Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Marc and I are always elevating the presence of Mike Tyson in our lives. I managed to sneak a Tyson reference in my book; Marc has a great post about the baddest man on the planet in his blog.
By now, most of you have heard or know of the child eating/rampaging/soul crushing Tyson. but what about his more gentle side? I present to you the follow quote:
"Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy. It's like fire. If you can control it, it can cook for you; it can heat your house. If you can't control it, it will burn everything around you and destroy you. If you can control your fear, it makes you more alert, like a deer coming across the lawn."
Let's break it down. It starts off with an FDR-esque statement: "Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy." So far, pretty good from MT. There's no references to ingesting anyone's offspring, fornicating, or stomping children's testicles.
Next, we get to the heart of the metaphor: "It's (fear) like fire." Excellent, if a little cliched. Iron Mike now begins to wax like a Native American mystic. Fire when controlled is beneficial; uncontrolled it's devastating. A+ for Mr. Tyson in this creative writing class...but wait, the quote goes on?
"If you can control your fear it makes you more alert..." Very true. You become more focused, intense, in control. Now what would be a good image to convey the ultimate alert being?
"Like a deer coming across the lawn." !!! What? Mike? What happened? I envision a scene of peace, calm, and non-alertness; I see a family of deer grazing across a dewy lawn in the early morning. Sure, deer are edgy critters but this is one of the few instances where they are generally safe from predators. I knew what he was trying to convey--the ever-aware stance of any prey animal is a decent simile. So why use gentle Bambi as your example?
Implied here, to this writer, is that Tyson would regularly stalk and attack deer on his own lawn, sort of like Rocky except the slab of meat he's aiming to punch is still technically alive. Woe be to the poor animal hoping to graze on this bad mutha's lawn! Again, even when he almost makes a morsel of sense, we get a glimpse of something just under the surface: Mike Tyson outletting his rage on harmless ungulates.
But what do I know? In the words of MT: Most writers, in my opinion, are dysfunctioned derelicts. Perhaps true!
By now, most of you have heard or know of the child eating/rampaging/soul crushing Tyson. but what about his more gentle side? I present to you the follow quote:
"Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy. It's like fire. If you can control it, it can cook for you; it can heat your house. If you can't control it, it will burn everything around you and destroy you. If you can control your fear, it makes you more alert, like a deer coming across the lawn."
Let's break it down. It starts off with an FDR-esque statement: "Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy." So far, pretty good from MT. There's no references to ingesting anyone's offspring, fornicating, or stomping children's testicles.
Next, we get to the heart of the metaphor: "It's (fear) like fire." Excellent, if a little cliched. Iron Mike now begins to wax like a Native American mystic. Fire when controlled is beneficial; uncontrolled it's devastating. A+ for Mr. Tyson in this creative writing class...but wait, the quote goes on?
"If you can control your fear it makes you more alert..." Very true. You become more focused, intense, in control. Now what would be a good image to convey the ultimate alert being?
"Like a deer coming across the lawn." !!! What? Mike? What happened? I envision a scene of peace, calm, and non-alertness; I see a family of deer grazing across a dewy lawn in the early morning. Sure, deer are edgy critters but this is one of the few instances where they are generally safe from predators. I knew what he was trying to convey--the ever-aware stance of any prey animal is a decent simile. So why use gentle Bambi as your example?
Implied here, to this writer, is that Tyson would regularly stalk and attack deer on his own lawn, sort of like Rocky except the slab of meat he's aiming to punch is still technically alive. Woe be to the poor animal hoping to graze on this bad mutha's lawn! Again, even when he almost makes a morsel of sense, we get a glimpse of something just under the surface: Mike Tyson outletting his rage on harmless ungulates.
But what do I know? In the words of MT: Most writers, in my opinion, are dysfunctioned derelicts. Perhaps true!
Monday, December 11, 2006
Jamesfaqs has served me well, but its time to move on. I need your opinions to figure out a new name for my blog/website. For my book, I'm making a new site that will either be coloradosummits.com or coloradosummithikes.com -- which do you think is better?
And for my personal site--well, I have a lot of options. I would have liked mountainair.com but it's taken. JamesDziezynski is too hard to type in. Any good ideas? Let me know!
Usually you only get views like this from airplanes! Well, hopefully not this particular view as it would mean you're about to crash into Mount Eolus. But you get the idea.
First off, Counterparts has to be my favorite Rush album. It's one of those rare CDs where I don't feel like skipping over any particular track. It's tough because I like all their albums and I tend to favor one or another depending on my mood. But if I were stuck on a deserted island that was oddly wired with electricity and had a working stereo, Counterparts would be my choice.
Secondly, I have discovered editing my writing that was done during my 16 hour efforts is like reading the rants of a madman. Oh the central ideas are good but there are a lot of crazy word choices, dyslexic word placements, and generally cofusing statements (such as: "The views from the top offer good views of the views you'll be seeing") This is why we edit!
Along those lines, I'd like to say I was able to mention Glass Joe, Link, Fabio, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Mike Tyson eating children, and Geddy Lee in the book--no easy task considering the target audience is probably between 35-50 years old.
My final realization: after getting extremely fit over the summer, a month of intense writing has negated most of that, leaving me exactly where I was last year at this time. Where's Richard Simmons when I want to sweat to the oldies?!
And for my personal site--well, I have a lot of options. I would have liked mountainair.com but it's taken. JamesDziezynski is too hard to type in. Any good ideas? Let me know!
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Usually you only get views like this from airplanes! Well, hopefully not this particular view as it would mean you're about to crash into Mount Eolus. But you get the idea.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
First off, Counterparts has to be my favorite Rush album. It's one of those rare CDs where I don't feel like skipping over any particular track. It's tough because I like all their albums and I tend to favor one or another depending on my mood. But if I were stuck on a deserted island that was oddly wired with electricity and had a working stereo, Counterparts would be my choice. Secondly, I have discovered editing my writing that was done during my 16 hour efforts is like reading the rants of a madman. Oh the central ideas are good but there are a lot of crazy word choices, dyslexic word placements, and generally cofusing statements (such as: "The views from the top offer good views of the views you'll be seeing") This is why we edit!
Along those lines, I'd like to say I was able to mention Glass Joe, Link, Fabio, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Mike Tyson eating children, and Geddy Lee in the book--no easy task considering the target audience is probably between 35-50 years old.
My final realization: after getting extremely fit over the summer, a month of intense writing has negated most of that, leaving me exactly where I was last year at this time. Where's Richard Simmons when I want to sweat to the oldies?!
Friday, December 01, 2006
