#i feel so pretentious writing their title with the lines. but what if someone exclusively looks them up with the lines. what then

[douxreviews]

Legends of Tomorrow - ‘Egg MacGuffin’ Review

"I’m sorry that our first date got ruined by Nazis."

The Legends of Tomorrow episode title game is really on point this year.

Forgive me in advance if this is overexplaining, but I'm not entirely sure how well known the terms are and it's going to become relevant in a minute. If you already know the terminology better than I do, and I'm sure many of you do, I beg your indulgence.

A 'MacGuffin' is the term for a plot device that exists solely to provide motivation to the characters in a story. The example that's most often cited at this point is the titular Maltese falcon statue in The Maltese Falcon. This is a subtly different thing than 'phlebotinum,' which we discussed a few episodes back. Generally speaking, phlebotinum is a made up thing that facilitates the character's journey, for example, polyjuice potion. A MacGuffin is a made up thing that motivates the character to make the journey, for example the sorcerer's stone. Or philosopher's stone if you live in a country where the publisher wasn't afraid of accidentally teaching children the word 'philosopher.'

The real takeaway is that Legends of Tomorrow has now given me an excuse to explain both of those terms, and regularly allows me pretentiously discuss semiotics, and is therefore the best thing ever broadcast. But I digress.

The genius of this week's episode title is that the golden egg that Nate and Zari are looking for at the Adventurers Club is unequivocally a MacGuffin with no significance of its own beyond that (at least this week).  In fact, part of the plot of that storyline explicitly involves Nate and Zari questioning exactly that point, and they come to the conclusion that it is a MacGuffin that Sara planted just to give them an exciting first date. Which is clever because it isn't a MacGuffin within the story we're watching, but it absolutely is a MacGuffin from the outside perspective, and you know it might actually be possible to be too clever about these things. Whatever your personal tolerance for post-modern narrative gameplaying, I really enjoyed it.

Now, in the past I've complained a bit here and there about the fact that the Legends' reduced number of episodes in a season often makes them condense what could be two or three episodes worth of plot into one. I'm not sure if I've just gotten used to it or if they're getting better at it, but I've really begun to enjoy the fast, breezy clip at which these episodes move. Nate and Zari are really just doing an extended Raiders of the Lost Ark homage, and a nice zippy pace is essential for that kind of romantic adventure fiction. The Ark of the Covenant itself, while we're speaking, is another classic example of a MacGuffin. I'm certain that was not coincidental.

In any case, I think I'm pretty well sold on the Zari and Nate romance, and I think it's down to one particular moment in this episode. When they realize that Sara has set them up on a romantic mission, Zari offers to call it a night and return to the ship, and Nate says, 'Or we could see where this mission takes us.' What he's clearly really saying is, 'Hey, I'm open to exploring whatever this is going on between us if you are, but there's no pressure.' I don't seem to go a week without mentioning how refreshingly adult the characters on this show are.

In fact, part of why the aforementioned fast and breezy pace felt so appropriate this week all around is because the show has romance stories on its mind. We have Sara and Ava, thankfully post-argument, making an effort for one another in the little ways. We have Mick and Charlie at Romanticon, attempting to cash in on Mick's authorial alter ego, Rebecca Silver, without actually having to reveal himself to his fans. Which is so completely on brand for both of them that I loved every second of it. God bless Mick, both for actually caring about his fans and for being willing to admit the fact when pressed.

Then finally we have my current relationship on the show, Ray and Nate. I realize I went on a bit about this last week, but I just can't say enough about how great their friendship is. Thank you, whoever on the writing team made the decision that Ray would give up his soul to Neron in order to save Nate's life, as opposed to Nora's. Neron said he would make Ray kill someone he loved in order to break him, and the show went with Nate as that person. Is it possible to platonically 'ship a couple? Because I am totally team Palmwood.

That was an unfortunate first attempt at a couple name. Please leave alternate suggestions in the comments.

Which leads me to the painful part. There were a number of little clues as to what was coming for Gary, but I really only noticed them in hindsight. When Sara is discussing who the murderer could be in book club, she mentions that it must be the dogwalker because of his pent up frustration and being treated like a doormat. The shot transitions from her to the next scene halfway through the line, which means we're hearing her but looking at Gary. The subplot about Vincent the Adventurer's assistant is basically a mirror of Gary's position. And Gary is clearly crying in the bathroom – a thing that he had just told us he often did – when Ray calls him and he drops everything to go help.

Gary Green, on paper, should not work as a character. He should come across as a caricatured doofus, occasionally good for a comic relief moment. But Adam Tsekhman invests him with something undefinable and real, and he just fundamentally works as a tragic figure despite all the reasons that he shouldn't.

Also, whoever planned out that Gary's nipple returning from Hell would be the final temptation that makes him give in to Neron is a mad genius and should be our leader now.

Everybody remember where we parked:

The Waverider did some proper time travel for the first time in what feels like ages and took most of the team to the Adventurers Club, 1933, in order to retrieve that golden egg. Mick and Charlie, meanwhile, take the jump ship to Romanticon, 2019. Gary uses his time courier to flit between 2019 and the Waverider, and Neron and minion-Gary appear to lift Damien Darhk's old time travel stone from Constantine and use it to leave for destinations unknown.

Remember when time travel seemed like an exclusive and exotic thing?

Quotes:

Sara: "Honestly, with Neron gone, catching fugitives has never been easier. I thought it was gonna take all week."

Zari: "It was that awkward, huh?" Sara: "Even the mummy thought it was awkward."

Nate: "Excuse me, my good man, could you point me to the nearest facilities? I have an urgent need to… uh... relieve my bowel."

Nate: "Wait. Trip wires. This is going to require one of us to squeeze through these trip wires, maneuvering our bodies in unexpected ways." Zari: "Are you asking me to do that?" Nate: "No, I’m asking you to hold my coat."

Ava: "Honestly, I usually just drink rose and let Mona go on and on."

Gary: "I may not be a master of the dark arts, but I am an intern of the dark arts."

Ava: "Were you guys about to hook up?" Zari: "No. no, no, no, no." Nate: "It was definitely on the table."

Bits and Pieces:

-- This show just doesn't do misunderstandings for dramatic effect. Nora immediately told John that Ray was possessed as soon as she woke up. Neron repeatedly goes out of his way to clarify that he's the one doing evil things, not Ray, even when it would really be in Neron's best interest to let the Legends think otherwise, thus driving them apart. That might be the thing I appreciate most about the writing.

-- It seemed odd at first that Mona didn't already know about Mick being Rebecca Silver, but on reflection it makes sense.

-- Loved the Garima cosplay at Romanticon.

-- How many books has Mick had time to write by this point? I mean, I suppose time travel would help with that, but I lost track of how many different titles they mentioned. I particularly liked Raw Hides.

-- Mick's final speech to the con about how all anybody really wants is to feel a connection was a lovely piece of writing, well performed. And a hell of a good underscoring to what was happening to Gary at that moment.

-- I get why they didn't do it, but it would have been smarter for Charlie to have shape shifted into a neutral third party to portray Rebecca. That said, I adored the Rita Skeeter vibe she had going on with her outfit.

-- Outside of the Rita Skeeter vibe, we also had phoenix feathers and a dragon egg. I'm sure there were a few other Harry Potter nods that I missed beside those. Anyone?

-- And speaking of the egg, it's a neat bit of long term plotting that what was just a MacGuffin this week is clearly set up at the end to be relevant to a different plotline later.

-- It's entirely in character for John Constantine to be rude and speak to Gary like that in a moment of stress, but the whole sequence of events felt sadder to me when I thought about the considerate way that he sheltered Gary's feelings last week.

-- I've noticed that they've gotten into the habit lately of consistently leaving someone on the Waverider to 'Quarterback' the mission. That's not only hugely useful for splitting up the characters and facilitating different schedules, it's also a really sound battle tactic.

-- Note added after the writing of this review.  Apparently 'Egg MacGuffin' is the official name of this sort of thing as cited on tvtropes, and not an original pun coined by the writers here.  Ah, well.  Still a clever title for how it was used here.

I loved this episode from beginning to end.  How can we only have three more left?

Three and a half out of four, and the only reason it's not higher is I suspect I'm going to need a higher number to go to in the next few episodes.

Feel free to mention your favorite MacGuffin in the comments.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#Legends of Tomorrow #Sara Lance #Zari Tomaz #Nate Haywood #John Constantine #Ray Palmer #DC Comics #Arrowverse #Legends of Tomorrow Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

[sinceileftyoublog]

Eye Flys Interview: Tin Foil Hats For Good

Photo by Megan Elyse Lloyd

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Eye Flys have given us a taste of what they can do. The debut release from a group made up of members of grindcore beasts Full Of Hell, Backslider, and Triac, Context is 6 songs of pummeling, blistering noise rock lasting only 13 minutes. Yet, each song brings something specific to the table both in terms of theme and style. From the socially conscious blasts of energy (“Stems”, “Weaponize”, “Fuckface”) to the nihilistic dirges ( “Dosed”, “Crushing of the Human Spirit”) to the fantastical (“The Triumph of Hagbard Celine”), Eye Flys go in many different directions, all tied together by the lyrical urgency and desperate barking of lead singer and guitarist Jake Smith.

Earlier this week, Smith answered some questions about Context, which is out next Friday via Thrill Jockey. Read below as he talks about the inspiration behind the record, making the record, and generally playing different roles in different bands.

Since I Left You: What, if anything specific, was Eye Flys trying to communicate to the general public with the formation of this group and Context?

Jake Smith: I don’t know that we had anything specific to communicate when we got started, outside of wanting to do something different and explore influences we hadn’t previously been able to in other projects. Context was more or less an attempt to musically break new ground for all of us, and lyrically, there wasn’t too much focus on how it would be received. I wrote the lyrics to these songs, and before this band, I hadn’t been tasked with that since I was a teenager playin’ in punk bands. So I think the last serious lyrics I wrote for a band were about George Bush and Dick Cheney, haha.

SILY: What does Eye Flys allow you to do artistically that you don't necessarily accomplish with Backslider?

JS: It’s so much different in a lot of ways. In Backslider, the guitarist and main songwriter is my close friend Logan [Neubauer] who is a true musical visionary. And though I place an equal amount of importance in both projects, my role in Backslider is very much about realizing the greater vision he has for it while bringing another perspective to his ideas and that works well for us. With Eye Flys, I feel like I'm on a playground, kind of, especially as we get ready to hit the studio at the end of the month to record the follow up to Context. I consider myself a guitarist first, though I've most actively been playing bass the last handful of years in most of my heavy projects. [Patrick Forrest] (our drummer, and formerly of Backslider) and I often bring riff ideas to each other and then jam them out and make big changes or write entire parts on the spot, which is really fun and exhilarating and often leads to a wave of inspiration that we can hammer out and feel good about, sometimes just in an evening. It's cool to be playing a style where you're not just learning a riff and then playing it a million times to get it down because it's difficult to play. Instead, it's like, "Here's this 3 chord riff--let's figure something to go with this other rhythm we dig to follow it up." The difference in process helps makes both bands continually interesting, and nothing blends together. I've had that problem in the past in other projects. Also, there's the lyrical aspect ,as I mentioned earlier. I don't write any lyrics in Backslider, obviously, so this gives me the opportunity to yell about things I care about or think are interesting, which is definitely artistically exciting.

SILY: "Stems" and "Weaponize" call out the egocentric and the bullshit artists--in the second person. Do you find listeners come to your projects with too many pretentious pre-conceived notions?

JS: "Stems" is mostly in response to people being so sure of things that aren't so easily understandable or without thinking critically before settling into a belief. My tendency towards agnosticism causes me to get a little worked up about that sometimes. "Weaponize", though, is certainly a call-out to bullshit artists. Some people really like to cover up their own shortcomings and damaging behavior by slinging shit at others, regardless of how much information they have or where they get it. As someone who has somewhat removed myself from the heavier social aspects of the East Coast punk world, I watch some of this stuff happen over and over again from "afar," and it can be upsetting, and that's basically what I'm addressing in that song. Of course, it also should be said that a lot of people are doing wonderful things to lift each other up and hold each other to better standards in more inclusive ways, and that stuff is super important to the survival of the greater underground music community. 

To address the second part of the question, most of the music we all like and are involved in is niche. So people have really strong feeling about what these things should and shouldn't be. I can understand these feelings and share them in ways, but by the nature of this music’s natural exclusivity (through lack of "accessibility" or whatever), you're always going to encounter the pretentious folks who think your shit is "False" because it doesn't fit some definition or their version of it...that stuff is fine though. It doesn't bother me a whole lot these days. I'm kind of looking forward to some shit talk on the forthcoming EF material because we don't fit some sort of expectation or mold, haha.

SILY: The album's most energetic track, "Dosed", is followed by one of the sludgier entries, "Crushing of the Human Spirit". How did you decide upon the album's sequencing?

JS: Ya know, I think about sequencing a lot when putting together a record and also when listening to one...I'd like to think most people do. However, for this, I feel like it was easier than in most situations. I think we basically had 2 different track list ideas that had been put forth by members of the band, talked about it, and quickly agreed on one. We knew which ones were going to open and close the album before we even recorded, and it kind of seemed obvious from there. I suspect it may be a little trickier for the follow-up LP, though.

SILY: What about Illuminatus! made you want to draw inspiration from it for "The Triumph of Hagbard Celine"?

JS: I've always cited it as one of my favorite books, and Robert Anton Wilson will always mean a lot to me. He coined the term "Maybe Logic", and it will always ring true with me and the way I look at the world. The story (and all of his writing) is rich with synchronicity that seems to manifest itself out of the pages and into my life. Linear time isn't something I can subscribe to, and the way his writing fucks around with time jumping is fun for me. I always have a lot of fun with conspiracy theory stuff, and it's nice to have a writer who identifies as an Anarchist (as is one of the main characters, Hagbard Celine) and utilizes those themes in his writing...because boy howdy am I sick of these goddamn conservative pricks taking over all the tin foil hat algorithms and somehow trying to align the shit with white supremacy and incel garbage. I'm certainly not done referencing RAW's work in my lyrics. FNORD!

SILY: Was there a specific event that caused you to write the anti-toxic-masculinity anthem "Fuckface"? Or was it a feeling that had long been brewing that finally boiled over? Where in your daily life do you tend to experience toxic masculinity the most?

JS: You could say that there was an event that caused me to write it, which is not something I feel okay about putting on blast, but we'll say this man is a habitual line stepper. You could also say that it was a brewing feeling that finally boiled over. These stories aren't anything new, and I think it's important for men to be talking about this stuff. The patriarchy is so deeply embedded in our culture; men often feel owed access to women's bodies and attention for simply existing adjacent to them. This attitude and sense of entitlement is passed down over and over again through generations, and I feel like it's our job to keep these conversations moving forward and break the cycle of abuse and marginalization. This will also be a continuing theme in my lyrics, as I can't really narrow down the times and places I tend to experience these things. It's a constant in how most of society seems to carry itself. 

Songs like this are good for me as well when it comes to channeling the toxic parts of my own masculinity. I have a big reactionary testosterone-y man within me that wants to go beat people up for this stuff, and it's nice to have an outlet to channel those things through without having to act like a caveman (or get my ass kicked).

SILY: What's the inspiration behind the album title? The album art? The band name?

JS: I wanted to call the album "Context" early on in the process of making it. To me, I felt like it makes sense with some of the the lyrical themes and how they relate to perception, but also with the idea that this group of musicians is putting our efforts into a different musical context than we are used to.

The art was done by this fella Justin Stubbs. [Guitarist] Spencer [Hazard] brought him into the fold, as he's done work for Full of Hell in the past. We gave him some ideas of what we were going for aesthetically, and he really delivered. I think the art resonates with the title and some of the themes quite well. People can be so sure of things that the context of their life becomes a corner that they’re stuck in facing the goddamn wall. It sort of came together by chance, but I think it's relevant, and we're happy about it. And the band name we stole from the Melvins. The first song from their first full length Gluey Porch Treatments is called Eye Flys; we're all obviously big fans.

SILY: How have you adapted these songs to the stage?

JS: We play ‘em loud and mean and noisy!

#eye flys #thrill jockey #spencer hazard #jake smith #patrick forrest #kevin bernsten #interviews

[malwurt]

An Editor’s Review: The Iron Wyrm Affair

Title: The Iron Wyrm Affair

Author: Lilith Saintcrow

Edition:

The Collected Adventures of Bannon & Clare

Orbit

Omnibus edition 2018

Chapter(s): Prelude

The Collected Adventures of Bannon & Clare

“Emma Bannon, forensic sorceress in the service of the Empire, has a mission: to protect Archibald Clare, a failed, unregistered mentath. His skills of deduction are legendary, and her own sorcery is not inconsiderable. But a deadly conspiracy against mentaths and sorcerers alike could either seduce them both into betraying their Queen—or get them both killed.”

An Editor’s Review is a series reviewing books in the realm between casual reader and professional editor, trying to call attention to what I, as an editor, would notice in a manuscript. As these are all published books, the criticism will be less extensive than if it was dealing with a newly submitted manuscript; the review will focus less on grammatical details and more on the common pitfalls of even established authors. Because this is a review and not a response to a received manuscript, the tone will also read more personal than professional.

Prelude

Archibald Clare is visited by Emma Bannon and her Shield, Mikal.

 Character

First of all, Archibald Clare is a blatant rip-off of at least one iteration of Sherlock Holmes:

. He’s introduced as a genius-level ‘mentath’, which is the author’s own term for someone of brilliant criminal deductive reasoning. His mentath-status is an employment, if not also a social status of some sort.

. He plays the viola.

. Stacks of research line the living room to the extent that there is nowhere to sit.

. Mrs Ginn, his landlady, holds herself responsible for the cleanliness of the apartment.

. Clare smokes a pipe.

. The only named adversary, described as ‘wonderful’, is a professor, much like Moriarty.

 These are the most defining characteristics of Clare, which is a huge red flag. To not only take inspiration from another character but lean so heavily on the specific characteristics is risky. In certain genres, it works well: Disney is famous for its reiterations of classical tales, and satire uses this as a defining feature. In fantasy, though, it’ll almost always fall short and be considered unoriginal, and in a genre that gives authors so much potential for originality, it’s something that immediately turns me away from one of the two main characters.

 Secondly, the narrator’s voice is very clearly a mouthpiece for Clare, but it falls short of showing what the audience has been told about him: that he’s a deductive genius.

 As for Emma Bannon, though characterised through Clare’s observations, she isn’t much better off for an introduction. Many of the observations Clare makes about her are superficial, adding only to her looks and nothing to her character. When describing a character in the beginning, this might make sense, but during the chapter, the descriptions continue as if they’re supposed to say something, such as here:

 “Her curls, if they were not natural, were very close. There was a slight bit of untidiness to them – some recent exertion perhaps?”

 Much of what we know of Bannon after this introduction is that she dresses in fashionable Victorian clothes and some of the more general things about her station, but nothing to flesh her out.

 Narrator’s Voice

The narrator’s voice is reflective of Archibald Clare’s voice, although not exclusively, making it an omniscient narrator, but so far without interference of an author’s voice. This means it’s the job of the narrator, as a mouthpiece for Clare, to reflect what the audience is being told by other characters or on the cover/jacket of the book about him. However, the prelude falls short of this. Here are some examples:

 “When the young dark-haired woman stepped into his parlour, Archibald Clare was only mildly intrigued. Her companion was of more immediate interest […]”

 Clare then proceeds to spend six (6) lines describing her companion, the Shield, Mikal, before spending twelve (12) lines describing her. This is a small detail, but if someone notices, it immediately discredits the narrator as unreliable. It’s understandable, from the author’s point of view, to want to spend more time describing Bannon, as she is the second main character of the story, but if the narrator states that Clare is more interested in Mikal, this isn’t the time.

 One of the main staples of Clare’s character is that he is a genius. However, the many deductions he makes throughout the prelude are completely without any real intelligence behind them. A fictional writer’s job will always be to create illusions: everything they write is a figment of their imagination. But if an illusionist doesn’t do their job properly, the immersion is dispersed. The same way with writers. Examples of Saintcrow falling short of her task are:

 “As the suspected, she spoke.”

 Mikal has been described as a rather physically intimidating figure. It is not a big surprise that he’s there as a guardian of Bannon.

 “Her toilette favoured musk, of course, for a brunette.”

 This sentence reads awfully, and in the end, it comes off more as a terrible inside joke that the reader isn’t privy to than anything of substance. Why would brunettes prefer or not prefer musk in their perfume? What does her hair colour have to do with how she smells? We learn later that people connected to the court in some way have traces of musk in their scent, but this isn’t explained or elaborated upon. Apparently, the Queen herself mixes it with violet-water, but instead of describing this to the reader, to let them catch a glimpse of Clare’s insight and knowledge and feel included, Clare simply intersperses all his thoughts with ‘of course’ and ‘evidently’, making him sound pretentious and shallow.

 “He had been researching, of course. The intersections between musical scale and the behaviour of certain tiny animals. It was the intervals, perhaps. Each note held its own space. He was seeing to determine which set of spaces would make the insects (and later, other things) possibly—”

 A great example of the fade-to-black of background knowledge. When an author tries to establish a deep understanding and curiosity in their character with an example but don’t have any knowledge to back it up with themselves, so they introduce an interesting theory and cut it off before anything can be said about it because they didn’t bother to fully form it. This breaks belief in the character.

 Superfluous Expressions

Because the narrator is a mouthpiece for at least one of the characters present, superfluidity can be excused as part of what makes the character. Whether or not these persist if/when the narrator jumps character can determine whether this is a great example of characterisation or laziness. However, if they’re not used for characterisation, these expressions are a great example of what you should cut out:

 “His faculties were, evidently, not porridge yet.”

 “For the moment, he decided, the man’s drawer would remain metal.”

 The second one is insidious in another way: by way of using the narrator as a mouthpiece, we already know that Clare decides this, just by way of it being written out. The sentence could essentially do without those two words completely and still mean the same, as such: “For the moment, the man’s drawer would remain metal.”

 Nonsense

Some ways of turning a phrase might be superfluous, which is bad enough, but others, in their effort to bring life into the writing, make no sense at all.

 Like: “She cast one eloquent glance over the room.”

 Language can be eloquent. It is the act of giving a verbal (or written) account well. A glance is taking something in visually. Both the sense and the difference between giving and taking is notable. A glance cannot be ‘eloquent’.

 Or: “If she knew some of the circumstances behind his recent ill luck, she would guess he was closer to imploding and fusing his faculties into unworkable porridge than was advisable, comfortable… or even sane.”

 First of all, it is impossible to implode or fuse your own faculties by will. Unless Clare had described either a kind of technology or magic that he’d do it with, this simply reads like juvenile dramatics. Second of all. ‘closer than was advisable, comfortable, or sane’ is a turn of phrase you would use about something that could be more or less advisable, comfortable, and sane. As it is, Clare is being ridiculous. Perhaps it is a deliberate character choice, but given the rest of the chapter, it reads more like the author’s attempt at wit, which falls short here.

 Dialogue

There isn’t much dialogue in this introductory chapter, but there is especially one interesting exchange:

 Clare: “Sorceress. And a Shield. I would invite you to sit, but I hardly think you will.”

Bannon: “Since there is no seat available, sir, I am to take that as one of your deductions?”

 The reason why this exchange is worth calling attention to is because it calls attention to itself. Instead of reading smoothly, it instead reads like something the author thought would be a short battle of wits: showing that Clare is worthy of his mentath-status, then turning that exhibition on its head and reflecting well on Bannon by letting her parry his apparent deduction.

 However, the exchange falls short because the subject of discussion is so poor. If Clare had predicted something interesting and Bannon had called him out on it, the interaction would have been interesting too. If either of their reactions had been surprising, so would the conversation. There isn’t just one way of elevating the scene, but none of them have been used on this scene.

#an editor's review #book review #review #the iron wyrm affair #bannon and clare #lilith saintcrow