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31 8 10 I’ve been reading reviews of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse today. I was told about this short-lived TV project by a Sussex philosophy student named S___, who I was fortunate enough to meet on route to Notting Hill Carnival over the weekend. I haven’t watched any episodes, but I think the reviews tell me all I need to know about why it was cancelled. Mary McNamara writes in the LA Times that the character Echo is rescued from some kind of trouble in exchange for having her memory completely wiped, but it’s unclear what could possibly be motivating her, or in McNamara’s words: ‘At what point did something like that sound good?’. She describes the Dollhouse characters as robotic and making choices not justified within the text. It reminds me of a change to my story: the character Stitch had been written as suicidal, with the reasoning that the procedure he underwent did not only make him immortal but destabilised his genetic make-up to an extreme. But, my friend S___ argued over a coffee, is that honestly grounds for depression, let alone suicidal thoughts? Inconvenient, certainly, but would uncontrollable shape shifting make someone determined to die? No, I had to admit, it probably would not. From an evolutionary point of view, so long as he is strong and healthy, the will to survive should persist in him. Later that day, I sat down and made a rewrite. Now, Stitch is not only plagued by uncontrollable genetic modification but also in constant pain as a result of his procedure, something S___ wisely suggested, having himself recently suffered from fibromyalgia (or as he refers to exclusively in a New York Jewish woman's voice that cracks me up: "fibro-maaiii-aeel-gee-ah!"). McNamara also suggests that ‘everyone involved [in the making of Dollhouse] was so caught up with its concept, complications and set design that they forgot to build the viewer a point of entry’, which definitely struck a chord, because I’m still looking for a good reader point of entry in my story. I have a feeling the pilot I’m writing at the moment won't be the beginning of the book for this very reason. It’s informative and establishes the aims of the story, but lacks a strong point of entry—something perhaps worth revisiting before I commit myself to drawing it. The Dollhouse plot seems to tick the same genre boxes as my story in that its characters espouse various philosophical concepts, but I feel very strongly about creating a story driven by characters, not symbols. Each of the primary characters in my story has opted for a different route to extended life, hence expressing a different philosophy about identity, but I want this choice to befit their personality, not form the basis of it.  25 8 10 I'm reading into the politics of science since I've become annoyed by the seeming obligation researchers have to adopt dumb gimmicks to attract the investment they need to exist. Pure science shouldn’t rely on media coverage, should it? It is so depressing when online science journals dress up legitimate discoveries in titles like 'Squirt that berg', or ignore items altogether in favour of regurgitating curiosities like 'Why fish don’t freeze in the Arctic Ocean'. Where do ducks go in the wintertime? Jeez Holden, I don’t know. What’s more, science articles prefaced "Cool!" are never cool. They are dull. In any case, I’ve rewritten the ending of my graphic novel to be even darker than before. At this rate the ending of the book will be an android "dying" while a man cups her breasts and weeps like a child. I’m half serious. Check back in a few months to see if I’ve labelled this post a spoiler, or deleted it. Rather than the central conflict revolving around the destruction of an ethically dubious enterprise (Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind), I am now more interested to discuss what I consider the persistent human tendency to lampoon what scares us and ignore what we don’t understand. How science is being popularised at high costs. But before I write about any more alternations to my story I should tell you what it’s about. It's about determining the essence of human existence, but it’s also about a dude and his friends.  25 8 10  I’m almost done with the script for my graphic novel trailer and on the verge of starting to pencil it. In preparation for all this, I’ve been re-reading my copy of Heller and Dooley's Education of a Comic Artist. Bill Sienkiewicz really seems to know what he’s talking about and I like his philosophy, although B___ filled me in on the fiasco he was involved with in the 80s. Kevin Eastman of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a label called Tundera and paid Sienkiewicz for the issues and originals to a comic book he hadn’t created yet. Sienkiewicz went insane and blew it all on coke. I would love to get a huge upfront sum for a graphic novel. I don’t think the industry works that way anymore. For more inspiration B___ referred me to the French artist Moebius, but a Google image search of his art is overwhelmed by models of the moebius theory like this one. And I realise now that I need to spend more time researching not just how to write about science but how to visualise it, too. Time for some TV?  17 8 10 I’m designing a series of four promotional leaflets for KoodibooK.  P___ and I spent our lunch break trolling WH Smith in the name of research, seeking out printed adverts of the sort you normally receive through the post and catch in a recycling bin purposefully positioned below the mail slot. We spent about half an hour inconspicuously leafing through medical journals and gossip rags, waiting for loose things to fall out and all the while trying to appear a potential subscribers to Good Housekeeping, in case one of the teenaged WH Smith employees proved uncommonly motivated. We had joked beforehand about the unlikelihood of people conducting research in WH Smith enough that they would suspect us, but in reality about half the people browsing had alternator motive. I noticed one business type whisper to a suited shopping buddy: “What do you think of this layout?” and holding up an issue of Vogue. I resolved that if stopped and questioned us we should say “Waterstones is looking to become a little more lowbrow and we just don’t know where to begin”. The examples we collected were all pretty rubbish, so the leaflets I’m making for KoodibooK are comics.  13 8 10 Here is a preview of the book I've been designing in collaboration with Emma Reynolds:  I met Emma several years ago through the illustration course at Manchester Metropolitan University. I studied English but crept into the art department for life drawing sessions twice a week. Emma was in her first year, but she possessed an uncanny eye for drawing from life even then! In the intervening years she's honed a distinctive style with inspiration from the likes of Dave McKean, and his summer she completed the degree with first class honours. Designing this book is a challenge because I want to give her work an adequate presentation, and because she inputs her own design concepts in response to mine. It’s the most dynamic design collaboration I’ve been involved with to date! Once complete, this book will be a printed portfolio of her work in hardcover A4 landscape format and published through KoodibooK.  12 8 10 My experience of the past few days has been wrought with inspiration, so I think my next few entries will be concerned with that rather than original material.  I've become an admirer of Dorthea Grossman, the LA-based blank verse poet. I found her poems this morning through the Poetry Magazine podcast. This one poem in particular blew me away. Since I couldn’t find it in text form anywhere, I've taken the liberty of writing it out myself. Please excuse the potential inaccuracies.Definition of Happiness no. 5013 I like this poem for its fairly unsophisticated observations that in a few lines succeed in conjuring up the almost impossible—happiness. Doesn't just record a personal moment, but in plain English instils it in the reader. I find that incredible. Another thing I find extremely charming about several of Grossman's poems is how the honesty and realism of her subject matter is interrupted in the final line and she lapses into a sly sort of humour: I have to tell you Finally, I adore her deadpan performance style. In the podcast I mentioned earlier, producer Curtis Fox describes how she is accompanied during her performances by a trombonist, whose improvised jazz riffs serve to punctuate these short poems.
 07 8 10 It's my last day in Holland, which is for the best because I'm starting to bore people with my incessant talk of RNA and all the possible applications for molecular engineering. The book I'm reading, Engines of Creation by K. Eric Drexler, is at once terrific and terrifying. It claims that nano will succeed digital as the prevalent form of technology in 'ten to fifty years', which is exciting even before you realise it was published over two decades ago, in 1986! What generation of nano technology does that put us in? Also, why is the author's second name written in full instead of his first? What is that about? Does this guy Drexler hate his first name or what? P___ is unhappy with his name. We were out for a meal with friends the other night, when he suddenly announced that he would rather be called Seth, or else Ruben. These were the names his mum had wanted to give him when he was born but which his dad was less thrilled about. Then the question came: how do we feel about calling him Seth from now on? Well, Ruben and Seth took a beating in the dinner debate that followed. Ruben was accused of being too sexy and beyond that affiliated with jerks, and Seth deemed all wrong for sounding too dissimilar to his original name. The real concern had nothing to do with Ruben and Seth, though. It was the overall prospect of learning to call an established friend by a different name. Which leads me to wonder if the phrase to be given a name is misleading. Names are such common property. They belong to the people who know you and in some cases also to people who read your books. Kirk? Kevin? There aren't many male names that start with K, are there? Anyway, nano technology is on the uprise. Soon everyone will be immortal, and we'll all have plenty of time to outgrow our given names.  06 8 10 H___ was invited to DJ at Club Up in Amsterdam last night, the date of my arrival, so I rang up his brother and we went along to the show. Apart from his trademark invisible mixing of electro and underground hiphop records, and the swarm of beautiful girls in assorted tutus made of recycled barbie dolls, I think what I enjoyed most about last night was my awkward first attempt at VJing. What a thrill introducing a He Man loop to The Moomins! Alpha keying an old favourite generic gangster rap video! Replicating the black & white reel of a woman with a third eye having a panic attack to generate sixteen little women with 48 little eyes having lots of little panic attacks in acid-vibrant colour! It was brief and (like so many first attempts) full of nervous laughter and moving around in the dark looking for the right buttons, but also ridiculously fun. I can't wait to VJ again.  |