[Moon-dæg] Fiction in a Melodramatic Flash

Context
A Long-Awaited Kiss
Closing

{Genies are generally benevolent when found in lamps, but what about when found in pens? Image found on askbrianmartin.com.}

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Context

Today's piece of writing came from a writing prompt that called for describing multiple simultaneous actions and embellishing those descriptions with the senses. A kiss was given as an example of a scenario, and I ran with that.

Describing multiple things is a great challenge for any writer because of the limitations of the medium. Unlike art, music, or film, words alone can convey one thing at a time (or two, if you count what a word on the page is not saying as well as what it's saying).

This piece doesn't exactly exemplify the ability of the written word to express multiple simultaneous things, but it does introduce a curious plot that definitely deserves expansion.

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A Long-Awaited

Their eyes met and locked shortly before their lips. She noticed that he closed his eyes seconds before she did so herself, but she didn't mind. An extra few seconds, however short, of gazing into his kaleidoscopic hazel eyes, knowing that his lips were already closed around hers - just as their arms, and shortly she blushed, their legs, perhaps, were - heightened all of her senses.

That's why, as their lips locked, and their eyes closed, she finally noticed a pen in her pocket jabbing into her leg. It can't be drawing blood, no - she thought, struggling to keep her arms around his shoulders, her hands at the middle of his back.

But if it's jabbing me that must mean it's open.

And if it's open...

The stream of her thoughts hit a rock as she felt their lips parting slightly and his tongue edging through them. She sent hers to meet his, but wondered if she'd done it too quicky, if she'd maybe thrown him off. She soon realized that such was not the case.

Oh well. As long as he's distracted he won't notice me being distracted. Maybe I should just tell him.

As their tongues embraced and broke apart and embraced again, she thought she caught a whiff of ink. She mentally waved it away and tried to relax her shoulders, her thighs.

Yet, as she felt the rush of the outside air coming into her mouth from over her teeth and past their tangling tongues, she imagined herself pulling away, looking at the man as seriously as she could, and telling him that they needed to stop what they were doing right away because an interdimensional menace might have escaped from a sealed click pen she kept in her pocket.

The image lingered.

No. No that just wouldn't do.

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Closing

Check back here tomorrow for Annotated Links #14. Come Wednesday, I'll have posted the editorial, and on Thursday watch for Annotated Links #15. Then, Friday will see the uploading of Part Two of All-Request August: Alien Apocalypse.

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[Freya-dæg] Nicolas Cage Month Pt. 2: Season of the Witch Review

{The Season of the Witch's movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}

Introduction
Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Introduction

Part two of Nicolas Cage month is here: A search for the good in the 2011 medieval romp, Season of the Witch.

Generally lambasted and looked down upon among critics (10%) and faring only slightly better among fans (32%), let's see just what's good, what's bad, and how they measure up.

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Plot Summary

It's the fourteenth century and the crusades are in full swing in the Middle East, while alleged witches are being persecuted in Europe. Enter our two protagonists, Behman (Cage himself) and Felson (Ron Perlman).

After realizing that a truly good God would not call upon men to slaughter innocents, the two desert and start out across the country only to find that a strange plague has struck the land.

However, while on the lam the two are discovered, imprisoned, and then contracted to take an accused witch that people believe responsible for the plague to a monastery where she can be properly dealt with.

Having no other choice, the two set out with the priest Debelzaq (Stephen Campbell Moore), the swindling guide Hagamar (Stephen Graham), and Kay, a young altar boy seeking knighthood (Robert Sheehan). Their journey to the monastery takes them over some dangerous terrain, but only when they arrive at the monastery will they discover that it's not bear, wolf, or boar season, but it is indeed the Season of the Witch.

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The Good

This is not a historical movie by any means - but it is a very medieval movie in the way that it's told, in the way that dialogue is written, and in the way that characters interact.

This isn't to say that it's in iambic pentameter and characters pull elaborate schemes on each other, but instead that were there a medieval bard alive today, this is the sort of story that he would tell. For Season of the Witch is the stuff of medieval romances: magic, adventure, characters who play well off of each other, and intrigue.

Plus, the movie puts the power of language front and center as twice we're shown that saying the proper words (in Latin!) over the bodies of women killed when hung or drowned (tested for being witches, in other words) is the best way to ensure that their bodies are not reanimated.

The fact that these words are in Latin, only weilded by priests, and contained in an ornate book, does a lot to really make the medieval setting accurate. Theatricality is a big part of medieval entertainment, and this movie is definitely theatrical.

This theatricality is further helped by the movie's special effects. They aren't perfectly photo-realistic, but their style helps keep the atmosphere of a medieval story going strong throughout.

The movie also puts forth some really amazing things (especially considering that it's an action movie): The power of psychological warfare on an individual basis, some great suspenseful bits, an excellent cast of characters, and a book that is so obscure it's a triumphant surprise to see it represented on screen.

{The woman Behman slew in a crusade raid, as she appears in his nightmare. This is where over-the-top lives in Season of the Witch.}

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The Bad

However, the movie's an hour and a half long and could easily shed 1/3 of that length if a plot hole was removed.

The reason that Behman and co. need to go to the monastery is because that's where there's a book that describes the necessary rituals for dealing with the witch they have captured and believe to be responsible for the plague. So they only need to get there for the book. A thing that they could have brought to them in the city.

Making this minor change would cut out all of the traveling through the dangerous wastes and forest that the Behman's party has to go through, it would mean that there' be no zombie monks, and it would help the movie keep its complications as the movie's final fight would likely happen in an area populated with innocents rather than re-animated, plague-ridden corpses.

But, because the writer, Bragi F. Schut, has them go the monastery the story becomes very thin very fast.

The fact that two key characters, Kay and the witch, are not given any kind of backstory whatsoever certainly doesn't help matters either.

Kay's backstory could explain why he's an altar boy and not already on the way to knighthood. It could answer questions like: Did his father leave his estate to someone else? And, did Kay disgrace himself in the lists?

And we definitely need to know more about the witch because *spoilers* she's possessed, */spoilers* so knowing whether she was devout or not, and just how and why and when she was possessed would fill in so much about her character. Plus more development of her character would set her up to say something more profound than 'this is what really happened with the plague' at the end of the movie.

As per the final battle scene and its zombie monks, the whole thing is disappointing. It's effectively action-packed and all of that, but the entire trip from the city to the monastery could be expanded and lightly edited into a taut full-length psychological thriller, so an action-packed climax is a let down.

Further, although the power of language and of books is definitely rather accurate, there are other details that are not. Specifically, the oath that Behman has Kay recite when he knights him. This oath mentions on the martial duties of a knight, and perhaps this is the sort of oath that knights would give if knighted in the field, but knighthood isn't just about messing up people's sh**.

A quick summary of an actual knightly oath involves things like avoiding trafficking with traitors, protecting women, and observing fasts and abstinences.

After all, knights were guys with swords, but they were also nobility, and therefore had to set something of an example for the rest of society. Moreover, some knights also fulfilled the role of rulers in the medieval three estates system (a social model that broke society down into those who work (the Peasants), those who rule/fight (the Nobles, including knights), and those who pray (the Clergy)). So their code of behaviour goes a bit beyond smiting enemies.

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Judgment

The Season of the Witch is a movie that balances itself as well as its lead characters do when they cross a particularly rickety bridge.

The story is thin, the climactic battle is disappointing, and there isn't enough backstory given for some of the main characters. But, those characters still play well off of each other, the setting is stylized but rather accurate, and magic and the demonic are very well portrayed.

In the end though, what tips the scales is the modern medieval romance style of the movie as a whole. That's something of a rarity among medieval action movies, a group of films that are more often too concerned with packing themselves with flashing steel and overflowing flagons of sudsy ale to get into any medieval depth.

So, Freya, as you skim the field of fallen films, reach down your powerful arm and pull this one up with you to movie Valhalla.

For that is as true a judgment today as it was when the judged was written, directed, and produced. Amen.

{A peek into the movie's take on the Key of Solomon.}

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Closing

Next week check back here for another creative writing piece, an editorial on a piece of the newest news, and part three of Nicolas Cage month - a search for the good in 2011's Trespass.

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