Writing OUT OF COMPETITION – part two: the prophecy

In the spirit of James Joyce’s explanation of how he wrote Ulysses, I’ll explain some of the writing markers I used in the writing of Out of Competition.

Out of Competition is my own private reversal of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

Out of Competition foresees unfolding history in the 21st century.

Fortuitously, my novel is prophetic of 21st century events and cultural happenings on multi-levels. If anyone doubts my prophecy claims, written in shorthand here, I have digital-copy demonstrating what I’m saying.

In 2010, after reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, I decided on a Russian invasion of a French Film Festival as the story basis for a novel.

Instead of a monumentally-misguided Napoleon in the summer, fall, winter of 1812 blundering his way into and around Russia for six months, Out of Competition‘s Russian characters invade/blunder into a Riviera film festival one fortnight in spring in the near future.

My mind unconsciously led me to the subject of democracy. Even while writing up this subject I never consciously thought or believed that Democracy, its processes and institutions, were truly at risk in a developed country like the United States.

The Prophecies:

In 2014 and in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.

Writing Out of Competition descriptions of young people marching for change and street violence appeared early, and were mirrored by later Black Lives Matter marches. I had no conscious idea these protests would explode during Trump 1. I didn’t know there would be gilet jaune protests in France either. I didn’t foresee the current protest anger against the French government.

While writing this novel I never thought the United States could be so fragile. Yet, we have witnessed American democracy disintegrate in the hands of an unqualified president, with disqualifying insurrection charges against him suppressed by the Supreme Court’s deliberate ignoring of section 3 of the 14th Amendment in the American Constitution.

In 2019-20, I completed the first-draft of a storyline based on my proposition that democracy is fundamental to the operation of an enlightened film festival, because in my view, if a culture, at all levels, does not meaningfully support democracy then democratic principles and processes are undermined throughout a nation.

The prophetic nature of my novel culminates in the denouement. Writing in 2021, one character, Merryl, manages an extraordinary 2 billion dollar box-office success after her written/directed Reinvasion of the Body Snatchers goes worldwide. In 2021, I hadn’t even heard of Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s plans for making Barbie. The first I knew of their film was in 2023.

August 11, 2025October 18, 2025

Do we want to see Democracy die in America?

My current novel’s main theme was always Democracy from the earliest days I began to write it, but several years ago, deep in the writing I didn’t foresee how important Democracy would become in this era.

I decided early, writing ‘Out of Competition’ set in a film festival, that it would be comic because while I believed all processes of democracy could be better promoted everywhere I never foresaw democracy facing a serious existential threat.

Democracy has always been a major part of my life. My father was in the second world war so democracy always figured in my consciousness, and while I have never experienced totalitarianism I understood it wasn’t the way of the west, or a real threat, until now.

I never thought not even after the murder of John F. Kennedy that a U.S. president, however he got into power would try to destroy democracy in order to cling to power.

Democracy has never been perfect. It’s been manipulated, not just in the United States but its demise in the US, UK, France, Canada, Australia, or any western European nation is unthinkable. Democracy remains fundamental, especially in America.

The world is watching. Everything American was once received well. Cultural power is real. John F. Kennedy understood this.

These times need courage, unity, political skill.

October 29, 2021May 1, 2025

73 Films

Oliver Stone’s film Alexander shows the power of war as a means to extend power. With JFK, Stone followed and unravelled at least part of the story of how Jack Kennedy – who began a process of rolling back war as the means for the extending and using power exporting America’s cultural power peacefully – was brutally cut down in his prime.