H.M. Cooper's Blog
June 29, 2013
the only tree in the forest
The only tree in the forest
There is a story told about a famous French writer…I think is was Victor Hugo. Someone came to him wanting to be an apprentice. Victor Hugo lived by a forest. He told the aspiring writer to go into the forest, choose a specific tree and describe it in writing. If Hugo couldn’t walk into the forest and find the tree that person would not be his apprentice.
It may seem surprising but it’s hard to be both original and true to your story at the same time. It can happen, and when it does it can be brilliant. In a similar way, the style and the content of a story can work perfectly together and become a masterpiece. That can be wonderful but rare. If an author can create a meaningful work that is exciting to read, he or she has probably grappled successfully with that only tree in the woods.
It’s time to move ahead with “Sentient Spring” after leaving it alone for several months. It’s a serial that is appearing on my website. The story is not entirely original (I don’t even know it that’s possible) since it falls somewhat desperately into a genre, but to some extent even a special tree is still a tree. “Sentient Spring” is set in the distant future but it’s essentially about who we are now. There’s a phrase I heard, I think it was Sigmund Freud who said it (or he may have been quoting someone else) that seems true: “those who neglect the past are destined to relive it.” It’s not certain if that applies to our era or not; we may not even know until we’re able to look back on it. There’s another phrase that applies to “Sentient Spring” which I know is attributed to Albert Einstein. He said, “I know not what weapons may be used in the Third World War, but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Hopefully, if you read it, you’ll find “Sentient Spring” a story worthy of a good forest.
There is a story told about a famous French writer…I think is was Victor Hugo. Someone came to him wanting to be an apprentice. Victor Hugo lived by a forest. He told the aspiring writer to go into the forest, choose a specific tree and describe it in writing. If Hugo couldn’t walk into the forest and find the tree that person would not be his apprentice.
It may seem surprising but it’s hard to be both original and true to your story at the same time. It can happen, and when it does it can be brilliant. In a similar way, the style and the content of a story can work perfectly together and become a masterpiece. That can be wonderful but rare. If an author can create a meaningful work that is exciting to read, he or she has probably grappled successfully with that only tree in the woods.
It’s time to move ahead with “Sentient Spring” after leaving it alone for several months. It’s a serial that is appearing on my website. The story is not entirely original (I don’t even know it that’s possible) since it falls somewhat desperately into a genre, but to some extent even a special tree is still a tree. “Sentient Spring” is set in the distant future but it’s essentially about who we are now. There’s a phrase I heard, I think it was Sigmund Freud who said it (or he may have been quoting someone else) that seems true: “those who neglect the past are destined to relive it.” It’s not certain if that applies to our era or not; we may not even know until we’re able to look back on it. There’s another phrase that applies to “Sentient Spring” which I know is attributed to Albert Einstein. He said, “I know not what weapons may be used in the Third World War, but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Hopefully, if you read it, you’ll find “Sentient Spring” a story worthy of a good forest.
June 28, 2013
the only tree in the forest
The only tree in the forest
There is a story told about a famous French writer…I think is was Victor Hugo. Someone came to him wanting to be an apprentice. Victor Hugo lived by a forest. He told the aspiring writer to go into the forest, choose a specific tree and describe it in writing. If Hugo couldn’t walk into the forest and find the tree that person would not be his apprentice.
May 3, 2013
Daughters of the Teardrop Sea
I wonder if my book, "Daughters of the Teardrop Sea", may need a little explanation. It doesn't fit into a genre perfectly but it may have some value on it's own.
The story is intended to be, broadly speaking, a horror story. A significant part takes place in the central character's mind. She is on a journey to 'find' her fetus, but this journey is not simply fantasy. All of the people and creatures she meets are from Greek mythology and all of her adventures are based on Greek myths. This is because many scholars believe that myths are representative of the contents of our minds.
When Laura descends into her deep unconscious she meets an old man who owns a ferry to take her across a river. In Greek mythology the dead cross the river Styx, which separates the underworld, on a boat run by a man named Charon.
Later, in a dream, Laura's husband comes to her as a swan and gives her a coin. The Greek God Zeus is said to have raped a woman named Leda in the form of a swan.
Laura seeks out three figures to guide her. In her unconscious mind they are her parents and her husband. In Greek mythology there are three 'fates' who are all blind but pass a single eye between them in order to see.
The first part of "Daughters of the Teardrop Sea" is actually a journey through the human mind. There is a direction and there is purpose. She is healing herself after being knocked into a coma. When she wakes up and gives birth to her child, that journey ends and another begins.
It could give this story more meaning if it's understood that it's the first in a series. The second book, "Invisible Children", is on my website in a first draft. Another related part is in process on the website as well. It's title is "Sentient Spring".Daughters of the Teardrop Sea
The story is intended to be, broadly speaking, a horror story. A significant part takes place in the central character's mind. She is on a journey to 'find' her fetus, but this journey is not simply fantasy. All of the people and creatures she meets are from Greek mythology and all of her adventures are based on Greek myths. This is because many scholars believe that myths are representative of the contents of our minds.
When Laura descends into her deep unconscious she meets an old man who owns a ferry to take her across a river. In Greek mythology the dead cross the river Styx, which separates the underworld, on a boat run by a man named Charon.
Later, in a dream, Laura's husband comes to her as a swan and gives her a coin. The Greek God Zeus is said to have raped a woman named Leda in the form of a swan.
Laura seeks out three figures to guide her. In her unconscious mind they are her parents and her husband. In Greek mythology there are three 'fates' who are all blind but pass a single eye between them in order to see.
The first part of "Daughters of the Teardrop Sea" is actually a journey through the human mind. There is a direction and there is purpose. She is healing herself after being knocked into a coma. When she wakes up and gives birth to her child, that journey ends and another begins.
It could give this story more meaning if it's understood that it's the first in a series. The second book, "Invisible Children", is on my website in a first draft. Another related part is in process on the website as well. It's title is "Sentient Spring".Daughters of the Teardrop Sea
September 10, 2012
good business
Good Business
Business got a bad rap when we were in school. We were a ‘creative’ generation. We thought we didn’t need money. That’s because there was so much of it around. I thought that money was like a constant, fast flowing stream. You could reach into it when you wanted to and just take what you needed. That was my metaphor of that reality.
September 8, 2012
Invisble Children
Invisible Children
The single title “Daughters of the Teardrop Sea” now includes ‘Book II: Invisible Children’. This volume was initially hoped to be the first books in a series tentatively called ‘The 300 year war”. A new book, “Sentient Spring” is underway as a series on the website ‘Legend of the Half Light’ at http://hmcooper.digitalnovelists.com . This broad banner is intended to include stories that span the current day with a future that stretches over three hundred years.
Why ‘invisible children’? A long time ago I felt that this generation of young people was inheriting a bad deal. I need to emphasize that this is completely different to suggesting that they are a bad generation. They were called Generation X, but they are now the parents of yet another generation, I believe. I called them invisible children because I thought they would elude history through war and depression. You don’t have to posses a lot of insight to have thought that, and there are countless books, novels and articles about it all over the place. At this point, there is another reason why the metaphor of ‘invisible’ may seem appropriate, since we now communicate with ‘invisible’ machines: cell phones, smart phones, email, the internet etc. There is another reason why ‘invisibility’ is important in the story. It is relevant to this generation but is not evident. It is an ability that should not be named here for fear of spoiling the stories.
A number of years ago I asked a Grade 12 English class what they wanted to be when they finished school. Approximately 30 of the 40 or so students said they wanted to be accountants. In my lopsided view, these were individuals who did not wish to have a destiny. Today, approximately 85% of my students want to take Business at university. But ONLY business. They have no second choice and they don’t want any other subjects. They don’t want to take literature, history, social science or humanities courses, for the most part. It’s not that I’m critical of them. I’m critical of US, the ones who could know better. Everyone is scared but everyone is also confident. When I ask grade 12 students to list 5 books they have liked most of them can’t. They haven’t read 5 books in their life.
That’s why they are called ‘invisible children’. Can you imagine a world created by businessmen? We are living in one.
All of these books are being published as ebooks. Print editions may follow. They are all free because I believe if you can take a chance on them, an unknown author, then I can take a chance on you, too. I must confess, I am as invisible as anyone. Hopefully, nature and reality will prove my personal lack of vision strictly a metaphor.
The single title “Daughters of the Teardrop Sea” now includes ‘Book II: Invisible Children’. This volume was initially hoped to be the first books in a series tentatively called ‘The 300 year war”. A new book, “Sentient Spring” is underway as a series on the website ‘Legend of the Half Light’ at http://hmcooper.digitalnovelists.com . This broad banner is intended to include stories that span the current day with a future that stretches over three hundred years.
Why ‘invisible children’? A long time ago I felt that this generation of young people was inheriting a bad deal. I need to emphasize that this is completely different to suggesting that they are a bad generation. They were called Generation X, but they are now the parents of yet another generation, I believe. I called them invisible children because I thought they would elude history through war and depression. You don’t have to posses a lot of insight to have thought that, and there are countless books, novels and articles about it all over the place. At this point, there is another reason why the metaphor of ‘invisible’ may seem appropriate, since we now communicate with ‘invisible’ machines: cell phones, smart phones, email, the internet etc. There is another reason why ‘invisibility’ is important in the story. It is relevant to this generation but is not evident. It is an ability that should not be named here for fear of spoiling the stories.
A number of years ago I asked a Grade 12 English class what they wanted to be when they finished school. Approximately 30 of the 40 or so students said they wanted to be accountants. In my lopsided view, these were individuals who did not wish to have a destiny. Today, approximately 85% of my students want to take Business at university. But ONLY business. They have no second choice and they don’t want any other subjects. They don’t want to take literature, history, social science or humanities courses, for the most part. It’s not that I’m critical of them. I’m critical of US, the ones who could know better. Everyone is scared but everyone is also confident. When I ask grade 12 students to list 5 books they have liked most of them can’t. They haven’t read 5 books in their life.
That’s why they are called ‘invisible children’. Can you imagine a world created by businessmen? We are living in one.
All of these books are being published as ebooks. Print editions may follow. They are all free because I believe if you can take a chance on them, an unknown author, then I can take a chance on you, too. I must confess, I am as invisible as anyone. Hopefully, nature and reality will prove my personal lack of vision strictly a metaphor.
Invisible children
Invisible Children
The single title “Daughters of the Teardrop Sea” now includes ‘Book II: Invisible Children’. This volume was initially hoped to be the first books in a series tentatively called ‘The 300 year war”. A new book, “Sentient Spring” is underway as a series on the website ‘Legend of the Half Light’ at http://hmcooper.digitalnovelists.com . This broad banner is intended to include stories that span the current day with a future that stretches over three hundred years.
August 31, 2012
"Something Lyrical for the Night" and experience
“Something Lyrical for the Night” and experience.
I heard a few words on You Tube recently that got me thinking about what is true and what is not. I was listening to a presentation by Noam Chomsky, the leftist academic who stands out as one of the foremost intellectuals of our time. A young man in the audience said ‘how can you say we are slaves to capitalism when we live so much better now than we did in the past.’ Chomsky pointed out that there were advancements made to the conditions of slaves during the late 1800’s too. “They were better off. They were still slaves.”
We value our political and economic freedoms more than almost any possessions we may have. Warren Buffet has said that the thing that sets America apart and above other countries is that we have a terrific system. This might seem to be a direct repudiation of Noam Chomsky. It’s far beyond my personal intellectual scope to actually know whether we are slaves to a system or the beneficiaries of it. But that may be part of the problem for Max, the protagonist in “Something Lyrical for the Night.” He says, for example, “How do you choose, between reality and illusion, when both of them are true?”
That book is not really about truth or illusion. It’s about the personal struggle to find a way to live in a world that is so twisted that the truth lies somewhere within a contradiction. This is probably not a strictly modern phenomenon; it has probably always been true. Max is just one more person to take the trip through insanity to, perhaps, some ragged form of illumination.
Noam Chomsky
I heard a few words on You Tube recently that got me thinking about what is true and what is not. I was listening to a presentation by Noam Chomsky, the leftist academic who stands out as one of the foremost intellectuals of our time. A young man in the audience said ‘how can you say we are slaves to capitalism when we live so much better now than we did in the past.’ Chomsky pointed out that there were advancements made to the conditions of slaves during the late 1800’s too. “They were better off. They were still slaves.”
We value our political and economic freedoms more than almost any possessions we may have. Warren Buffet has said that the thing that sets America apart and above other countries is that we have a terrific system. This might seem to be a direct repudiation of Noam Chomsky. It’s far beyond my personal intellectual scope to actually know whether we are slaves to a system or the beneficiaries of it. But that may be part of the problem for Max, the protagonist in “Something Lyrical for the Night.” He says, for example, “How do you choose, between reality and illusion, when both of them are true?”
That book is not really about truth or illusion. It’s about the personal struggle to find a way to live in a world that is so twisted that the truth lies somewhere within a contradiction. This is probably not a strictly modern phenomenon; it has probably always been true. Max is just one more person to take the trip through insanity to, perhaps, some ragged form of illumination.
Noam Chomsky
August 18, 2012
"The Act of Creation"
“The Act of Creation”
One of my favourite authors is Arthur Koestler. Although he was, technically, a journalist he did write a classic work of fiction, “Darkness at Noon”. Why do I like him? He took complex ideas and made them accessible to a simple reader like myself. Notably, he wrote a book called “The Act of Creation” about the mechanisms of creativity. It was never accepted as meaningful by the academic community and this was, apparently, a major blow to Koestler himself. He was not trained in science, therefore he could not claim to be a scientist. It might equally be claimed that science is defined by method, and Koestler did not deal with that. Can a person can be brilliant without being methodologically correct?
In the sciences there are certain parameters that distinguish a scientist from an amateur, and this is absolutely necessary. We expect our physicians, our lawyers our biologists, chemists and engineers to display and acquire clear and solid criteria. But in the arts, is it very different? There is a killing floor, perhaps, but it’s not so formal. It may be the critics and the marketplace determine who is and who is not a professional.
It is also fashion and consensus that makes successful artists to some extent, although it’s likely even more important that they produce good work. Truth, beauty, skill are the materials that define content; not institutions. Although Arthur Koestler was rejected by the establishment he was embraced by the reading public as a writer.
There are no ‘pure cases’. Freud is acknowledged by many thinkers to be the apex of a new age in understanding human behaviour, but mainstream psychologists in North America consider him misled and irrelevant. This may be, in part, a tyranny of method but is also a reaction to what he found. Psychology is not made up of words. It’s made up of numbers.
What makes a writer, aside from the all important body of work? An article appeared in a local newspaper many years ago profiling two other actors and myself with the angle that we all struggled to survive financially often doing outside jobs. Someone from a city university responded that we were not actors if we did not devote ourselves fully to our ‘art’ and that anyone who delivered pizza (that would be me) could not call themselves and actor.
He was wrong…flat out. But I think about that concept now that I am struggling again to be ‘be a writer’. What are the relevant criteria? When can I think that I am successful? Method, I think, counts, but of course it’s not the scientific method. It’s knowing the genre’s, practicing and practicing putting down words, learning how the internal structures and conventions work and so on and so on. It is no professional community that will say whether this is done. It may never happen. But a person cannot give up their dreams, because it is what ambition is made from and without following your dreams there is no valid authority.
The Act of Creation
Darkness at Noon
One of my favourite authors is Arthur Koestler. Although he was, technically, a journalist he did write a classic work of fiction, “Darkness at Noon”. Why do I like him? He took complex ideas and made them accessible to a simple reader like myself. Notably, he wrote a book called “The Act of Creation” about the mechanisms of creativity. It was never accepted as meaningful by the academic community and this was, apparently, a major blow to Koestler himself. He was not trained in science, therefore he could not claim to be a scientist. It might equally be claimed that science is defined by method, and Koestler did not deal with that. Can a person can be brilliant without being methodologically correct?
In the sciences there are certain parameters that distinguish a scientist from an amateur, and this is absolutely necessary. We expect our physicians, our lawyers our biologists, chemists and engineers to display and acquire clear and solid criteria. But in the arts, is it very different? There is a killing floor, perhaps, but it’s not so formal. It may be the critics and the marketplace determine who is and who is not a professional.
It is also fashion and consensus that makes successful artists to some extent, although it’s likely even more important that they produce good work. Truth, beauty, skill are the materials that define content; not institutions. Although Arthur Koestler was rejected by the establishment he was embraced by the reading public as a writer.
There are no ‘pure cases’. Freud is acknowledged by many thinkers to be the apex of a new age in understanding human behaviour, but mainstream psychologists in North America consider him misled and irrelevant. This may be, in part, a tyranny of method but is also a reaction to what he found. Psychology is not made up of words. It’s made up of numbers.
What makes a writer, aside from the all important body of work? An article appeared in a local newspaper many years ago profiling two other actors and myself with the angle that we all struggled to survive financially often doing outside jobs. Someone from a city university responded that we were not actors if we did not devote ourselves fully to our ‘art’ and that anyone who delivered pizza (that would be me) could not call themselves and actor.
He was wrong…flat out. But I think about that concept now that I am struggling again to be ‘be a writer’. What are the relevant criteria? When can I think that I am successful? Method, I think, counts, but of course it’s not the scientific method. It’s knowing the genre’s, practicing and practicing putting down words, learning how the internal structures and conventions work and so on and so on. It is no professional community that will say whether this is done. It may never happen. But a person cannot give up their dreams, because it is what ambition is made from and without following your dreams there is no valid authority.
The Act of Creation
Darkness at Noon
July 29, 2012
To work and back again...
A lot of reading gets done between here and back again. People used to have a book for the subway ready at all times, like a handy tissue or a package of gum. Simple books. Books full of pleasures. Romances. Suspense. Mystery. Horror. Whatever your flavour it was there in your purse, your bag or the pocket of your sports jacket. Each chapter just long enough to devour before the last stop.
Daughters of the Teardrop Sea was meant to be one of those books. It's brief, it's basically genre and it's intended to be a simple pleasure to read. It's also the first book in an intended series 'Legends of the Half Light' or 'The 300 year war'. A sequel to "Daughters" called 'Invisible Children', the second book in the series, is complete but rough and available on my website Legends of the Half Light as well as the ongoing part of the serial titled 'Sentient Spring'. You can also read short stories there and keep up with a blog. If you have a laptop or smartphone you can even read on the subway.
All of my writing is free right now. I just read an article in a Toronto newspaper titled "In the future there will be no professional writers", written by a professional writer. That would seem to tell it all. Although I want to make a living as a writer the odds are against it, so why should I prejudice you as a reader? After years of sweating over this I've come to a conclusion: no amount of marketing or promoting of material is going to make me a 'professional' author. It's up to the individuals who read books to reject or accept that premise. This harkens back to my days in theatre where the rule is: if there's no audience there ain't no show. I think of this work as a preview. If the audience likes it, perhaps it can be reproduced for the main stage.
Daughters of the Teardrop Sea was meant to be one of those books. It's brief, it's basically genre and it's intended to be a simple pleasure to read. It's also the first book in an intended series 'Legends of the Half Light' or 'The 300 year war'. A sequel to "Daughters" called 'Invisible Children', the second book in the series, is complete but rough and available on my website Legends of the Half Light as well as the ongoing part of the serial titled 'Sentient Spring'. You can also read short stories there and keep up with a blog. If you have a laptop or smartphone you can even read on the subway.
All of my writing is free right now. I just read an article in a Toronto newspaper titled "In the future there will be no professional writers", written by a professional writer. That would seem to tell it all. Although I want to make a living as a writer the odds are against it, so why should I prejudice you as a reader? After years of sweating over this I've come to a conclusion: no amount of marketing or promoting of material is going to make me a 'professional' author. It's up to the individuals who read books to reject or accept that premise. This harkens back to my days in theatre where the rule is: if there's no audience there ain't no show. I think of this work as a preview. If the audience likes it, perhaps it can be reproduced for the main stage.
July 20, 2012
Notes on "The Name"
Notes on “The Name”
If you read some of the short stories on this site you may get the impression that I am a religious person. Many of them deal with God and faith. “The Name” is explicitly about finding God. I feel there should be some explanation of this.
