Amy's writing

I've always admired Amy Tan in some regards and I've just finished her book of musings, the Opposite of Fate. She has mastered the craft of writing. Her prose moves at just the write clip and is as easy to read as breathing. And fair or not, she's always been held up as the woman of color/ethnic/ multi cultural or whatever label used to say she is not an "American writer". As a Chinese American writer, she's supposed to be know all the issues of China. Human rights to democracy to pollution to adoption to cooking. She's supposed to make positive protrayals of all her Asian characters because Asian Americans have enough stereotypes out there.

I've read most of her stuff. It's good stuff, but I never felt completely comfortable of it as defining the Asian American experience. I read it, and I get it. There are some unique things about bein Asian and growing up in America, but at the same time she's not me. She's not my generation and she's not my gender. I don't have the endless mother issues she has. My stories have to be a little different.

I guess what I'm saying is it's not fair to pin someone down as an ethnic writer. Having attemped some writing, I can see that you can't write about ethnicity as an "issue". You can't be out there promoting "race relations". Well, you can, but that's propoganda. That's not fiction. A little bit of allegory, satire or critisism is great, but with fiction, it still has to all go back to the STORY. That little line of words that starts at the top of the page that wants to make you keep going until you reach the bottom of the page and flip it over. That's a big enough challenge in itself without carrying around all these messages that people want to read just to confirm their beliefs. I aim to be a writer not an Asian American writer.

In a commencement speech, Amy offers up 5 writing tips to make people better writers which are also tips for getting through life. I've taken her huge thoughts and boiled them down to slim notes for myself.

1. Avoide cliches.
"It was meant to be", "Shit happens". Stop to think whether you're being lulled into inaction or the wrong action.

2. Avoid generalizations.
Distrust absolute truths, homilies, bromides and sound bites.

3. Find your own voice.
Seek a personal truth. If you write it others will see it as true as well.

4. Show compassion
Treat your characters with compassion despite their flaws.

5. Ask the Important questions.
What makes a story worthwhile? You need to pose the question to come up with an answer.

Things that go boo in the night.

I'm not sure where my facination with vampires and werewolves come from. I've never been a huge fan of real science fiction and though I've read some fantasy, that's not my real thing either. But I hear a story about a vampire or werewolf and I'm hooked. I'm sure the Freudian in you will say that werewolves and vampires are very sexual icons (power over others, sucking or biting, chasing after hot little girls with big screams) and there in lies my issues, but that's a devil's road, I'm not quite ready to walk yet.

Anyway, part up my upbringing was the Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice. Former erotica writer and current messiah biographer, she spent some of her years in between creating some of the most interesting vampire characters ever seen. Vampires conflicted with their love of humans and their need to feed on them. Vampires conflicted about their immortality and the price they pay for it. Very human issues.

Two movies have been tried, Interview with a Vampire and Queen of the Damned, and despite the star power of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, these were pretty much flops, but last night I witnessed Anne Rice's tale in a new medium, Lestat, a musical featuring songs by Elton John and his long time lyrical collaborator, Bernie Taupin.

Skeptical? I don't blame you. If you're familiar with these stories, you know that there's a lot going on for a two act play. But actually, it wasn't bad. There were a lot of sign posts, voice overs and dates to keep the scenes moving, and just enough good songs to keep the whole thing moving. I'm a little suprised, but it actually wasn't bad.

So read the books if you get the chance. Very enjoyable, but if you don't and you want a condensed version with singing and dancing to keep you interested, see this instead.

How my vacation is going.

I know I shouldn't be complaining. I've got two weeks off for the holidays. And I've managed to do a lot. I saw some friends. I saw my family. I even got some reading, writing and Sudoku puzzles done. Still, I can't help feeling like it's all slipping away pretty quickly.

Yesterday was a post Christmas dinner over at a friend's house. It was great just to get around with a couple old friends and joke around and tell all the bad stories that we know about each other. It was great to share prime rib (we had to fight the pug for it) and a couple bottles of good wine. It was great to brush off some seldomly used mahjong skills. If you don't have any good friends, find some. It makes all the difference.

Back to the Future of Peace.

At a time when Reagan had communism plaque on the brain (Vietnam syndrome) and plausibly denied any knowledge of weapons going to Iran and proceeds going to Central America, Oscar Arias Sanchez stood up and said no. In the 1980s right wing dictators backed by the U.S for decades and left wing partisans found themselves battling and causing the people of these countries to suffer horribly. The US.

Once elected President of Costa Rica, he demanded that the U.S. backed contras leave his country. He met with other Central American leaders and tried to foster peace without U.S. involvement. He got them to agree to an immediate cease-fire and amnesty and free elections. When given the opportunity to meet with Reagan he lectured the President on the failings of U.S. policy and that no one else supported the Contras. He asked the President to bet on peace instead of war.

Regan continued to call the Arias Peace Plan flawed, but Oscar won the Nobel Prize for his efforts and although Central America has not solved all its problems, but its getting better. The U.S. is less involved. These days, Oscar runs a foundation for Peace and Human Progress.

His thoughts on peace as captured by Scott Hunt. I think we need to sit this guy in a room with Junior for an hour.

"Peace is a never ending process; it is the result of innumerable decisions made by many persons in many lands. It is an attitude, a way of life, a way of solving problems and of resolving conflicts. It can not be forced on the smallest nation, nor can it be imposed by the most powerful."

"We can overcome it, but it will involve many structural changes in the political and economic systems that govern our lives. Moreover, it will involve changes in consciousness and culture. It begins with education, teaching our children the values of peace: to be honest, to have politics with principle, and not to resort to violence."

Again, there's lots more and I recommend the book.

Seeing an old friend.

This weekend I had the opportunity to host an old college friend that I have not seen since sometime during my senior year twelve long years ago. He and his brother-in-law flew in from St. Paul, Minnesota on a recon mission. The brother-in-law studied computer animation and is looking to find work in California. Neither knows much about the housing, the jobs or anything else about the West Coast. All they knew was a sister that they had not seen in sometime and one friend who lived in a burb called San Mateo that was very willing to put them up for a few days.

It's quite amazing to catch up with someone you haven't seen in so long. So much is the same, yet so much is different. He's the same guy, but the touch of gray in his beard is a little shocking. The daughter he talks about all the time is wonderful, but it's nothing like the music and records that we used to talk about over gallons of beer. It's good to see that he's doing well. He's the systems administrator for a charter school out in St. Paul. And we tried to help his mission as much as we could. We hooked him up with a computer animator guy who works in video games. We took them out to sample our cuisine. We talked to them about living expenses, public transportation, and anything else we could think of that might be useful. But they only gave themselves 5 days in California to find a place and try and get settled. They flew into San Francisco, but they're already on their LA leg of this trip. I wish them the best of luck on their journey.

holiday party fiasco

Yesterday was our office holiday party where a singular event happened that will never happen again. Never again will someone strap fuzzy reindeer antlers to my head and eight other folk led by one pregnant woman donning a Santa Clause outfit and make me sing Rudolph in front of a hundred people. Okay, it might happen again, but I'd probably have to be on my 3rd glass of wine again with me having just as little notice that I was too be kidnapped and turned into an animal totem. Maybe this was a subtle karma payback thing because I neglected the Halloween tradition.

Tookie murdered

I don't know Tookie. I don't know if he was guilty of the 4 murders of which he was convicted, or innocent as he always maintained. I just know that life is valuable and any murder be it by Tookie or the State is a failure from all of us.

The deterrent argument has been debunked. The death penalty is wrong, pure and simple. I only wish our governor had had the courage to acknowledge that reality.

Night at the Ballet

My coworker is a serious student of the art of ballet. She started as an adult, but she's been dancing for years now. It's her passion. It's exercise, discipline and art. A couple weeks ago, she started talking about her upcoming performance. I had never seen a ballet, and honestly, I'd rather go to a ball game and watch guys compete, but it seemed like a great opportunity to try someone different, so I got a couple tickets for myself, my wife and my dentist.

The program was the Nutcracker. (Isn't it always that around this time of year.) It featured dancers from 3 to 50. It featured bright costumes and beautiful music. It featured a troupe of people telling a story with the hops, skips and other movements of their body.

My body language is pretty non-expressive. I slouch more than I should and my grace is in the results of my moves not the movements themselves. As much as I like to move and dance around to my old 80s records, I could not mash my toes or do any of the ankle breaking moves they attempt. I admire them for that and their ability to tell a story. It's great and I'm glad I saw it, but it's not an art from I fell in love with or would ever pursue either. I'll keep my dancing to the privacy of my own home.

Making a name for yourself.

I previously wrote about an older Persian man who temped in our office. We seem to have made a lasting impression on him and he made a lasting impression on us. Although our department is fully staffed, an opening recently arose in the Humanities and Science group. They were looking for a temp, and our old friend is the first person they thought of. Because of his language barrier, it will still be hard to find him a permament role in a contracts office, but I can't help thinking that part of the reason he's back is because he had enough heart to bring us his Persian wine when he really didn't have to. I hope his holiday is just a little happier because he can be here for a little while.

Academic Freedom and Anti-Teorrism

Here's a little hot button political issue in my universe that no one knows or cares about. Academic freedom means academic institutions have a core mission of developing knowledge for the public benefit. They will only accept money if there are no restrictions on their ability to perform fundamental research. Some foundations have been pushing an anti-terrorism term. It will generally say something like, "If we give you money, you agree not to do anything to promote terrorism or anyone or anything related to terrorism." Institutions don't make a habit of promoting terrorism, but there may be a student group somewhere advocating a position that could be considered, "terrorist". There could be a student who happens to be a cousin of a Tamil Tiger. It is an impossible standard for Institutions to sign onto.

Still the Foundations have been burned. The issue hasn't gone away and we're in the position of arguing each project on a case by case basis. NPR did a pretty good job of covering this a little ways back.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1956519