Spoilery Review/Commentary on Dresden Files
Oct. 30th, 2010 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatYes, lots of smaller posts today. Sort of catching up. Hope it's not to much an issue.
Aftermath starts with Murphy watching the forensics team search and case Dresden's boat for his remains, signs of a struggle, and proof of his murder. Dresden himself is missing. All they've found is quite a bit of his blood, and a bloody trail to Lake Michigan. All signs point to a)Dresden's untimely demise, and b) someone shooting him from far away. The bullet we're told went through Dresden and two walls of the Boat. It hit an aretrial area or aertry - causing massive bleeding.
And it is unlikely they'll find Dresden's body - since Lake Michigan is jealous and possessive of its dead and bodies tend to drop straight to the bottom of what is a very deep and cold lake.
In Changes - it is unclear what happened to Harry - outside of the fact that he got shot, fell overboard and mentally went to a light. Did he die? Perhaps.
Murphy doesn't know. She knows it's unlikely that he is alive. That logically he should be dead. But nothing in Harry's world is ever logical. Also, without a body...anything could happen. As she tells Will at the end of Aftermath - until I see his body, I'm going to assume he's alive. She comes to this conclusion slowly and over the course of the story, not all at once. Fighting with herself throughout.
While quite a bit of action happens in Aftermath, it is largely a character sketch as most short tales are. In it, we are given a look inside Murphy. How she feels about Harry Dresden. It's clear that she is in love with him and has been for quite some time. But by the same token he scares her, rightfully so. What he can do and what he is. She'd be nuts, if he didn't. We see Harry through her eyes, the quirky nerd and the awesome wizard. She also feels outclassed and outmatched by him.
The job she takes on, she realizes is one he could do far easier and with less exertion. It would just be another day for him. It almost gets her killed. She half-curses him for it. Dammit Dresden, she states at one point, this is your job that I'm doing. It's clear he's inside her head and heart. He's inspired her. As she tells Will at the end, dead or not, he's with us, alive in us.
In our heads and our hearts. We wouldn't have been able to do what we did if it weren't for him.
And Will, heartily agrees.
Will is the other part of the story, the werewolf. And for a change - he's interesting. The werewolves in this story are actually interesting. They aren't cliche or metaphor, but actually have a bit more going on. (I admittedly hate werewolf stories, so was pleasantly surprised by this one.) As are Georgia, Marcy and Andi. Marcy - who Murphy mistrusts at first, and considers mousy, surprises her - and at the end she states she'll never make the mistake of calling or thinking of Marcy as mousy again. Murphy who is used to dealing with men and seeing women through male eyes, is not quite sure how to deal with the various women she encounters. As she puts it - she's used to speaking "Martian" - a series of grunts, as opposed to words, and no emotion. Men - she states - don't like emotion. Just physical aggression.
Gard, Marcone's right hand man, and a warrior, interaction with Murphy underlines this as well. Murphy isn't sure how to deal with Gard. Her first reaction is envy, then dislike, and finally mutual respect. Both keep Chicago safe in their own way. And Gard points out that even though Marcone is not a good man, he is a necessary evil...and the only thing keeping the bad guys at bay at the moment.
Plot points are furthered in this story...such as the fact that Dresden's actions in the last tale caused a ripple effect. As Dresden himself noted. By doing the spell - he took out a major player, the Red Court, leaving a power vaccume. Then he was taken out, leaving another gap. He also gave everyone with supernatural powers nasty dreams. There were nasty consequences to what he'd done.
And those surviving him must live with them. As he had to live with his own mother's decisions.
Aftermath, while not necessary for the next book, does set the stage for it nicely, it provides
texture and deft character moments. It also gives me something that I needed - to know how Murphy handled what happened to Dresden. She's dressed for a hot date, and in the blink of an eye - all her dreams, desires are dashed. She mutters how he wasn't untouchable and how she'd never get the chance again. Regret fills her along with grief, which she keeps shoving to the edge of her mind.
As I read this, I realized this is one of my kinks or turn-ons regarding stories. I want to know how people grieve those they lose. I find it comforting and informative. Some part of me craves that story. Just as I love tales about people who characters thought were dead, coming back, and how they handle that. One of the many reasons the Buffy comics disappointed me - is that they deprived me of that kink. I was deprived of both Xander and Buffy's grief over the loss of Anya and Spike. I was deprived of Buffy's reaction when she discovers Spike is still alive. Butcher doesn't deprive me of Murphy's reaction and I applaud him for that.
Writing a story is not as easy as it looks. You have to stay true to the characters first and foremost, and you also have entered into a devil's bargain with your readers - you are promising them that you will reveal what these characters are feeling and thinking. Depriving the reader or watcher of key scenes - is bad mojo. I always get annoyed - when a writer spends a lot of time describing some place or doing a joke, then skimping on say an important character moment.
It's why I got fed up with the Buffy comics - the writer/s was/were more interested in telling me jokes, preaching, or repetitive dialogue, instead of key moments. I know this is not the place to point this out and most of you who are reading this, may think, WTF. But...Butcher does right, what Whedon does wrong. And as a writer myself, I like to pick up on what works and what doesn't, so I can learn from others and try to emulate what works for me, and try to avoid what does not.
(I'm not always successful.) The problem with writing is you are stuck inside yourself. You have no idea what you made clear and what you didn't. You may think something is completely obvious to your reader, because hey it is in your head - but it's really really not. And think or worry that something else isn't obvious at all, when in fact it is. Or you may forget what you wrote, in your head you wrote that, but in actuality, not so much. This happens a lot with longer works, I've discovered. Writer's forget what they did or did not do.
Butcher seems to be very clear on what he's doing. But - he isn't focusing on more than one story at time. He is writing really only two tales and two worlds. He's not mult-tasking like Whedon is.
And the problem with multi-tasking is well, if you juggle too many balls, one will drop sooner or later, or you'll forget it. I know - it happens to me. I get overwhelmed and I forget things, this week for example - I forgot to pay my phone bill and almost got my phone service discontinued. I blame Verizon - they keep sending me junk mail that looks the same as bills. Whedon is doing too many things. You can tell - because the stories are starting to blend into each other in weird ways, and none of them are that good. You want to know what was different between Buffy and the other stories? Buffy was the only thing Whedon was working on. He didn't start working on multiple projects until S6 of Buffy. From S1-5, it was just Buffy and Angel, but mostly Buffy. Now with the Buffy comics? He's doing the Avengers, Dollhouse, Cabin in the Woods, and assorted other things we don't know about, including some directing gigs. That's a lot. As a result some of these projects suffered. You see huge gaps in the story-telling. Pieces missing. Where as a reader or viewer, you think to yourself - wait, did I miss an episode?
The same thing happened with Caprica - where the writers and producers took six months off then
shot the rest of it, and took up the action six months later. Momster who was watching it as well, kept wondering if she'd missed an episode. We were flung into action that was taking place far later than when we last watched it, and weren't given a timeline or an idea of when we were or what had happened. It's a bit like coming in to the middle of a movie. That's how the Buffy comics felt to me - and to an extent the second half of Caprica, and a good portion of Dollhouse, as if I had come in during the middle of the movie. We aren't told when the Buffy comics take place - we missed her decision to rob the bank or even the actual robbing of it, we're told it happened, we've jumped into the story after she robbed the bank, after she found out Spike was still alive, after Dawn got turned into a Giant, after Xander made peace with Anya's death....after Faith took off to Cleveland, after the set up headquarters in Scotland, after they made the decision to set up two decoys. It would be like having the Buffy series start in Season 6 instead of Season 1 or as a viewer never getting to see 1-5. That is problematic writing. And I hate it when tv shows and books do it - I want the whole story. It's like in the Princess Bride - where he skips over the bad stuff and the boy says, no, no, tell me - I want to know how they got there, otherwise it makes no sense.
Butcher's Aftermath, while not necessary to the plot - since we aren't in Harry's pov, does inform it and I believe provides needed texture. Sure fanfic can work here, but fanfic, no offense to the fanficcers out there, but it somehow isn't quite the same. I feel when I read or write fanfic - I'm reading what might have been as opposed to what is. IT's weird, I know.
Okay off to get laundry, before it gets too dark or too late.
Aftermath starts with Murphy watching the forensics team search and case Dresden's boat for his remains, signs of a struggle, and proof of his murder. Dresden himself is missing. All they've found is quite a bit of his blood, and a bloody trail to Lake Michigan. All signs point to a)Dresden's untimely demise, and b) someone shooting him from far away. The bullet we're told went through Dresden and two walls of the Boat. It hit an aretrial area or aertry - causing massive bleeding.
And it is unlikely they'll find Dresden's body - since Lake Michigan is jealous and possessive of its dead and bodies tend to drop straight to the bottom of what is a very deep and cold lake.
In Changes - it is unclear what happened to Harry - outside of the fact that he got shot, fell overboard and mentally went to a light. Did he die? Perhaps.
Murphy doesn't know. She knows it's unlikely that he is alive. That logically he should be dead. But nothing in Harry's world is ever logical. Also, without a body...anything could happen. As she tells Will at the end of Aftermath - until I see his body, I'm going to assume he's alive. She comes to this conclusion slowly and over the course of the story, not all at once. Fighting with herself throughout.
While quite a bit of action happens in Aftermath, it is largely a character sketch as most short tales are. In it, we are given a look inside Murphy. How she feels about Harry Dresden. It's clear that she is in love with him and has been for quite some time. But by the same token he scares her, rightfully so. What he can do and what he is. She'd be nuts, if he didn't. We see Harry through her eyes, the quirky nerd and the awesome wizard. She also feels outclassed and outmatched by him.
The job she takes on, she realizes is one he could do far easier and with less exertion. It would just be another day for him. It almost gets her killed. She half-curses him for it. Dammit Dresden, she states at one point, this is your job that I'm doing. It's clear he's inside her head and heart. He's inspired her. As she tells Will at the end, dead or not, he's with us, alive in us.
In our heads and our hearts. We wouldn't have been able to do what we did if it weren't for him.
And Will, heartily agrees.
Will is the other part of the story, the werewolf. And for a change - he's interesting. The werewolves in this story are actually interesting. They aren't cliche or metaphor, but actually have a bit more going on. (I admittedly hate werewolf stories, so was pleasantly surprised by this one.) As are Georgia, Marcy and Andi. Marcy - who Murphy mistrusts at first, and considers mousy, surprises her - and at the end she states she'll never make the mistake of calling or thinking of Marcy as mousy again. Murphy who is used to dealing with men and seeing women through male eyes, is not quite sure how to deal with the various women she encounters. As she puts it - she's used to speaking "Martian" - a series of grunts, as opposed to words, and no emotion. Men - she states - don't like emotion. Just physical aggression.
Gard, Marcone's right hand man, and a warrior, interaction with Murphy underlines this as well. Murphy isn't sure how to deal with Gard. Her first reaction is envy, then dislike, and finally mutual respect. Both keep Chicago safe in their own way. And Gard points out that even though Marcone is not a good man, he is a necessary evil...and the only thing keeping the bad guys at bay at the moment.
Plot points are furthered in this story...such as the fact that Dresden's actions in the last tale caused a ripple effect. As Dresden himself noted. By doing the spell - he took out a major player, the Red Court, leaving a power vaccume. Then he was taken out, leaving another gap. He also gave everyone with supernatural powers nasty dreams. There were nasty consequences to what he'd done.
And those surviving him must live with them. As he had to live with his own mother's decisions.
Aftermath, while not necessary for the next book, does set the stage for it nicely, it provides
texture and deft character moments. It also gives me something that I needed - to know how Murphy handled what happened to Dresden. She's dressed for a hot date, and in the blink of an eye - all her dreams, desires are dashed. She mutters how he wasn't untouchable and how she'd never get the chance again. Regret fills her along with grief, which she keeps shoving to the edge of her mind.
As I read this, I realized this is one of my kinks or turn-ons regarding stories. I want to know how people grieve those they lose. I find it comforting and informative. Some part of me craves that story. Just as I love tales about people who characters thought were dead, coming back, and how they handle that. One of the many reasons the Buffy comics disappointed me - is that they deprived me of that kink. I was deprived of both Xander and Buffy's grief over the loss of Anya and Spike. I was deprived of Buffy's reaction when she discovers Spike is still alive. Butcher doesn't deprive me of Murphy's reaction and I applaud him for that.
Writing a story is not as easy as it looks. You have to stay true to the characters first and foremost, and you also have entered into a devil's bargain with your readers - you are promising them that you will reveal what these characters are feeling and thinking. Depriving the reader or watcher of key scenes - is bad mojo. I always get annoyed - when a writer spends a lot of time describing some place or doing a joke, then skimping on say an important character moment.
It's why I got fed up with the Buffy comics - the writer/s was/were more interested in telling me jokes, preaching, or repetitive dialogue, instead of key moments. I know this is not the place to point this out and most of you who are reading this, may think, WTF. But...Butcher does right, what Whedon does wrong. And as a writer myself, I like to pick up on what works and what doesn't, so I can learn from others and try to emulate what works for me, and try to avoid what does not.
(I'm not always successful.) The problem with writing is you are stuck inside yourself. You have no idea what you made clear and what you didn't. You may think something is completely obvious to your reader, because hey it is in your head - but it's really really not. And think or worry that something else isn't obvious at all, when in fact it is. Or you may forget what you wrote, in your head you wrote that, but in actuality, not so much. This happens a lot with longer works, I've discovered. Writer's forget what they did or did not do.
Butcher seems to be very clear on what he's doing. But - he isn't focusing on more than one story at time. He is writing really only two tales and two worlds. He's not mult-tasking like Whedon is.
And the problem with multi-tasking is well, if you juggle too many balls, one will drop sooner or later, or you'll forget it. I know - it happens to me. I get overwhelmed and I forget things, this week for example - I forgot to pay my phone bill and almost got my phone service discontinued. I blame Verizon - they keep sending me junk mail that looks the same as bills. Whedon is doing too many things. You can tell - because the stories are starting to blend into each other in weird ways, and none of them are that good. You want to know what was different between Buffy and the other stories? Buffy was the only thing Whedon was working on. He didn't start working on multiple projects until S6 of Buffy. From S1-5, it was just Buffy and Angel, but mostly Buffy. Now with the Buffy comics? He's doing the Avengers, Dollhouse, Cabin in the Woods, and assorted other things we don't know about, including some directing gigs. That's a lot. As a result some of these projects suffered. You see huge gaps in the story-telling. Pieces missing. Where as a reader or viewer, you think to yourself - wait, did I miss an episode?
The same thing happened with Caprica - where the writers and producers took six months off then
shot the rest of it, and took up the action six months later. Momster who was watching it as well, kept wondering if she'd missed an episode. We were flung into action that was taking place far later than when we last watched it, and weren't given a timeline or an idea of when we were or what had happened. It's a bit like coming in to the middle of a movie. That's how the Buffy comics felt to me - and to an extent the second half of Caprica, and a good portion of Dollhouse, as if I had come in during the middle of the movie. We aren't told when the Buffy comics take place - we missed her decision to rob the bank or even the actual robbing of it, we're told it happened, we've jumped into the story after she robbed the bank, after she found out Spike was still alive, after Dawn got turned into a Giant, after Xander made peace with Anya's death....after Faith took off to Cleveland, after the set up headquarters in Scotland, after they made the decision to set up two decoys. It would be like having the Buffy series start in Season 6 instead of Season 1 or as a viewer never getting to see 1-5. That is problematic writing. And I hate it when tv shows and books do it - I want the whole story. It's like in the Princess Bride - where he skips over the bad stuff and the boy says, no, no, tell me - I want to know how they got there, otherwise it makes no sense.
Butcher's Aftermath, while not necessary to the plot - since we aren't in Harry's pov, does inform it and I believe provides needed texture. Sure fanfic can work here, but fanfic, no offense to the fanficcers out there, but it somehow isn't quite the same. I feel when I read or write fanfic - I'm reading what might have been as opposed to what is. IT's weird, I know.
Okay off to get laundry, before it gets too dark or too late.
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Date: 2010-11-01 06:34 am (UTC)I love Jim Butcher's writing, And I loved getting this story from Murphy's POV... it explains a lot.