The Oscars Were Wrong!

Last night I became a sheep, watching the Academy Awards alongside millions of other Americans (though, thanks to TIVO
I watched the ceremony after it had already begun, and fast forwarded through needless commercials and those annoying "Enchanted" songs). And sure, I understand that Hollywood wants to show solidarity for the writers, but
the clips of writers at work before the presentation of "Best Screenplay" is ridiculous. In fact, I think there were two separate occasions in the broadcast where they used this trope, and trust me they are overlooking something very important:

"Writing is boring." Even if you've just read something interesting, something compelling, seen a movie or read a book that made you cry or question the very nature of human existence, I guarantee, if you could have been there watching the great opus created, you would agree, it was not exciting to watch. 

I feel bad for someone watching a writer at work, no wonder the kids of writers often decry the practice (and the sporadic small paychecks). For ten minutes a writer will stare into space, write down a sentence, erase the sentence, write two more, change a word, start a blank page, write a sentence, erase, repeat.

Instead, the Academy wants you to believe that it is a spontaneous invention, that writing leaps
whole and magnificent, like Athena from her father's head;they want you to believe that they actually have footage of these nominated Screenwriters at work.

This is a problem with Hollywood. Too often they will put forth a film, whose main character is a "writer." Think Scarlett Johannson in the film: "In Good Company."

The problem is that she is not believable. Where is her lack of self esteem? Where are her ink-stained hands? Where's the angst? And why do we never see her work, but writing seems to 
be so damn easy for her?

There are of course the few exceptions, "Sideways" got it right, so did "Stranger than Fiction" and "Adaptation" but these are fewer and far between. 

Part of the problem is that Writers love to talk about themselves. Sure we know that we're not
interesting. Jon Stewart hit this fact on the head, when he suggested that Hollywood should 
invite the writers to the big Post-Oscar parties: "But don't worry," he assured the crowd "They 
won't mingle." Yet the best way to get over angst, is to write about it, and in this age when 
confessional poetry has turned into memoir, writers feel that they've been given carte blanche to decry their own plights as artists.

Sure, it is a lucrative profession shrouded in mystery and acidic flashbacks of High School English classes, but when I see the image put forth by the Academy Awards, my eyes instinctively roll back in my head, and this strange gagging reflex begins in my throat.

Still, the saving grace is that not all of the featured writers were ignorant of the meta-writing they were asked to simulate for the camera. My respect for the Coen Brothers (who stole the whole damn show) was magnified, when in an earlier segment one of them appeared to have fallen asleep in a chair with a book over his face, while the other sat on a couch with his head in his hands. So true, so true. Thanks guys, for accurately representing your art, and proving to the world that even for critically acclaimed, three time Academy Award winners, writing is boring.
 

The proof is in the...how do they say... Robotic Body Suit

I have been asserting for a long time that art affects life, that the decisions that scientists make as well as other professionals, are influenced by art. And the example I have often used when scratching my way toward the top of this soapbox, is the example of Science Fiction...that strange genre that is demonized by the literary establishment, yet which often outsells the Horrors, Westerns, and Romances it is shelved with. We need only look at human cloning, or even the physicists trying to send molecules back in time, inspired perhaps by John Titor. 

However, a new inventor in Seattle supports my theory much more  directly. 
Monty Reed is a robotocist whom I heard on KUOW the other day. In his interview, he admits 
that it was after he was injured while parachuting and after reading Starship Troopers that he
got the idea for a suit that will allow the wearer to walk and lift 1000 lbs. Yet, just as this suit was inspired by a Science Fiction story, how long before the inventor ratchets it down, as he promised, so that it is available for home use. 

More than just a tool to help quadapalegics regain mobility, there are those who will want to acquire one, I'm thinking Billionaire Bachelors, anointing themselves real-life superheroes. In fact, I think Batman already has one of these.

Will I have a kid, some day who while absently playing in traffic will be saved from a speeding car 
by some crippled war veteran in a robot suit? 

How long before a police officer caught in the wrong end of a gunfight, is remade into a Robocop?

The future is now, and look around. Because the fantastical and scientifically impossible ideas
floating through our movie theaters, and Saturday morning cartoons is what lies in store for the 
next generation. After all, as Robert M. Persig proves in:
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
scientific inquiry doesn't breed more answers, but rather generates an increasing flow of questions. So even science needs to turn to inspiration to make progress, even if that inspiration comes from somewhere else. 

I'm fascinated by the idea that one can influence society by planting the seeds of an idea or concept into the collective mind. But this is a bit scary, given that our social graces and our communities rife with prejudice, rascism, nepotism, et al is so far behind our technological development. Hopefully we can elect an administration to take greater strides toward equality before Japan sends their Mech Warriors to battle our Quadrapalegic Army.