Saturday, October 26, 2013

Modern Fantasy

Have you ever realized just how few fantasy movies take place in the modern age?

I'd venture to guess that number is somewhere around ... hold on, let me do the calculations here ... NONE.

I didn't even realize this until I had a fantastically brilliant idea a while ago when I was watching Jack the Giant Slayer with m'lady. You see, the movie shows the whole Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer thing at first where it's a fantasy adventure set in (when else?) medieval Europe. Then at the very end (SPOILER-ISH THING) it transitions to the modern day where it is implied that the whole movie takes place not in a fantasy world, but in our world, and that Giants are still living on floating islands in the sky that none of our planes have crashed into or our (Google) satellites discovered.

So this movie isn't the best representation of a true classic fantasy story, but still, who says elves, dwarves, wizards, and orcs cannot exist in our modern world?
Imagine if some crazy hack decided it would be a good idea to pen up a Lord of the Rings movie sequel that took place today.

Gandalf (now known as "the Blue") would be a Broadway tech engineer (or a dentist), Legolas would be a FBI agent, the dwarves would probably still be mining (except for oil and natural gas), and Frodo would be dead, because you know ... he's not an elf or wizard and hobbits only live for like 150 years or something.

Seriously, what would those fantasy worlds be like if technology/magic progressed?

This is the sort of stuff I think about in my free time.
-Ryan

Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Fourth Wall + Padded Cell

You can finally read one of my short stories (and an accompanying flash fiction story) for free online!

It's called "The Fourth Wall" and I've actually been blogging about it for a while (click that link to see all of my blog posts labeled "The Fourth Wall"). The first draft was written ‎February ‎19, ‎2012 for a project for my fiction writing night class, wherein we were to write and share a short story with the class. The professor said that the stories didn't need to be edited or even complete, but I decided that I needed to get the most out of the class and be taken seriously in the process, so I made it my own personal quest to write the best short story out of the entire class. (In my opinion, it was a tie between myself and a friend I made in that very class)

I took an old idea I had about a main character who know's he's the main character, and decided to write a story that was one huge inside joke to English students and my class in particular (including a scene that took place in a night class). The story became about a man who admits himself into a mental health center (referred to as a "nut house") because he was convinced he was the main character of a story that was plot-driven, and he wanted to control his own destiny.

It's a short story with incredible depth to it. There are three or four levels to the story's reality, depending on your interpretation, and it's written to be comedic and lighthearted while still exploring themes such as fate, love, and the philosophy of solipsism (a word I only learned just now).

The accompanying flash fiction story (one page long) is a sequel/summary of The Fourth Wall called "Padded Cell" which I wrote for my college literary and arts magazine simply so I could guarantee that I got published in the magazine (yes I know that sounds egotistical, but it worked).

In the end, these are two stories that have been very well-received, and will only take a short moment of your time to read.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to my GoodReads collection of self-published work and read them for yourself! Please leave comments/reviews on GoodReads or in this post, and share with your bookworm friends! I'd love to hear what you think and it's a great help to spread the words!

Enjoy! And I'm sorry it took so long!
-Ryan