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Jun. 26th, 2014 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdI'm taking a creative course over the summer for fun.
It's a beginning writing class so it really is just for fun. For me at least.
Our first assignment was to describe an object in detail that meant a lot to us. Or had some
value. We had to make the object come alive. So. This is what I did:
Convention dealer’s halls are always a crowded affair, jammed pack with exhibitors trying to sell things to the convention goers and trying not to buy things themselves. The Wondercon 2011 dealer’s hall is no different. People dressed up as Spider-Man and Wonder Woman to stormtroopers and hobbits and every other possible variation in between wander the seemingly endless rows looking for that one particular comic issue they need or just wishing and sighing for that Enterprise model from the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie series that is way too expensive. (But maybe… maybe on Sunday it’ll be cheap enough to buy… if it hasn’t been bought by someone else first…) Though not deafening the continuous conversation of hundreds of people creates a burbling background noise, almost easy to ignore, once you’ve been in the hall long enough.
Then, as people travel into the back of the hall, something loud and solid thwaks against a table. It’s a sharp cracking noise that should be followed by someone crying out in anguish about a very expensive object having just been broken.
But no, it’s not.
It’s just a person holding a lightsaber in their hands. A lightsaber at a booth full of custom made lightsabers. Lightsabers that could be used in actual combat and not just for display! Of course the booth is crowded. What fan wouldn’t want one?
The booth extols the virtues and differences in their lightsabers versus the licensed sabers. Hand crafted with your choice of hilts made out of galvanized steel – sure they’re not Darth Vader’s lightsaber, but the Gaurdian model is almost like it. Almost. Oh! And you can choose your blade’s color too! You’re not limited to green, blue or red. No, there’s fire orange and adegan silver or sunrider’s destiny!
But what to choose, what to choose… getting “Obi-Wan” or “Luke Skywalker”’s lightsaber might be neat but that’s not quite what you want. You already have those versions, if not in as sturdy a form. No, what you want… what you need is something personal.
Something made just for you.
And something within budget.
There’s no way to justify spending two hundred dollars on a lightsaber when you’re unemployed. But there are some that are sixty dollars. That could be… possibly… doable. Or so you convince yourself.
Black or silver hilt? Dark or light side? Light side. A Jedi. You’ve always wanted to be a Jedi. So, the silver hilts it is. So many designs though. Some are just plain cylinders with rings cut into them. Simple, plain.
Boring.
But here’s one with elegance. It’s still just plain with grooves, but the grooves are colored in gold and there are curves on the hilt that move in like a woman’s body; almost like a hour glass figure. Simple yet refined. It’s not too busy, but it’s still more than just a rod with a light bulb sticking out of one end that you can hit people with. The man at the booth says it’s made so you can use it one handed or two handed in combat.
The next choice is easy. You want orange for the color blade. The Jedi tabletop characters you’ve made always have orange blades and so yours must too. Orange is also different and really makes it your own personal blade. Though you did linger on the silver for a little bit. The Jedi characters eventually brought it back to orange though. And who knows, maybe one day you’ll even get that Jedi outfit done someday.
But that’s in the future. For now blade is inserted into the hilt (one of the short ones, because you don’t want to tip to drag on the ground when you walk) and the money is handed over. The lightsaber feels good in your hands as you swing it around, turning the blade on and off several times and being careful not to hit other convention goers.
Yes. And now may the Force help any Sith that get in your way.
We have a Pretentious College Student Writer in the class who I may smack down if he continues with his possibly well meaning but utterly unacceptable forms of writing subjects. He's going for Shock Value. Unfortunately his Shock Value is just... not shocking. But instead dumb and tired and cliche.
Still, it's been fun nonetheless. Beyond having to wake up at ridiculously early times.
It's a beginning writing class so it really is just for fun. For me at least.
Our first assignment was to describe an object in detail that meant a lot to us. Or had some
value. We had to make the object come alive. So. This is what I did:
Convention dealer’s halls are always a crowded affair, jammed pack with exhibitors trying to sell things to the convention goers and trying not to buy things themselves. The Wondercon 2011 dealer’s hall is no different. People dressed up as Spider-Man and Wonder Woman to stormtroopers and hobbits and every other possible variation in between wander the seemingly endless rows looking for that one particular comic issue they need or just wishing and sighing for that Enterprise model from the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie series that is way too expensive. (But maybe… maybe on Sunday it’ll be cheap enough to buy… if it hasn’t been bought by someone else first…) Though not deafening the continuous conversation of hundreds of people creates a burbling background noise, almost easy to ignore, once you’ve been in the hall long enough.
Then, as people travel into the back of the hall, something loud and solid thwaks against a table. It’s a sharp cracking noise that should be followed by someone crying out in anguish about a very expensive object having just been broken.
But no, it’s not.
It’s just a person holding a lightsaber in their hands. A lightsaber at a booth full of custom made lightsabers. Lightsabers that could be used in actual combat and not just for display! Of course the booth is crowded. What fan wouldn’t want one?
The booth extols the virtues and differences in their lightsabers versus the licensed sabers. Hand crafted with your choice of hilts made out of galvanized steel – sure they’re not Darth Vader’s lightsaber, but the Gaurdian model is almost like it. Almost. Oh! And you can choose your blade’s color too! You’re not limited to green, blue or red. No, there’s fire orange and adegan silver or sunrider’s destiny!
But what to choose, what to choose… getting “Obi-Wan” or “Luke Skywalker”’s lightsaber might be neat but that’s not quite what you want. You already have those versions, if not in as sturdy a form. No, what you want… what you need is something personal.
Something made just for you.
And something within budget.
There’s no way to justify spending two hundred dollars on a lightsaber when you’re unemployed. But there are some that are sixty dollars. That could be… possibly… doable. Or so you convince yourself.
Black or silver hilt? Dark or light side? Light side. A Jedi. You’ve always wanted to be a Jedi. So, the silver hilts it is. So many designs though. Some are just plain cylinders with rings cut into them. Simple, plain.
Boring.
But here’s one with elegance. It’s still just plain with grooves, but the grooves are colored in gold and there are curves on the hilt that move in like a woman’s body; almost like a hour glass figure. Simple yet refined. It’s not too busy, but it’s still more than just a rod with a light bulb sticking out of one end that you can hit people with. The man at the booth says it’s made so you can use it one handed or two handed in combat.
The next choice is easy. You want orange for the color blade. The Jedi tabletop characters you’ve made always have orange blades and so yours must too. Orange is also different and really makes it your own personal blade. Though you did linger on the silver for a little bit. The Jedi characters eventually brought it back to orange though. And who knows, maybe one day you’ll even get that Jedi outfit done someday.
But that’s in the future. For now blade is inserted into the hilt (one of the short ones, because you don’t want to tip to drag on the ground when you walk) and the money is handed over. The lightsaber feels good in your hands as you swing it around, turning the blade on and off several times and being careful not to hit other convention goers.
Yes. And now may the Force help any Sith that get in your way.
We have a Pretentious College Student Writer in the class who I may smack down if he continues with his possibly well meaning but utterly unacceptable forms of writing subjects. He's going for Shock Value. Unfortunately his Shock Value is just... not shocking. But instead dumb and tired and cliche.
Still, it's been fun nonetheless. Beyond having to wake up at ridiculously early times.
