Tim Akers's Blog
February 2, 2015
Winding down, winding up, launching
I'm excited to announce the launch of my new website. This will combine my blog, an event schedule, a word count progress report, my twitter feed and all the information you could possibly hope to want about my books. The design was done by the brilliant Jeremy Tolbert of Clockpunk Studios. Come by, enjoy, and make use of this internet thing! I'll still be updating this page, but the website is definitely the best place for the latest information.
That means that this site, long disused and oft-ignored, will be winding down. I may still post things here of a more personal nature, but my professional and publication announcements will be at the new site. Thanks for the decade of angst and dirges and the slow ascent to happiness, everyone! Hope to see you at the new site!
I present to you,
That means that this site, long disused and oft-ignored, will be winding down. I may still post things here of a more personal nature, but my professional and publication announcements will be at the new site. Thanks for the decade of angst and dirges and the slow ascent to happiness, everyone! Hope to see you at the new site!
I present to you,
August 18, 2014
Five years, and a strange toll
I spent part of today going through old blog posts, trying to track the progress of my head five years ago. This is because, just over five years ago, Heart of Veridon dropped onto (and through) bookshelves in the UK. My friends and I have often joked that I'm the most famous American born British author you've never heard of. Almost all of my short stories were published in Interzone, and two of my first three books were from Solaris (stationed in Nottingham at the time). So it feels appropriate to celebrate that five year date, rather than the US release, which is still ahead of us.
So. Five years. Let us think.
In a lot of ways, I've been disappointed in myself. When I page through those first three books, I see a lot of errors, not just writerly errors but errors of intent. I wonder what would have become of my career if hurdle after hurdle hadn't knelt down in front of me, if I had been in a better headspace when trying to write those books. If my depression had been better managed. But those things happened, that was the writer I was when Veridon went through me, and so that's the way things are.
I see other mistakes. I struggle with inclusion in my work. Every book I try to get better at it, but every book comes short of my expectations. There are plotting issues. Plodding issues. Problems with language and art and artifice. I keep trying to be different things in my work, and I'm not sure any of them ring true to what I actually am. I'm still not sure about that. I'm pretty sure I'm never going to be as good as I could have been, much less as good as I want to be.
But I go back and read reviews of Heart of Veridon, and they make me genuinely happy. So maybe I just need to learn to be a little lighter. A little less anticipatory of my own failure. Because looking back takes a pretty heavy toll on my head. And there's nothing that can be done about it.
So. Five years. Let us think.
In a lot of ways, I've been disappointed in myself. When I page through those first three books, I see a lot of errors, not just writerly errors but errors of intent. I wonder what would have become of my career if hurdle after hurdle hadn't knelt down in front of me, if I had been in a better headspace when trying to write those books. If my depression had been better managed. But those things happened, that was the writer I was when Veridon went through me, and so that's the way things are.
I see other mistakes. I struggle with inclusion in my work. Every book I try to get better at it, but every book comes short of my expectations. There are plotting issues. Plodding issues. Problems with language and art and artifice. I keep trying to be different things in my work, and I'm not sure any of them ring true to what I actually am. I'm still not sure about that. I'm pretty sure I'm never going to be as good as I could have been, much less as good as I want to be.
But I go back and read reviews of Heart of Veridon, and they make me genuinely happy. So maybe I just need to learn to be a little lighter. A little less anticipatory of my own failure. Because looking back takes a pretty heavy toll on my head. And there's nothing that can be done about it.
April 19, 2014
Trade School Paperback
I've been thinking a lot about the business of writing and what it means to be a writer. One of the things that I struggle with is the time it takes to learn to do this thing correctly. I have a degree in Creative Writing, but it took years and years of post-collegiate failure, trial and error, and stress to really learn how to write a book. And while I've sold six novels so far, I still feel like I have a long way to go.
The thing that I find frustrating is that there isn't a lot of guidance. I learn a lot by talking to fellow writers, comparing notes with my friends and generally by word of mouth. But mostly it's just random knowledge that I've managed to accrete over the last eleven years.
And that's a terrible way to learn your life's work. There's no reason it has to be this way. And I think I have a solution.
What this business needs is a trade school. A serious, two year program that teaches you how to plot, how to write characters, how to write dialogue, how to outline a novel. And more than that, it needs to teach you how to write a cover letter, how to write a pitch letter, a synopsis, a blurb... There would need to be a separate course on agents, editors and publishers, and one on marketing and the pure business side of writing.
There are courses in place, scattered across the country and with different philosophies and focuses (foci?), that teach most of these things. But none of it is unified. Plus most of it requires a random time commitment (six weeks this summer, a week next year, three weeks a month from now) all in far flung places that necessitate a disruption of your normal life. It's a luxury to be able to attend these things, a luxury that is generally unavailable if you're making the pauper's wages most writers are making (more on that later). So it's practically impossible to attend all of them, so most people pick and choose and end up with an incomplete education. If you learn some small bit of the business here, and some other bit of it over there, and the rest you're just trying to make up as you go along, you're not going to be much of a writer. Or, at least, you're not going to be as much of a writer as you could be.
There is one problem. The money for this doesn't exist. Most trade schools prosper because they're teaching a task that, once you graduate, you will be able to make a living performing. And that's not the case with writing. With only a few exceptions, most of us are making bad money, and we're doing it without insurance and with the (literal financial) support of our family. We're hobbyists.
I have thoughts about that, too, but I'll go into them later. For now, simply understand that we've wasted too much time treating writing like it's a sacred task, and it's not. It's a business of art, and there are things you can learn that will make you a better writer. Things I wish I'd learned at the start, rather than fumbling my way into discovering.
And I think that if we build a cadre of writers who can efficiently produce books that *readers* want to read, we might be able to take care of that hobbyist problem, too.
The thing that I find frustrating is that there isn't a lot of guidance. I learn a lot by talking to fellow writers, comparing notes with my friends and generally by word of mouth. But mostly it's just random knowledge that I've managed to accrete over the last eleven years.
And that's a terrible way to learn your life's work. There's no reason it has to be this way. And I think I have a solution.
What this business needs is a trade school. A serious, two year program that teaches you how to plot, how to write characters, how to write dialogue, how to outline a novel. And more than that, it needs to teach you how to write a cover letter, how to write a pitch letter, a synopsis, a blurb... There would need to be a separate course on agents, editors and publishers, and one on marketing and the pure business side of writing.
There are courses in place, scattered across the country and with different philosophies and focuses (foci?), that teach most of these things. But none of it is unified. Plus most of it requires a random time commitment (six weeks this summer, a week next year, three weeks a month from now) all in far flung places that necessitate a disruption of your normal life. It's a luxury to be able to attend these things, a luxury that is generally unavailable if you're making the pauper's wages most writers are making (more on that later). So it's practically impossible to attend all of them, so most people pick and choose and end up with an incomplete education. If you learn some small bit of the business here, and some other bit of it over there, and the rest you're just trying to make up as you go along, you're not going to be much of a writer. Or, at least, you're not going to be as much of a writer as you could be.
There is one problem. The money for this doesn't exist. Most trade schools prosper because they're teaching a task that, once you graduate, you will be able to make a living performing. And that's not the case with writing. With only a few exceptions, most of us are making bad money, and we're doing it without insurance and with the (literal financial) support of our family. We're hobbyists.
I have thoughts about that, too, but I'll go into them later. For now, simply understand that we've wasted too much time treating writing like it's a sacred task, and it's not. It's a business of art, and there are things you can learn that will make you a better writer. Things I wish I'd learned at the start, rather than fumbling my way into discovering.
And I think that if we build a cadre of writers who can efficiently produce books that *readers* want to read, we might be able to take care of that hobbyist problem, too.
February 18, 2014
New books, new series, new deals
I'm pleased to announce that I've agreed to a three book deal with Titan Books. The titles as they currently stand are:
The Pagan Night
The Iron Hound
The Winter Vow
Nothing's set yet, but I expect the first of these will be out in 2015.
Hoorah!
The Pagan Night
The Iron Hound
The Winter Vow
Nothing's set yet, but I expect the first of these will be out in 2015.
Hoorah!
September 23, 2013
Introducing The Quiet Front
An American warmage with a demon woven into his soul. A secret mission into Nazi-occupied France, where every order is a lie, and every sacrifice only adds to the butcher's debt. And a Russian agent, leading them deeper into a web of deceit and murder, until the only escape is death itself...
I present , first in a series of tales about an alternate war in Europe, a war fought between old gods and new, horrible technologies. What sacrifices would the greatest generation have made if the cost was not in flesh and blood, but in the souls of the dead?
I present , first in a series of tales about an alternate war in Europe, a war fought between old gods and new, horrible technologies. What sacrifices would the greatest generation have made if the cost was not in flesh and blood, but in the souls of the dead?
September 22, 2013
Followup on that Wisdom
Today is the last day to download the two stories I released for free earlier this week. If you want to have a chance at winning a free critique of your work (honesty is the only currency I can offer you) then you need to get on that action. I'm just saying. The links are right here:
I have contacted the first winner of the weekly critiques, and will hopefully be providing them a critique by the end of this week. If you didn't win this week, don't despair. I'll be accumulating the submissions and selecting the best from the lot each week. The earlier you enter the more chances you'll have of winning so, once again, get on that action.
Finally, and this may seem a little harsh, but I can see how many downloads there have been of the stories, and I can compare that to the number of submissions I've received. I included the critique requirement on this offer because I wanted to establish a threshold of effort on your part. That's important because writing is difficult. Not just the act of writing, which is difficult enough, but the business of writing. The environment of the writing life is not easy, not for the writer, or the editor, or the various people associated with the business along the line. The verb you are going to see most often used in this business is 'Rejected'. The mental state you're going to most often face is disappointment. Unless you are rarely gifted or even more rarely lucky, you are going to expend a great deal of effort on things that will eventually fail. Sometimes spectacularly.
The thing that separates successful writers from aspiring writers is perseverance. Failure itself is inevitable, to some degree, for every one of us. The difference between the names you see on the bookshelf the names of your friends who have been in the same writing group for the last ten years and have stopped submitting to magazines but still talk a good game is the willingness to fail, to fail spectacularly, and to keep at it. To keep writing, to take criticism without taking offense, to overcome their pet weaknesses and professional hacks, and get up that fucking hill. That's all it is.
So. All of you who have downloaded the stories but not submitted critiques. Get off your ass. This is a good opportunity you've been given. If it's too hard to put the time aside to create an intelligent critique, or you're scared of having a professional give his honest opinion about your work, stop trying. Stop telling yourself you want to be a writer, and settle into the business of hobbyist. Because this is probably the easiest thing the writing world is going to ask of you. Stop putting it off.
Get up that fucking hill.
I have contacted the first winner of the weekly critiques, and will hopefully be providing them a critique by the end of this week. If you didn't win this week, don't despair. I'll be accumulating the submissions and selecting the best from the lot each week. The earlier you enter the more chances you'll have of winning so, once again, get on that action.
Finally, and this may seem a little harsh, but I can see how many downloads there have been of the stories, and I can compare that to the number of submissions I've received. I included the critique requirement on this offer because I wanted to establish a threshold of effort on your part. That's important because writing is difficult. Not just the act of writing, which is difficult enough, but the business of writing. The environment of the writing life is not easy, not for the writer, or the editor, or the various people associated with the business along the line. The verb you are going to see most often used in this business is 'Rejected'. The mental state you're going to most often face is disappointment. Unless you are rarely gifted or even more rarely lucky, you are going to expend a great deal of effort on things that will eventually fail. Sometimes spectacularly.
The thing that separates successful writers from aspiring writers is perseverance. Failure itself is inevitable, to some degree, for every one of us. The difference between the names you see on the bookshelf the names of your friends who have been in the same writing group for the last ten years and have stopped submitting to magazines but still talk a good game is the willingness to fail, to fail spectacularly, and to keep at it. To keep writing, to take criticism without taking offense, to overcome their pet weaknesses and professional hacks, and get up that fucking hill. That's all it is.
So. All of you who have downloaded the stories but not submitted critiques. Get off your ass. This is a good opportunity you've been given. If it's too hard to put the time aside to create an intelligent critique, or you're scared of having a professional give his honest opinion about your work, stop trying. Stop telling yourself you want to be a writer, and settle into the business of hobbyist. Because this is probably the easiest thing the writing world is going to ask of you. Stop putting it off.
Get up that fucking hill.
September 17, 2013
Free stories and wisdom!
Ten years ago (and a couple days, I missed the actual anniversary) I made my first professional fiction sale. It was to Chiaroscuro Magazine, a lovely market out of Canada that is still producing some of the finest, darkest fiction you're likely to find. The email came while I was at my first Worldcon. All in all, it was a good weekend, and a good way to start a career.
When the story came out a few months later, I did something interesting, something brave, especially for someone as socially averse as I am. I sent a link to the story to my three favorite writers at the time (Corey Doctorow, Peter Watts and Richard Morgan) and said 'Hey, listen, don't panic. I'm a real, professional writer, and this story is my first professional sale. I love your work, and I was hoping you'd take a few minutes out of your day to read this, and let me know what you think.'
Crazy, right? To my never ending shock and gratitude, all three of them responded. They all had good things to say, and poignant things to say ("this should have been a book") and were all three gracious and kind in a way that I never expected. Since then I have been amazed at the unrelenting kindness of this industry, the sheer grace with which newer writers are accepted into the fold and ushered forward by their elders.
In memory of this event, I'm doing two things. I hope you'll take advantage of both of them.
First, I am offering two stories for free on Kindle Direct. The first is Memory Analog, the short story that started my career. The second story is Memories of Copper and Blood, a novella set in my Wraithbound Universe. These stories will be available for free for the next five days to download on any Kindle device. If you don't have a Kindle, you can download their free app and read them on anything that runs on alternating current.
My hope is that you'll read both stories and see some kind of progression. Maybe you'll see things that I'm not doing as well, or things that I've changed that you wish I hadn't. Maybe you'll decide that I really should stick to novels. Even better, maybe you'll see things that I can improve. We never stop growing as writers.
The second thing I'm doing is a little risky for me, because it's a time commitment. But I was deeply moved by the sacrifice of time given by those three writers ten years ago. I need to pay that forward. Hopefully to you, dear reader.
For the next ten weeks, I will be offering free critiques, one a week. I can't commit to reading anything longer than, say, 20k words, though that limit is fuzzy. I have to warn you that if you submit something to be read, know that I will be completely honest with you. I hold myself to some pretty high standards, and I will hold you to nothing lower. That doesn't mean I'm going to tear your story apart, but I'm not here to simply encourage you. Writing is a fire that you pass through.
Here's how this is going to work. If you want a chance at these critiques, go download those two stories and offer a critique of your own. Send it to my Gmail account, at j.timothy.akers and keep it fairly short. I'll review the critiques and each week I'll offer one of the submitters a critique in kind. I'll be looking for critiques that are insightful and honest. Don't simply praise the work, that's not going to get you on to the next round.
But wait, you say. Aren't the people who need your help the most the ones who aren't necessarily going to be able to provide good critiques? Maybe. But I honestly believe that you need to learn how to be a good reader before you can be a good writer, and that's something I can't teach.
So. Read the stories. Write me a critique. Send it to the email address above. Wait forever for my response. Do not send me your story for critique along with your critique of my work. Let me say that again:
Do not send me your story for critique along with your critique of my work. I'll just delete them.
I don't know what kind of response I'm going to get from this. If it's overwhelming, it may take me a little while to get started. But I'll try to churn through them and each week, contact one of you for your story.
I hope this works out. I hope you get something out it. I hope I can help you half as much as I've been helped by others.
Thanks for your time. Here are the links to the stories. Remember, the first rule of publishing is patience. The second rule is something that we'll have to get back to you on, after the editorial meeting next month.
September 13, 2013
Things End Sometimes
This is one of those times.
I'm going to have to pack it in on the full-time writer thing. The industry is terribly slow, and while I'm happy with what I have out there, the process of getting it in front of editors and from there to readers has just taken too long. It's been a good year and half, and I've gotten a lot done. I worked hard. But it wasn't good enough.
I'm still going to keep writing, but my days of high word counts are behind me for a while. I'll keep at it on the weekends, and nights, but I don't want to get back to that place where all I'm doing is dayjob/eat/write/sleep. That wasn't healthy.
Thanks for all your support, those of you who bought books and spread the word. Maybe I'll get back to this place at some point in the future. That's the kind of hope I have to hold out.
Now, do me a favor. Go read a book. A good one.
I'm going to have to pack it in on the full-time writer thing. The industry is terribly slow, and while I'm happy with what I have out there, the process of getting it in front of editors and from there to readers has just taken too long. It's been a good year and half, and I've gotten a lot done. I worked hard. But it wasn't good enough.
I'm still going to keep writing, but my days of high word counts are behind me for a while. I'll keep at it on the weekends, and nights, but I don't want to get back to that place where all I'm doing is dayjob/eat/write/sleep. That wasn't healthy.
Thanks for all your support, those of you who bought books and spread the word. Maybe I'll get back to this place at some point in the future. That's the kind of hope I have to hold out.
Now, do me a favor. Go read a book. A good one.
August 26, 2013
The Indie Experiment
I will admit, dear reader, that I am one of those people who has looked down on indie publishing for years and years. And by indie, I mean self. I assumed it was the realm of writers who lacked the talent to make it in the world of legitimate publishing, who decried the gatekeepers and networks and claimed there was an inner circle of publishers who kept their brilliant writing from the public market because... well... just because. I assumed these people simply couldn't see the failing of their own work, and were willing to pay good money to see their names in print.
I had a harsh view.
Over the years, that view has evolved. Mostly because I've seen friends get fucked over by the publishing industry, I've seen truly great books fail, and I've seen mediocre books rise to the top on little more than buzz and packaging. I've come to accept that book quality simply doesn't equal publishing success. I could see, clearly, that there were many variables in the publishing process. Any one of those variables could sink a good book. Some of the best writers I know are struggling to stay in the mid-list.
This got me to thinking about indie publishing. After all, there have been a number of success stories out of the selfie world. Not just blockbuster success, like Wool or 50 Shades, but people who are simply supplementing their income or making good mid-list kind of numbers by producing their own stuff. And following the end of the Veridon series, I had a number of short stories that hadn't been seen in the US, all of which served as the foundation for Heart of Veridon. There was some small demand to see these stories. I also had a novella that hadn't landed in any of the short story markets. The rejections had all been nice, but it was an odd length to place. So I decided to do a little experiment. I decided to publish these things myself.
Formatting took time, as did layout. These are not things I'm naturally inclined to do, and there's a lot of nuance in laying a book out that most folks probably don't recognize. I wrote up some author's notes for the Veridon stories, then added two science fiction stories that had also seen little distribution in the US. I called the final produce Bones of Veridon.
I have to pause to talk about covers. I was fortunate enough to get some help from a friend who owns her own studio, who did an amazing job with my covers. We were able to get covers for both of the works that really evoked the stories without being too fancy. If you need a cover, I would happily recommend . She's brilliant.
So, I got Bones of Veridon out there and made some sales. I was encouraged. Not 'hey, my money problems are solved!' levels of encouragement, but units moved. I did twice weekly bumps on my various social feeds, and that always sold a couple books. I went ahead and put the novella out. That didn't go as well, not by a long shot. There was no established fan base. Plus I dropped that title too close to Bones of Veridon. The people who might have been interested were still gorging on Bones, I think. But I'm learning. The next one will be better timed, and hopefully different enough to draw in people from outside my usual readership.
This doesn't mean that I've given up on traditional publishing. Not by a long shot. I have one series out to editors, and another pitch that I'm writing for a YA title. I think traditional publishing is still the backbone of the genre, and will be for a long time to come. But I also think that indie publishing is a viable outlet, and one that every author should at least look into. Unless you're one of the big names who can hand literally anything they write over to one of the houses and start a bidding war, some of your work isn't going to fit into the traditional expectations of the editors and agents who guide this industry. That doesn't mean it's bad, or unworthy of publication. Independent publication lets you experiment with things that the more risk-averse industry types won't go near. It lets you expand your reach as an author, and establish a little more control over your own career. Plus it's terribly satisfying to get stories into the hands of readers.
That's what this entire business is about, right? Telling stories? And if you have a good story, there's no reason you shouldn't be allowed to tell it. So write, and publish, and let the readers decide.
I'd be a fool if I didn't include links to those titles I put out, right? So here they are:
I had a harsh view.
Over the years, that view has evolved. Mostly because I've seen friends get fucked over by the publishing industry, I've seen truly great books fail, and I've seen mediocre books rise to the top on little more than buzz and packaging. I've come to accept that book quality simply doesn't equal publishing success. I could see, clearly, that there were many variables in the publishing process. Any one of those variables could sink a good book. Some of the best writers I know are struggling to stay in the mid-list.
This got me to thinking about indie publishing. After all, there have been a number of success stories out of the selfie world. Not just blockbuster success, like Wool or 50 Shades, but people who are simply supplementing their income or making good mid-list kind of numbers by producing their own stuff. And following the end of the Veridon series, I had a number of short stories that hadn't been seen in the US, all of which served as the foundation for Heart of Veridon. There was some small demand to see these stories. I also had a novella that hadn't landed in any of the short story markets. The rejections had all been nice, but it was an odd length to place. So I decided to do a little experiment. I decided to publish these things myself.
Formatting took time, as did layout. These are not things I'm naturally inclined to do, and there's a lot of nuance in laying a book out that most folks probably don't recognize. I wrote up some author's notes for the Veridon stories, then added two science fiction stories that had also seen little distribution in the US. I called the final produce Bones of Veridon.
I have to pause to talk about covers. I was fortunate enough to get some help from a friend who owns her own studio, who did an amazing job with my covers. We were able to get covers for both of the works that really evoked the stories without being too fancy. If you need a cover, I would happily recommend . She's brilliant.
So, I got Bones of Veridon out there and made some sales. I was encouraged. Not 'hey, my money problems are solved!' levels of encouragement, but units moved. I did twice weekly bumps on my various social feeds, and that always sold a couple books. I went ahead and put the novella out. That didn't go as well, not by a long shot. There was no established fan base. Plus I dropped that title too close to Bones of Veridon. The people who might have been interested were still gorging on Bones, I think. But I'm learning. The next one will be better timed, and hopefully different enough to draw in people from outside my usual readership.
This doesn't mean that I've given up on traditional publishing. Not by a long shot. I have one series out to editors, and another pitch that I'm writing for a YA title. I think traditional publishing is still the backbone of the genre, and will be for a long time to come. But I also think that indie publishing is a viable outlet, and one that every author should at least look into. Unless you're one of the big names who can hand literally anything they write over to one of the houses and start a bidding war, some of your work isn't going to fit into the traditional expectations of the editors and agents who guide this industry. That doesn't mean it's bad, or unworthy of publication. Independent publication lets you experiment with things that the more risk-averse industry types won't go near. It lets you expand your reach as an author, and establish a little more control over your own career. Plus it's terribly satisfying to get stories into the hands of readers.
That's what this entire business is about, right? Telling stories? And if you have a good story, there's no reason you shouldn't be allowed to tell it. So write, and publish, and let the readers decide.
I'd be a fool if I didn't include links to those titles I put out, right? So here they are:
August 14, 2013
Guest Blog: Joshua tells you things about Elysium!
My agent, Joshua Bilmes, is a man of the movies. He's much better at analyzing them than I will ever be, and has seen way, way more movies than I ever will. We both saw Elysium recently, and as it was the final science fiction movie of the summer, we decided to do dueling reviews of the movie. Well, not dueling. But I've done a review that appears on his blog , and he's done a review that will appear on my blog.
Right now, in fact:
Elysium. noun. “Any place or state of perfect happiness; paradise.”� Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. 1996. Random House Value Publishing.
Elysium. movie. Sigh. 2013. Tri-Star Pictures.
For the avoidance of doubt, Elysium the movie falls well shy of perfect anything.
At the dawn of my career as a literary agent I was put in touch with the “plot skeleton� by Scott Meredith, which is similar to more recent things like Robert McKee’s story structure or a gazillion other guides to writing books or movies. That plot skeleton started with an identifiable lead character. Elysium is an instant fail. Our lead character, played by Matt Damon, is on line to board the bus for work. Someone behind him gets in trouble with the robotic line monitors. So first thing when the line monitors come to Matt Damon, he decides to mouth off.
Are you kidding me?
Our lead character is that guy, the one without the brain or common sense to realize that making jokes about bombs while you’re standing on the TSA line at the airport waiting for you or your carry-on to go through the scanner is just not the best idea.
Everything else that happens to our lead character is a direct result of his being a wisecrack. He is injured so he’s late to work so he’s in trouble with his boss so he agrees to do something dangerous at work because it’s that or be fired so he is injured and has five days to live so he needs to cure himself.
This might have engaged me if the character was more well-rounded, but there isn’t much else to go by. We know he’s trying to keep on the straight and narrow, but I just saw that movie and it was called Fruitvale Station. We know he pines for halcyon memories of his childhood girlfriend. I’m pretty sure I saw that movie somewhere else. Many somewhere elses. Somehow or other, I feel like I’d checked out of the movie around five minutes in, and I stayed that way.
I’m trying to figure out what else there is to say about the movie, and I don’t come up with much.
Jodie Foster gives a strange performance with a Africaans kind of accent for no particular reasons, other than to remind us that this is high art, allegory, full of meaning and lessons. However, her character, the Secretary of Defense for the Elysium habitat where the rich people live, isn’t very convincing in how she does her job. Her so-called boss is even less convincing in how he does his. The underlying set-up, the protocols of how things are done, makes no sense. It looks like things are being made up as they go along.
There aren’t any other actual characters in the movie. There are people who fill archetypal roles. The bad guy. The good guy who dies so that our hero might live. The girlfriend. The young child our heart goes out for. We should care enough about the girlfriend and the young child that we aren't bothered we can't quite figure out a cogent back story to explain how the girlfriend goes from the idyllic flashback scenes to reaching heaven to returning to hell with a daughter who isn't covered under her health plan.
The movie ended with the same implausibility and lack of common script sense as it started. The people on Earth are going to get cured. The habitat will send its ships full of Miracle-Gro sick bays. I was kind of hoping for something nice, a good what-would-happen-in-the-real-world scene of people on Earth being killed and trampled as a lawless society suddenly had millions of people angling for 50 Miracle-Glo sick bays. No such luck. It's all very elysian, as the citizens of Earth kind of dance and frolic toward the ship's cargo bay, not exactly going in single file but certainly forming a happy and well-choreographed mob where we just know that everyone will get their just reward in the exact right order.
I could talk about the special effects! Good special effects!! Delivered on a budget!!!.
That is what we are supposed to talk about when we discuss the work of writer/director Neill Blomkamp. His reputation in the US rests on the success of District 9, a sleeper sf hit when it opened four years ago. District 9 had some creative plotting and an interesting setting, but it devolved into what so many other sf movies devolve into, an extended overlong chase scene that took up most of the movie. I dozed off for a bit during that, just like a checked out a bit during Elysium. The main impression I left with wasn’t that I loved District 9, it was that I loved that he’d managed to do an sf movie filled with all the sorts of things sf movies are filled with and done it for some small tiny fraction of what Peter Jackson spends to do it.
So in ELYSIUM, many critics seem impressed that Neill Blomkamp delivers an Important Allegorical SF Film For Much Less Than Pacific Rim. It’s just not a very good film. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you deliver on a tighter budget, when you deliver the same thing as everyone else.
Right now, in fact:
Elysium. noun. “Any place or state of perfect happiness; paradise.”� Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. 1996. Random House Value Publishing.
Elysium. movie. Sigh. 2013. Tri-Star Pictures.
For the avoidance of doubt, Elysium the movie falls well shy of perfect anything.
At the dawn of my career as a literary agent I was put in touch with the “plot skeleton� by Scott Meredith, which is similar to more recent things like Robert McKee’s story structure or a gazillion other guides to writing books or movies. That plot skeleton started with an identifiable lead character. Elysium is an instant fail. Our lead character, played by Matt Damon, is on line to board the bus for work. Someone behind him gets in trouble with the robotic line monitors. So first thing when the line monitors come to Matt Damon, he decides to mouth off.
Are you kidding me?
Our lead character is that guy, the one without the brain or common sense to realize that making jokes about bombs while you’re standing on the TSA line at the airport waiting for you or your carry-on to go through the scanner is just not the best idea.
Everything else that happens to our lead character is a direct result of his being a wisecrack. He is injured so he’s late to work so he’s in trouble with his boss so he agrees to do something dangerous at work because it’s that or be fired so he is injured and has five days to live so he needs to cure himself.
This might have engaged me if the character was more well-rounded, but there isn’t much else to go by. We know he’s trying to keep on the straight and narrow, but I just saw that movie and it was called Fruitvale Station. We know he pines for halcyon memories of his childhood girlfriend. I’m pretty sure I saw that movie somewhere else. Many somewhere elses. Somehow or other, I feel like I’d checked out of the movie around five minutes in, and I stayed that way.
I’m trying to figure out what else there is to say about the movie, and I don’t come up with much.
Jodie Foster gives a strange performance with a Africaans kind of accent for no particular reasons, other than to remind us that this is high art, allegory, full of meaning and lessons. However, her character, the Secretary of Defense for the Elysium habitat where the rich people live, isn’t very convincing in how she does her job. Her so-called boss is even less convincing in how he does his. The underlying set-up, the protocols of how things are done, makes no sense. It looks like things are being made up as they go along.
There aren’t any other actual characters in the movie. There are people who fill archetypal roles. The bad guy. The good guy who dies so that our hero might live. The girlfriend. The young child our heart goes out for. We should care enough about the girlfriend and the young child that we aren't bothered we can't quite figure out a cogent back story to explain how the girlfriend goes from the idyllic flashback scenes to reaching heaven to returning to hell with a daughter who isn't covered under her health plan.
The movie ended with the same implausibility and lack of common script sense as it started. The people on Earth are going to get cured. The habitat will send its ships full of Miracle-Gro sick bays. I was kind of hoping for something nice, a good what-would-happen-in-the-real-world scene of people on Earth being killed and trampled as a lawless society suddenly had millions of people angling for 50 Miracle-Glo sick bays. No such luck. It's all very elysian, as the citizens of Earth kind of dance and frolic toward the ship's cargo bay, not exactly going in single file but certainly forming a happy and well-choreographed mob where we just know that everyone will get their just reward in the exact right order.
I could talk about the special effects! Good special effects!! Delivered on a budget!!!.
That is what we are supposed to talk about when we discuss the work of writer/director Neill Blomkamp. His reputation in the US rests on the success of District 9, a sleeper sf hit when it opened four years ago. District 9 had some creative plotting and an interesting setting, but it devolved into what so many other sf movies devolve into, an extended overlong chase scene that took up most of the movie. I dozed off for a bit during that, just like a checked out a bit during Elysium. The main impression I left with wasn’t that I loved District 9, it was that I loved that he’d managed to do an sf movie filled with all the sorts of things sf movies are filled with and done it for some small tiny fraction of what Peter Jackson spends to do it.
So in ELYSIUM, many critics seem impressed that Neill Blomkamp delivers an Important Allegorical SF Film For Much Less Than Pacific Rim. It’s just not a very good film. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you deliver on a tighter budget, when you deliver the same thing as everyone else.
