Sunday Musings: Cottage Life, Comics and Meaningful Violence

Sundays are my reading and writing days, but this weekend, we are at enjoying the lakeside view at the cottage, so I’m swatting at mosquitoes instead of spending the day in my PJs in the comfort of my own bed.

CURRENTLY READING
This week has been a comic heavy week for me, beginning with J. Michael Straczynski’s Superman: Earth One. After being admonished on the internet for my dislike for  DC’s boyscout, I’ve been looking for some interesting Superman reads, and accepted this recommendation. It was definitely an interesting take on Superman, but it lost me when the bad guy showed up. What I did like was the greater focus on the Daily Planet staff, namely Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. Lois Lane was there too, but she was rather disappointingly used. More to come in my review!

I’ve also been catching up on Rat Queens. I was trying to hold out to purchase the next collected volume, but the book is just too darn good. I love these ladies soooo much!

Random discoveries were Scarlet and A Voice in the Dark, both of which were not what I expected, but a pair of five stars later, are definitely on my need more list. Watch out for reviews coming soon!

I’m also prepping for my liveread of ML Brennan’s Generation V. Very excited to finally be reading her much talked about series and sooo looking forward to having some twitter fun with her.

WRITERY THINGS
My friend posts many writing articles and discussion pieces and prompts in her G+ community and every now and then, one really speaks to me. This week, it’s The Rules Of Violence – Part Two. I haven’t read part one, but I liked what this post had to say about writing violence and making sure it is meaningful. Even seemingly senseless violence ought to have meaning to someone.

Making violence have meaning was much easier to achieve in a world where any gun held only one shot and most of the violence was performed with sword or dagger. In the words of Frank Miller’s Batman, ‘We kill too often because we’ve made it easy… too easy… sparing ourselves the mess and the work.’ If you’re going to kill someone with a sword or knife, there’s a certain commitment to the deed, as it will take work. What a good story-teller can do is make taking a life work, re-create that commitment, and never make it casual or easy.

The post made me think of Jorg Ancrath from King of Thorns, which I’ve managed to get back to this week. While he and his companions are mostly psychopaths who don’t put much value on life, each act of violence and each life they take is given care and attention by the author.

While I don’t feel the need to get too graphically detailed when I write violent scenes, I do enjoy writing them. I tend to naturally approach them through the characters’ eyes such that I’m always aware of how violence and death affects them.

FINAL BOOKISH THOUGHTS

Do you?