Conversations in the Book Trade: Books, art, art-books, and ... authorial movies.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Mood backgrounder
This is a no-budget short I created for my first screenplay/module novel. I decided against any text or voiceover; in part because I already have a few videos like this, but also because I realized the drawings and music carried their own narrative, which in turn was a narrative of the personal and...
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Truth Marathon - the geopolitical significance of Nazi Germany: while World War Two is well understood in terms of its immense global importance, it is less seen as the birth of a new form of geopolitical thought; techno-geopolitics, as it were.
Canada -- with newly minted sovereignty over its foreign policy -- soon joined the fight, and was pivotal in assisting Britain (a fact downplayed or left out of most histories). The United States officially stayed on the sidelines. But members of Roosevelt's administration were acutely aware of the stakes if the Nazis were to gain hegemony over all Europe and the Soviet Union. This created a behind the scenes quasi-policy of wanting to enter the war in a roundabout fashion; a wish which seems to have led in the direction of Asia.
For the Roosevelt administration, the war in Europe was paramount. But the war that the US might enter against Japan would be linked.
Canada -- with newly minted sovereignty over its foreign policy -- soon joined the fight, and was pivotal in assisting Britain (a fact downplayed or left out of most histories). The United States officially stayed on the sidelines. But members of Roosevelt's administration were acutely aware of the stakes if the Nazis were to gain hegemony over all Europe and the Soviet Union. This created a behind the scenes quasi-policy of wanting to enter the war in a roundabout fashion; a wish which seems to have led in the direction of Asia.
For the Roosevelt administration, the war in Europe was paramount. But the war that the US might enter against Japan would be linked.
Monday, November 23, 2015
VÉRITÉ MARATHON - en français.
VÉRITÉ
MARATHON
par Finn Harvor
*
FADE
IN.
EXT.
UNE RUE avant la seconde guerre mondiale à Tokyo. A la mi-journée.
TITRE:
TOKYO, le 26 janvier 1941.
Une
rue en face de la filiale japonaise de la National City Bank de New
York. La rue est recouverte d'un mince film de neige. La foule se
déplace rapidement en tous sens : les hommes japonais, pour la
plupart, sont vêtus de costumes sombres et sobres, mais aussi le
vendeur ambulant tirant un grand chariot, ou, la tête baissée, une
femme.
Les
femmes sont jeunes et strictement vêtues de sombre, à la manière
d’homme d’affaires. Mais parfois, elles portent des kimonos
lumineux.
L'effet
visuel d'ensemble est une série de monochromes, du noir des cadres
des fenêtres et des clôtures en fer forgé au gris foncé des murs
de pierres au blanc sale de la neige - mais tout cela parsemé de
rares taches de couleur.
Une
voiture s'arrête en face de la filiale japonaise de la National City
Bank de New York. Un occidental bien habillé en sort. Il entre dans
la banque.
INT.
LA BANQUE. Un instant plus tard.
L'homme
occidental, bien habillé, fait la queue. Après un moment, il arrive
au guichet.
L’employé
japonais : [avec un fort accent asiatique] Bonjour. Puis-je vous
aider ?
L’occidental
bien habillé : [parlant avec un accent de la côte Est] Konichiwa.
Oui, je voudrais convertir des yens en dollars américains.
L’employé
japonais : Combien ?
L’occidental
bien habillé : [main dans sa veste et en tirant une grande
enveloppe] Eh bien, c'est plutôt une grosse quantité ....
JUMP-CUT.
INT.
LA BANQUE. Juste derrière l'occidental bien habillé.
Un
autre occidental, aussi bien habillé, tape le premier sur l'épaule.
L’AUTRE
HOMME : [avec un accent latin] M. Bishop.
Mr
BISHOP (LE PREMIER HOMME bien habillé) : [surpris] Oh, Dr.
Schreiber. Vous m'avez surpris.
DR.
SCHRIEBER : [un peu inquiet] Je suis désolé. Puis-je vous parler un
instant ?
BISHOP
: Allez-y.
DR.
SCHRIEBER : Non. En privé.
BISHOP
: [Amicalement] Bien sûr. Juste un instant.
Bishop
se retourne vers l’employé, termine sa transaction, puis se
retourne vers Schreiber qui est clairement agité.
SCHREIBER
: [chuchotant] Ce que j'ai à dire est d'une importance primordiale.
BISHOP
: Oh. Très bien, alors.
Les
deux se dirigent vers un petit salon.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Saturday, November 21, 2015
새 비디오/ Nouveau video/ New video
YouTube link:
This is take 3 of a video I posted yesterday but felt unhappy with. Have redone the music (bad piano first time round), and improved, I hope, the mix of visuals.
The historical context is that of the Pacific War of WWII; by 1941, Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union had made frightening progress. Britain and "her dominions" (eg., Canada), were putting up a valiant fight but it wasn't enough (one reason Hitler thought invading the USSR was a good idea). The Roosevelt administration was providing the Allies with materiel and fighting a naval battle of sorts in the Atlantic. But it wasn't enough either. This changed with Pearl Harbor. However, Pearl Harbor would have ramifications for the subsequent Truman administration and its decision to drop the atomic bomb.
From my collection of authorial movies
Friday, November 20, 2015
Truth Marathon - original screenplay manuscript
INTRO
I'm going to begin posting the original manuscript of my screenplay-novel, TRUTH MARATHON. This was completed ten years ago.
Despite the fact that at that time, the ms. had been through several drafts and was, to my mind, finished, the project has been through many (as in many, many) changes since then, and now is part of a much larger, more ambitious project with the overall title PLASTIC MILLENNIUM. Part of the project I'll be engaging in will be a description of how the project -- and my thinking about it -- has evolved. I'll be paying particular attention to the ways in which the material production of fictional narrative has also changed; publishing has been through extraordinary changes in the past decade -- I'd like to contextualize my own creative work within that seething, hyper-productive, and, at times, dysfunctional, framework.
(For French and Korean readers, I also have French and Korean translations of some of the novel which I shall also post.)
The novel is primarily set in the 21st Century. However, it opens in Tokyo, January 26, 1941: approximately ten months before Pearl Harbor and full American entry into World War Two. Of course, as even occasional readers of history know, the U.S., under the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was profoundly eager to enter the war: Roosevelt himself was acutely aware of what a dangerously unstable leader Hitler was, and, by late 1941 and the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Werhmacht, it seemed the Nazis were winning. And as several members of Roosevelt's cabinet knew, a Nazi victory on the Eurasian continent would spiral into a geopolitical nightmare for a now-isolated United States. In other words, Hitler's war to dominate both continental European and the USSR would ultimately directly threaten the US. The mood of much of Roosevelt's cabinet was almost agonizingly desperate for action.
At the same time, the Tripartite Pact (the Axis Pact) between Japan, Italy and Germany had been noted by the US. Since the Japanese were already fighting their own war in East Asia, in a grandiose attempt to colonize Korea, China and much else of Asia, Japan was already fighting its own massive regional war. But while the Germans had, via the conquest of Romania, their own oil, the Japanese were dependent on oil from Western powers such as the US and the imperial Dutch, who had oil wells in Indonesia.
Intelligence began to flow that, in an attempt to secure their own supply of fuel, the Japanese imperial government was considering a move to "protect its flank" by attacking the US fleet, which had been -- with geopolitical significance -- stationed by the White House at Pearl Harbor.
TRUTH MARATHON - ONE
EXT:
A STREET IN PRE-WORLD WAR TWO TOKYO. MID-DAY.
TITLE:
TOKYO, JANUARY 26, 1941.
A
car pulls up in front of the Japanese branch of the National City
Bank of New York. A WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN emerges. He enters the
bank.
INT:
THE BANK. A MOMENT LATER.
The
WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN stands in line. After a moment, he reaches
the front.
JAPANESE MALE TELLER:
[with a strong accent]
Hello.
May I helping you?
WELL-DRESSED
WESTERN MAN:
Konichiwa.
Yes, I’d like to convert some yen to U. S. dollars.
JAPANESE
MALE TELLER:
How
much?
WELL-DRESSED
WESTERN MAN:
[reaching
into his jacket and
pulling
out a big envelope]
Well,
it’s rather a large amount….
JUMP-CUT.
JUST BEHIND THE WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN.
ANOTHER
WESTERN MAN, also well dressed, taps the first on the shoulder.
OTHER
WESTERN MAN:
[with
a Latin American accent]
Mr.
Bishop.
BISHOP
(FIRST WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN):
[startled]
Oh,
Dr. Schreiber. You surprised me.
DR.
SCHRIEBER:
[somewhat
anxiously]
I’m
sorry. May I have a word with you?
BISHOP:
Shoot.
DR.
SCHRIEBER:
No.
A private word.
BISHOP:
[friendly]
Sure.
Just a moment.
Bishop
turns back to the teller, finishes his business, then turns back to
Schreiber who is clearly agitated.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
보험/ Le refuge/ Refuge
A new YouTube video, this time on refugees, but also on the parallel theme of people looking for refuge. In other words, alongside the refugees fleeing strife and war, the refugees who are constantly in our midst.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Monday, November 16, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Whispers in the Warehouse of Bombs
"We are the dead," they snicker,
Lined in their racks.
They know: soon coming:
fresh orders: attacks.
Lined in their racks.
They know: soon coming:
fresh orders: attacks.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Friday, November 13, 2015
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
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