Jennifer Harrison's Blog - Posts Tagged "heroes-thriller-compassion"
This Is The Way To Save The World
The “novel” portion of my graphic novel is written, but writing is only a tiny part of the overall project. Repeated cutting of words is the gruesome task always at hand when inclusion of illustrations and dialogue bubbles dictate limits. My graphic artist would prefer the novel to fly past novella to haiku brief. (He is not the first guy to be right about my wordiness.) And yet, I continue to insist that we have a story. A story that matters.
This adventure tale will include danger, friendship, love, honor, and betrayal, all in the midst of a dedication to a cause greater than the hero, Professor John Stearns. And certainly greater than my psychotic villains, Miss Harshe and Hawks. The Professor unwittingly drags his former love Madden into a secret Oxford world related to British Intelligence, Defiant Samaritans, warlords, and child refugees. Meant to honor the oldest traditions in comics, the central questions focus on what choices we make when all legal and "reasonable" options have been exhausted. Do we accept what we know to be wrong in the world, or do we create fictional heroes to kick all of the “arse” that would get the rest of us thrown into jail?
With a nod to 1940s Wonder Woman, created to fight Nazis on behalf of millions of readers who could not, the characters in my story go rogue in the face of our perpetual war state that relies on disregarding innocent human life and strips (primarily) women and children of basic dignity, while it strips the rest of us of compassion. As I research the current needs of refugees and asylum seekers all over the world, two facts stand out:
In 2014, $19 billion was requested in humanitarian aid worldwide. (UNHCR)
In just four days in 2014, $95 billion was spent in the United States and Europe from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. (NRF)
Talk of saving the world seems grandiose, but there are people, ideas, and unrelenting work that can accomplish this. When I look at $19 billion vs. $95 billion, I start to think we actually could save the freakin’ world, or at least those who have officially requested help. How? By diverting a certain percentage of our shopping budgets to assist those who are struggling. I cannot be the only one who, when faced with these figures, would be willing to do my part to help ensure the safety of over 50 million people a year (the current number of displaced persons worldwide). I have not yet figured out exactly how to channel that kind of international willingness to care, but you can be sure when I do, no one will be able to shut me up.
National Retail Federation and U.S. and European trade associations, this is me, batting my eyelashes. Call me.
Please check out my #RefugeInWonderland characters ~ http://bit.ly/1F2tmj6
This adventure tale will include danger, friendship, love, honor, and betrayal, all in the midst of a dedication to a cause greater than the hero, Professor John Stearns. And certainly greater than my psychotic villains, Miss Harshe and Hawks. The Professor unwittingly drags his former love Madden into a secret Oxford world related to British Intelligence, Defiant Samaritans, warlords, and child refugees. Meant to honor the oldest traditions in comics, the central questions focus on what choices we make when all legal and "reasonable" options have been exhausted. Do we accept what we know to be wrong in the world, or do we create fictional heroes to kick all of the “arse” that would get the rest of us thrown into jail?
With a nod to 1940s Wonder Woman, created to fight Nazis on behalf of millions of readers who could not, the characters in my story go rogue in the face of our perpetual war state that relies on disregarding innocent human life and strips (primarily) women and children of basic dignity, while it strips the rest of us of compassion. As I research the current needs of refugees and asylum seekers all over the world, two facts stand out:
In 2014, $19 billion was requested in humanitarian aid worldwide. (UNHCR)
In just four days in 2014, $95 billion was spent in the United States and Europe from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. (NRF)
Talk of saving the world seems grandiose, but there are people, ideas, and unrelenting work that can accomplish this. When I look at $19 billion vs. $95 billion, I start to think we actually could save the freakin’ world, or at least those who have officially requested help. How? By diverting a certain percentage of our shopping budgets to assist those who are struggling. I cannot be the only one who, when faced with these figures, would be willing to do my part to help ensure the safety of over 50 million people a year (the current number of displaced persons worldwide). I have not yet figured out exactly how to channel that kind of international willingness to care, but you can be sure when I do, no one will be able to shut me up.
National Retail Federation and U.S. and European trade associations, this is me, batting my eyelashes. Call me.
Please check out my #RefugeInWonderland characters ~ http://bit.ly/1F2tmj6
