Caliban's End: March 2007

If you haven't read yesterday's post (below), read it first. Then this will make sense...

I've really got to stop looking at movie trailers. Today I stumbled across the trailer for 300. It looks amazing. It's an adaptation of a graphic novel by Frank Miller about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. The visual style of the film looks gorgeous and I could see Caliban's End being done in a similar way (but not so violent).

Anyway, if you've read any of my earlier posts, you'd know one of my favourite characters is Pylos - see the blog entry entitled Return of the Hero somewhere below. Pylos is a Helyan, a race of people modelled on the Greek heroes of legend. Now the heroes of 300 (the Spartans) are bound to bring up similarities with the Helyans of my novel (e.g. big muscles, not much in the way of clothing, bloodlust etc.) but look at the picture below! What's the deal with that. I have a classical character with a scar - the movie has a character (King Leonidas) with a scar. Also Pylos is the type to lead the charge in a battle - just like this guy does in the trailer! If I were paranoid, I'd think there was a sophisticated conspiracy by Hollywood to undermine my book .

Well, I'm not going to buckle under such pressure. I have given Pylos a new scar and it's bigger than King Leonidas'. Much bigger. Leonidas would have scar envy - Pylos' scar now runs the entire length of his face. I'll put a new picture of him up in the sidebar. I am going to make the scar more significant it terms of Pylos' character. Pylos is usually shy around women, but now I'm going to make the scar a contributing factor in his lack of confidence with the gals. See the extract below but be warned - it's a medium-sized spoiler!

Pylos stared at the bloodied ground as he toyed with a rock at his feet. "Why? I'm surprised you asked," he said quietly. "Look at me. I'm a monster."

She took his face in her hand and smiled. "I know what a monster looks like, General. I married one, remember, and you don't look anything like him."

Furthermore, I'm halfway through rewriting Chapter Two, the first chapter that features the Worldpool. Now instead of being a swirling vortex of water where important things take place, it's now a swirling vortex of frozen water, under a blazing sun, a place where time folds in on itself and important things still take place. I went out of my way not to make it look like Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End. I can't dump it and I love the Worldpool, both as set piece, as a narrative device and as a metaphor (which I will explain in a blog entry on literary devices in Caliban's End).

Anyway, it 12:30 am. Effects of the third cup of coffee are beginning to fade. Time to hit the sack.

Separated at birth? General Pylos Castalia of Heylas

and King Leonidas of Sparta

I downloaded the trailer for the next Pirates of the Caribbean film today. Wish I hadn't. Now I'm feeling rather depressed.

Let me explain. Some time last year I wrote the following text on my Caliban's End wiki.

...Originally Sefar and the Kheperans had tentacles at the base of their heads and their mouths lay under a grotesque collection of tendrils covering the bottom of their faces. Then Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest came out and the promo trailer revealed a bunch of similar-looking individuals. My heart sank when I saw the antagonist (Davy Jones?) - he looked exactly as I had envisioned Sefar. I thought about keeping the design, but it seemed too derivative. I wanted something to make him stand out and the look had to be something that would instill fear into the hearts of others (which is important in terms of irony as there are times in the story where Sefar is not as brave as his physique would imply). This picture experimenting with the horn sold me on the idea and since drawing it I have written the design into the narrative. It now seems like such an essential aspect to the Kheperans that I am quite pleased that Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest made me change my mind. Now if the next Pirates film has someone in it with a big horn on his head, I will scream.

Well, I'm now on the verge of screaming. The trailer didn't have a man with a horn on his head, but it did have two elements that are significant in my book. The major one is the use of a vortex of water as a set piece in the film. I can't express how annoying this is. The vortex in Caliban's End is a pivotal part of the book - it's even called 'Caliban's End'! I can't change it; I can't take it out. Damn. Hopefully the film will bomb as I really don't want people to read it and sarcastically say, "Hmmm... I wonder where he ripped that from?" I'm not sure what to do. Perhaps it doesn't matter, but it feels like a major setback. If only I could get the book finished before any other films use the same ideas.

The second 'similarity' is a thing in the book I called the volvelle (based roughly on a real maritime instrument). Here's how it appears in the book:

"To aid his passage through the complex currents, Gerriod consulted a volvelle, an expensive piece of maritime equipment his father purchased at considerable expense from a Spriggan trader over half a century ago. The volvelle was a map of sorts, an intricate system of revolving copper disks ranging in size. Dependent upon the time of days, the seasons, and his vessel’s position on the vast lake, the volvelle was able to indicate the direction and speed of the brutal currents that lay just below the lake’s surface. It was mid-September – early spring. The disks had been set to accommodate the incredible volume of water cascading down from the mountains to the east. Very few sailors knew how to use a volvelle properly, and even fewer would dare navigate the inner currents of Erras. But Gerriod had been taught by the best and although Gamelyn Blake had long since departed, his son remembered every lesson he ever gave."

Now look at this screengrab from the film.

It's the same bloody idea! Okay, perhaps not exactly the same, but a map made of circular disks to navigate tricky waters!

Now these two coincidences came from a sixty second trailer. God knows what other similarities also exist in the film. On one hand it's made me keen to finish the book as soon as possible, but part of me is actually thinking, "Oh bugger it - it's all too hard." Changing jobs at the start of the year was a great move professionally, but the book has really suffered - it's just stopped.

Now if I seem a tad sensitive on this issue, there's a good reason. About six years ago, I almost finished a book called Taken at the Flood. It was comprised of two books. In one, the protagonist Francis Grimm goes through an intersection as the lights change to red. In the second book he brakes. The two books then chart how Francis' lives unfold from this seemingly trivial moment. I was really pleased with it and was not far from sending it off to publishers to read. And then the film 'Sliding Doors' came out. The entire premise was the same! Even though I didn't particularly like the film, the idea running through it was so appallingly similar to the idea at the heart of the book, I shelved the whole thing and it has stayed in a manila folder ever since!

Maybe I should be a screenwriter instead.