An epiphany, after a fashion.
(I need a userpic that projects thoughtfulness as opposed to spazzery. Just a sudden thought I decided to share with you all, because why not when I share pretty much everything else already.)
Was driving home from class tonight, jamming out to Lupe Fiasco (because I'm sooooo ghetto, lol), when a lightbulb went off in my head:
I have no idea who Souji, Saitou and the rest of the boys from the Department are when they were at that stage of their lives.
I'm sure you're all going "BWUH?" Allow me to provide background: I've been trying to get back into the rhythm of Capt Mis, and in that spirit I've been going through pretty much everything having even the slightest little bit to do with CM and reading over it. And I have about 20 pages (maybe less) of Souji's story--the long-promised sequel (prequel?) to CM--down in my flash, and it's been bothering me that the beginning won't jive. Like, for years, now, it's been bothering me. The meat of the story isn't a problem, and I have vague ideas about were that plot's (supposed) to go, but getting the boys to the meat...has been fucking hard, and I eventually gave up on messing with it and decided to wait until I was done with CM to go back and tackle that problem.
And then tonight, I was listening to "The Emperor's Soundtrack" off Lupe's most excellent debut record, Food and Liquor, and I thought, 'What a badass song, this makes me want to sketch the boys in their Department days,' and then that got me thinking about our boys...and then I realized that I have no idea who those boys are. Because at that point in their lives, they literally are boys, untried and without the vaguest idea of what awaits them over the next rise. I know Saitou and Souji and Kenshin and even Shinpachi and Harada they way you see them (or hear about them) in CM, but even though I know what made them the way they are, I don't really know who they were Before. And I suppose that's been the problem the whole time, how to attack this beast so that you see how the boys went from boys to men (there's a terribly corny 90s joke in there, by the way). Saitou's a little easier, if only because I wrote "Happily Ever After" and that's a good progression for how he went from then to now, but just barely, because "HEA" deals pretty strictly with the Department, and only peripherally with his family and Yaso.
So I guess I'll have to figure out who our boys are in order to start Souji's story.
And now it's time for me to go back to reading about European conquistadores for my Thursday night class, so I can write my 2-3 page paper on our first official monograph, and hopefully start getting the total 7 I have to do out of the way. TT_TT
...Grad School, why are you such a demon bitch, like hope?
Was driving home from class tonight, jamming out to Lupe Fiasco (because I'm sooooo ghetto, lol), when a lightbulb went off in my head:
I have no idea who Souji, Saitou and the rest of the boys from the Department are when they were at that stage of their lives.
I'm sure you're all going "BWUH?" Allow me to provide background: I've been trying to get back into the rhythm of Capt Mis, and in that spirit I've been going through pretty much everything having even the slightest little bit to do with CM and reading over it. And I have about 20 pages (maybe less) of Souji's story--the long-promised sequel (prequel?) to CM--down in my flash, and it's been bothering me that the beginning won't jive. Like, for years, now, it's been bothering me. The meat of the story isn't a problem, and I have vague ideas about were that plot's (supposed) to go, but getting the boys to the meat...has been fucking hard, and I eventually gave up on messing with it and decided to wait until I was done with CM to go back and tackle that problem.
And then tonight, I was listening to "The Emperor's Soundtrack" off Lupe's most excellent debut record, Food and Liquor, and I thought, 'What a badass song, this makes me want to sketch the boys in their Department days,' and then that got me thinking about our boys...and then I realized that I have no idea who those boys are. Because at that point in their lives, they literally are boys, untried and without the vaguest idea of what awaits them over the next rise. I know Saitou and Souji and Kenshin and even Shinpachi and Harada they way you see them (or hear about them) in CM, but even though I know what made them the way they are, I don't really know who they were Before. And I suppose that's been the problem the whole time, how to attack this beast so that you see how the boys went from boys to men (there's a terribly corny 90s joke in there, by the way). Saitou's a little easier, if only because I wrote "Happily Ever After" and that's a good progression for how he went from then to now, but just barely, because "HEA" deals pretty strictly with the Department, and only peripherally with his family and Yaso.
So I guess I'll have to figure out who our boys are in order to start Souji's story.
And now it's time for me to go back to reading about European conquistadores for my Thursday night class, so I can write my 2-3 page paper on our first official monograph, and hopefully start getting the total 7 I have to do out of the way. TT_TT
...Grad School, why are you such a demon bitch, like hope?