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Feb. 24th, 2002 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7So, for my English Honors degree, I am instead of the usual 40-page research paper doing a roughly equivalently-extensive creative project. I plan on it being online, or at least computer-based. I have made several hypertexts in the past, but this is far more ambitious than anything I have attempted.
I have decided to do it in the form of a suite of short stories. However, I have many ideas, and no faith that any one idea will be enough. So I have a few I'm going to concentrate on, and I'm wondering which way to go.
Overall, there will be a theme dealing mostly with the idea of self-discovery. I had thought it might be cool to have a range of genres, from my father's nonfiction account of his Vietnam experience to either a science-fiction tale of space piracy or a way-out fantastical tale of dragons and spirit-creatures and sort of magic, with a rare (for me) jaunt into realistic fiction in the middle.
So, what do you all think? You get to vote, since I can make polls. Maybe I'll include this in the thesis too. Whee!
[Poll #20557]
I have decided to do it in the form of a suite of short stories. However, I have many ideas, and no faith that any one idea will be enough. So I have a few I'm going to concentrate on, and I'm wondering which way to go.
Overall, there will be a theme dealing mostly with the idea of self-discovery. I had thought it might be cool to have a range of genres, from my father's nonfiction account of his Vietnam experience to either a science-fiction tale of space piracy or a way-out fantastical tale of dragons and spirit-creatures and sort of magic, with a rare (for me) jaunt into realistic fiction in the middle.
So, what do you all think? You get to vote, since I can make polls. Maybe I'll include this in the thesis too. Whee!
[Poll #20557]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
hee hee
Date: 2002-02-23 09:27 pm (UTC);p
Re: hee hee
Date: 2002-02-23 09:31 pm (UTC)Re: hee hee
Date: 2002-02-24 06:42 am (UTC)No, I'm not writing it from the point of view of a man, because I don't know what the hell I'd do as a man. I need way more research to do that one. I could give her a male name, but it'd still be a woman. YOU write the analagous male viewpoint. Or come here and help me research it. Those are the options.
Re: hee hee
Date: 2002-02-24 06:46 am (UTC)how totally is the point being missed?
Date: 2002-02-24 03:23 pm (UTC)This isn't about sex toys. It's about me figuring out what the hell I want from life, trying to figure out the difference between sexual satisfaction and romantic love.
So, instead of the whole project's theme of self-discovery, I should be replaced with some random guy, discovering... women? Buttplugs? Watching women discover themselves?
I don't get the connection. Dragonlady's right, if you think it's such a good idea, you should do it yourself, because it doesn't make any sense to me.
In fact, it makes so absolutely no sense to me, that i think you HAVE to write it, because obviously this is something that hasn't been explored, and my mind definitely needs to be expanded.
I mean, I don't even KNOW a guy that uses a vibrator to masturbate. Unless they've just never told me... and I know some pretty open guys. Is it that guys do it secretly, and just don't talk about it? But then, they certainly wouldn't write letters about it.
So I just don't see how this would work from a male viewpoint. Dragonlady could ALSO write a story about a man discovering his sexual identity and place in the world and all that, or could write a corollary about a guy's view of the weird shit I'm putting myself through, but... why? Why add another section to an already overambitous thesis? Why put yet more distance between the narrator and the protagonist? The only redeeming merit I can see in my existence as a character is that I am the viewpoint; it's an internal kind of story, and all the changes are in how I see the world, not in the world. Adding another filter, in a man's viewpoint on me, would be pointless, besides which that's only the viewpoint of about 98% of all books, movies, and TV shows.
It's not even like the whole honors thesis is about women. A third or a quarter of it, depending, is from a man's point of view, and doesn't even MENTION women! So... one story is of a young man forming an identity. One story is of a young woman forming an identity. And then the third hasn't been decided yet, but will probably be both a man and a woman, sorting things out together. So having two of them be stories of men would really skew things unfairly towards the male side of things; not that that doesn't ALWAYS friggin' happen, but I don't think that's a reason to go with it.
And don't even say it's because there are so many Bridget Jones' Diaries out there; the first of that genre was the Adrian Mole Diaries, and he was a teenage boy, discovering his sexuality and place in society. So overdone. Not that the female version isn't overdone too, but who's ever written about a woman's relationship with her vibrator? I thought that was a pretty neat twist. But that's enough of a twist. Dragonlady decided to relocate me to a contemporary setting from her original idea of a sci-fi one, because too many twists makes fiction incomprehensible. Making me a man would be an even more arcane twist that would render the story nearly meaningless. I just can't see it.
So, sorry, boy, your vote is rejected from all angles, and I get to stay a woman. As for my name... we'll have to wait for the results on that.
Re: how totally is the point being missed?
Date: 2002-02-24 07:54 pm (UTC)and other people were under the impression that it wasn't actually named "Love Letters To A Vibrator" yet, so they weren't aware that in your opinion that was the title and topic.
Re: PS
Date: 2002-02-24 10:13 pm (UTC)Re: how totally is the point being missed?
Date: 2002-02-24 10:18 pm (UTC)Why are you so keen on me masturbating aggressively or exhibiting "masculine" characteristics? I'm *really* not sure where you're going with that, or why. Please do explain.
See?! Basketball Diaries-- MALE! So guys are always left out, eh?
Thbbtt.
Running away from the debate now? Coward! We have not yet begun to debate!