The brain can find any way to question the life choices of its vessel. You could be happily skipping down the street without a care in the world and your brain might suddenly shout, “Hey! What if you’re a low-life piece of garbage? Have you considered that possibility?” Things like that often creep into my… Continue reading George Langelaan, Marie-Louise von Franz, and Self-Doubt
I'm still working on the automaton story, temporarily titled Pistol Pete. It’s about an inventor who’s found dead inside a locked room—one that’s constantly watched. No one else is inside, so suspicion falls on the only possible culprit: his cowboy automaton. I've also been mulling over a second story about a multiple murderer. This killer… Continue reading July 24, 2025 Update
I recently read Boris Akunin’s Murder on the Leviathan. It’s as good an Agatha Christie pastiche as you’re likely to find: a closed-circle mystery with an international cast, full of elegant clues, class tensions, and the familiar contrast between social decorum and violence. Akunin writes in lucid, accessible prose that keeps the narrative crystal clear.… Continue reading 7-5-25
The precise difference between story and plot changes depending on your source. A friend of mine once said that story contains all the meaning—theme, character, the DNA of a work’s soul. Plot, he claimed, is just the roadmap. I didn’t argue. I like maps. I'm a plothead. The idea that one bad decision could destroy… Continue reading Story vs Plot
Sherlock Jr (1924) Sherlock Jr. (1924) is a dazzling showcase of Buster Keaton’s inventive brilliance, blending slapstick, surrealism, and cinematic sleight-of-hand into a compact, breathless marvel. As a projectionist who dreams himself into a detective film, Keaton uses groundbreaking visual tricks—seamless edits, dream logic transitions, and meta-movie magic—to explore the boundary between film and reality.… Continue reading My Favorite Films of the 1920s
James Scott Byrnside 