I’m an Adult and I Put on a Halloween Costume

Hi, this is another one of those blogs where I drop the hoity-toity “P. W.” and I talk to you man to monitor (or smartphone or whatever magic device you’re reading this on).  You can call me Jim.

I don’t know why I do the things I do.  I write speculative screenplays for a cartoon that’s been off the air for fourteen years and I only occasionally fantasize about sending my scripts to the creator of the show in hopes of a Netflix revival.  But I’ve taken that fantasy to the next level and I have started to physically become Coach McGuirk.

The transformation is nearly complete.

I’m almost thirty years old and I put on a Halloween costume – and I liked it.  When you get to my age, you want to have one solid costume that you can reuse every year.  A forever costume.  Some say you don’t choose your forever costume, your forever costume chooses you.  Regardless, every Halloween from here on out I will reemerge with my dated cartoon reference that no one understands and I have to explain over and over.

Another update, I know a lot of you were concerned about the depression of my cat, who is also my editor.  He’s doing well, just trying to make it day-to-day while also editing everything I write.  Today I caught him just looking in the mirror, contemplating being a cat.

Chewy taking a hard look at his life.

My goal is to finish my novel by February 28^th, 2019, but it’s hard to concentrate when my cat (and editor) is having an existential crisis in the mirror.  Luckily, he’s having a cat nap right now so when he wakes up he’ll be in the mood to get back to work.

The real question is: When will I take this Halloween costume off or have I become the costume?

Advertisement

Hi, Welcome to My Blog

If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of my Facebook friends, or in my writing group, or you’re one of my parents, or you’re one of those few people who actually stumbled on my blog (I don’t know, maybe you like reading spec scripts for a cartoon that’s been off the air for 14 years).  Whatever the case, you made it!  You’re here!

It’s called the “Boundary-Bending Blog” because I’m not making any attempt to nail down the nature of posts I will be publishing here.  If you look at my most recent posts, they consist of my honest political opinion, vulgar satire, a book review, and speculative screenplays.  That’s the way things go around here: I write what I want to write.

Right now I’m in the process of writing a science fiction novel and it’s been a long road thus far; but one of the lessons I’ve learned is that when you are writing something that large, while you’re in the process of doing so, a whole bunch of other ideas will surface and permeate your consciousness and you have to get write them down and get them out, so you can move on (Even this very blog post is an idea that popped into my head and took control of the creative reins until it was satiated by release).  I created this blog because I wanted to have a place to publish all the random things that pop into my head as I work on completing my novel.  I’m also thinking of it as a kind of resume to prove to possible employers that I’m capable of writing.

I’m going to do my best to continue churning out more quality posts and hopefully you’re on board for the ride.  Maybe you dig my spec scripts but you aren’t into satire.  Maybe you like my opinion on books but my opinion on politics freaks you out.  Whatever the case, I don’t care.  I’m just going to keep chugging along and maybe you’ll like something you read.  And feel free to indulge me in the comments section along the way.

Book Review: The Hike by Drew Magary

The Hike by Drew Magary is a cynical mindfuck of a page-turner, which begs the question: Is it possible to have a more complete understanding of a person after being separated for more than a decade?

The book opens with Ben who, upon a whim, decides to take a hike in the Poconos and somehow gets lost in a parallel universe, or a dream, or a coma; part of the intrigue of the story is the mystery surrounding what precise circumstance has Ben experiencing this metaphysical world.  As he gets more lost, we delve deeper into who he is as person and the memories past, which have shaped him, and in fact, have shaped his current predicament.

The novel presents a complete adventure, from start to finish, which takes Ben across an ever-changing landscape of trials, each one more mind-bending than the last.  The inertia of the narrative is constantly on edge; not just pulling the reader through the story, but doing so at such a rapid speed that you’ll quickly lose track of page numbers.  This is the kind of book where once you read those fated two words, “THE END,” you don’t stare at them and ponder what they entail; instead you slam the book closed, because you know in your heart that everything that needs to be said has been said.

Ben is the perfect character for the reader to discover themselves as: imperfect, lazy, cynical, crude, and deeply hilarious.  He is an unwitting imbecile being prodded forward by fate, quick to notice his own suffering and loud at expressing it.  Much of the humor comes from him trying to pinpoint exactly who is responsible for his situation, God or otherwise, and his feeble attempts to express his outrage.  Ben has limited control; he’s being taken on a journey – just like the reader – and through his experience we get a more profound understanding of what really matters to him, and in turn, what matters to us.  I am he as you are me, and we are Crab together.

As we experience Ben’s predicament, we ponder what it means to our own lives.  For example, being lost in a parallel universe can be very similar to living with depression; people don’t know how to reach you, you feel dead to the world, you trudge along a predetermined path hoping it will lead to happiness.  Then long enough on that path, years maybe, you can look back and see the progress you’ve made as a person, building yourself back up like a castle.  It is in this way that Ben’s psychological experience is transformed from profound to personal, as his pain mirrors our own.

With full force you will be compelled to the end of this novel and (just for the sake of outdoing violent metaphors on the book cover) the ending will bulldoze your face with a spiked baseball bat, leaving your decimated jaw agape in silent wonder.