Stoicism Challenged – The Ryder Cup

Tags

brandt snedeker, bubba watson, curtis strange, golf, ian poulter, jim furyk, ryder cup, Writing

I’ve watched much of the 2012 Ryder Cup golf match. I will watch much of today’s singles matches as well, but I will likely miss the ending. We have tickets to see Arlo Guthrie tonight, and I’ll take Arlo over Golf any day, even for the Ryder Cup or The Masters.

I do enjoy golf. It’s a very introspective game. Your success depends on you, and your demeanor and attitude are vital to your success. Not many score well while guzzling beer or debating politics. Golfers like quiet, austere, bucolic settings where they can flourish, where their internal intensity can take hold and take over the body. Golfers hate extraversion: noise, cameras, birds, little children, and disrespectful crowds.

Doesn’t this sound like writers want?

The Ryder Cup is different. Or it should be different. It’s a team competition, and the competitive juices flow strong.

In the last 20 years or so the American teams have taken bashings. The stoic Americans, the better players, the better teams, the best of the best have more often than not been steam-rolled by a fired up European Team. Take a peak at the 1995 competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7F4KB6WOps Notice how researched even the hyperboles were. The video of course is edited by golf aficionados who couldn’t stand including emotions and grandstanding, but it was there.

In 2008 Sergio Garcia and Steve Stricker went nuts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAb7kHuQYXY&playnext=1&list=PL16D4A0C72CDD9394&feature=results_main This was radical. You don’t see this stuff in golf. It’s un-golfer-like. Real golfers might pump a fist and yell within the confines of crowd-din, but they stay reserved. They stay composed. They focus on hitting the little ball.

Curtis Strange, the holder of the illustrious 6-12-2 Ryder Cup record. In five Ryder Cups his teams won one match. He’s a great tournament player, but he’s the kind of Ryder Cup player I abhor. Boring.

As this year’s matches began and the morning coasted along, I needed to resort to reading a book. I thought: “here we go again. The sleepy old dogs are going to miss out on the hunt.” *yawn* But then it picked up. Then it got going. Then it got fun. But ole Curtis, he couldn’t accept it. I remember watching the last match where Furyk and Snedeker fought back from three down to tie; I think it was the 16th hole, maybe 12th. Strange now warned that even though Jim Furyk had led the comeback with emotion, he now needed to slow it down and stay in check. That’s where he performs best. What? Jim Furyck is a great golfer, no doubts there, but his 7-12-3 record is only marginally better than Strange’s. If you matched players onto teams by records, these two would be paired all the time, age differences excepted. I could only think at the time “shut up you stupid talking head. This is competition between teams, not between man and ball. You will only win if you accept the challenge and rise to the top. Avoiding the fury is wrong! Furyk and Snedeker went on to lose.

And then there was Bubba Watson. He alone tightened the drawers of a million golfers around the country trying to avoid getting swallowed by emotion. Golfers who scowl at their morning foursome members’ noisy flick a cigarette butt just before teeing off. Not. No, Bubba got the crowd fired up, he got television personalities fired up, and he got television watchers fired up. Here’s the first tee of Friday afternoon’s matches. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia4i7lLa_pU Curtis Strange: “that’s about as loose as you can ask a player to be.” Pft.

Now let’s look at Saturday’s first match, Bubba Watson and Ian Poulter revisited. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o573pqCNvAE The cheers are normal, but nothing else is. They were supposed to stop while players hit. Instead, the players encouraged the rowdiness. Old stuffy Nick Faldo can barely take it. “I’ve got a feeling [Old] Tom Morris might be turning in his grave right now.”

I’m a hockey player. I say crank it up and let’s go. I’ve played football. The best football games are emotional wars, even though much of the game is finesse and skill. Baseball too. October ball is far more intense than April patsy ball. World Cup soccer, US Open tennis, and even championship chess  — I have watched candidates matches — are much more exciting when the crowd is into it and emotions rise. One of my personal memories is of Grandmaster Mikhail Tal winning the first World Blitz Chess Championship to a cheering crown in 1988, a very Ryder Cup moment: a couple of dozen Grandmasters playing chess displayed to a cheering crowd.

So how should we write? How do we get our emotions ratcheted up? Should we? Can we really write that emotional scene sitting in a quiet room alone with no stimuli? Maybe we should buy Samurai Swords and hack an old punching bag before we right. Maybe we should gather our families into our writing caves and give them pom-poms. Instruct them to chant “write, write, write …” Maybe we should search for those internal triggers that get us excited. Maybe we should read emotional books and watch exciting television dramas. Maybe we should participate in life with our families. Many of us claim we can open doors to world unseen by others, imaginative, creative world of dragons, mass murderers, and lovers.

Ramp it up people. Get into it, whatever it is. The final matches are about to start. I can’t wait.

Tresspassing Poems

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fermented, freer, poetry, prose, salsa, saurkraut, tresspassing, vocabulary, Writing

Been working hard on novelling, reading, and improving my vocabulary. I’ve also been making fermented saurkraut and salsa. Oh my, I do love fermented salsa.

I have started a Wednesday night writers group. We meet for a couple of hours at the library, and we try writing to the Wednesday poetry prompt, and we don’t limit it to poetry. I’m feeling like I’m loosening up a bit in my writing. The words are flowing a little freer lately. I hope you enjoy these two.

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/wednesday-poetry-prompts-194

For today’s prompt, write a trespassing poem. Your poem can be written from either side of the fence or take an impartial view from the sidelines.

#1

In a Cemetary

Leaning softly arm around arm
Shoulder against shoulder
Backs against granite
Hands gently squeezing
Warm cans of beer

#2

When The Night Falls

When the night falls hard like
The last wheelbarrow of stones dumped behind the barn
Picked from the field
Rocks our oxen stumble over and plough blade chips on
Or catches and halts us in the wet dirt
When that last light at Yoder’s fades and
The whippoorwill sings
When the mosquitos tresspass into your room
And you chase them with your only book
Your Huckleberry Finn swatter
And your head sinks into that feather pillow
Unable to lift itself from the fall
You know it was a good day

 

Modern Grande Clichés: Sex, Profanity, and Writing About Writing Novels

Tags

cliche, drugs, novel writing, profanity, rock and roll, sex, swearing

Clichés are slippery little buggers. They creep into our writing even when we sleep with one eye open and a gun under our pillow. Nasty critters indeed. I’d like to first look at a couple of definitions, then I’d like to examine three topics I consider cliché in modern novels: sex, profanity, and writing about writing novels.

From Dictionary.com

cli·ché

/kliˈʃeɪ, klɪ-/ Show Spelled[klee-shey, kli-] Show IPA

noun

1. a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.

2. (in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.

3. anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.

4. British Printing .

a. a stereotype or electrotype plate.

b. a reproduction made in a like manner.

From Vocabulary.com

cliche

If you’ve heard an expression a million times, chances are it’s a cliche.

Cliche, also spelled cliché, is a 19th century borrowed word from the French which refers to a saying or expression that has been so overused that it has become boring and unoriginal. Think about the expressions “easy as pie,” or “don’t play with fire,” or “beauty is skin deep.” These are all cliches. A plot or action sequence in a film or novel can also be called a cliche if it has become dull and predictable through overuse.

From John

I’m not going to reference any books or authors directly. Some of my favorite books are guilty of my proposed sins, and I don’t want to turn people away.

How many times have we read a book that we’ve really gotten into, the tension has built, we’re wondering what’s going to happen next, then suddenly the platonic male-female partners end up in bed? Too often this is how the subtext plays out.

“Oh my goodness Jenny, how are we going to solve this case?”
“I really don’t know. It’s getting very dangerous; we could be killed at the next plot twist.”
“Do you want a blowjob?”
“Okay.”

The sex is gratuitous, casual, unemotional, and in no way ties into the tension of the story. This stuff doesn’t happen in real life. In real life there is typically a lot of electric activity going on; there’s internal thoughts of I want to, does he or she want to, will we, can we, and lots of social dancing around the issue, drunken singles bars excepted – a cliché. People simply don’t walk down the street and decide to have sex without social foreplay. Authors use the sex scene as filler. It seems to be an expected scene in every mass marketed book today. To me it’s lazy writing, lazy editing, and greedy publishing: it’s cliché.

Profanity also falls into this category of clichéd writing. It’s more subtle than gratuitous sex, but it’s there. We might have our hero who’s out solving a case, meets his contact for dinner and clues, and wham, out of nowhere, we get slammed with the F-word and more. No warnings, no hints. We thought he was a good guy, and now he talks like a street thug. And before we get too wound up, a wand waves, and he’s back to Mr. Clean mode again. It didn’t really create tension, it merely presented tense language. It was a trite magic show. To me it’s lazy writing, lazy editing, and greedy publishing: it’s cliché.

Writing about people writing about novels is a subtle cliché that gets me. I can rattle off some big name authors who have done it. I have done it. It’s easy to understand why too: writing novels is hard. My Jesus it’s hard, she said. Nobody who’s not writing a novel cares about characters who write novels. Only people like me who struggle through the process have any inclination of the difficulty, and it bugs the hell out of me that so many novelists can’t figure out nobody out there in novel reading land really cares how hard it is to write one. A good writer will take those passages and find some other vocation or hobby to write about such as chess, auto mechanics, or BBQ competitions. Get off your butts and research something new for fuck’s sake. To me it’s lazy writing, lazy editing, and greedy publishing: it’s cliché.

Should these three topics be excluded from our novels? Hardly. What we need to do is make them fit. We need to incorporate them with effective narrative technique. We need to build tension around them; foreshadow them; create the expectation and desire within the reader. Or we need to make sure it builds on our readers’ empathy and understanding of character logically and consistently. If we have a novel in an urban setting, make everybody swear profusely. Make it part of the landscape.

In my current story I’m using the expectation of sex as a means to build the relationship. So far the deed hasn’t happened, but it may. If I follow Alfred Hitchcock’s advice, it probably won’t. I also use profanity to illustrate the character’s tension. I built the expectation of a tea totaller, and when she does let loose, it’s timed with frustration and great tension. Hopefully the reader knows something major happened because the value barrier was torn down. And writing about writing novels is very hard for me to write, but I did it. I have a bucket list scene, and I threw it in as one of the minor character’s wishes. I can’t stand it though, so I plan on changing it.

I’ll end with questions. Does your sex, swearing, and novel writing writing work? Do they belong in your story? Is there appropriate buildup and tension? Do they add dimension to your character? Or are they simply lazy cliché?

Computer Gaming and Fiction: Civilization IV vs Skyrim vs Writing

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addiction, civ, civilization IV, computer games, games, goals, skyrim, time, wast

I installed Civilization IV on Thursday night. I uninstalled it last night, Friday, just before midnight. I played two games about ten hours each.

The game is addictive.

Why is the game addictive? I suppose I could rant about its evils, but I sort of enjoyed this day away from life. We find books and stories addictive; they enable us to escape from reality. Writing can be even more addictive than reading. I good video game is not very different from a good book.

The problem with Civ.

Civ is a large game. You control the evolution of your civilization from the initial settler building a hut and his band of thugs with clubs to advanced modern structures with advanced modern weaponry. You start out at 4000 BC and finish, hopefully, in the 22nd century, literally *grin*

It is a large game with one goal: win. Winning can be one of many sets of victory conditions. Build a space shuttle and you will win. Wie out the other countries, you will win. Be the top country at the end of the game, you will win.

Big games with finite goals consume a lot of energy and time. You do not want to get up. You do not want to restart these games. You want to see it through from start to finish. They can also lose their appeal. Every game can feel much the same, and the fix for that is to get deeper into it. Spend even more time figuring out all the nuances and even competing with others.

My other game right now is Skyrim. It is a much, much bigger game than Civ. It’s an alternate reality where you run around with your weapon and armor, you rescue people, kill more, and find lots of treasures. I carry around over three million gold pieces. Figure that one out. I can’t. I also carry about 4,000 arrows, three swords, a mace, two sets of armor, a gazillion rings and necklaces, and I can’t even keep track of all my spells and powers. At level 74 I can practically beat a small dragon with my bare hands. Bandits die when they see me coming.

The difference in Skyrim is it is filled with many small objectives. At any one time I might have a dozen or more quests to fill, and if I run out, I just stop at the local bar or palace and ask for more. Or I just wander around looking for repopulated dungeons. I can even search out the undying Imperial Captains and kill them over and over with my magic and build up some experience.

I can shut it off within sometimes ten minutes of starting and not lose my day. It’s a nice break. And if I want to indulge for a day, it’s there. But it gets tiring very quickly, so I don’t. Unlike Civ which is the same thing each game, pretty much, has a single goal, and totally consumes.

I was thinking of buying Endless Space. I must be crazy.

The bottom line for me: none of these gaming experiences come close to my experiences creating characters in my stories. My current protagonist talks in the first person for almost 110,000 words. This alternate reality beats any computer game I’ve ever played. This person has brought me closer to reality, not further away from it. I carry this person around with me 24/7 — which may not be a good thing — and I don’t need a computer and fancy graphics to create the alternate reality. It’s there when I work; it’s there when I sleep; it’s there in the shower and bed. It’s not there in my computer games. Tears came to my eyes as I wrote this week. Seriously, they did. That has never happened in computer games.

Weight Training – 1st plateau reached

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rest, sleep, weight training; bill reynolds; progression; diabetes; muscle;

I am not an expert weight trainer by any stretch of the definition. When you read about it, articles often cover the idea of plateaus. A plateau in this context is a period or state of little or no growth or decline: to reach a plateau in one’s career. I can’t say I’ve reached a true plateau 11 sessions into my training. That would indicate I’ve done something very wrong. It’s more accurate to call it a resistance point: I’ve reached the level where every exercise is now difficult and they push me to failure.

As a refresher, my ten main exercises are Squat, Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Calf Raises, Bench Press, Barbell Bent Rows, Overhead or Military Press, Upright Rows, Bicep Curls, and Tricep Curls. It’s a full body workout which focuses on volume over weight. My Bill Reynolds beginner book prescribes various repetitions. Some are 6-10, others 10-12, and still others are 12-15. Each week I progress the weight or the reps. When I add weight, I lower the reps. I’ve been doing 20 reps for squats, but I’m now at a weight where that’s just too much, so I’m dropping back to 15 max.

My goal is three months of training to build u a core of strength. My longer term goal is to add muscle for the real objectives of health, weight loss, and performance. My doctors all say I need to exercise more, and they won’t help me with weight loss until I do. So I am. I’ve gained three pounds this past month, hopefully all muscle.

My experiences say there are three phases when beginning a training program from scratch.

1. Stiffness – the first sessions should be very light to get the muscles used to the new stresses.
2. Finding the limits – we want to train to just about failure, but if you start too high, you’ll run into some very tough workouts that will over-stress your body and possibly lead to injury.
3. The zone – we’re doing fairly high reps with fairly low weight and the last reps are at or just about at failure

I’ve just reached step three after eleven sessions. I’m now in the working zone. Phase one was surprisingly brief. At past attempts, the first sessions would just about kill me, and we’re not talking big weight at all. This round I was arguably in the worse muscular shape of my life, yet I was barely stiff at all. I admit I had been working in the yard in the weeks leading up: stacking two cord of wood, weeding the garden, and trimming some evergreen trees. The wood probably served as a nice break-in. I’ll say phase 1 lasted three sessions and phase 2 seven sessions. I just completed session eleven.

I’ll throw some images at you, with sparse comments.

This graph breaks down my effort by total weight lifted. I’ll argue it doesn’t accurately measure strength or muscle gain, but I’m not picky. In my last session I lifted 23,282.5 pounds of weights in 100 minutes. The previous session I lifted 24,195, but I was stronger before my last session. The red line represents my lower body exercises and the green my upper body ones.

Squats use the biggest muscles and make up by far the biggest chunk of weight I move. 140 pounds is still very light, but I can feel it. I can feel it through the next day too. My thighs, but, calves, hamstrings are all getting tighter and more muscular. Add leg extensions, leg curls, and calf raises, and I get a burn that lasts. I love squats, and I feel awesome when I do them and after I do them. I have squatted 350 pounds in my home gym in previous, younger years. I don’t plan on pushing that level, not for a long time anyway, and probably not alone at home. I say probably because weight training can be addictive.

I prefer laying triceps extensions, but I do these instead with a curl-bar. This progression illustrates more how I will be proceeding from now on. It will be slow. I will add a few reps each session, and when I get to 12, 12, and 12, I will add weight and drop back to 8,8,8 or maybe 10,10,10, depending on weight added and how stressed I really was. My work graphs will proceed up but not as fast. It always amazes me that I feel like dying with the final rep, yet the next session I move past it rather easily. The secret to these beginning programs really is steady, mechanical progression tested by your failure points.

I work out three times a week: Friday, Sunday, and Wednesday. You really do need the rest, and that extra day is important. Good nutrition and good sleeps are important too.