A weekly mimetic encounter.
Hey readers,
I’m pining to do some small stories with some interaction with my readers. So, here’s the deal:
Starting this week I’m asking you, readers, to send me a six-words-or-less idea for a real-life story theme, such as “Love hurts; Hindsight is always 20-20; The captain stays with his ship etc.” (A theme would be the focus or effect of the idea, not necessarily anything specific. And by “real-life” I mean to avoid suggestions that have a ridiculous premise like “Obama always loves his purple dragon”)
Send me whatever topics you can think up by Monday morning 11:30 AM PST and email them to bryanbeus at gmail dot com and put “Mimetic Monday” in the subject line and your theme in the first line of your email. From whatever suggestions I receive, I’ll pick one theme to tell a story on the following…
Monday morning! come back to www.bryanbeus.com and I’m going to tell you that story based on the theme that was chosen using words and a picture.
I have my mimetic thinking cap on, so remember to email your suggestions to bryanbeus at gmail dot com!
Bryan
p.s. A lot of my friends have been asking what I’ve been up to. It’s been difficult to answer as my main work-in-progress has been… well, a work-in-progress. When I found myself being caught up in the current of becoming an illustrator without any involvement in the writing process almost two years ago, I started weaning off all of my commissions in order to make more time for self-initiated projects. I still am interested in taking commissions, it’s just secondary to self-initiated work. My current storytelling opus has finally found focus and I’m about a third of the way through finishing it. I hope to see it done, illustrated, compiled, finished, etc. by the fall.
Update 03/30/10: My publisher just made a commitment to sign the project, woohoo!
Update 04/05/10: I’m getting rid of the exact time on the post – too early for now.
The Badger’s Dissertation – The Once and Future King
I recently read this and thought it had remarkably strong storytelling. My favorite aspect of the book was how White was able to blend both classical style storytelling (with metaphors, spiritually thematic elements, and introspection) with contemporary pop-entertainment (the scene work with Merlin and King Pelennor made me laugh out loud).
White also was brilliant at creating characters with unique points of view, as shown by Wart’s magical escapades amongst the animal kingdom. The following is my favorite passage in that vein of thought. At this point in the story, Wart (the future King Arthur), has been magically turned into a badger in order to visit another badger. Badgers, according to Merlin, are the second wisest animal on the planet, second only to the Owls. Wart visits the Badger and listens to this dissertation.
(don’t forget to send me themes for Mimetic Monday – http://tinyurl.com/yf3jk49)
The Badger’s Dissertation:
People often ask, as an idle question, whether the process of evolution began with the chicken or the egg. Was there an egg out of which the first chicken came, or did a chicken lay the first egg? I am in a position to say that the first thing created was the egg.
When God had manufactured all the eggs out of which the fishes and the serpents and the birds and the mammals and even the duck-billed platypus would eventually emerge, He called the embryos before him, and saw that they were good.
Perhaps I ought to explain,’ added the badger, lowering his papers nervously and looking at Wart over the top of them, ‘that all embryos look very much the same. They are what you are before you are born – and, whether you are going to be a tadpole or a peacock or a cameleopard or a man, when you are an embryo you just look like a peculiarly repulsive and helpless human being. I continue as follows:
The embryos stood in front of God, with their feeble hands clasped politely over their stomachs and their heavy heads hanging down respectfully, and God addressed them.
He said: “Now, you embryos, here you are, all looking exactly the same, and We are going to give you the choice of what you want to be. When you grow up you will get bigger anyway, but We are pleased to grant you another gift as well. You may alter any parts of yourselves into anything which you think will be useful to you in later life. For instance, at the moment you cannot dig. Anybody who would like to turn his hands into a pair of spades or garden forks is allowed to do so. Or, to put it another way, at present you can only use your mouths for eating. Anybody who would like to use his mouth as an offensive weapon, can change it by asking and be a corkindrill or sabre-toothed tiger. Now then, step up and choose your tools, but remember that what you choose you will grow into, and will have to stick to.”
“All the embryos thought the matter over politely, and then, one by one, they stepped up before the eternal throne. They were allowed two or three specializations, so that some chose to use their arms as flying machines and their mouths as weapons, or crackers, or drillers, or spoons, while others selected to use their bodies as boats and their hands as oars. We badgers thought very hard and decided to ask for three boons. We wanted to change our skins for shields, our mouths for weapons and our arms for garden forks. These boons were granted. Everybody specialized in one way or another, and some of us in very queer ones. For instance, one of the desert lizards decided to swap his whole body for blotting-paper, and one of the toads who lived in the drouthy antipodes decided simply to be a water-bottle.
“The asking and granting took up two long days–they were the fifth and sixth, so far as I remember–and at the very end of the sixth day, just before it was time to knock off for Sunday, they had got through all the little embryos except one. This embryo was Man.
” ‘Well, Our little man,’ said God. ‘You have waited till the last, and slept on your decision, and We are sure you have been thinking hard all the time. What can We do for you?’
” ‘Please God,’ said the embryo, ‘I think that You made me in the shape which I now have for reasons best known to Yourselves, and that it would be rude to change. If I am to have my choice I will stay as I am. I will not alter any of the parts which You gave me, for other and doubtless inferior tools, and I will stay a defenceless embryo all my life, doing my best to make myself a few feeble implements out of the wood, iron and the other materials which You have seen fit to put before me. If I want a boat I will try to construct it out of trees, and if I want to fly, I will put together a chariot to do it for me. Probably I have been very silly in refusing to take advantage of Your kind offer, but I have done my very best to think it over carefully, and now hope that the feeble decision of this small innocent will find favour with Yourselves.’
” ‘Well done,’ exclaimed the Creator in delighted tones. ‘Here, all you embryos, come here with your beaks and whatnots to look upon Our first Man. He is the only one who has guessed Our riddle, out of all of you , and We have great pleasure in conferring upon him the Order of Dominion over the Fowls of the Air, and the Beasts of the Earth, and the Fishes of the Sea. Now let the rest of you get along, and love and multiply, for it is time to knock off for the week-end. As for you, Man, you will be a naked tool all your life, though a user of tools. You will look like an embryo till they bury you, but all the others will be embryos before your might. Eternally undeveloped, you will always remain potential in Our image, able to see some of Our sorrows and to feel some of Our joys. We are partly sorry for you, Man, but partly hopeful. Run along then, and do your best. And listen, Man, before you go . . .’
” ‘Well?’ asked Adam, turning back from his dismissal.
” ‘We were only going to say,’ said God shyly, twisting Their hands together. ‘Well, We were just going to say, God bless you.’ ”
The Badger’s Dissertation, from Chapter 21
Posted on March 31st 2010 in Commentary | No Comments »