The Dark Side of Survival TV

In middle school, we read Hatchet. That book is what first got me fascinated with survival skills. I think Survivor was the first survival show I ran across, and I was fascinated by it. But then, I think at the end of the first season, one of the contestants delivered this horrible speech about how she wished that another contestants would die a gruesome death. From then on, I never cared to watch survival shows. I found other ways to study the skills. 

Then I met someone who was on one of those shows, and he knew other people who had done it. I 'd thought that the episodes were total fakes. But they do indeed throw people into the wilderness. They only help in emergencies, and not always effectively. Like when one woman was badly burned, the nurses weren't prepared to treat burns. Despite the importance of fire in a survival situation. 

The company that filmed one show treated the contestants as total garbage. For example, one location looked like a great place, with plenty of resources and food to hunt. It wasn't until the contestant flew to Europe to film that they told him the location was a nature reserve. He couldn't hunt anything except for frogs and fish. Neither could he harvest and trees, except for an invasive species which wasn't a great building material. So most opportunities for food and shelter were gone. 

Another guy said that the show didn't buy them any hunting permits. There was plenty of food, yet once again they couldn't get any of it. That season was not good for fish, so everyone out there was slowly starving. 

Some of these shows don't even pay the contestants unless they make it all the way through? These poor people go through starvation and potential injury, and may not get anything for it. While the film crew and everyone else stays comfortable, and gets paid normally. 

These crews can be condescending and disgusted about the contestants that are out there suffering for a television show. And episodes are edited to deliberately make some contestants look incompetent. They don't show their full shelter, or their fishing successes. But they'll show someone crying because of personal problems. 

It's sick that companies make money watching people suffer and starve. Even people skilled at survival can't hope to stay healthy in these restricted situations. So I'm glad I don't follow those shows. 

But the contestants also said that it was a great opportunity to practice survival, with an emergency net if anything went wrong. And they talked with fondness about how beautiful some of their locations were. 

Stretch it Out

I need to make Evva's story a bit longer. Which is hard to imagine because editing is largely about cutting things out. But I think if I focus more on culture, plants, and crafts, it should help fill things out. They're things that Evva is learning a lot about anyway. And of course, I could always add more character interactions. 

I just have to do it in a way that feels natural and interesting. 

Battle Music

Music during battle scenes is often intense, overbearing, and even grating. 

But I like it when the battle music is epic. Something I'd like to listen to on its own. I understand why not all music should sound nice, and I often don't notice it in the context of the movie. But I also enjoy listening to soundtracks, and I skip the songs that are unpleasant to listen to. 

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has a powerful battle song. Star Wars and Studio Ghibli have some great ones too. 

Plus some video games have awesome battle songs. 

Pokopia

I've been playing Pokopia, which is fun and addictive. It's like a mix between Minecraft and Animal Crossing (at least as far as I've witnessed those games). 

But why is the story so freaking depressing? (Spoilers). Natural disasters are so bad that humans fled the planet? And they put all Pokémon into storage somehow? Why didn't they just do the Mystery Dungeon thing, and have it take place on a different planet? That would make way more sense in the Pokémon timeline. Instead of direct references to places and characters from other games and shows. So you have to think about Misty and Brock leaving Earth on a space ship... Leaving all of their Pokémon behind. 

Fictional Fiction

John Green just posted a video, with a quote that perfectly fits a topic I posted about recently. I've been working on the books that Maya reads in her story.  But it's more complicated than expected, because a couple of those books are historical novels, which also means I have to figure out some history. 

Anyway, here's what John Green said: "I love a book within a book, or a movie within a book. I love fictions that don't exist. They're so much better than fictions that do exist. They can be infinitely great." 

Which is true. If characters are reading a book, they can think it's the greatest thing ever. But we'll never read that book to find any flaws in it ourselves. 

And I've read classic literature that I didn't enjoy at all. 

That being said, some of the ideas I have for Maya's books are things that I may actually write someday. If these are supposed to be great classics in her world, then people would probably object to however I end up writing them. Heh. 

The time that is given to us

A couple weeks ago, I had a dream about Lord of the Rings. It wasn't super elaborate. We were walking through the Mines of Moria, except in the dream it was just a really long tunnel. I was talking to Gandalf as we walked, and he was imparting his words of wisdom. I was thinking how cool it was to talk to him. 

So I watched Lord of the Rings again. There's one scene I always loved. Which, coincidentally enough, is in the Mines of Moria. 

Frodo: I wish none of this had happened. 

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." 

That line just struck home so strongly, with all the dystopian things happening with the government. So I guess my dream was right. Listen to Gandalf. It's a good reminder - do what we can with what we have. 

How did that happen?

Sometimes I'm astounded by where a story scene ends up. Last week, I somehow ended up with the main character butchering a deer. The beast caught a deer, and didn't really have much idea of what to do with it. Maya took care of tigers, so she's gotta know something about butchering meat. Even if she's not particularly skillful about it. So it just kinda happened. (And may get deleted)

I found the scene so bewildering that a ridiculous idea popped into my head. In Moana, she finally got Maui on the boat and is taunting him with the heart. Maui says, "get it away from me!" 

And just because, I wrote Maya holding the deer's heart and the beast is going "get it away from me." He's not freaked out - just kinda grossed out. She just thinks it's funny that a beast is grossed out by blood and stuff. She doesn't know he grew up as a spoiled rich guy.