August 2022 Newsletter

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Welcome to the August 2022 edition of author David Claiborne’s newsletter, a monthly publication about disrespecting Islam, and overly supportive friends.

Disrespecting Islam, Profoundly

For some reason, my free trial of Disney+ continues. Having run out of shows and movies I was interested in, I turned to the B list, which included Ms. Marvel. The first two and a half episodes contain a lesson for writers, in that these episodes’ insistence on showcasing Islam and Pakistani culture drags them down pretty significantly. It’s clear what the writers are doing, and it’s not a problem with Islam or Pakistan. It’s a problem with the writing. It’s boring, and transparently opaque, and a good reminder to write stories first, not travelogue as propaganda and ideology.

I’m certain I’ve failed at this precept already as a writer, but I can always grow and learn from someone else’s mistake.

In addition, the writers seem to want their travelogue both ways: elevate Islam while marrying it to some kind of modern progressivism incompatible with Islam’s teachings and traditions. One particular scene encapsulates this sentiment. The scene finds the young heroine, Kamala (n.b. kamela, καμήλα in Greek, means “camel.” I realize her name is Urdu, but I couldn’t help but think for my entire watch through that there was a common linguistic ancestor being ignored) in the lady’s section at the back of the mosque, which as tradition would have it, is separated from the men’s section by a screen. Kamala takes time to scold the Imam passive aggressively for this separation, a nod to modern feminism, which again, is incompatible with the teachings of Islam as they are, and the traditions of the mosque, as they are presented in the show.

This is not the only example of this kind of soft condescension that praises a culture out of one side of its mouth while demanding it conform, or at least make its traditions subservient to liberal sentiment. Kamala also makes sure to let us know she is one of the good religious by mouthing her support for a lesbian couple at her school. A belief, again, that is incompatible with the teachings of Islam.

By inserting these bona fides, far from lifting Islam up as intended, the writers succeed only in being profoundly disrespectful. This kind of work is of value, if that is even the right word, only insofar as it advances a cause that elevates the superficial without even the slightest regard for the underlying philosophy being presented.  

Media does this often, wherein the good religious practitioners are the ones who treat their religion as a hobby, but act and believe just like everyone else ought outside of the church, while the zealots and extremists are the ones who actually practice and believe what their faith teaches.

Stop it.

That Overly Supportive Friend

The first few episodes of Ms. Marvel suffer from another writing problem in the character of Bruno, Kamala’s best friend. Besides it being unlikely that a pair of highly traditional Pakistani parents would support their daughter trapesing about solo with a young man (see previous), Bruno as a character exists only to support Kamala. Every conversation they have is about her, what she’s going to do, what her interests are, her dreams and schemes. As far as the audience knows, his only character trait is his support for the heroine. It’s boring when a female character acts this way toward a male character, it’s boring when a female character acts this way toward another female character, it’s boring when…you get the idea. Because he acts this way, Bruno’s boring, and by association it makes the main character someone whose best friend is a sycophant, and that makes her boring.

To be fair, Bruno does develop into a character that exists for his own sake separate from Kamala in the last couple episodes, but that doesn’t excuse the problems with how he’s written as a character early on.

General Pedantry

Regarding Marvel’s Moon Knight: If you write a scene that takes specific care to update a star map written 2,000 years ago to account for the movement of the stars in the intervening millennia to ensure the location the map points to is not off by several miles, it would also pay to make sure the resulting lines of latitude and longitude are accurate. One degree of latitude and longitude covers sixty (nautical) miles. Being accurate to within one degree only means you have narrowed your search to within roughly 360 square miles, the area bounded by one degree of latitude and longitude. You need to subdivide a degree into minutes and seconds as well, or you’ll be looking for a very long time (most likely).

Various

I’m releasing a teaser of the dedication for my next book, which I borrowed from someone else unknown, unfortunately, otherwise I would give credit:

For my children J and G, without whom my book would already be done.

Speaking of my children, they have their own Youtube channel which you can find here.

The full audiobook for Planet Mission: Part One is up on YouTube now. Go give it a listen. You can subscribe to my channel for free here. 

You can find my Amazon page here.

Follow me on Facebook here.

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In Closing

I’m trying an experiment to put this newsletter up on Youtube as well, this time with film footage instead of just a blank screen and me speaking (which in my defense is appropriate for an audiobook). Look for that to happen in the next few days. Head to my channel there to give a listen/watch and let me know what you think.

David