Tag: history

Book Review: MCU illuminates the history of Marvel’s films

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

I recently listened to MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios on audiobook. I heard about the book, because one of the co-authors, Joanna Robinson, has a podcast I frequently listen to (House of R), and she talked a bit about the book in the run-up to its release late last year.

I’ve enjoyed Marvel films over the years and admire what they had achieved through the Infinity Saga. I also really enjoy documentary-style storytelling with behind-the-scenes insights. This book excels at this type of storytelling.

With plenty of quotes and perspective from the people who were involved with these films over the decades, it’s clear that the authors spent tons of hours conducting interviews with all kinds of folks, from production assistants on 20-year-old films, to directors, set/costume/effects designers, to the major actors, to Kevin Feige himself. There are countless anecdotes about snap decisions made in one era of the studio’s history that directly shape how the movies came together years later.

The book is paced and structured like a documentary, with most chapters focusing on a particular film, or a particular piece of the MCU machine, such as visual effects. It begins in the very earliest days of Marvel’s forays into film and television in the 60s and 70s, with projects and people I had scarcely been aware of, and then really picks up in the early 2000s, when superhero films started appearing in greater numbers.

The authors did a good job balancing fair criticism of various parts of the studio’s process with genuine appreciation of its accomplishments. The chapters on The Infinity Saga are rightfully tinged with admiration at how those films were pulled off, while the chapter on visual effects speaks to the issues that VFX artists have faced in dealing with the tight deadlines, scant budgets, and long hours demanded by their contracts with Marvel Studios.

My one critique is that the closing sections felt a little too concise. If this is a history of the MCU – and it certainly reads like one – then I would have wanted a little more summation on this era of Marvel Studios and what the future looks like.

Still a great read, and definitely worth picking up again to absorb all the nuggets of information spread throughout.

Steve D

Book Review: NO GOOD MEN AMONG THE LIVING and the tragic debacle of the War in Afghanistan

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Life, ReviewsLeave a comment

Last month, I listened to the audiobook version of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes, by journalist Anand Gopal.

I was barely a teenager when the War in Afghanistan began in 2001, and I remember the profound effect it had on me at the time.

When the war turned into an occupation and nation-building experiment, and then a resurgence of the Taliban, I knew that I didn’t understand the whole story. In the aftermath of the US’s abrupt exodus from Afghanistan, I was completely perplexed by how fruitless it had all been, with the Taliban back in power, and seemingly stronger than before.

Anand Gopal’s book traces the years before the American invasion, starting with the monarchy and Communist revolution in the 1970s, which prompted Russia’s occupation. From the late 80s and early 90s, Gopal begins following the involvement of various actors in the militias that formed in response to the Russian occupation, leading to the bloody civil war of the mid-1990s. The Taliban had gained control of large portions of the country by the outset of the American invasion, a sudden and confounding incursion, from the perspective of many of the locals interviewed, that was largely welcomed.

Gopal’s accounts of the lives of several Afghan people before and during the American war there is a fantastic narrative. It is also a devastating and infuriating demonstration of the downfall of American policy in the country.

The American policy, as told by several local actors and recounted by Gopal, had been to fight “terrorism” wherever it could be found. This led to local strongmen accusing their rivals of being enemies of the American mission, while American military leaders seemed completely clueless of the tribal rivalries and affiliations that had existed long before their invasion.

It is not difficult to see how the rise of strongmen across Afghanistan, funded by US taxpayers, created a self-perpetuating war machine that favored disunity and brutal politics, even as Afghanistan’s first democratic government tried to establish control.

Even though it was published in 2015, Gopal’s account also makes it easier to understand how the government could collapse so completely and utterly to the Taliban in 2021.

There were parts of this book that made me curse aloud at the sheer ignorance and brutality of it all. This book is not about choosing sides, except perhaps the sides of the civilians trying to survive the war. Gopal speaks to the cruelty of the first and subsequent Taliban regimes, but he also presents the reader with the callousness of American operations, many of which inadvertently targeted civilian homes or facilities (such as schools) that had no connections with the enemies the Americans were hunting.

This was not an easy read, but a necessary one for anyone who wants to understand what it might have been like to try to live through this war. It is tragic, infuriating, and shameful, and it makes me doubt what the American military and intelligence establishment has learned from this war, if anything.

I feel like the figures in this book have more stories that need to be heard, but I fear how they have fared in the intervening years.

Steve D

On FOUR LOST CITIES and Building this Fantasy Town

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

This post is not a real book review, at least, not entirely. I just finished listening to Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz, and it got me thinking and rethinking the way I design and evolve cities in my fantasy universe.

A running theme in my world-building — and one of my pervading interests in history and anthropology — touches on the rise and fall of cities and civilizations. For years, I had the reductionist viewpoint that great cities rose and fell in linear patterns, and with clear markers for their demise.

When I learned that the far more common pattern is for cities (or civilizations) decay for years or decades or centuries before fading from prominence, I wanted to explore that in my storytelling.

Four Lost Cities provides a really interesting investigation into the formation and decline of cities across human history. Newitz uses archeological evidence to make the case that the evolution and dissolution of cities is not a linear path, that the very definition of a “city” and its growth are defined more by socio-cultural forces of its time than by rigid and often arbitrary models based solely on commerce.

What would this look like in a setting of my making? Would I be able to capture the uncertain rise and long decay of a city or a people in character-centric stories?

My current work-in-progress, the duology I’ve been referring to as The Herb Witch Tales, spawned from this theme. Before I knew who my characters were, I wanted to explore a city’s evolution from small port town, to sprawling tent camp of migrant settlers, to developed population center.

The story developed from the idea of the city, and I found characters to fit that initial blueprint. The duology is now much more grounded than that much broader idea, but I’ve tried to pay particular attention to the ways in which the characters perceive and interact with place — the places they’ve lost, left, or found.

Although The Herb Witch Tales is currently a duology, I can easily imagine future stories where the growth of this family is inextricably tied with the growth of the place they come to call home.

So, I must recommend Four Lost Cities, because it is informative, thought-provoking, and inspiring in a world-building kind of way.

Steve D

Book Review: THE ANCIENT CELTS builds a framework for Ancient European history

On By Steven D'AdamoIn ReviewsLeave a comment

The Ancient Celts audiobook occupied my listening time during a couple of recent weekend road trips, and it turned out to be enjoyable and informative.

The Ancient Celts is an excellent historical framework through which to view and discuss the identity and meaning of the term Celtic and the ancient peoples to whom it can be applied. This is the type of history where author Barry Cunliffe strays into several other topics in order to build his primary case.

Ancient Greece, Rome, the Scythians, and Phoenicians all make appearances as Cunliffe traces a millennium of migrations and conflicts across Europe involving various Celtic groups. Cunliffe focuses on the material archaeological record for his study, but he does not hesitate to pull in writings of the Classical era, and previously established linguistic evidence to build his case.

Cunliffe’s ultimate case is that the Celts can be identified as a distinct cultural and linguistic group from the Middle Danube region from the end of the Bronze Age, who had a stark impact on the Classical civilizations of Europe and spread as far south as Egypt, as far East as modern Turkey, and as far west as the Atlantic coast of Europe, and whose cultural remnants can still be seen today.

Interestingly, Cunliffe bookends his study with discussions on the revival of Celtic identity over the last few centuries, and what this might mean in relation to the Ancient Celts he tries to understand. He posits the subjective question of who the Celts were and who they are today, and answers with a surprisingly simple, yet effective statement: anyone who considers themselves Celtic, whether that is through spoken language, material culture, or more ephemeral forms of identity.

Steve D

The Quintessential World-Building Tool

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Creativity Sessions, FantasyLeave a comment
Creativity Sessions writing process. Evening Satellite Publishing.

If you know anything about me, you probably know that I like to use spreadsheets to organize myself, whether it’s story outlines, word count trackers (until recently), or timelines, the spreadsheet is my bread-and-butter organization tool.

So you’d better damn believe I have a spreadsheet laying out the entire millennia-spanning timeline of my fantasy universe, Úr’Dan.

Which brings me to the quintessential world-building tool, in my view: the Historical Timeline.

The Historical Timeline

When I talk about a historical timeline as a world-building tool, I’m not really referring to the timeline as a tool for the reader. It is a tool for you, the writer, to aid in your efforts to give depth to your fantasy universe.

Even if you only have a few key events laid out that underpin your fantasy universe — a recent war, a plague that is sweeping the countryside, or the death of a prominent figure — it is essential that you understand not just how and why these events happened, but when.

And a simple timeline, or an outline of a timeline, can help you organize key events to tell your story accurately. After all, referencing historical events in the course of your story through dialogue or, where appropriate, exposition adds greater depth to your fantasy universe, but only if you can consistently describe when and how something happened.

My Historical Timeline

As I said at the top, I use a spreadsheet to organize a millennia-spanning historical timeline for my entire fantasy universe, called Úr’Dan. This spreadsheet is organized into four columns:

  • Year, or whatever reckoning of time is used in your fantasy universe. There are actually four distinct calendars used in Úr’Dan, so my timeline references each.
  • Name of the event. How is this event known in your story? Consider whether different groups refer to the same event by different names.
  • Peoples involved, referring to which larger ethno-cultural groups in my story were involved in or impacted by a particular event.
  • Description, providing just a few sentences summarizing what the event was, and maybe what it’s immediate impact was.

Additionally, I use color-coding to provide a quick visual differentiator between general types of events:

  • Events referred to only in myth or legend
  • Wars, battles, or other conflicts
  • Founding or construction of cities, fortifications, or other significant places
  • Birth/Death of prominent figures
  • Treaties or alliances
  • Other significant events, trends, discoveries. This is a catch-all category that can include things like mass migrations of people, the invention or prevalent use of a particular type of technology, or notable weather events.

Finally, I also include rows for each of my stories, just so it’s obvious where they each fit into my timeline.

All told, I have 91 rows in my timeline so far, spanning about 1,000 years of “history”, plus significant events of myth, such as those covered in my mythology of Úr’Dan. Many of these events are focused on a few ethno-cultural groups or time periods that I’ve already put a lot of thought into, so one of my ongoing goals is to add more events and flesh out the histories of all of the peoples of my fantasy universe.

The more historical events you can talk about from your timeline, the more space you have for potential stories.

Steve D

Story Lessons from THE LORD OF THE RINGS, part 2

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Creativity Sessions, Writers - Steve D'AdamoLeave a comment
Creativity Sessions writing process. Evening Satellite Publishing.

After some lackluster reading recently, I am embarking on an epic quest: to reread The Lord of the Rings! I will not be reviewing these stories in a critical sense, because how could I? Instead, I will share some storytelling insights I pick up as I go along.

This will be primarily focused on the books, but I will also reference the films by Peter Jackson to compare the stories as they are told between these two media. See part 1 here.

I finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring over the weekend, and I was eager to jump right into The Two Towers. Instead, I decided to take a couple days and absorb The Fellowship in its own right. So this post is just a collection of thoughts through the rest of that novel.

Description

This one may seem kind of obvious to anyone who has read or heard anything about Tolkien’s world. If nothing else, he is known for world-building. His intricate description of the land through which his characters travel provides a vivid image in the reader’s mind and sets the scene for every interaction with the characters.

Has this imagery been informed in my mind by the stunning New Zealand landscapes used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings? Definitely. But Tolkien’s descriptions also serve the story.

In Book II, Chapters 3 and 6 — “The Ring Goes South” and “Lothlorien”, respectively — the Company first try to pass over the mountain of Caradhras, and then manage to pass under it. As they approach the mountain from the west, hope to traverse its high pass, the peak glares at them red-stained in the morning sunlight, a warning of the peril they are about to face. The mountain defeats them with a mighty snowstorm and rockslide that only seems to occur on the narrowest spot of the pass as they try to cross.

Three chapters later the Company emerges from Moria on the east side of the mountain. As they continue southward towards Lothlorien, they give one last look to the mountain that caused them so much suffering, both at its height and in its very depths. Now, Caradhras glows with golden sunlight, as if mocking them with its serenity.

I don’t need an illustration to picture the foreboding peak of Caradhras in my mind, and the colors that evoke so much emotion to the characters in a single glance.

Story Lessons

  1. Description of the environment can evoke scale. Although only a matter of days passes between the two images of Caradhras, that book-end demonstrates how much the Company has been through in that time. It also shows how far the Company has to travel just to get to the other side of the mountain, thus scaling out the world and making the journey ahead seem all the more arduous.
  2. Description of the environment can reflect the characters’ emotions. As in the example above, the mirrored descriptions of Caradhras also mirror how the Company feels about it: first as a symbol of foreboding, and then as a symbol of mockery, even shame for what they lost by passing under the mountain, rather than over it.

Presence

I think it can be too easy sometimes to get caught up in the action or the drama of a story and keep the plot surging forward. This up-tempo pace can be enthralling for a reader, but sometimes it’s just as important to let the characters, and the reader, breathe.

One of the most effecting sections of The Fellowship for me came during such a moment, when Aragorn speaks to Frodo about Lothlorien:

‘Here is the heart of Elvendom on earth,’ he said, ‘and here my heart dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we still must tread, you and I. Come with me!’ And taking Frodo’s hand in his, he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as living man.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring, Ballantine Books, 1965, pp. 456.

This quote does two things. First, it gives both Aragorn and Frodo a sense of presence within the story. After several chapters of danger and suspense, they come at last to place where they can rest. It’s thus natural that the characters would want to pause and marvel at their ethereal surroundings. Secondly, the end of this section implies a dark road for Aragorn and forces the reader to ask: why does he never return? Where does his journey take him that he can never see Cerin Amroth again?

Story Lesson

  1. Use a characters’ present moments to punctuate their arc. To put the above another way, I think it’s often in quiet moments that a character feels their sense of place within a story, within their world. It also allows the reader to step back, briefly, from the immediate plot and see their characters as more than just actors in a particular scene; here especially, Aragorn feels like a living soul whose present and future are wrapped into this singular moment of wonder and awe. He has a life to lead, and we are catching only a glimpse of his journey.

This post is (slightly) shorter than part 1, and this definitely does not represent everything I am taking from The Fellowship of the Ring. I just wanted to share some things that really jumped out to me.

Onto The Two Towers!

Steve D

#Review: A MORE PERFECT REUNION — trying to understand our racial history and integrated future

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Reviews, Writers - Steve D'Adamo1 Comment

A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and the Future of America, Calvin Baker

I picked up A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and the Future of America by Calvin Baker on Audible, because I felt like I needed to learn more about the current (ongoing) fight for equality in the US, and hear from more black voices.

Baker’s book was a great place to start.

Continue reading “#Review: A MORE PERFECT REUNION — trying to understand our racial history and integrated future” →

Book Review: FROM SILK TO SILICON and a Brief History of Globalization

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Reviews, Writers - Steve D'AdamoLeave a comment

Last week, I caught up with some history reading, which is always fun.

From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives tells the stories of ten people who somehow pushed the boundaries of globalization and whose impacts we still feel today. Continue reading “Book Review: FROM SILK TO SILICON and a Brief History of Globalization” →

How Do You Organize Your World-Building Canon?

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Creativity Sessions, Writers - Steve D'AdamoLeave a comment

As I write “Survivor”, my not-officially-titled duology, I keep thinking about how I might be able to organize my world-building canon better.

Most of what I’ve written in my fantasy universe has been in The Warden of Everfeld stories, of which I have one novel published and one in draft. “Survivor” is the first story that does not overlap WoEM, but shares some of its history and geography with those novels. And I want to make sure that what I write in one doesn’t contradict the other.

So, how do you organize your world-building canon? Continue reading “How Do You Organize Your World-Building Canon?” →