Stories from the Calindratem

Todd Phillips' anticipated origin movie "Joker" has finally premiered. I have to say that the hype surrounding it, is more than justified because it is simply a master piece.  Minor spoilers ahead First I have to say that the movie would have worked just fine maybe even better, without having a connection to any comic book but it is an interesting take on the Joker's origins.  The lead as we meet him is Arthur Fleck, a man who lives with his mother and suffers from mental health problems. He obviously tries to lead a decent life and to do the right thing, but he keeps encountering obstacles until he snaps. The interesting thing is, that because the audience knows it is the Joker's origin story they know that he is going to snap from the start. Since the destination of the journey is already known, the audience can focus on the path. How does a weird but nice guy become the psychopath we know from the comics? It is a horrifying thought but as his journ...

This post comes about 2 weeks late, as I needed to think about how I felt about the Comic Con, as it was a mixed bag of goods. Now after some consideration and a week vacation in my home country I have formed my opinion.  This year's Comic Con Germany was downsized from two halls to one hall, despite raising the entry fee. Although they used the gallery in hall 1 in addition to the floor space one couldn't shake the feeling that there was something missing and it felt somehow crammed. At least they managed to solve the heat problem of the last few years in the hall and it was pleasant despite it being one of the hottest days of summer so far.  The also decided to add a medieval market in the park. Considering the heat the market was deserted and personally I believe this was merely added as a filler. Don't get me wrong, I love a good medieval market, but it felt quite out of place at a Comic Con.  The star guests were few in number for my taste with 8 guests...

Rarely has a television season been waited for more anxiously than the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. After a decent beginning the show in the opinion of many fans has spiraled downwards to the worst possible ending.  While a lot of people criticize the outcome, I have more of a problem with the way the characters were led to the outcome or often their death.  Please note that what now follows are mayor spoilers until Season 8 episode 5. Do not go on reading if you haven't seen this season so far. A famous crime writer once said, that the first thing he comes up with is the motive and the rest of the story evolves around it. This is where the root of the problem lies in season 8. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss seemed to always have had an idea, as to where they want to get with their story, yet haven't considered carefully enough how to get the characters there. They seemed to have reached a point in Season 7, where they had to have their characters tur...

This is a story I wrote for a different blog using free writing. I am happy with the result and to write this way was an interesting experience that helped me dive into it in a whole new way. I hope you enjoy it! This is just brilliant! thought Phoebe sarcastically having already accepted that she would get wet. She had been doing her tax declaration for 3 days and the deadline was tomorrow, so she had to finish it no matter what. Being a freelance musician this was always a pain in the ass. It had been about 1.30 am when she had decided to take a break and get some indian food from the 24 h take away. She had been half way there when it had started pouring like there was no tomorrow. So there she was soaking wet, tired and as she hadn't arrived yet still starving or maybe just hungry but her annoyance made it seem worse. She was about to cross the street, when she noticed that the gate to the cemetery was open. To walk through the graveyard would safe her a...

When talking to people I often get the question: "Why do you write Science Fiction and Fantasy?" This is usually followed by a tirade that they don't like it, because it is so unrealistic. What they don't get: That is the point! With these two genres the fact is that the only limit to your writing is your own mind. While in reality we are limited by physics, biology or simply life. This became very evident to me when my mother, who loved those genres probably even more than I do, fell severly ill. At one point it became evident that there was nothing the doctors could do for her. My reaction was the same one as for everybody who is loosing a loved one: I tried to find a solution and went through the five stages of grief. I spent hours on the internet researching her illness and looking for the latest breakthroughs only to come to the conclusion that medicine was not yet ready to safe her. The feeling of helpnessless was overpowering especially since my writer...

Recently I joined a website about Science Fiction art. While most pictures were extremely artful and inspired several story ideas, there was one picture that actually annoyed me. It was a drawing of Princess Leia from "Star Wars - A New Hope", with her white dress. Unfortunately the artist has decided to give her extremely fake boobs, a ridiculous cleavage and a slit in her dress that reached to her hip. It wasn't neccessarily that fact that she was potraited sexy, but that she was made into a sex doll. Princess Leia is so much more than that and to reduce her to her sexuality is just sexism in its worst from.  Although Leia, played by the brilliant Carrie Fisher, is usually referred by "princess" she is much more: Senator, rebel, leader, general and spy. In fact I would go as far as saying that she is the most qualified of the lead characters.  She is a born Skywalker, which makes it clear that although she wasn't trained in the Force, she is very ...

Don't get me wrong, I love "The Hunger Games" trilogy and believe the stories are great. This is however also the reason why all the errors upset me.  To be a good writer you don't need 'just' a good story but you also need an eye for detail and sometimes is means to painstakingly comb trough your own story to eliminate flaws, no matter if they involve grammar and syntax, characters acting ilogical, plot holes or continuity errors.  "The Hunger Games" trilogy  is full of them and because of these errors instead of being an incredible book it seems like a wasted oportunity.  Of course you can ask how a non published writer dares criticizing a bestselling author. Well, just read my list and you might decide if I am right and by the way: Once my book is out I welcome all the detailed analysis as it will help me improve my writing.  Repetition: In each of the books she keeps repeating "he says", "she says", "Pee...

Usually I am not a friend of remakes, but I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of Ladyhawk. Not because the old movie isn't good but because today's visual effects techniques could make this an unforgettable fantasy event.   But let's start with the classic version. The built of the story as a medieval legend was done so perfectly that many people believed it was truly inspired by an ancient story, which could also be due to the fact that initially it was promoted as if it was. In reality however that story was written by Edward Khmara. The plot is marked by its simplicity without ever being boring: A dashing knight and beautiful noble woman fall in love and then are cursed by an evil man. They pair can be close without ever being together. She is hawk during the day, he is a wolf during the night. But thanks to a solar eclipse and two good friends they get the chance to break the curse. Of course their way is full obstacles and there are challenges to be mastered....

Before "Avatar" and its computer animation, there was Ray Harryhausen's stop motion. In more than one way Ray Harryhausen is the father of modern special effects in movies. Although he didn't invent all relevant techniques, his work first made artists believe that everything can be done and it inspired them to look for new techniques and to find a way to make their vision a reality. Harryhausen was born in California in 1920 as the son of German immigrants. He was first inspired to go into movie making, after seeing King Kong (1933). Harryhausen started experementing himself with model animation afterwards. The animation work in King Kong was the work of  Willis O'Brien who would become Ray's lifelong mentor after a friend introduced them later. On O'Brien's suggestion Harryhausen started taking classes in graphic design and sculputure to improve the quality of his models. It was around that time that Harryhausen met the writer Ray Bradbury an...

This is probably THE original nerd debate. When you strike up a conversation at a science fiction convention sooner or later someone asks: Star Wars or Star Trek? For too many people it can only be one or the other, which for me doesn't make sense, as they cannot really compare. Let's start with Star Trek, which ist older by a decade. It is Science Fiction in its purest element. All technology is explained in detail using scientific theories and terms. Some of it might even become reality in the future and some of it already has. Take for instance "Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home", when there is a scene during which Scotty tries to talk to the computer and the scientists surrounding him barely shake their heads and Scotty complains on the primitive computers. While this was probably accurate for the 80ies, now in 2019 we are all used to talk to Siri on our Iphones or to our cars. Voice activation is no longer part of science fiction but a real part of our ...

Many science fiction fans won't be familiar with the name Philip K. Dick, but the names "Total Recall", "Blade Runner" and "The Man in the High Castle" are quite known. All of these movies  and shows were based on stories originally written by Philip K. Dick. But who was this writer?  He was born in 1928 in Chicago with a twin sister named Jane Charlotte Dick, who died only a few weeks later. This would influence his work later on with the "phantom twin" motif. His mental problems first came to light, when he was 7 years old and he was told that he was a potential schizophrenic. The family moved then to California. After his parents divorce Philipp and his mother moved again before returning again to California in 1938. It was around that time that Philipp began to develop an interest in Science Fiction. After graduation high school he briefly attended the University of California before leaving in 1950 due to ongoing problems with a...