Scary Inspiration

October 31^st is Halloween in my country, the United States of America. It is the day we celebrate the thrill of horror without being horrified.

I love Halloween. Sure, the wicked can ruin it with nasty pranks, but the wicked ruin everything. Yes, it has a dark history, but such is history. The occasion itself is harmless fun.

I am a writer of fiction. Halloween is the holiday that inspires me most. The scary themes lend themselves to storytelling. They began as storytelling, actually. Unlike the other holidays, which are very specific, Halloween is generalized. It is the celebration of thrills for their own sake. The best fiction is thrilling.

[Once a year every year, each member of my creative group is challenged to make something scary or a parody of scary as a Halloween event. October 28, 2023 was our 20^th annual Halloween Challenge.]

Make it Real

What is your favorite thing to imagine? Is it something you hope for in your real life? Not me. My favorite thing to imagine is the easy killing of clueless guards. It has been my favorite since childhood. It was and is sexier to me than anything else.

When I was a little boy, I fancied myself the sentry. I enjoyed playing the easy victim. As I grew up, I played the killer. It was fun either way.

It is useless to imagine unless you do so to create. I write books and illustrate the covers. I have turned my fancy into literature and art.

You can imagine being rich or getting married or whatever else but unless you turn the thought into action, it is a brain fart. Like a fart, it may make you feel better, but it does stink.

My imagination is not a plan. It is daydreams I turn into stories and pictures. The idea imagined is not what I hope for. The books and illustrations are the objective.

Bother to make something of what you imagine, whether literally or artistically. Have something REAL to show for it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJLLK7SY?ref_=ast_author_dp

Worthy or Not

The value of human life is measured as if money. The higher denominations are worth more than lower denominations: Aristocrats were worth more than peasants, for example. Assuming we are all of equal value, the loss of lives is worse if many than few.

In truth, one life can be invaluable and many lives worthless. The death of a man can be worse than the death of a nation. A single murder can be worse than a genocide.

The world measures humans collectively and materially. God measures humans individually and spiritually. The world does consider individuals, but as personifications of groups. God does consider collectives, but as groups of individual persons. These differences make all the difference. To the world, you are an extension of the world and shall be judged accordingly. To God, you make something of yourself or you are nothing, and shall be judged accordingly.

Your value is not a matter of opinion. Pride and prestige are irrelevant.

The meaning of life is not decided by the mortal and only human. The very idea that those who exist after the fact and are doomed to perish have a say is laughably ridiculous.

What is the meaning of life? That is decided by its source, and you are not its source. Your life is meaningful or meaningless by a measure you cannot tally. You are given a choice. What you decide shall decide your fate, but not on your terms.

The meaning of life is FRIENDSHIP. It means more to God than anything else. If you are his friend, you shall mean everything to him. If not, you shall mean nothing to him. By this standard your life shall be valuable or worthless.

Heroes or Antiheroes

My favorite fictional characters are the expendable foot soldiers of villainy. Their genre is action-adventure. Their part to play is to be easily and readily slain by heroes.

Action-adventure is not about my favorite characters. It is about heroes. The villains are supporting characters, even if main characters. If the villains are the protagonists, they are still the heroes, though as antiheroes.

Despite my fancy, I acknowledge that an action-adventure is not very good unless its heroes are interesting. The villains may be uninteresting, and often are, but if we love the protagonists, we love their story.

Of course it is a good idea to make the villains interesting, but such is a secondary concern. The heroes come first, and rightly so. The story is their story. It is immersive through their perspective.

Making the villains the protagonists does not change the basics of an action-adventure. It merely darkens the story, especially if the antagonists are virtuous. The nameless baddies are instead droves of policemen or legitimate soldiers.

The triumph of evil can gratify. We are shocked or grimly amused. It cannot satisfy, however. It is innately uninspiring. We are spiritual creatures, regardless of our sinful nature. We are numbed by the triumph of evil. We become bored of the cheap thrill.

There are three ways to make an action-adventure about the villains morally satisfying. The easiest is to vilify the heroes. This turns the story into the usual fare in the guise of something different. A harder way is to punish the protagonists for their villainy. The bias against them is obvious, however, making the story less believable. The hardest is to redeem the villains without changing them. Something about them must be good despite their evil. It must come naturally or else their story is the usual fare in the guise of something different.

My favorite characters are what they are whether baddies or good guys. They are the ordinary against the extraordinary. They are easily and readily slaughtered in droves. What to do if they are not baddies? Keep them anonymous: They are expendable as strangers. To make things easier for us, cover their eyes or faces. Focus on the perspective of the antiheroes.

An action-adventure is about heroes. It is a story about excellence. The morality of the heroes is irrelevant, so long as they are excellent. Their common victims are the common folk, whether as goons or not. These hapless characters set the standard of ordinary by which the extraordinary protagonists are measured.

Real or Imagined

I am a storyteller as a writer. I have written stories about elfin secret agents, little girls as the foot soldiers of villainy, armies of barefoot clone women and two black women who serial kill young white women. I am writing a novel about a Nazi sorcerer and his apprentice, his teenage daughter.

I have been asked why everything I write is weird. It is suggested I should try writing about normal things. I should fictionalize my own life or write a historical fiction. Many people tell me fiction is fake and I am knowledgeable, so I should write non-fiction.

I drew pictures before I wrote stories. I turned my daydreams into images. I imagined fantastic scenarios rather than wishful thinking. I enjoyed reading stories and was inspired to write my own.

We live in reality. What is the point of me writing about it? I would rather dream while awake as I do when I sleep. My thoughts are inward when I do so. I learn about myself by turning the dreams into images and stories.

Many people travel the world. They eat exotic foods. They learn different languages. They are nonentities in their own lives. They are sponges rather than people. I would rather be a person, and that means an individual.

I am not the world. I am myself. The world is only important because I live in it. It is unimportant otherwise.

Of course I live in a country and eat its food. I use its language to articulate thoughts. I am what I am regardless. Of course I am inspired by the world. The world itself is uninspiring, however. It is my imagination that makes things interesting. I use the skills I learn and the materials available but what I make is what I craft. The artistry is entirely mine.

I create. This is the difference between me and those who learn rather than imagine.

https://www.deviantart.com/yellowplasma

Breeds of Human

Before the Flood, the races of man were the lines of Cain (“Gain”), Abel (“Breath/Vapor”) and Seth (“Appointed”). The Flood left only the line of Seth through Noah (“Rest/Comfort”). The races of man became the lines of Shem (“Fame”), Ham (“Hot/Blackened”) and Japheth (“Extend/Beautiful”). Cush (“Black”), a son of Ham fathered the black race.

Shem is the ancestor of the Asians. Ham is the ancestor of the Africans. Japheth is the ancestor of the Europeans.

The line of Shem inhabited the Americas, only to be conquered by the line of Japheth. The line of Cush was brought in as slaves.

Every human being is related by blood, from Noah specifically. We are closer to the members of our race and even closer to members of our family.

The life of a creature is in the blood. The bloodlines do matter. They do not decide our individuality but they do relate us to other people. We look very much like our relatives for a reason. We are very much alike, inside and out.

The sons of Noah were brothers. They were family. Their children were cousins.

Humanity always begins as a family. It becomes races as it grows apart. Populations breed within themselves until becoming innately distinct from other populations.

The races are real. When a family becomes millions of people, it becomes a race.

A family is not what people look like. A race is no different in this regard. They are both distinctions of common ancestry. Their members may look alike… or not. Their blood relation is what it is regardless. Looking alike simply makes it obvious. Differences make it questionable.