and a bad year, full of ups and downs. But I can’t call it a truly bad year. 2006 was much worse than 2007, which was neither great nor terrible.

For A Rain of Frogs, it was an interesting year. I didn’t write as much last year as in years past, mostly due to a much busier life but partly because I am not seeking as much catharsis from writing as I have done previously. As I said, 2007 wasn’t so bad as 2006.

I did manage to get a few pieces of fiction done. Upon rereading them, I notice that while a darkness seems to have descended upon my writing, I’ve also (I hope!) achieved a clarity sometimes lacking in my previous work. This would seem to be an accurate reflection on 2007, a year replete with emotional extremes but also with more purpose and clarity than I have known in my adult life.

It is my hope that the quality of the pieces compensate for the diminished quantity, but this is for you do decide. Below is a short list of fiction pieces that appeared on this site this year. It is my hope that you enjoy them as much a second time as I have.

• Cordelia
• Instant catharsis (we all cry on)
• Spent
• Black ribbon, parts one and two
• St. George and the dragon
• The metaphorical rabbit

Whether your 2007 was good or bad, may your 2008 be a better year.

Shortly into the new year, I will do a retrospective of 2007 as it applied to A Rain of Frogs.

Until then, be safe, be happy, enjoy yourselves. New Years Eve is meant to be fun!

When I was about nine I read first The Hobbit, then The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. While I found the trilogy a bit ponderous for my young mind, The Hobbit really captured my imagination and catapulted me into the serious fantasy genre.

From fantasy I moved boldly into science fiction, where I discovered Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (a “five-part trilogy of four”) and eventually Pratchett’s Discworld – a triumphant return to fantasy. While none of these are the pinnacle of literary greatness, I have read hundreds and hundreds of worthy books, all because in a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.

As you know, I just went and saw The Golden Compass, the feature-film adaptation of the first installment of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. As I said in my review, Pullman manages to blend the fantasy and science-fiction genres brilliantly. You can read my review here.

But something else caught my attention while sitting in the darkened auditorium: how desperately the entertainment machine is searching for the next Harry Potter.

This is something that I’ve been sensing for the last few years. Movies like Eragon or Bridge to Terebithia are swimming in the wake of Rowling’s monster success with the boy wizard. Publishers have been signing new fantasy authors hand over fist in hopes of discovering the next big thing, and the trailers before The Golden Compass were no exception.

First was a trailer for a movie called Inkheart, a story about a girl with a gift for storytelling. It seems that any story she (or her father, it’s obviously genetic) reads aloud comes to life. Apparently one of them reads the wrong book, and brings to life a baddy named Capricorn, played by Andy Serkis of Gollum/Smeagol fame. I had never heard of Inkheart, but I was not really surprised to find out it was the first book in a trilogy.

Next came Spiderwick, a movie based on a book of the same title. Apparently two children move to an ancient New England estate named Spiderwick. There they find faeries and goblins and at least one troll. While it is clear there are a series of Spiderwick books, it is unclear if the movie is adapted from one or many of them.

While these fantasy books are a welcome change from Da Vinci code wanna-bes and spy stories, one cannot help but feel the market is being saturated in hopes of something “sticking” in the same way Harry Potter did. A similar thing happened after the success of the original Star Wars movie, and again with Pixar’s unique Toy Story. The entertainment industry, hungry for its fix of cheap profits, inundated us with formulaic knock-offs to no avail.

The Harry Potter and Star Wars series were undeniable successes. Pixar manages to make each release better than the one before it. These were gambles that broke open markets that were considered to be completely tapped out. But the reason for their successes cannot be broken down into a formula. A confluence of story, time and audience mindset made these stories more than the sum of their plot outlines. The answer is not in better special effects, or even more slick computer animation. It lies in stories that capture our collective imagination.

One can’t help but feel that if the entertainment industry were to spend as much energy exploring and developing new authors, stories and genres as it does trying to duplicate past successes, that the world would be a far more interesting place in which to read and watch movies.

Go watch this.

It’s brilliant.

“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate.”
-Victor Lebow

I just went and saw The Golden Compass, a feature-film adaptation of the first installment of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. I ready these books a few years ago during the long lull between books four and five of the illustrious Harry Potter series, and was very impressed. Pullman tapped into christian mythology in a creative and innovative way, and managed to merge the fantasy and science-fiction genres beautifully.

I had seen a trailer for the movie in which gold-gilt airships featured prominently. I am a huge fan of dirigibles, and so was particularly excited about the visuals I had seen. I sat down in the theatre with a sense of excitement.

Let me sum it up. The movie was good, but not at all the movie I was expecting to see. The visuals were, as I had anticipated, amazing. The airships were fantastic, though a bit rare. Lyra’s Oxford and London were brilliant. The armored bears were, in a word, spectacular.

Some of the casting choices were inspired, other’s somewhat unexpected. Nicole Kidman as Ms. Coulter was an excellent choice. When I first saw her in the trailer, I was immediately sure she was the right choice. Sam Elliot was a better Lee Scoresby than the one in my imagination. Dakota Blue Richards gave me cause for concern at first, but she pulled off Lyra brilliantly. The ubiquitous Christopher Lee made a brief appearance as the First High Councilor, and Ian McKellen voiced Iorek Byrnison. Sarumon and Gandalf all over again, why mess with great chemistry?

The makers of the movie made some very wholesale changes. An entire race of people (the Samoyeds) were added. The anti-church rhetoric was definitely softened, and many important plot elements were modified or lost completely. Two major plot sections were switched. The entire Bolvanger scene was moved till after the Svalbard, resulting in a plot hole not quite large enough to guide a battalion of armored bears through.

But most disturbingly, the entire end of the book was sacrificed to the gods of suspense. It is obvious they are planning to make the next two books into movies, but leaving the movie at the point where they did would have been like Peter Jackson leaving the Fellowship of the Ring off while the party was standing in front of the gates to Moria. An interesting place to stop, but not at all the one anyone would have been expecting.

All that aside, the movie was quite enjoyable. It is imperative to go into a movie based upon a book with an open mind, as changes are inevitably made. If you’ve read and loved the books, or listened to the BBC dramatization, you might find yourself puzzled, but if you’ve never picked up any of the trilogy, go see the movie, then head on down to Indigo and pick up the books.

Then let me know if you, too, find yourself hoping there’ll be more airships in the next movie.