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[writer-in-wonderland]

Itself

One of my favorite things about "Batman Begins" is that, for all its continued use of mental illness as somewhat of a bogeyman, it understands the root of why someone might lash out when they're unwell. It shows what, in my experience, powers psychosis into its most debilitating forms. The movie is essentially about what happens to people when their perception of the world is fundamentally altered and they do what they can to survive.

"Batman Begins" shows that being scared is the hardest thing about being psychotic.

And I really love that. It's not that people under the influence of the weaponized drug are violent because they're sadistic (though several of Arkham's escapees are, which is an issue I'm not sure the movie separates enough). They're violent because they're absolutely terrified and think they have to fight for their lives. It's a lonely feeling, and I think the film does well portraying that, too, with Jack Gleeson's character and the way he clings to Rachel.

The painful fear and its resulting melee make the villain especially despicable. To use the drive for survival and the intimacy of terror as both means and excuse of destruction is a violating attack. It tracks for Ra's Al Ghul/Ducard, though, 'cause he basically engineered situations of extreme financial desperation and moralized about how irredeemable the people were because they acted out. I don't excuse crime, but I also don't see an impenetrable gulf between criminal and good citizen that automatically warrants death on the other side of it. I don't like absolutism, I guess.

[writer-in-wonderland]

Agree with all of the above, and add:

-Reaching into a dark room to turn on the light

-Walking past police cars though I've committed no crimes

-Taking a completed test to the front of the room

-Needing to sneeze in a quiet room (the library being the worst)

-Going to bed

-Checking the door is locked before going to bed

-My cat making any strange noises (brain defaults to thinking he's choking)

There's more, but I won't belabor the point.

What’s something that gives your anxiety?

[writer-in-wonderland]

What's your Atlas?

I'm struggling right now to decide what my next long writing project will be. I finished my second novel before the pandemic, and stalled out on working on anything during that time because, paradoxically, the outside world becoming so much like the fiction I've read made making my own almost impossible. Losing my mother in August 2021, about a week after I tested positive and was treated for COVID-19, did not help matters. I'm just getting back into the swing of things now.

You'd think that, after a long gap in doing my favorite thing in the world, I'd jump back into it with almost indecent gusto. Words should be clattering out of my fingers. But I'm hesitating, uncertain of which ideas to pursue and if I'm not careful it'll paralyze me. I think I've figured out the way to keep that from happening, though, and it's deceptively simple.

There's a spectrum that science fiction and fantasy stories can be placed on. Well, there are probably a lot of spectra, but I'm here to focus on one: the center of the work being characters or the world they live in. Atlases holding up the heavens, supporting and dominating our view, these elements of stories can actually determine their audiences in some ways.

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series could exemplify one end of the spectrum. Though falling under the umbrella of "medieval fantasy," the focus is almost exclusively on characters; the narrative is very much defined by their private personalities and relationships. Even the choices of which characters get point of view chapters and which are seen through others' eyes is a powerful tool to bring the reader into the story. While the history, low-key magic, and lore of Westeros and its surrounds are awesome, they're experienced through the fans having a relationship with the characters.

Then, we have J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium, the grand fictional history of which The Lord of the Rings is the best-known part. I will never, ever deny that the frankly iconic characters in LOTR aren't cherished by fans (myself included). But the reader is pulled in by something else; fans are besotted with Middle-earth, with hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Men, and all other fantastical beings. The really devoted read The Silmarillion and other posthumous chronicles of how the world/Arda came to be (some of which are written by Tolkien's son Christopher, based on his father's notes and unfinished work). There's a strong desire to be taken to Middle-earth. I'd even argue that a big part of the way fans feel about the characters comes from a desire to embed themselves into Middle-earth and experience the world they love and wish existed.

Let's call this the Micro versus Macro Spectrum. These two works are the boundaries, and other stories are peppered along the middle like so much glitter on a drawing of Thor's Bifrost. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, then, leans toward the Macro; the characters are vivid and a great hook for viewers, but the focal point of the films are their bigger plot points and the worldbuilding breadcrumbs that tie their respective Sagas together. Even within the MCU, there are some projects that are more Micro than others, and I just realized that some of the best received installments are arguably the most balanced between the two (like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Panther, and Thor: Ragnarok). The MCU's a Micro versus Macro Spectrum itself.

And that's my problem right now. I've got four ideas, pairs of similar genres which contain a Micro idea and a Macro one. I just have to decide which part of the Spectrum I want to play in, and which titan's wings I want to nestle under.

[writer-in-wonderland]

Hello.

Welcome to...whatever this will shape up to be. Basically, I like to ramble about the things listed in my description, and I think I've done enough to pester my loved ones on Facebook, so I'm coming here. At least, here, you have the choice of sticking around and reading rather than having to scroll past the verbosity on your way to something else.

Insofar as background is concerned, I'm Alice R. Smythe. That's my penname, because I write fiction and am hoping to be published, so I use the pseudonym for anywhere I publicly post word stuff. My first name is actually Alice, partly to lessen the confusion for myself should anyone talk to me but mostly because I spent years trying to come up with cool names and they never worked. I stole family names to submit writing under. And I named the blog with "wonderland" because it's always been one of the things people mention when they meet me.

I live in Tucson, AZ with a cat named George. I have a BA in Creative Writing and Classics from the University of Arizona. I apologize to anyone from ASU, there may be some snide remarks because our rivalry is a fine tradition I very much enjoy. I love Dr Pepper. Everything else about me will just come out in time.

That's it, really.

Cheers.