I Think: The difficulty of staying home

Montana Population Shifts (U.S. Census Bureau)

This semester I'm taking Regional Literature, which means a lot of reading about the west. We haven't gotten into any fiction yet, but I have enjoyed the essays we've read so far. Most deal about water. Water creates a problem for the West, in that there is not very much of it.

However, I don't want to talk about water here. Mostly because I took part in an hour-long discussion about it earlier today. Instead, I want to talk about something that has been a minor theme so far, but one that I feel resonates with a lot of Westerners today. It may even apply to you folks on the East Coast too.

Sometimes when you read an essay or story, a passage just jumps out at you. It resonates so strongly with the experiences that shape your world that the words stick with you. This happened to me while reading "The American West as Living Space" by Wallace Stenger. Mixed in between the talk about water rights and how public lands are good, there's one passage in particular that stuck with me. In his essay, Living Dry, Stegner writes:

Whether they are winter wheat towns on the subhumid edge, whose elevators and bulbous silver water towers announce them miles away, or country towns in ranch country, or intensely green towns in irrigated desert valleys, they have a sort of forlorn, proud rightness. They look at once lost and self-sufficient, scruffy, and indispensable. A road leads in out of wide emptiness, threads a fringe of service stations, taverns, a motel or two, widens to a couple of blocks of commercial buildings, some still false-fronted, with glimpses of side streets and green lawns, narrows to another strip of automotive roadside, and disappears into more wide emptiness.

 The loneliness and vulnerability of those towns always moves me, for I have lived in them. I know how the world of a child in one of them is bounded by weedy prairie, or the spine of the nearest dry range, or by flats where plugged tin cans lie rusting and the wind has pasted paper and plastic against the sagebrush. I know how precious is the safety of a few known streets and vacant lots and familiar houses. I know how the road in both directions both threatens and beckons. I know that most of the children in such a town will sooner or later take that road, and that only a few will take it back. (Stegner, 25)

I grew up, until high school anyway, in a town much like the one Stegner describes. Technically, Highway 95 goes around Cottonwood, but it still works. If anything, living on Montana's Hi-Line gives  this impression. Chinook, a town I passed through many a time on my way to and from Malta, comes to mind.

It is the last part of the passage that really stands out to me. Stegner knows that the children will leave and most will stay away. Part of that is reality: there are only so many jobs in a small town. To a certain extent, I think people with big plans and ideas can only do so much in a small town as well.

But still, people are leaving small towns and rural America rapidly. The picture at the top of this post shows the population shifts, county by county, in Montana. I live in Gallatin County, which is the fastest growing county by far in the state. However, looking east, and particularly northeast, we see a different picture. Sheridan County has lost 21% of its population in the past decade. Its current population sits at 3,384. It was not a populous place to begin with, and now one-fifth of its population has left.

I think it would make a great journal exercise to ask students if they plan or want to stay in their hometown and why or why not. Taking it one step further, it would be interesting to follow a class and every other year or so have them write about it. Do perceptions change throughout development? How so? For older classes, why do they think this exodus from rural America is happening, does it concern them, and if so, how do you fix it?

A heads up

Do you love my blogging about education? That's odd, because I haven't really done anything yet on that topic! Anyway, I'm taking an Integrating Technology in the Classroom course this semester. For that, we have to do a blog. You can view said blog here.'

Go forth and read!

I Read: Ready Player One

First off, let me just say that having a Kindle is awesome. My fiance, who is also awesome, gave me one for Christmas. I've already read two novels on it (1984 the other, which I suppose I could review). It took me about three days to get through Earnest Cline's Ready Player One.

The novel is set in the year 2044 and the Great Recession has ravaged the United States. Gasoline is so expensive that no one drives anywhere. Most people live in "stacks", which are stacks of mobile homes placed on top of one another. Poverty is high, crime is high (at one point, the main character actually purchases a gun from a vending machine), and while there is still a government, one gets the impression that corporations are in charge.

Things are, how do I put this delicately, horrible.

Except for the OASIS, a computer simulation that makes the Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft seem like Pong. At its most basic, a person can use a pair of gloves and a visor to enter this virtual reality. At its most complex, you can use "immersion rigs" and full body suits to simulate everything that one can encounter as they enter this virtual world where anything is possible.

The OASIS has everything, including a public school system, which Wade Owen Watts (W.O.W. in case you didn't get that this book is about a MMORPG) is educated in. Commerce takes place there. Wade is raised by his aunt, whom he does not like and uses the OASIS to escape. This is one part where the book could probably do more to explain. Other than a brief appearance, Wade's aunt isn't seen and so we never get a sense as to why Wade hates her. Not much is given into life in the Stacks other than its bad.

What time Cline doesn't spend writing about the world life, he spends talking about the OASIS. When the book opens, the creator of the OASIS has died. When he did so, a game within OASIS started to find three easter eggs began. The first person to finish this game would get the creator's wealth and then be in charge of the OASIS. When the story opens, its been five years and no one has made any progress.

There are a lot of people that are looking. There are the "grunters" egg hunters, that are self-financed and obsessed with solving the problem. Then there's the corporate-based "sixers" who are bound and determined to gain control of the OASIS and then charge people for it. If all these gamers had to pay for the OASIS, they might have to go outside!

So, this hunt for the egg consumes the world. And the clues to the game are found in an almanac left behind by the creator of the game and his obsession with the 80s. Seriously, its almost annoying how 80s all of this book is. If you were a teenager in the 80s, you would love this book.

I suppose I should be rooting for Wade, but I spend most of the book feeling sorry for him. He's watched certain movies dozens of times, he's watched each episode of Family Ties multiple times, at one point, he goes six months without going outside or seeing another actual human being. He does have a love interest with another grunter, but that goes through the fairly predictable arc of interest from Wade, casual hanging out that is misinterpreted by Wade, a public "break-up", self-loathing by Wade, and then finally some reconciliation.

I did enjoy the book, its an easy read. But I think more into either why the world is in this state or more about it in general would help paint the picture as to why Wade and everyone else escapes into the OASIS.

I Write: NaNoWriMo 2011: Update 2....uh, hey, I won!

I thought that I was going to give more updates here as I progressed through NaNoWriMo this year. Maybe give some insights into how I felt it was going, what I liked about my characters and the such.

I did not do that. Instead, I won.

Winning at NaNoWriMo is such a great feeling. I really wanted to high-five people, but didn't think anyone would understand. Its hard work to write 50,000 words in one month, and especially when one has school and work to do as well. (It should be noted that no assignment was late, and I got high marks on papers written in November. It would be interesting to see how many words total I wrote in the month.)

Much like the time that I won in 2009, the story was not finished at 50,000 words. I think at least another 10,000 will be needed to finish it. Originally I planned for this to be two books, but decided to make it one. I say at least 10,000 now, but it may be more. Hey, A Song of Ice and Fire was supposed to be three books when George R.R. Martin first planned it out. Book 5 was released this summer.

That to me sums up the exciting part of writing creatively. You might say "I am going to write a 50,000 word story" and then you get to that point and realize that there is just no way the story is done. Maybe characters have started to do things differently than you expected. Maybe a minor character has acted out in a way you did not plan for. It might seem odd to those of you who do not write that this could happen. After all, doesn't the author control the story? Shouldn't characters behave the way the author intends? Not necessarily. I think that when you start writing out characters, certain things begin to change. In your head, you have a rough outline of who this person is. Think about it this way, if I were to describe my best friend as if he were a character it would not even come close to describing the actual person. It would have details, yes, but there would be so much more in terms of little quirks or habits, back stories filled with interesting experiences, and chance encounters with people. A character in a story faces the same things and so he can change and the story changes with it.

To give a brief synopsis of the story (so far) we have our pirate, Erik Dolmonson, who is second in command to one of the most famous pirate captain's of all time. When an attempted mutiny goes bad, one of the rebelious crew members slips that he would prefer Dolmonson to be the captain. The captain (John Cotter) decides to maroon Dolmonson on an island. Unbeknownst to Cotter though, the island is the den for another pirate crew, this one now led by Captain Olivia Rickheardt. While pouring over the previous captain's log and posessions, they discover maps of the uncharted lands beyond the "Dead Calm" a region of the far southern sea in which the wind does not blow and there is no current. Theorizing that the new found maps and charts explain how to get across the Dead Calm, they believe that Captain Cotter leaves his treasure there, as where he keeps his treasure has been a closely guarded secret. Currently the crew headed by Rickheardt (which Dolmonson has joined) is headed for the eastern sea, but first must navigate the "Red Cape" a dangerous stretch of sea known for its brutal winds and rocks.

I have had some people ask to read it, and I would be willing to do that. Let me finish it first, obviously. I'd also like to give it a bit of editing. For instance, I think halfway through, I begin referring to the "Dead Calm" as the "Dead Zone". I do realize of course that people who read it can also help with the editing with their suggestions and criticisms. I'll keep you guys posted.

Until then, its Finals week, but I should post some more in the next few days. I've done more reading for one thing. I can't wait to share with you.

I write: NaNoWriMo 2011 Update 1

It is the 8th day of November, and with a word count just above 13,333 (but JUST above) I am currently on pace to win National Novel Writing Month for the second time. Obviously, a lot of time left. 22 days to either get to the 50,000 word mark or to leave my story left unfinished.

Here's what I am noticing about writing: it is a process. In just about every book I've ever read about writing the author stresses the importance of writing every single day. Let me just say that this is incredibly hard, even when there's a deadline approaching. Its one thing, I think, to write out a homework assignment or essay for class, but to write creatively every day can be extremely hard.

I do find myself some mornings not wanting to write in my story. I usually say "I'll write 500 words" (a decent sprint for me, doesn't take long to write them) to try and get into the flow. The daily word total is roughly 1,667 words so I figure three sets of 500 will get me close. Usually, when I shoot for 500 words, I go over a little anyways, so I get closer to my goal. Though on mornings, like today, I find that it was very much so a struggle to get to 1,667 words. While yesterday, the words poured out of me to the tune of 3,300, today I slogged through the bare minimum.

I think its a signal to me that the story needs to get moving. I've lingered in this one location for long enough, Its time for my characters to go off and do other things, maybe interact with different people. Its time to advance my plot thats in my head. When I was coming up with the base outline of this story, I had a couple of starting points in mind. I actually started writing a few days before that in the narrative. I suppose I could take this to be that I have a 13,333 word head start (will probably be about 15,000 before I get to where I would have originally started the story).

It has been fun writing in this beginning part of the story. I got to introduce a theme that I wanted to be part of the story, and also set up another theme that I'd consider to be the story's overall point. When this becomes a best seller, you'll all be able to discuss what a genius I am, no doubt.

A frustrating day of sorts on the novelling front, but its time to get this story moving. Tomorrow will bring a new day and hopefully some new beginnings for Tattered Sails.

I read: The Hunger Games

At the suggestion of my fiance, and because they're making a movie out if it I decided to read "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. The books are quite popular as a young adult series, and it was easy to see why with a quick reading. It took me three days to finish the 374-page book, partly because it was an easy read, but mostly because the whole concept was fascinating to me.

In a nutshell, the book takes place in the future where North America has been decimated by something (the book alludes to a combination of war and natural disaster, but doesn't get to specific.) Out of this, a new country, Panem is formed. Panem consists of the Capital and 13 districts. A rebellion against the Capital breaks out, District 13 is destroyed and the Capital becomes your typical highly oppressive ruling city that bestows little or no freedom on its people. And then, just to be dicks, they like to remind the 12 districts of whose in charge by each year selecting two children to come to the Capital and compete in the Hunger Games, in which the 24 children compete to the death in a televised event.

This is, to me, beyond fucked up, which is one of the reasons why I enjoyed reading it so much. I kept wondering how we got to this point as a society. Yes, its fiction, but I still want to know why it happened!

Possibly to keep the reader guessing about some of the grander aspects of this society, the book is told from the first person perspective of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl who volunteers to go to the Hunger Games so her sister, who was selected, does not have to. I'm guessing whatever Katniss knows about the history of Panem and North America she knows from school, and given that this is an especially cruel dystopian society, that information is probably skewed majorly. So, even if she said "this is what happened" (she does not) one would have to take it with a grain of salt.

I don't read young adult books often, but I can see the appeal of this story, especially with teenage girls. Katniss is a character who takes care of herself, is determined to live by her rules (even at home, she breaks the rules of the country by hunting game to provide for her family), but at the same time finds that she has conflicting emotions about the male tribute from her district Peeta. Peeta is very much in love with Katniss, though she spends most of the book either oblivious to this or trying to deny that its happening. The denial is brought upon by two things: one, Peeta is from a higher social class (at least as much as he can be given the dynamics of the society in which they live) and two, according to the rules she may have to eventually kill him if she's to win. We don't get Peeta's perspective on this, which is unfortunate, because I think he could have some pretty awesome insight as to how the Games work and how he feels about Katniss.

The book details a lot about how those emotions come into play, and I can see how younger girls might relate to Katniss. At least, as much as one can relate to someone whose playing in a nationally televised death match. But, the characters are good, with the minor characters serving as a good reminder as to how hard life is outside of the Capital or how warped of a view those who live inside of it have on the rest of society (most of the characters from the Capital are a support team for Katniss, serving to make her look fashionable and good for the media before, during, and after the Hunger Games).

I'll read the second book in the series soon. It was a nice easy read, especially compared to the books in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" Series (Game of Thrones). And if you don't think that there are some posts to come from those books planned, you're mistaken.

I (will) write: NaNoWriMo 2011

After a hilariously failed attempt in 2010 (I think I got 3,000 words) I am back at it this year. NaNoWriMo begins in two weeks and I am starting to develop my characters and world, but not so much a plot. That will hopefully come. I'm writing about pirates. If you were to read a story about pirates, what would you expect to be in it?

I also find myself thinking about my 2009 win, and how I want to alter it a bit. I'm excited about some of the ideas. That one was a fantasy story featuring druids, which could control the four elements (water, air, fire, earth) but also dealt with a little about religion. I would go into what I might change more, but I think there are two people in the world who have read it (I include myself) so....no sense there. If/when I tackle a rewrite, I'll discuss it more.

Sorry about the lack of posts. Work and school make me busy, and even though this is supposed to feature what I've read, I find myself not wanting to write more about it any more then I have to. Maybe it will be what I read for fun.