Some Wonderful Lines from The Wild Wild West
Having watched a few episodes with my parents lately, there are some absolute gem-like lines in this 1960’s television show. Here’s a sampling:
Evil Prison Warden: “Show them what happens when they cross you, Iron-Leg.”
[Iron Leg crosses to a nearby wooden bench and proceeds to kick it into two perfectly cut halves].
Evil Prison Warden: [A snicker] “Be careful, Mr. West, or the same fate will come to you.”
And:
Random grizzly bearded prospector chopping a cigar-store Indian with an axe in an abandoned western town: “There’s a pandemic of neck breaking going around. And it’s contagious! I’d watch out if I were you.”
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Robert Caro’s Working
I read this book over a weekend. Robert Caro is the biographer of books on Robert Moses and President Lyndon Johnson, men of power and ability to shape the worlds they lived in. Caro’s book, Working, however, is about the author’s experiences with interviewing the people connected with those great men and finding the story. I felt I was reading about a writer from another time, when answers didn’t come from a convenient Google search. Caro is the journeyman journalist, out on the road and tracking down answers to something much bigger than what is on the surface.
He and his wife, Ina, devoted three years of their lives to living in the Hill Country in Texas to understand the place President Lyndon Johnson grew up. Hill Country in Texas, according to Caro, is little more glamorous than a town without electricity. Houses can be miles apart, there isn’t a sense of community other than convenient geography, and the desolate countryside is so utterly abandoned that without the moonlight or brilliance of a starry night, it’s a world drowned in darkness.
I admire Caro’s drive, his grit to find what he was looking for.
Most of my writing (short stories, certainly) is improvisation. I sit down at a computer, type the first title that comes to mind, set a timer, and start writing something. Usually what ends up on the page is the final story in one form or another. So, it struck me when I read Robert Caro’s writing advice from a former Princeton professor of his. Caro wrote short stories in very similar way to my own (last second, off the cuff, procrastinating until finally getting to it). The professor said to him, “…you’re never going to achieve what you want to, Mr. Caro, if you don’t stop thinking with your fingers.”
What Mr. Caro’s professor meant was to put more care into his writing, that he wasn’t fooling anyone by writing in this well-received, speedy way.
I’m sure to write more about this, but I have a complicated relationship with writing short stories. To me, they feel “easy” because I can write them without overthinking. This doesn’t mean that what I write is good, but that I can sit down and crank something out feels more like a party trick than something to take seriously.
It doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy them (I love my short stories), but it doesn’t feel as satisfying to write them as, say, a novel or something I’ve developed a more meaningful relationship with.
I think with Robert Caro, and with the words of his professor, I felt exposed in a very constructive way; that I wasn’t getting brownie points for how I wrote my own stories. It was worth reading.
More to come on that topic in the future, I’m sure.
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Pyra/Mythra in Smash Ultimate
Pyra/Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s a good addition. My favorite thing about Smash DLC announcements is that they are seldom what leakers suggest. In this way, I’m more satisfied that Nintendo fans can’t predict what will happen with a favorite franchise. When the audience knows what will happen next, you’re sunk. In that spirit, Smash Ultimate remains afloat.
Besides, what the game’s director, Masahiro Sakurai, decides to do with new characters is FAR more interesting than who the character is revealed to be, in my opinion.
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The Rest of Nintendo’s February 2021 Direct
“Meh.”
“Oh, hey! A new Mario Golf!”
“Really, no Breath of the Wild 2 news? Not even some concept art? Yikes.”
“Meh, and it’s over.”
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On the Brightside, Guilty Gear Strive
It has been fantastic watching the Beta for this game. Such a frantic, fast-paced, beautiful fighting game with great rollback netcode. It brings me joy to see a game bringing joy to others.
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New Short Story Coming Next Week
I’m finishing up a draft of an upcoming short story that will be posted this week. I’ll include a teaser to hold you all over. It’s a silly little story.
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Wishing everyone as well as they can be. You’re not alone out there,
