Sabrina C Neumann

In the Beginning . . .

“Where to begin?  Ah, yes.  Concerning Hobbits.” – From the Lord of the Rings.

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Start at the beginning.

Start in medias res.

  This entire post could be nothing but a list of all the words of encouragement and advice, many statements contradictory, many unhelpful.  What does start at the beginning even mean when writing fiction?  Does it…

The Unsaid In Henry James’s ‘The Turn of the Screw’

The ambiguous nature of the Turn of the Screwhas led to many interpretations of its meaning since its publication in 1898. Cranfill and Clark (1970) survey the many forms of this ghost story and demonstrate its appeal to academics and non-academics alike. Questions linger about the ghosts and whether or not they were a manifestation of the repressed feelings for the governess’s employer (Heilman…

Erotic Innocence – James R. Kincaid

Synchronicity strikes again. Jung would be so proud. After just finishing James R. Kincaid’s book Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting, what story happens to be dominating social media? The takedown of one of the most controversial and obnoxious conservative commentators, Milo Yiannopoulos, for comments made about pedophilia. Barely had the question formed in my mind about whether our…

De-Fanging the Big Bad Wolf: An Examination of the Wolf in NBC’s Grimm

NBC’s Grimm continues the practice of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Once Upon a Time, Supernatural and Sleepy Hollow in retelling and reshaping fairy tales for the modern world.  In this series, the Brothers Grimm are not just collectors of folktales, but are part of a long line of monster hunters.  Magical realism becomes the order of the day, and we are treated to the…

The Effect of Othering in an Alternative Facts World

Twenty five years ago when the Internet was in its infancy, it was deemed to be the information superhighway.  The entire world would be connected and we would be able to get more information than ever, and up to date information at that.  In just a few short years traditional Encyclopedias died out, replaced by online sites such as Wikipedia, among others   The internet is still useful for that…

2017: The Scariest One Yet!

Politically, I think that this could turn out to be a scary year.  Who knows if we will even still be here in 2018.  Let’s hope that the year of the Grim Reaper that was 2016 was not a practice run for what 2017 will be.

  Even if the world does not destroy itself through mutually assured destruction, I have a feeling I might wish I was dead by 2017.  Here was what I wanted to get accomplished…

Remember that Time We Ran Out Of Fire Extinguishers?

Soooo . . . . The Americans decided to elect an arrogant, ignorant, uneducated, inexperienced racist, misogynistic lunatic to the highest office in the world, and they also brought along to accelerate the destruction of the world control of both congress and the senate.  It is also very likely (dare I say inevitable?) that they are also going to hand over the Supreme Court.  Goodbye Roe vs. Wade,…

Four Past Midnight – Stephen King

How fitting that a post about a Stephen King book is being posted on Halloween! This fourth anthology released by Stephen King is different again from the previous three.  Night shift had a series of short pieces, and older stories that tied into his earliest published works like ‘Salem’s Lot.  Different Season contained some of his most classic writing: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank…

Long Walk To Freedom – Nelson Mandela

In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela writes a lot about the decades long struggle to overthrow apartheid in South Africa.  It was a long, and ultimately successful struggle in which they wanted to change the hearts and minds of the people, but more importantly they wanted to change the system.  Mandela and his fellow members of the African National Congress (ANC) wanted to…

Brand Loyalty, Part 2: Marketing Run Rampant

A new series of movies based off J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them debuts in theaters in a little more than three weeks.  As part of the promotion for the film they have started releasing songs off the soundtrack on iTunes.  The very first of such was the Main Title and it sounds appropriately sinister for a potentially dark series of movies (having to do with Gellert…

Outlander – Diana Gabaldon

“It’s escapism” someone said in a comment online when speaking of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.  Escapism has become an excuse for bad writing, and it needs to stop.  All fiction is a form of escapism to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the story in question.  It does not do to use the same words to describe writers like Gabaldon, Stephenie Meyer or, even worse, E.L. James.  While…

Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith

J.K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith have something else in common besides being the same person:  they both come into their strides in the third book of their series.  I don’t care what name she writes under, the truth is evident.  Third books are the ones with massive backstory and more interesting plots.  Also common to these third books are changes to future events.  In Prisoner of Azkaban, a…

Harry Potter & the Cursed Child – J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany

Any person taking on the task of writing additional content for a beloved book series has to have nerves of steel, especially in the age of social media.  For that, I applaud Jack Throne and John Tiffany for even daring to wade into the world of Harry Potter.  If we can use a recent example, think of the backlash that came with the announcement and subsequent release of Go Set A Watchman, the…

The Dark Half – Stephen King

Think Stevenson meets Shelley. Dr. Jekyll and Dr, Frankenstein fuse into one being and create an amalgam of the creature and Mr. Hyde (Oho – The Creature and Mr. Hyde – a most promising title. A story may need to be written from this title). Add in a writer and two Maine towns and presto-majesto – you have The Dark Half. But it is almost alchemical, for it is not just throwing together two…

Beloved – Toni Morrison

Hailed as one of the great American novels, Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize winner Beloveddeals with the effects of slavery and grief on one family. Coming to this novel knowing how highly decorated it is, one does not begin it without a certain sense of unease or inferiority. What I always neglect to remember though, is that writing is a form of communication. Novels become award-winners no so much…