Monday, June 27, 2005

The Dark V Returns

Finally made it to see Batman Begins. Sunday afternoon, blazing sunny, me, alone, in a cinema. I couldn't afford the ticket but I went anyway.

Easily the best film this year. Easily the best super-hero film full stop (Sorry Spidey). They completely nailed the character, the motives, and I loved the training and becoming. I mean Batman _does not_ kill people directly. A point so totally missed from the previous films. I mean never mind that it reduces your villain count for sequels he just doesn't do it and the deaths of Joker and Penguin etc were always accompanied with howls of rage from me. (Okay I only really know Batman and Spiderman from the cartoons rather than the comics but there were still things I knew to be wrong). I also loved the slightly subtle fact that Bats does some actual, you know, detecting. Rather than having super-villains crashing a Bruce Wayne gala all the time.

I began to think that V from Vendetta is the kind of character Ras Al Ghul (is he really immortal?) would rather Bats was. And how he is really the only British super-hero; attack the government not the criminals as its their fault the criminal system exists in this fascist dystopia anyway. And this is especially poignant when you realise both Bats and V are terrorists.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

It will burn

Speaking of Vellum, (H)Al's publisher has launched their long awaited website. In my opinion it was worth the wait. I'm not fortunate enough to have read the whole book yet, but the bits I have over the past couple of years kick ass. I can truly recommend it sight unseen. (Probably a bit late for a cover quote attempt ;-)) But there's an extract to whet your appetite.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Sometime I Amaze Myself

Well I had another one of those weekends where I spoke to nobody (unless you count the woman at the checkout in Asda asking me if I wanted cashback). If I had died when I got home on Friday, I don't think anyone would notice until Tuesday.

Anywho. I have just about finished the redraft of section one of Enoch's Vault. Consequently, the new first-three-chapters are up for download on the website. I only have to add the flashback chapter I'm still working on, do another parse of the recent edits and then move on to the next section. Still what amazed me more, is that section one is some 33,500 words long. This is just under half the overall length of the draft for the whole book, before I started. I don't know that I'll have the same expansion in the other two sections, but if I did that would be a novel just over the 100,000 mark. Something I never thought I could pull off. Ever. My style being typically too terse. At this rate I'll be writing big chunky books like Hal Duncan's Vellum.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Right to Roam

Before I go any further, I'll nail my colours to the mast; I intend to be in Edinburgh on the 2nd of July for the Campaign Against Poverty march (Sans white band, although should they bring in ID cards I'm thinking a yellow one with a star might be a fetching statement).

My gripe is that I'm not sure this is how voices are heard anymore. I have no idea how many people really marched in Glasgow before the Iraq war to outside the SECC. It was chilling to experience such a mass movement. (Not as cold as seeing the snipers on the crane overhead). Many more marched in London and other cities around the world. A dictator was still deposed over the excuse of having weapons that did not actually exist, as most everyone who went on that march knew.

Marching is the merchandised acceptable method of protest these days. We get to let of steam, feel good and go home. Or worse some agitators (whomever they may be, and governments have a long history of planting agents provocateur) may start some rioting and defacement. But nothing happens. The protest is perhaps acknowledged. Tony will come out at some point and say on the front of Gleneagles that we have been listened to, if we're lucky.

I really hope I'm wrong, but it didn't work before. There must be some other way.