Doomed Teddy Bear Love
I love great storytelling but also great music and here’s a little video that does both.
It’s incredible that in such a short space of time you can glean so much of what’s going on in this tale of teddy bear love as the world ends (yeah – you read that right).
Music’s something I’ve struggled to work into the books. In Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London there is an alien playing an instrument that creates music through electrical currents, not so it’s heard through the ears but through a sixth electromagnetic sense that enables Johnny to listen. And sometimes he’s thinking of songs when building up a current himself, waiting to unleash it for some purpose or other. But I’d like to have done more in this vein.
The Dears from Montreal make some achingly beautiful music and do a great show if you ever get to see them live. Some readers may know that I’ve occasionally scripted music and entertainment TV shows.
There was a time when it looked about to break into the big time and even performed this track, 22: The Death of All Romance, on Jonathan Ross (who I’ve also written for but that’s another story), but the buzz about them seems to have faded for now.
As well as the actual song I love this video for the brilliance of the story-telling. In just a few short clips we understand how the world is about to end, how this teddy bear somehow came to be alive and found love in the toy factory and, when his girlfriend was bought and then he discarded, how he fell upon hard times. The song is about breakups and the video shows the world literally falling apart with everything appearing lost – it’s as brutal as the end of a romance can be.
In the video, at least the bear sees his one true love and will do anything to find and save her. In the grid patterns of North American cities, she’s only a couple of blocks away, but his attempt is doomed. Readers of my books will know I’m not necessarily into happy endings, but I’ve not written anything quite so bleak and desolate as this one. If you think about the story-telling, it starts in the present and then through clever flashbacks brings us up to speed. Then we follow the remainder of events as they unfold – it’s classic cinema technique.
You might guess that with a title like Battle for Earth the new Johnny Mackintosh book may also depict the end of the world. You’ll have to read it to find out.
Keith Mansfield
Keith Mansfield was a long-time Publisher for the Pearson group and worked for the Oxford University Press. He has scripted several shows for ITV. He lives in East London. Visit the author online at keithmansfield.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @KeithMansfield
Keith is currently on a Blog Tour! This is his first stop, and tomorrow he is over at The Book Zone.
