Hello, friends!

For my birthday, I went to the theater this weekend—and boy howdy, it felt good. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the theater experience.

Here’s another fun tidbit: most nights, I read to my wife. She really enjoys it, and it’s the one way I was able to get her to finally try Way of Kings—and she got hooked. I highly recommend finding someone to give this a try with, particularly if they are willing to let you read them a book that they’ve never read before, but you have. Watching your audience’s expressions as you get to key moments is such a delightful experience.

(Unfortunately, I forgot to read Warbreaker to her between Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, so a very particular… reveal… didn’t land as I wish it had.)

Also… Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Happy Independence Day! I love my nation; I love the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; I love the practices, principles, and values enshrined in those documents; and I pray for continued peace and prosperity in the US of A.

Bloggyness Review—Inside Out 2

I really liked Inside Out. It was a cute movie, had emotionally compelling characters (ironic, in a way?… Or on the nose?), the animation was solid, etc, etc. Pixar doesn’t put out masterpiece after masterpiece anymore—well, not like people remember, whether that was ever accurate or not—but I think Inside Out deserved a spot as one of the greats. Give it time and people will remember it with movies like Monsters, Inc. (Probably not Toy Story, though, which has the benefit of being both an iconic movie and completely revolutionary in the field of animation.)

But when I saw the first teaser for Inside Out 2, the only thing that came to my mind was…

Is this a movie I needed? Is this a movie I even wanted? Did I trust that this would be a sequel that would justify its own existence? Pixar has a pretty mixed track record for follow-ups (sequels and prequels). Toy Story 3 is the excellence exception: more often we end up with blandness or disappointment—a la Monsters University or Cars 2—or completely forgettable, maybe-rushed-or-forced rehashes that might be acceptable for other companies but just doesn’t work from Pixar—Incredibles 2.

I like that Pixar’s thing is—was, mostly—new ideas. Not enough companies do that anymore.

In addition, it was hard to imagine where such a movie would go. Yes, Riley (the… setting?… of the first movie) was only about ten in Inside Out, and there’s a lot of life that comes after that… But the point of Inside Out was more the emotions and their love for Riley than anything else, right? Everything that happens to Riley on the outside mostly exists to drive what’s happening on the inside, from a story perspective.

Well, new emotions had to be introduced, obviously. Anxiety! Boredom! Ennui! Envy! Emotions that, apparently, don’t exist in children until they hit puberty, and at some point go away (since they weren’t in Mom’s or Dad’s heads in the first movie). That will make for a compelling movie… right?

Turns out, yes! In this instance, anyway. And not those elements alone, no. A lot more than just that was necessary to make things sing.

Here’s the gist of the plot: Riley, now thirteen (and at the end of middle school), gets an opportunity to practice hockey with some high schoolers at a hockey camp. She is stoked out of her mind about this opportunity, even though it threatens to put a wedge between her and her best friends. Unfortunately for her, she starts puberty at the same time, causing new emotions to get introduced into her headspace, inciting a lot of trouble as she tries to figure herself out over the course of three days of hockey camp. (A lot of life experience happens to this girl in a very short period of time.)

While watching, this movie had me nervous at the beginning. This feeling came from a lot of little details. For example, Joy (Riley’s principle emotion) made Riley sound like a perfect kid (initially), and it was annoying, and it didn’t promise interesting or well-rounded characterization. The movie’s simplistic (and 100% circumstance-based) approach to how Riley became the person she is appeared to be uninspired and one-sided—almost suggested that we have no agency as people. The emotions each had a full range of their own emotions… which felt really weird. And so forth. Lots of little stuff like that made me wonder if the writers knew what they were doing.

Well, they did! No spoilers, but every item I mentioned above gets addressed and used to more deeply flesh things out, meaning pretty much every problem I had was actually setup that was paid off. I only saw them as problems because I don’t trust modern Disney (or Hollywood at large).

Inside Out 2 excellently presents a period of intense growth and transition in Riley’s life, a time where she changes from a comparatively simple preteen into a much more complicated and developed early teenager (though, of course, with room to grow still). It shows good and bad in Riley, and how all of those parts are important to create the whole. You see sorrow and joy, angst and peace, and I, at least, very easily connected with what Riley was going through and really felt it along with her. I haven’t had any of the specific experiences she’s had, but the principle of the universal specific worked really well here.

The movie also, interestingly enough, could be seen as a three-day building panic attack, with most of the focus being on the inside emotions battling each other, setting up the eventual breakdown. There’s a lot more to Inside Out 2 than that, but it still was very interesting to see how thoroughly the movie explored the negative aspects of emotions like anxiety, while still very carefully leaving space for those emotions to be productive, healthy, and useful (when applied with a very light touch) after everything gets resolved.

Also, as someone who, if we pretended anything about the Inside Out universe was accurate to reality, imagines Anger would be his principle emotion taking lead of the pack, I really liked how we got a lot more Anger in this movie than the last.

I don’t want an Inside Out 3. I don’t believe that Pixar will repeat the magic a third time, at least not in the Inside Out movies. But I am glad, despite my pessimism, that Inside Out 2 was made, that I watched it, and that I found it very emotionally compelling. I’d recommend watching it, and doing so in theaters. That said, this movie doesn’t have the kind of spectacle that, in my mind, makes a theater experience a requirement, just a nicety.

Discussions—Reading Formats

I bought a reMarkable a little while ago and I love it. I immediately condensed everything I could into that tablet—my journals, my writing notebooks, life planning, scheduling, etc. I love the almost-paper feel and the distractions-free experience. I also put a bunch of ebooks on it, thinking that would be my new go-to for reading.

I was so wrong.

The reMarkable is not convenient for reading. It’s a lot bigger and heavier than a Kindle is, and it takes a lot more movement to switch pages than in a Kindle. Over time, I found myself reading less and less while relying on the reMarkable as my primary “book.” But as soon as I switched back to using the Kindle as my primary “book,” I immediately found an uptick in my reading time.

No big insights here. I’m just curious how much evolving formats have shaped my other habits. For example, on paper (pun intended) I prefer reading from physical books, but I largely read ebooks because they are cheaper to purchase and I can carry as many as I want in a device smaller and lighter than most physical books. I’m curious how switching from being a primarily physical book reader to a primarily ebook reader changed other habits as well. My spending habits certainly altered—it’s way easier to justify a $2.99 ebook purchase than a $15–30 paperback/hardcover purchase, especially on an author I haven’t read before. And, since I like owning, lower prices make me more likely to buy than go to the library, thus changing my library habits.

Just about anything in life can be looked at in this view. As I grew up and found myself on the go more, I had less and less time for video games—until I got a Switch and could start taking games with me (and found one or two phone apps that I really enjoyed, that were more than just brain-rotting money-drains). I don’t think I’ll ever change movie or television format away from a real TV screen, though. Laptops and phones are too small. Hurts my eyes. And I like spectacle, which only a bigger screen can provide.

Writing Updates

Hazel Halfwhisker is in a good place. I’ve edited my way through about 112 pages of a (currently) 200-page manuscript, and I’m probably another 30-50 pages away from spending my time mostly focused on writing new story, rather than revising existing story. I’m taking my time, but not wasting or misusing time; quality over speed, but that doesn’t mean timeliness should be ignored, which helps keep me motivated. I’m still confident that the book will be able to be published next year—which does mean I’m going to wildly miss my goal of Kickstarting publishing it this year, but oh well.

I was feeling concerned about the growing word count of this novel—I predict it will be around 200k words when finished. I dunno, that felt like a lot. But then I did some research, and 200k is a pretty reasonable word count for epic fantasy. Some authors go higher or lower, and a lot of modern editors and publishers prefer lower (but I’m self-publishing, so that latter group can stick it). Readers appear to still like longer books—readers in the market for epic, that is. And my goal is epic, so I’ll just need to deliver.

(I mostly read epic fantasy, so I somewhat surprised myself by not having a feel for how long those books usually are. I am a fast reader, when I get the chance to sit down and read, which I think causes me to feel that books are shorter than they are.)

Send-Off

I hope your Independence Day is excellent, filled with reflection, family, food, and explosive entertainment!

Have you seen Inside Out 2? What were your thoughts?

Do you prefer reading physical or ebook? If ebook, what’s your preferred reader? Why?