Writing Hitchcockian—A Look at Hitchcock (the Movie)

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen. A special word to you who were arrested by your local law enforcement body for speeding home to  read this blog entry. Despite having many favors owed to me, I am deeply sorry that there is nothing I can do for you in this regards, except to recommend a few good lawyers and remind you that this is the age of the internet. The posting will be up as long as the website is up.

In light of what has happened between my last post and this posting in Connecticut, I  am going to forestall my normal macabre Hitchcock opening.

Because of opportunity, I am also going to interrupt our normal discussion on Writing Hitchcockian and discuss a movie that I recommend that you should go see. Please obey the traffic laws while you hurry to make the next showing of Hitchcock.

The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.

WARNING—SPOILER ALERTS— WARNING—SPOILER ALERTS— WARNING—SPOILER ALERTS

If you haven’t had a chance, but you are following the discussion the Writer’s Lens has been having on Alfred Hitchcock, I would recommend that you see the movie Hitchcock starring Anthony Hopkins and Hellen Mirren. There are many reviews on this movie by critics and Hitchcock fans. Some are positive and some are negative. If you want a review from a movie critic’s point of view, please see a blog or article written by a critic. As close to a movie critic’s statement that this article will come is: I saw it twice in the theater, which I rarely do to a movie any more these days, and I intend to make the movie a part of my DVD collection. The movie is being slowly released in a limited viewing—not unlike the original release of Psycho. At the end of this article, I will put a link to the movie site so that you can see where and when it may be released in your area.

What I would like to do instead is discuss in this article how the movie on Hitchcock and his making of Psycho shows the creative process of the Master of Suspense, of the doubts and obsessions that go through us writers and creative people, and the determination despite the critics and naysayers. 

The movie opens and closes in a traditional “Hitchcock Presents” style. The opening shows a scene where Ed Gein, the real life inspiration behind the book and the movie Psycho, kills his brother. Ed Gein becomes a character through out the movie as an expression of Alfred Hitchcock’s darker side—or rather as we have discussed how Hitchcock used Freudian psychology in his movies and story world—his Id. We see how the “psychological character” of Ed Gein twists Hitchcock’s self doubt in his ability and in his marriage to Alma Reville—perhaps his greatest supporter in his life.

All three elements of Hitchcock’s story world creation come into play in this movie. While it is not a movie of suspense, it is a movie that shows us the:

1. The world of reality (the Freudian Ego);
2. The world of desire and in this case the world of personal fear (the Freudian Id); and
3. The world of the mind (the Freudian Super Ego).
4.  

The movie showed Hitchcock’s:

1. Obsession with his leading ladies;
2. His voyeurism;
3. His need for control and frustration when he loses that control;
4. His weight control problem—health vs. love of food vs. stress eating;
5. The fear of losing everything;
6. The fight to bring the vision and creation to life;
7. It also shows how he marketed the movie when Paramount didn’t want to spend the money to do it.

Psycho was a movie Hitchcock had to produce himself. The movie industry was not enthusiastic about it and the censors at the time threatened to stop its release. Alfred and Alma put up their mansion up for mortgage to pay for the movie to be made.

I do not want to go into everything in the movie as I have already given too many spoilers here—but not enough to ruin the movie. If you are a writer, regardless of your genre, I would say this movie needs to be on your must see list. I can promise you, if you have gone through any trials or tribulations in your writing, you will relate. You may even see the shadowed profile of Alfred Hitchcock himself on the wall in the mirror of your mind.

For how this all plays out, for how the story conflicts are resolved and how the story worlds collide—well, I am no master of suspense, but I think I will leave you stewing in your curiosity.

For information on the movie: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/hitchcock/

For information on Ed Gein: http://www.whowasedgein.com/ You will find what he did to be disgusting, but I also bet you will keep looking. Hitchcock made the same bet.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. You can also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens @TheWritersLens. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

The Business of Writing and Dealing with Tragedy

On Friday, I posted my normal article about a book from the Crime Writer’s Library. Little did I know at the time that the United States would be gripped with the shock at another senseless mass murder. I had expected to write my Monday article on the business of writing and I was going to address the ideas behind the author’s website. I am going to take that idea and hold onto it for the future. Instead, I am going to write on the purpose of writing.

It took me quite a while to get my emotions under control to write this article. I know I can seem hard, cold, and callused regarding death. I have seen so much of it in my lifetime that often I feel that I walk in Azrael’s shadow. I have seen the dark side of humanity, looked it in to the eye and have seen the gleam of evil that I would hope none who read this article would ever know. Perhaps this is why I write about such dark subjects, because in my writing my emotions come forth. Despite the ragged edge of life with which I have walked, my humanity cannot help but be affected by such events. There are many debates going on our society in the aftermath. This article is not going to address those debates and any comment for or against on those debates will be deleted.

However, as writers the tragedies and society that we see are our business. If you are writing sugary poetry and stories where the world is beautiful and you do not touch on social issues, you are failing yourself and your readers—if have any. It is our job to address social issues and to weave them into our stories. It is impossible to be a writer and not side one way or another on any of the issues we see in our world.

Writing about social issues is not restricted to genre nor is it restricted to the age of our reader. Genre and audience only dictate how you do it. The amount of social issues that can be addressed are unlimited and can be scary to write about. We may feel that we will lose our audience when we address a certain issue or take up an unpopular stance against the social norm. Tough fruitcake. That’s our job. That’s what your readers expect from you and from me.

What are the social issues you have addressed in your current work in progress? Have you brought the ugly side of them to the surface or is it lying in the undercurrent like crocodiles waiting to pull the reader under? Have you flushed it out enough? Ask yourself these questions with each draft of your poetry, song lyric, novel, or short story you write.

If somehow you are at a loss on what social issues you could write about, here is a small list (this list can is from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_issues):

• Abortion
• Accident
• Suicide and Assisted suicide
• Censorship
• Crime
• Illegal Immigration
• Human rights
• Children's rights
• Disability rights
• LGBT rights
• Youth rights
• Women's rights
• Gun rights
• Ageism / Old Age etc.
• Religious laws
• Discrimination
• Dictatorship
• Racism
• Ableism (Disability) etc.
• Capital punishment
• Corporal punishment
• Bullying
• Drug laws
• Alcohol laws
• Tobacco and smoking laws
• Gambling laws
• Prostitution laws
• Population ageing
• Overpopulation
• North–South divide
• Age of consent
• School leaving age
• Euthanasia
• Environmental issue
• Immigration
• Emigration
• Affirmative action
• Corruption
• Unemployment
• Riots
• Child labor
• Economic inequality
• Poverty
• Beggars
• War and Conflict
• Terrorism
• Child abuse
• Human Trafficking
• Social inequality
• Trolling

I would like to add to this list:

• Men’s rights
• Education
• Surveillance/Electronic tracking
• Institutional Dysfunction
• Authoritarianism vs. Free will
• Religious rights
• Sacrifice vs. Greed
• Addiction
• Health and Mental Health Care
• Starvation and Obesity

Neither of these lists are exhaustive. If you are writing, you are passionate. If your writing is flat, ask yourself “what social issue is in my writing and have I explored it enough?” I bet your answer will be that you haven’t.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. You can also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens @TheWritersLens. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

End of World Age celebration 12/21

  
 NOTE: Wired Coffee is at 3860 SOUTH Lindbergh Blvd.

From a Crime Writer’s Library—Deadly Doses: A Writer’s Guide to Poisons

“All things are poisons, for there is nothing without poisonous qualities. It is only the dose which makes a thing poison.” –Paracelsus

There are many books on poisons, and many are on my bookshelf, but one has complied accurate information in an easy to understand guide on poisons. Years ago the Writers Digest Books published Deadly Doses: A Writer’s Guide to Poisons, by Serita Deborah Stevens with Anne Klarner. This book breaks down poisons by where they are found and how lethal they can be. They further describe the methods of the administration of those poisons and give case history examples of how that poison had been used in real life. Sadly this book is now out of print, but you should be able to find it in used book stores or at certain local libraries.

One case study in this book still remains in my memory today of how to kill with nicotine. We all have been shown the commercials of how smoking is bad for your health and can lead to cancer and death. Well, the commercials never address how a woman could get rid of her ailing non-smoking bed ridden husband with nicotine. Deadly Doses does. The example that was given was the case of a woman who strained her husband’s drinking water through used cigarette filters. The man couldn’t get out of bed, go for help or anything. The only water he had access to was this filtered water which slowly poisoned him to death.

The ease of this book’s formatting is what drew me to it when it came out. It breaks down the poisons first into chapters dealing with the kind of poison and then gives the details. Here is how it works:

• There is a chapter on:
• The Classic Poisons (Arsenic, Cyanide and Strychnine)
• Household Poisons
• Poisonous Plants
• Fragile Fungi
• Snakes, Spiders, and Other Living Things
• Medical Poisons
• Pesticides
• Industrial Poisons
• Street Drugs
• How to create your own
• Each poison in each chapter has:
• Names
• Toxicity levels
• Forms (how they are found)
• Effects and Symptoms
• Reaction Time
• Antidotes and Treatments
• Case Histories
• Notes
• The Appendices have:
• Poisons by Methods of Administration
• Poisons by Form
• Poisons by Symptoms They Cause
• Poisons by the Time in Which They React
• Poisons by Toxicity Rating

If you are planning to write a murder or anything to do with poisons, you will want this book handy for reference.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. You can also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens @TheWritersLens. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

Meet Ann Hazelwood 12/15 at 6 North

Meet Ann M. Hazelwood, author of THE BASEMENT QUILT, from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Dec. 15, at:

6 North Café
14438 Clayton Road
Ballwin, MO 63011

  (directions)

Ann is a civil leader, quilter, appraiser, speaker, teacher, writer and author. She has written over twelve books and has been published in a variety of magazines and newspapers. Her newest book, The Basement Quilt, is the first in the The Colebridge Community Fiction Series.

 "Quilts are my Love.
Writing is my passion."
"...when I am not writing,
I am conspiring!"

 
In The Basement Quilt you'll get to know the family and friends of Anne Brown. Anne decides to learn to quilt to help her aunt, and in the process learns family secrets. Anne learns about love, too, in various forms. She and the members of the Colebridge community go through some big life changes.
 
The Basement Quilt is not just the title of this first novel in a series the basement quilt itself is a character. You'll want to meet other quilt characters throughout the series.


 ________________ 

This is T.W. Fendley. Thanks for reading and commenting on The Writers' Lens.You can find out more about me at www.twfendley.com.