I went to see the new Mad Max movie the other day. (By the way, it was in one of those new theaters with the reclining seats. That is so nice!) Two hours of action sequences and 10 minutes of character development. Maybe.

Of course I realize some people don’t care if the characters get developed that much. Then this is the movie for them. Tom Hardy gets maybe 50 lines of dialogue. Plot is pretty simple: We need to get from point A to point B. Oh, we made a mistake, let’s go back to point A. We’ll have lots of explosions and chase scenes both ways. Characters that we are supposed to care about die and characters that we hate die. That’s pretty much it.

Looking back though, I will give the writer’s credit for the title. Whether they meant it or not, the female character of Furiosa and the Fury Road seems to have more meaning than just anger. This woman, and the women she is with, are the Furies. They may be seeking escape but they are strong and powerful and resourceful. I would have liked to have seen more on the women, and frankly, not have had any of them need to be saved by the male characters. Of course, the women do as much saving as the men and Mad Max has to do something since it is his movie (supposedly).

But if you like car chases, explosions, and little story or dialogue to mess it up, this movie is for you.

So, it happened again. Twice in one day. Again.

Let me back up a little.

Recently, I decided to write a story for a specific market. The procrastinator that I am, I did not realize the deadline was approaching until the week of the deadline. No problem. I had an idea for a story. I could sit down and write a 1500-2000 word story in a week.

I sat down to write the story. It turned out to be almost 4000 words when I finished, 1700 of them written the day of the deadline. I submitted with an hour to spare. Made it.

I liked writing the story. Even as I was writing, I told myself that if it didn’t sell, it was still a good experience to right this story I had been thinking of for years. If nothing else, it would make the start of a novel. But really, I wanted to see it accepted.

The editor has a reputation for fast rejections. I went beyond that period and heard nothing. I started to hope and daydream a little. It would be good to get published in this market again. (I had sold to them previously though it had been many years ago.) How much was I going to get paid again? It was nice to think about.

Then today, I got the rejection letter. It was a very nice rejection letter. The editor did in fact like the story a lot. However, the story wouldn’t fit in the current publication because of the project’s budget. I have gotten similar rejections before. I was mentally writing this post when a few hours later, I got another rejection. Once again, the editor really liked the story (in fact, one editor had sent me a compliment when I submitted it) but it didn’t fit in with the rest of the anthology. Double sigh.

So, yes, this is frustrating. You can write good stories that editors like and still not get an acceptance. I don’t blame the editors. The have limited budgets and need to think about the best thing for their publications. It simply is frustrating.

An editor once wrote that getting published is one of the few pleasures in life that is neither fattening nor immoral. I write to get published and to have that nice sense of accomplishment and pleasure. But sometimes, it just doesn’t happen. I hope that those people who did get acceptances are enjoying their turn at experiencing this pleasure.

I’ll get over this frustration. Later tonight, Hermes will jump into my arms and start purring and cuddle with me. The love of a pet is another one of those pleasures in life that is neither fattening nor immoral. Oh, and I bought a donut. Chocolate with chocolate icing. Because sometimes, you just don’t care if it’s fattening.

Below is a link to my colleague, Jessica Hindman’s, excellent short essay that has been recently published at Brevity. Jessica took students from her creative writing class to visit the campus cadaver lab.

“Seven Women Hold a Man’s Brain in Their Hands”

A Christmas gift from nephew and niece and great-nephew. 

I’ve been writing about my undergrad alma mater, Miami University, this week. I thought I would take this opportunity to send out a congratulations and thank you to Mary Kupiec Cayton as she finishes her last semester at Miami.

I had many classes with Mary when I was an undergrad. She was a lecturer in the Western College Program and a great teacher. She taught a course on American Protestantism (And I will always remember the question in seminar: “Did any of you wonder why the course on American Protestants is being taught be two Catholics and a Jew?”) She taught a course on creativity, where among the topics  we looked at was quilt making and we made a quilt. (It was because of that class that I have three short stories published about quilts.) And she led my senior project workshop.

During my junior year, Mary granted me an amazing opportunity. I was an undergraduate teaching assistant for one of her classes and I helped the students create a publication from the class. While at the time, I still wanted to write comic books, I had always had teaching in the back of my mind as something I would like to do. This opportunity made me realize that yes, I would like teaching.

If I look back on who has influenced my teaching style the most as a positive role model, it would have to be Mary. She engaged the class in the subject and often interspersed humor into the discussions. I knew the she cared about me as a student. Even though the creative writing classroom is much different than our Western seminars, I still know I have Mary to thank for my success in the classroom.

So here’s to you Mary! Enjoy your semi-retirement and thanks for all you have done through the years!

Dear President Hodge,

I was happily surprised to see that the decision regarding the razing of Patterson Place has been changed. I will look forward to supporting the fund to help with its renovation. I sincerely hope that in future campus planning, you will keep the historical integrity of the Western College campus intact.

Sincerely,

P. Andrew Miller

Professor of English

Northern Kentucky University.

An open letter to President Hodge, the Board of Trustees, Director of University Advancement,

Please remove my name from the alumni directory. I do not wish to be called or receive your requests for money. I had given to the university in the past, but no longer. First, you dismantle the program (The School of Interdisciplinary Studies) that meant so much to my education and inspired me to become an educator as well. Now, against wishes of current students, alumni, faculty, and city of Oxford ordinance, you have voted to raze Patterson Place. There will be no more money coming from me to the university.

In fact, I hope other alumni and future alumni make this pledge: No Patterson, No Money. I have been in academia long enough to know it is money that does the most talking.The silence of bank accounts speaks loudest of all.

Sincerely,

P. Andrew Miller

Professor of English

Northern Kentucky University

First, I will say I did enjoy the movie. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. Let me explain.

I enjoyed the new characters, especially the Scarlet Witch and Vision. Though the Scarlet Witch’s powers were different than her comic universe version, I think it worked better. It would be pretty hard to visually show probabilities being altered. The “red energy” she used worked well on screen.

I liked the character development of the Avengers who don’t have their own movies: The Hulk, Black Widow, and especially Hawkeye. Hawkeye got the best development of the three. I especially liked his “pep” talk to the Scarlet Witch. The rest of the characters, including the new ones, were hardly developed at all. One hopes that will be something they will do in future movies.

The action sequences were visually well done, except the opening sequence. Watching it in traditional format, it was easy to see that it was made for 3D. As traditional, it looked too CGI. The final battle scene is what one would expect, and I thought that was the problem. It seemed like complete deja vu to the first movie. Hordes of homicidal aliens have been replaced with hordes of homicidal robots, but it still gives the Avengers and excuse to go all out and not worry that they are actually killing people. The lesser powered save civilians and fight the fodder, while the heavy hitters go after the big threat. I would have liked to have seen something a little different than that. In fact, the first movie did it better when Black Widow shut down the portal.

While I have read reviews that lauded the humor, I didn’t find that it worked that well. I heard no laugh out loud from the audience like I did in the first movie. It all just felt, well, familiar.

However, I’m sure it will do well and I will probably watch it again. But then again, I own Disney stock, so I have an (in)vested interest. 🙂

Since not even spammers have visited the blog today, here’s a cheap attempt at views: Hermes with cobwebs on his nose.