Psyche will henceforth be known in her human aspect as Beatrice.

Crispin/Simon has, in my mind, taken on much the feeling of post-Vietnam Max, from Across the Universe.  He is rumpled and hasn't washed his hair in too long and possibly something of a drunkard, and smells of old cigarettes.  In this state it's a miracle he's managed to hold down a job.  Good thing Nexus only needs him for brief interviews.  

(Perhaps the possible-drunkenness is a side effect of Prochazka's death?)

Cripsin/Simon's theme song is Fake It, Seether.

Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven, and tempt us not to bear above our power!

- William Shakespeare's King John, V.vi.
 

I don't much care for the title "The Violet Hour" anymore.  I mean, in some senses I love it--and I love the symbolism, and the connection back to Eliot's poem--but it just feels... hollow.  Lifeless.  I don't know.

I also need a new (Christian) name for my female protagonist (I'm keeping the surname).  What was I thinking, naming her after the god of the sun?  I thought at the time that it was a clever move on my part, but now it's just an empty such-and-such, and really does the character no favors.  I'm going to shift the emphasis to Benjamin and Crispin. 

Possible names:
Adele/Delia Getman
Angie Getman (Evangeline)
Clare Getman




The snow did not fall in a froth; it rattled among the leaves--it smelled of the sea--it settled unmelting on bowed heads.




[[Note to self: Beatrix <- Viatrix, Latin for 'traveler']]

    Perhaps I'm too fond of the flawed hero, that hubristic, semi-divine individual who simultaneously manages to initiate triumph and tragedy; perhaps I've gotten too attached to specific cultural milieus in literature.  For whatever reason, while I find Beowulf a fascinating piece of literature more than worthy of interpretation and investigation, I can't honestly say that if I was looking for something to read I'd pick it up off the shelf.  To me, that's one of the greatest marks of a classic, a work that deserves to be classified not as just a "book" or "volume," but as "literature"--the urge felt to not only delve beneath the surface and explore the crevices between the black and white, but also to drown in the story, to lose one's self in the voices and stories.  Literature is more than an amalgam of effective devices coalesced into a contiguous storyline; it is a living, throbbing organism transliterated to the page.  It is the ultimate manifestation of imagination, that most ineffable of human characteristics.


    I understand that in writing it's nearly impossible to fully break away from all cliches.  Everything in life (and what is writing but a catalogue of life?) is based on, or can be traced back to or contrasted with, an archetype.  And from those archetypes spring cliches.  I understand this well enough.  At the same time, I spent enough of my childhood reading fairy tales and Arthurian legends to know that it's necessary to bring a certain freshness to a cliche in order to resuscitate it.  By its very nature, Beowulf is dusty and stodgy, and most translations into Modern English don't do anything to alleviate this. 
    Don't misinterpret me; I'm not saying that all old literature is "dusty and stodgy," is lifeless; I love the literature of Middle English, the Celtic sagas, the Greek, Roman, Indian, Norse, Persian, and Chinese canons (just to name a few).  But there's enough of the realist in this idealist to acknowledge that it takes a certain something to keep these myths alive, a quality of literary oxygen, so to speak.  There are the flaws and glories of the old gods and heroes and heroines, and stories of peasants who rise to great heights, and wondrous monsters and beings; and they live in the pages, and in the minds of those who read them.
    Beowulf too has these qualities; there's the foundling Scyld Scefing, the great Beowulf himself, gods of Christian and pagan faiths, and a whole menagerie of supernatural beasts.  The difference is that there's something lacking, at least in the translations I've read.  Perhaps in its original language, the text would breathe, but that's the problem with translation--it removes the text from its context (and, as a high school English teacher once joked, that just leaves you with con, and you never want your work to become a negative thing).  Modern English translators, such as the 2002 translation by Sullivan and Murphy, try so hard to stay true to the original oral techniques--namely, alliteration.  But the excessive alliteration used by the Anglo-Saxons, no doubt a great boon to the storytellers who had to memorize such unwieldy epics, proves overwhelming on the page; it's like every line has been marinated in molasses to the point of sluggishness.  It also, at times, ruins the reader's ability to believe that the speakers really are in the time they're said to be.  Take for example this quote from lines 471-473:  "'Listen, Unferth, my fuddled friend, / brimful of beer, you blabber too much / about Breca's venture."
    What modern author in their right mind would juxtapose the formal "venture" with the colloquial (and downright obnoxious) "blabber" and "fuddled?"  Wouldn't it have made more sense for Beowulf to say something like, "Listen, Unferth, my muddled friend, / brimful of beer, you prattle too much / about Breca's venture."  Sure, it lacks the admittedly aesthetically pleasing alliteration, but one of the elements of literary credibility is consistency. 
   In this way, in their attempt to keep the epic true to its roots, the translators have ruined it--at least for this (perhaps too picky) student. 

novels
The Violet Hour
- In the research/planning stage; currently developing the historical and geographic elements of the alternative-history Earth.
- Exploring themes of religious fanaticism, mob mentality, political philosophy, and personal loyalty/accountability.
- Should there or shouldn't there be an element of romance?  It would be secondary, of course, and understated--even unspoken.  I'm assuming, at the moment, that it would be between Phoebe and Vasiliy, but it's quite likely that it could develop between Phoebe and this unnamed British reporter who cropped up in a current freewrite.  Perhaps there could even be elements of a darker lust between Vasiliy and Nikita.  There are also the issues of interpersonal relationships brought up in the friendship of Phoebe and Benjamin (though how on earth am I going to get them to meet?) and Benjamin and his mother, not to mention the slightly creepy obsession that Psyche has with Benjamin.
- Since I've changed his name from Christopher to Benjamin, I need a new surname; Benjamin Barrow is... now, wait a second... oh, bother.  To keep or not to keep, that is the dilemma!
- At the moment, I've pinpointed the branching-off of the alternative history in Manifest Destiny.  Tentatively, the current United States is actually a lose confederation of some sort (provinces? commonwealths? territories?), composed of: The Republic of Texas, Alta California, New Mexico, Louisiana, French Louisiana, The United States (east of the Mississippi and north of present Florida), and Florida.  This is most certainly subject to change.

short stories
Story #1
- A story about an alienated, Myshkinesque young woman living in a small town; she is mute, and largely considered a witch by the local population.  The story follows the friendship she manages to form with a local boy despite being persona non grata.
- Currently freewriting.

scripts
Script #1
- Just a tertiary brainchild, about the relationship between two women (Marie and Grace) who are having affairs with the same (married) man.
- Nascent; still in the very first stages.