A Confession of Error
First off, let me set the background. There’s pop culture things I manage to ride the crest of (I’m right up there with The Mandalorian for example, and am anxiously waiting for the season finale tomorrow), and some that I don’t get to for a very long time. (I have yet to see any of the Matrix films). There’s no real reason for this; it’s just a matter of taste and circumstance.
This brings me to the Bourne movies. I finally got around to watching those, mainly as they’re leaving Netflix at the end of this month. I watched The Bourne Identity and liked it very much, so last weekend I started The Bourne Supremacy. If you haven’t seen these, a brief catch-up: Jason Bourne is this guy who got amnesia in the first movie, and although he can’t remember who he is, he realizes he can do all sorts of cool fight moves, figure out escape tricks, speak various languages at whim, etc. Also he finds a passport with his picture and the name Jason Bourne, so he goes with that. It turns out that he’s an elite assassin working with a super-secret CIA program, only things went wrong, hence the amnesia, and now he’s on the run and they’re trying to track him down and get rid of him. The movie plays out from there.
In The Bourne Supremacy the guy’s hiding out in India for a while and thinks he’s safe, but (spoiler) things happen and he decides he’s going to go back and rain wrath down on the people who lead this super-secret program. He gets as far as Italy, hits customs, and pulls out his passport with his Jason Bourne name. This immediately set off a flag, because, oops, he’s on the grid, and soon the police and the local CIA guys come swarming in.
Here’s what I wrongly assumed. I figured Jason was an idiot at this point. I failed to read the genre and thus, figured he’d blundered right into a trap. I mean, if I were an elite assassin on the run, I’d at least try to get fake documents, right? I wouldn’t go around flashing my real name so the CIA can come swooping in and get me, right? This is basic spy-movie stuff.
Then I realized. The guy wanted to get caught. And of course once he was, he promptly knocks out some guards, hacks the system, and away he goes. I should’ve known. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Progress on the Novel
Word count is currently 2333. I have so far introduced Roger the angel, an unnamed giant who’ll be the big bad (quite literally) of the story, and the McGuffin, a sword named Peregrinth. Still working out the plot. Someone’s got to be wielding the sword in order to stab it into the giant, after all. I’ve also killed off someone, and I need to decide if I’m going to specify where they end up. I may leave that to the reader’s imagination, honestly.
As a bit of explanation, my theological world is basically Touched by an Angel meets Dante, with some elements of my own design. W.I.N.G, the angel organization that tracks people across various worlds and/or timelines, is mine. The idea of the halo and shoulder/glow was inspired by the Roma Downey show. The structure of the Bad Place was Dante. Besides which, I just think angels are interesting.
Closing Time
Here’s a completely unrelated yet interesting fact: Lenore Zann is both the voice of Rogue in X-Men: The Animated Series and a Canadian politician who represented the riding of Cumberland—Colchester in the Canadian House of Commons. So, you know, file that away in case you're ever on Jeopardy and the category is Canadian voice actresses turned politicians.