Zilfworks

Friday, October 25, 2002

 

What I Finished Reading Today:

Secrets of Screenplay Structure by Linda J. Cowgill

A few days ago, I reviewed Michael Hague's Writing Screenplays That Sell, a beginner's text which has a few very useful things to say about creating convincing character motivations. In contrast, Cowgill's book is a much more advanced screenwriting book, so it does help to have at least a passing familiarity with screenplay structure and other elements of screenplay construction before tackling it. Also, because of its depth, it will probably be most useful to people who have already written at least one or two screenplays, and have a bit more than a rank beginner's understanding of the process.

Now, having said that, if you do have some basic screenwriting knowledge and experience, do already understand concepts like "dramatic unity," and are looking for something that digs much deeper into the intracacies of screenplay construction than most introductory texts, then this is definitely your book. In fact, it's probably the single most useful book of its kind that I've read in 15 years.

While most screenwriting books worth their salt do touch on all the basics, Cowgill's book does much more than touch. She positively digs into each critical element of storytelling in great depth and detail. So, while many intermediate or "advanced" screenwriting books devote a few paragraphs or a page or two to subjects like theme, subtext, dialogue, subplots, foreshadowing and building dramatic climaxes, Cowgill gives each of those elements their own full chapters, proving with that attention just how much more there is to writing a truly great script than just carving out three basic acts and a few interesting characters.

Also, in addition to the detailed information on the various individual elements of screenwriting, Cowgill includes chapters on how many of these various elements interact -- for instance, how subplots reflect theme, and how subtext dramatizes theme in your story. Finally, as with any good screenwriting book, Cowgill presents extensive examples from classic films...but in this case the films used truly are worth the study (as opposed, for example, to many of the examples in the Hauge book mentioned above). And the book includes not only beat-by-beat breakdowns of the example stories, but very interesting notes about how the original script draft differed from what finally ended up on screen.

This book is so detailed and so complete, in fact, that I would recommend it both to people still learning the basics of their craft, and as a terrific touchstone for much more advanced and experienced writers, who can always use a few good reminders when polishing the latest fruits of their labor.

posted by Elizabeth 1:35 PM

Thursday, October 24, 2002

 

What I Finished Reading Today:

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif

This is what my book group is reading this month, and although we haven't met yet to discuss it, I expect the talk to be quite interesting.

In short, the story is a multi-layered look at Egyptian life, love and politics, seen mostly though the eyes of a present-day Egyptian woman and a British woman who visits Egypt and then makes her home there just after the turn of the 20th century. It all begins when a present-day American woman named Isabel finds a trunk of her mother's things, which include letters and a diary kept by her British grandmother, Anna, when she travelled to Egypt around 1900. But most of the materials are in French and Arabic, so Isabel shows them to Omar, an Egyptian conductor she's just met (and with whom she's quickly falling in love), and he suggests that his sister, Amal, in Egypt, would be a good person to help with the translations. Isabel takes the trunk to Egypt, and as she and Amal work their way through Anna's papers, they forge a strong friendship, while becoming immersed in both Anna's story and new developments in their own love lives. The two women also discover a family connection in the materials, which draws them even closer...and as the stories of past and present weave back and forth, they both play out against vivid backdrops of the ever-turbulent political developments in Egypt.

At times, if you don't know the details of Egyptian and Middle Eastern history, some of the political material does get a bit dense...but the story has so many dimensions, and so many neatly woven plot threads, that it never gets too slow or bogged down in historical detail for too long. Also, the stories of Anna's romance with an Egyptian man, Sharif Basha, Isabel's troubled relationship with Omar, Isabel's burgeoning relationship with Amal, Amal's fascination with Anna's story and her own budding romance with an old college friend (despite the fact that they're both married to others), all provide very involving and very human-scale drama.

For me, there were several very involving things about the book. First, I thought the author found a wealth of good stories to tell, and watching how she weaves them all together with such dexterity (much as Anna, in the book, weaves an elaborate three-part tapestry which plays a central and very symbolic role) really impressed me. I enjoy doing this kind of thing in my own writing, and I love reading authors who are particularly good at it. Second, the story does a great job of taking the reader to a new place and culture, which is always interesting. And, third, while I don't have a strong knowledge of Egyptian and/or Middle Eastern history, I am currently reading a book called, The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism, by Karen Armstrong (I'll write more about that one when I finish it), which actually provides an interesting overview of Egypt's religious and political history. One of the main themes in Armstrong's book is Egypt's struggle with modernity (desiring it on one hand, but realizing at every turn that it can only follow in the more modern footsteps of Europe in general, and Britain in particular...when, on the other hand, it desires nothing more than to be free of British rule and influence). And all the historical details described in Armstrong's book are dramatized, in great detail, in Soueif's book. So the two made a great companion set, and each definitely helped me to understand the other better. (I love it when that happens!) Finally, despite the wealth of detail in "Map," the author manages to leave each of the stories with a bit of mystery - about each of the central characters - at the end. Although this is definitely a bit frustrating (after spending more than 500 pages with these folks, you really do want to know how they all end up), it's also good because it provides lots of food for thought after the story is done, and it makes everything resonate just a bit more than it would if things were all neatly tied up with big red bows.

The only questionable note in the story, I thought, was a rather melodramatic turn in which Isabel learns that her new love, Omar, who is much older than she, also once had an affair with her mother...approximately nine months before Isabel's birth. This seemed a bit over the top to me, and the question of whether Isabel's lover might also be her own father, which hovers briefly over the story, didn't seem to add much to the narrative. After thinking about it for a while, however, I did realize that the author was probably trying to justify the way Omar continues to hold Isabel at arm's length in their romance...which is necessary to prevent their story from being an exact duplicate of the Anna/Sharif Basha romance (can't have too many once-in-a-lifetime successful romances between Anglo women and Egyptian men in one story, after all). But while that impulse was probably a good one on the author's part, I do question her choice of the possible incest as the best device to do that. Something a bit less wild would probably have been a bit more believable, and definitely more in keeping with the overall serious tone.

On the whole, however, I definitely would recommend the book - it's very involving, on many levels, and quite educational, too. Also especially relevant in these days when Western/Middle Eastern tensions are at such a high and command such a prominent place in the world spotlight.

posted by Elizabeth 8:12 AM

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

 

Rant of the Day:

OK, I'm getting sick and tired of irresponsible pet owners. For the third time in the last four years, we've just taken in a stray cat -- not a feral cat born to the streets, but someone's pet who had clearly been left behind to fend for itself and ended up a skin-and-bones shadow, half-dead from hunger and parasites, and starved just as badly for human attention and affection.

Yesterday, my husband went out for lunch, and as he was walking home, "Popcorn," a skinny black-and-white "cow kitty," came right up to him, looking for attention and perhaps a small morsel of food. Now my husband has complained on more than one occasion about my soft spot for homeless animals (we currently have five cats of our own), but when he realized just how badly she needed help, he came home, found me and said, "You have to come visit a cat." So we went back, introduced ourselves, picked her up, wrapped her in my husband's sweater, and carried her home.

And if it wasn't clear from the cat's immediate responsiveness, trust and affection that she had been someone's pet, it was definitely clear from the old, scratched-up pink collar around her neck, which dangled a heart-shaped charm with her name, erstwhile owner's last name and a phone number. But when we called - immediately, on the street, from my husband's cell phone - we found the number had been disconnected, with no new information. And just to make sure we hadn't misdialed, we tried again - twice - from home, and got the same result. The owner had obviously moved, possibly out of town, and left no way to find her again.

Every day, I see ads in various classified postings from people trying to give away "beloved" pets. Most of them contain some variation of, "Please give my wonderful pet a home. I love him/her dearly, but my new place doesn't allow pets, so I have to give her/him up." And every time, I have to choke down an urge to contact the person who placed the ad and give him or her a variation of the following speech:

"Hey, idiot...what part of this process don't you understand? You got this animal because you wanted company, entertainment, affection or any of the thousands of other things companion animals bring to our lives. But an animal is a living thing, and once you agree to take one into your care, it's no longer about your own convenience. You need to commit to care for that animal for the rest of its life, and be just as devoted to it as it will quickly become to you. You don't tell a living creature, who loves and trusts you, that you will care for and love it only as long as your current lease lasts. And if you do, then you don't love your pet...not as it deserves to be loved. Once you have a pet, you have to understand, you have a pet. That means that you will no longer live in places that don't allow pets. You will no longer consider living in places that don't allow pets. You will no longer even look at places that don't allow pets. Because you have a pet. And you will have a pet next month, too. And the month after that. And, god willing, the month after that. So you need to realize that you have a pet, start looking for homes that will accomodate both of you, and turn down any that won't. Yes, it may take longer to find a place you like or can afford. But that's what you agreed to do when you agreed to provide a home for a pet. You agreed to provide a home for that pet...not simply turn it out on the street when you decide to change your decor. And if you can't understand that, you have no business whatsoever taking an innocent, trusting animal into your care...for any length of time."

There's an old Chinese proverb that says, "When you save a life, you become responsible for that life." Getting a pet is equivalent to saving a life. Because unwanted animals die. Either out on the streets or sent to shelters, unwanted animals die or are put to death. When you adopt a pet, you are not simply falling under the spell of a cute pair of eyes gazing longingly at you, you are accepting responsibility for a living thing, which in good health may continue to live for another 20 years. So you are not just getting a pet to keep you company this week, this month, this year, until you're tired of it, until you become bored or until it becomes inconvenient for some reason. You are signing on for up to 20 years of devoted service, for better or worse, in sickness and in health. And if you're not ready for that kind of commitment (single, highly mobile people, especially, please take note), then you're not ready to own a pet. Period.

OK, of course, people can die, become incapacitated or even develop unexpected allergies to pets, which make it impossible to keep otherwise loved and valued animals. And in those cases, the contract of responsible pet ownership requires that everything humanly possible be done to find the animal another home as loving and stable as the first. But if you're just moving to a "no pets" apartment across town, or even across the country, you don't just get to give up. You don't just get to say, "Gee, Popcorn, my new place doesn't allow pets and no one answered the ad I posted for you at the grocery store, so I guess you're on your own now, buddy. Have a nice life." Because that life won't be nice. That life will start with hunger and lonliness, and will quickly progress to starvation, disease and, eventually, death.

Simply moving to a new place, whether across the street, across the neighborhood, across the city, state or even country, does not give you the right to give up on your pet. Transferring to Thailand? Maybe. But I have friends who have lived on on four continents in the past 10 years...and their dogs have quite easily gone everywhere they have. So don't tell me it's impossible for you to take your "beloved" Fluffy, Ginger...or Popcorn. It's not. And shame on you if you can't do better by them.

Popcorn has gobbled up three big meals since we took her in yesterday, and has finally settled in to sleep on my husband's sweater, laid out under the nice warm lamp on my desk. So perhaps we've ended her starvation. Now we're going to the vet to get rid of the parasites, treat her nasty diarrhea and the infection in her left eye, and find out what else might be ailing her so we can nurse her back to health. And then, when she's better - and she looks like a cat again instead of a furry skeleton - we're going to find her a new home...a real home with people who truly love her, won't turn her out again when the lease expires (which is not love, no matter what all those "take my pet, please" ads say), and who will promise to return her to us first - and not put her out on the street again - if, for any reason, they become unable to care for her.

posted by Elizabeth 6:20 AM

All material © 2002-2004 by Elizabeth Fuller. Please do not reproduce anything you find here without the author's permission.

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