Alongside Night


caroljane

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I have not read this book yet though I keep meaning to, I am predisposed to like it because of its terrific title, which I dare to think better than any of Rand's except maybe We the Living. Is the movie of it coming out anytime soon ? I do know that Schulman met God and have the vague idea that the stresses of trying to get the movie made drove him a little crazy. Is there any info on how it is going I don't know the history.

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Short book good read read it I think it's for free on author's site

--Brant

thank you Brant, I found it and have started reading. is the opening poem Schulman's own do you know? It's good.

I read it decades ago and can't answer your question.

--Brant

ask him

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... thank you Brant, I found it and have started reading. is the opening poem Schulman's own do you know? It's good.

Daunce, I googled the lines "Parallel day By fearful flight In garish gray" and found only Alongside Night (www.alongsidenight.net) to be meaningful. Other hits were not even close.

Like everything, it has its high and low, weak and strong, and it has been many years since I read it. However, I enjoyed it and appreciated the workmanship. Much has stayed with me over the years. But to be certain, I just requested it from my library. (My own copy is in a box of first editions in storage: small apt.) I am finishing Pride and Prejudice now and this will arrive in time to start a new book.

More later from my, but keep us up to date on your reading. Your reflections are always interesing.

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Not much useful information as yet in this thread. Let's correct that:

Alongside Night is indeed downloadable for free, as a 3.1 MB .pdf, at alongsidenight.net. (And, yes, Neil wrote the opening poem, meant to suggest an epigraph, even though it isn't one.)

Neil has at least partial production financing in hand, and has begun principal photography. Some interiors have been shot, including at a TV station. Although some of the casting has been done (including Kevin Sorbo and some who acted in "Lady Magdalene's"), no casting has yet been announced for the two core characters, the teenaged protagonists Elliot and Lorimer.

A release of a first cut is planned for mid-April 2012 at George Mason University in Virginia. This will also be shown at various film-festival events. A more polished version for commercial release is planned for Summer 2012.

Here is his 13 December press release:

Alongside Night, LLC, is now seeking crew, interns, and volunteers for our principal photography of the agorist-themed movie Alongside Night in January and February 2012. Alongside Night is produced, written, and directed by J. Neil Schulman, close ally of Samuel Edward Konkin III, and considered one of the original founders of Agorism.

The film will be a SAG shoot above the line and non-union below the line (because motion-picture craft unions won’t allow their members to work alongside non-union members). Principal photography will be in Nevada.

The producers are seeking crew, interns, and volunteers in the director’s, camera, sound, electrical, art, prop, wardrobe, make-up, transportation, craft services, catering, security, and locations departments. You may also end up in front of the camera, so please tell us of any acting experience.

If you’re looking for an alternative to volunteering for an electoral campaign in the 2012 election year, working on the Alongside Night movie is the prime CounterCampaign opportunity for non-political activists, and needs a lot of the same skills.

The shooting schedule is not yet locked in to days and locations, so please say what your available weeks (or days) are. Prior film set experience is necessary for some, but not all, crew positions. Applicants with driver's licenses in good standing, computer skills and general office experience, construction, painting, electrical, electoral campaigns, student organizing, food, make-up, wardrobe, theatrical, security, first aid, legal, insurance, filling out government forms, adaptability, geniality, enthusiasm, patience, and good people skills are at a premium. Please say also if you are an RV owner and can relocate quickly and easily.

Resumes to the producers at production@jesulu.com

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry not to hear back from Daunce. I got the book from the library and read it. It goes pretty fast. I saw that I mis-remembered what was for me a key scene. The young couple was not merely separated inconveniently, but directed to different areas by computer, and wanted to over-ride that. At that point, the girl attempted to argue via her .32 with silencer. ... Trouble was avoided...

Anyway, it is not a bad story if you like libertarianism in fiction form. I can see the potential for a movie. While the cover I have promised "A Novel of 1999" (written in 1979), it stands up pretty good, as these problems have not, will not, and cannot just go away. The Federal monetary medium continues to weaken. However, the euro is no refuge, despite the prediction in this book that they would enjoy a gold-backed currency.

It is pretty easy to criticize the book, but pointless.

Does anyone else keep a "go bag"? A pre-packed suitcase or similar with survival gear? I don't mean camping gear - unless that's you - but what you might need if you could not come home for a couple of days? I have a couple of these - a civilian bag and a duty bag. One day, we were standing around talking about our survival kits and a supervisor just broke out laughing. "If anything like 9/11 happens again, you are not going to stuck out in the desert. You're going to be trapped in an elevator!" He pulled out a 6-inch pry bar. I never leave home without a Swiss Army Knife, a cigarette lighter, and a silver dollar.

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Michael:

Out of curiosity, why the silver dollar?

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In case the economy collapses while I am out and about.

This one is sealed in an advertiser, a numismatic thing, you know, "encased coins" good luck tokens, etc. I also have another that was holed and I keep it on a fob with a flashdrive I use. A silver dollar is not so such for buying dinner - though there is that - as establshing trust with another libertarian. ... at least, that's my theory... I mean there is a huge underground palace beneath the Ansonia School, is there not?

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Sorry not to hear back from Daunce. I got the book from the library and read it. It goes pretty fast. I saw that I mis-remembered what was for me a key scene. The young couple was not merely separated inconveniently, but directed to different areas by computer, and wanted to over-ride that. At that point, the girl attempted to argue via her .32 with silencer. ... Trouble was avoided...

Anyway, it is not a bad story if you like libertarianism in fiction form. I can see the potential for a movie. While the cover I have promised "A Novel of 1999" (written in 1979), it stands up pretty good, as these problems have not, will not, and cannot just go away. The Federal monetary medium continues to weaken. However, the euro is no refuge, despite the prediction in this book that they would enjoy a gold-backed currency.

It is pretty easy to criticize the book, but pointless.

Does anyone else keep a "go bag"? A pre-packed suitcase or similar with survival gear? I don't mean camping gear - unless that's you - but what you might need if you could not come home for a couple of days? I have a couple of these - a civilian bag and a duty bag. One day, we were standing around talking about our survival kits and a supervisor just broke out laughing. "If anything like 9/11 happens again, you are not going to stuck out in the desert. You're going to be trapped in an elevator!" He pulled out a 6-inch pry bar. I never leave home without a Swiss Army Knife, a cigarette lighter, and a silver dollar.

Sorry not to have reported back. I am having net connection problems again ( and I paid the bill this time!) it is the DSL or something, so cannot read online. Here at the library, as you cn imagine in a Socialist Indoctrination Centre, the only copies of Alongside Night are "reference only" and can't be checked out.

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You can download the whole thing as a PDF.

http://www.pulpless.com/free30/Alongside_Night_free30.pdf

I have been exchanging emails with L. Neil Smith. He has a filming script completed. Shooting has not yet begun, I believe, but he is looking for an April 2012 trailer or teaser. I have seen the script. I have no permission to discuss it - have not asked for it - but I can say (as he has) that this is updated. As the book was written in 1979, some changes were in order. We have cell phones, for instance. His website promises new writing "ripped from the headlines." I have no comment there, but, unless the President is going to be named Walker Obama Romney, it can hardly be more timely.

I do think that the weakest feature is the hype. This is not an "agorist Atlas Shrugged" even though some might want it to be. It is far less ambitious. It is a political novel, but mostly, it is a boy-meets-girl story told amid an economic meltdown leading to an attempted coup. It was Schulman's first novel. I believe that Rainbow Cadenza is a much better work on several levels. Schulman posits consequential changes to society caused by small events now. His characters are deeper. The outcome is not global but personal and therefore realistic and believable.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Doh, indeed. But J. Neil Schulman and L. Neil Smith have noted the coincidence. Schulman wrote Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza. Smith wrote The Probability Broach and a series of books based on that universe, and also some Lando Calrissian novels in the Star Wars universe.

Anyway, I have a PDF of the proposed script for the movie of Alongside Night. I do not have permission to discuss it, but I am greatly impressed. So, we will see what will come of that.

Of the book, much can be said. I call it a romp. The pace is fast with the trajectory marked by clear and memorable scenes. The role of coincidence in fiction is easy to discuss. Certainly, Shakespeare's comedies depend on it. What are the odds that the daughter of the FBI Director is an anarchist? Unlikely, perhaps... What are the odds that there exists a physical underground utopia running on agorist principles here and now? But if we could willingly suspend our disbelief, it would be an interesting ride to take.

On one level, of course, this does not have to be "real" any more than Star Trek or The Time Machine. While mainstream fiction assumes that the present is immutable, science fiction works on the fact that change is inevitable. The questions are only what will change and how? What if... If this goes on... The world Schulman created derives organically from our own here and now.

The characters are a different problem entirely. Like Robert Heinlein (for instance), Schulman delivers not so much different people as different aspects of himself. Amicus alter ego est, I suppose. But that leaves the female characters: only two, Lorimer (daughter of the FBI Director) and the much fainter Catheryn Vreeland, the hero's mother. Classmate Marilyn Danforth, while attractive, and potentially an ally, does not appear after the early classroom scene.

Drawing different characters requires that they have different characteristics; peculiarities of speech are perhaps the easiest to draw upon. Here everyone talks the same. Compare that to Pride and Predjudice. Alongside Night is not a psychological novel. It is a basic boy-meets-girl story (he never loses her), set in the political repression encased in an economic collapse. On this basis, the story is worth the time, given that you share the author's assumptions about the free market and its potentials.

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  • 2 months later...

Not much useful information as yet in this thread. Let's correct that:

Alongside Night is indeed downloadable for free, as a 3.1 MB .pdf, at alongsidenight.net. (And, yes, Neil wrote the opening poem, meant to suggest an epigraph, even though it isn't one.)

Neil has at least partial production financing in hand, and has begun principal photography. Some interiors have been shot, including at a TV station. Although some of the casting has been done (including Kevin Sorbo and some who acted in "Lady Magdalene's"), no casting has yet been announced for the two core characters, the teenaged protagonists Elliot and Lorimer.

A release of a first cut is planned for mid-April 2012 at George Mason University in Virginia. This will also be shown at various film-festival events. A more polished version for commercial release is planned for Summer 2012.

Here is his 13 December press release:

Alongside Night, LLC, is now seeking crew, interns, and volunteers for our principal photography of the agorist-themed movie Alongside Night in January and February 2012. Alongside Night is produced, written, and directed by J. Neil Schulman, close ally of Samuel Edward Konkin III, and considered one of the original founders of Agorism.

The film will be a SAG shoot above the line and non-union below the line (because motion-picture craft unions won’t allow their members to work alongside non-union members). Principal photography will be in Nevada.

The producers are seeking crew, interns, and volunteers in the director’s, camera, sound, electrical, art, prop, wardrobe, make-up, transportation, craft services, catering, security, and locations departments. You may also end up in front of the camera, so please tell us of any acting experience.

If you’re looking for an alternative to volunteering for an electoral campaign in the 2012 election year, working on the Alongside Night movie is the prime CounterCampaign opportunity for non-political activists, and needs a lot of the same skills.

The shooting schedule is not yet locked in to days and locations, so please say what your available weeks (or days) are. Prior film set experience is necessary for some, but not all, crew positions. Applicants with driver's licenses in good standing, computer skills and general office experience, construction, painting, electrical, electoral campaigns, student organizing, food, make-up, wardrobe, theatrical, security, first aid, legal, insurance, filling out government forms, adaptability, geniality, enthusiasm, patience, and good people skills are at a premium. Please say also if you are an RV owner and can relocate quickly and easily.

Resumes to the producers at production@jesulu.com

Not Steve's last.

--Brant

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  • 1 year later...

Alongside Night has been completed and will be released. From Liberty's Outlook newsletter of the Liberty Coin Service of Lansing, Michigan, for March 5, 2014:


Alongside Night is the story of the final economic collapse of the United States government, a collapse brought on through quantitative easing, in- ability to sharply reduce government expenditures, violations of civil rights and liberties, and the outlawing of the owner- ship of gold. The movie is experienced through the eyes of 16-year old Elliott Vreeland, searching for his missing Nobel laureate economist father (played by Kevin Sorbo). He is accompanied by the mysterious teenager “Lorimer” whom Elliott meets in a black-market underground, whose own father might be the reason Elliott’s father is missing.

Kevin Sorbo is most famous for playing the roles of Hercules and Captain Dylan Hunt in long running television series. The cast also includes Said Faraj (Green Zone), Jake Busey (Starship Troopers and Contact), Tim Russ and Garrett Wang (both regular cast members of Star Trek: Voyager), Gary Graham (Alien Nation), Valence Thomas (Men In Black 3), and introduces Christian Kramme as Elliott Vreeland. The movie also features actor Eric Colton playing Elliott’s best friend. Colton was born in Michigan and is a 2006 graduate of Michigan State University.

In the movie, Liberty Coin Service has a cameo appearance as a kiosk store in an underground free market mall, staffed by LCS Senior Numismatist Tom Coulson. Four other LCS people have bit parts in the film.

The private issue Gold Liberties used in the movie (and in real life) were provided by “LibertyCoinService.com.”

Lansing television station WILX NBC 10 and Lansing radio station 1320 WILS get credits in the film for services they contributed to the production. LCS Gen- eral Manager Pat Heller is an Executive Producer. Alongside Night author J. Neil Schulman wrote the screenplay, acted in the film, and served as director and producer. Schulman’s daughter, Soleil O’Neal-Schulman sings the haunting theme song, which you hear when you view the trailer.

The IMDB write-up is here.

The YouTube trailer is here.

Schulman produced a new trailer, also. Here.

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Alongside Night release dates for Lansing are April 29 and 30. Liberty Coin Service has arranged for the striking of gold Liberties to celebrate the event. www.tugg.com, register, pick three likely theaters and leave the rest to them. You get a direct commission on ticket sales (75 minimum) and, of course, you can market your event any way you want on top of that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alongside Night is coming to Austin. The date is June 11, 2014, and the theater is the AMC Barton Springs. I found the distributors at Tugg.com very easy to work with. They have every incentive to help make this a success. If you want to see the movie for yourself and 74 friends, this is easy to arrange at a theater near you. In Lansing, they had a gold coin promotion for opening night. I am working through some similar arrangements now and I will have more on that later. If you enjoyed the book and want to see the movie and appreciate an entrepreneurial opportunity, this is as easy as it gets.



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  • 1 month later...

The date was finalized for June 18. J. Neil Schulman will be for the screening. He is staying over a day for dinner with the director and an autograph party at Brave New Books.

The Facebook Page here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alongside-Night-in-Austin/780709625286872

The Event page here:

http://www.tugg.com/events/9089

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  • 9 months later...

“I like to say I live between Art Bell and the brothels,” jokes Pahrump-based filmmaker J. Neil Schulman, whose second feature, Alongside Night, is pitched somewhere in that same middle ground. Based on Schulman’s own 1979 novel, which was praised by the likes of Ron Paul and Glenn Beck (but also A Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess), Alongside Night is an unabashedly political sci-fi thriller, a libertarian manifesto that recalls Atlas Shrugged—both Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel and the recent movie trilogy.

“Alongside Night is in many ways far more radical than Atlas Shrugged, and has roots in anarchism as much as anything else,” Schulman explains, although he’s happy to name Rand as one of his many literary influences (along with everyone from Robert Heinlein to J.D. Salinger).

http://lasvegasweekly.com/ae/film/2015/mar/05/j-neil-schulmans-alongside-night-forefront-liberta/

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