4014: The Power (Radio Remix)
I read through the second half of my draft of TOAD in order to find a name I used... not that I didn't find the name quickly with a simple Ctrl-F, but I got thoroughly sucked into reading what I written.
Boy, have I written a lot of forty-year-old teenagers.
What I find most astonishing about my writing, fiction or otherwise, is how sometimes I'm apparently smarter than I am; e.g., the other day one of my classmates posted something a bit stunning to FB, that we put up with a lot of bullshit from people whom we claim to love/who claim to love us that we wouldn't put up with for a second from people we otherwise don't give a shit about... I wrote that in TOAD two years ago D= [I suppose "smarter" isn't really accurate. I know things--I just forget that I know them.]
But while I think I write some really good things, for some reason I crack up when I read it--even the dead serious stuff. I dunno, it somehow sounds completely cornball, especially since I apparently make teenagers know as much as a forty-year-old would while still being generally oblivious to things a twenty-year-old would know. Or, alternately, I write them as though they're eight... =/ I guess there's a reason people with kids have an easier time writing convincing stuff for that age--even though I'm staging things approximately during the time I was in school, what my co-workers have talked about in recent times [you know, when I HAD co-workers?] suggest that things have changed to where I'm completely out of the loop on what would be interesting to read for the "new" generation.
Or am I better off selling it as a historical document, as it were? =p I keep thinking stories like Bridge to Terabithia will always be relevant, but I have no idea anymore, not with a generation that grew up on the Internet. A co-worker pointed out that the Internet generation already has no appreciation for sending a physical letter in the mail, among other things. Is my book going to be like Holes, a well-written "young adult" book that's really aimed at adults, because they're the ones who'll get it?
[I'm also mortified at certain social elements I wrote in, like the "Twilight emphasizes the importance of finding a boyfriend" joke that's making me annoyingly self-conscious about where my story's going, as hard and regularly as I threw forty-year-old advice columnist into the mix to the point of eye-rolly regurgitation and unconvincing characterization.]
[[but then, that's why it's still a draft]]
It's been some time since I last wrote seriously [in Me Time, anyway--I know folks who've been on a much longer hiatus--but I claim to be a writer and have somewhat less excuse], but I just find myself too depressed to write. FB is giving me hives for a number of reasons, but mostly it's just that anything that seems worth writing about at this point is political in nature [or is about my continued unemployment, which is now related]. I dislike politics primarily because it's so baffling, but also because it's not quite so easy to just pick a side. I want to support #OWS because I currently don't have a job for reasons that feel directly related to what #OWS stands for [I did pay attention at meetings, yes], but I hear things that I don't jive with, and that makes me feel confused about whether it's the side I want. Since there's no single, united voice, it's only natural that some of the voices that come out of ANY such platform are going to be contrary to what I feel.
But then, religion's the same way, so I guess that's why I don't really have one. [Except "mine": "Try your best to live well, and let others do the same."]
At any rate, here are a couple of links I think are closest to what I feel #OWS should be about if somehow it's not:
Open Letter to that 53% Guy--tl;dr: Yes, 53% Guy, you are entitled to be proud that you work hard to earn a living. What we want is NOT to have to work as hard as you do just to scrape by as you do. 40 hours of work a week for a decent wage was established as the standard. Why should anyone work longer for less out of "pride"? You deserve more than that, as does everyone.
What Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About--tl;dr: Lots of charts that show how we're closer to the Great Depression than not, and just how much the 1% has taken from the 99% through crooked means [note: this makes me cry so hard].
My response to the "Not the 99%" pic that gets posted once every ten seconds--tl;dr: You ARE the 99% if you earn less than $350,000/yr, and what we are protesting is the power of the 1% to determine what happens to the rest of us.
The counterpoint to this is the core of what 53% Guy and others are trying to say: "Ultimately, I'm responsible for myself." While this is true, and I agree with it to a point, I resent that my tax money is going straight into the pockets of the 1% instead of back into the system. Really, bailouts that did nothing? Really, lowest income taxes on the richest? Really, putting money into letting women die rather than into giving people jobs, to the point of criminalizing miscarriage [while decriminalizing domestic violence?!]??!
Seriously, this is why I have my head in the sand about a lot of things. Some days, it's all I can do to sleep at night =( This is supposed to be America, where anyone who works hard can earn a decent living, not where anyone who works hard can have everything swept out from under them at the whim of the handful of people who happen to have a shitload more money than almost everyone in America combined.
There are days when I realize things aren't so dire--I personally am closer to the 1% than not--but I have too much empathy for people, and it sickens me that ANYONE should have as difficult a time as to be unemployed for years[!] but willing and physically able to work. [I also don't count on things staying within my realm of understanding--what happens if I'm raped tomorrow and suddenly Bullshit Misogynist Law comes into effect and I'm put on trial for my own raping? FUCK THAT.]
But I think too much, maybe, if the fact that this took me two hours[!!] longer to write than I had planned to spend writing says anything [Holeee Late O'Clock!] >_< As a closer, this is a good mood-lifter:
Boy, have I written a lot of forty-year-old teenagers.
What I find most astonishing about my writing, fiction or otherwise, is how sometimes I'm apparently smarter than I am; e.g., the other day one of my classmates posted something a bit stunning to FB, that we put up with a lot of bullshit from people whom we claim to love/who claim to love us that we wouldn't put up with for a second from people we otherwise don't give a shit about... I wrote that in TOAD two years ago D= [I suppose "smarter" isn't really accurate. I know things--I just forget that I know them.]
But while I think I write some really good things, for some reason I crack up when I read it--even the dead serious stuff. I dunno, it somehow sounds completely cornball, especially since I apparently make teenagers know as much as a forty-year-old would while still being generally oblivious to things a twenty-year-old would know. Or, alternately, I write them as though they're eight... =/ I guess there's a reason people with kids have an easier time writing convincing stuff for that age--even though I'm staging things approximately during the time I was in school, what my co-workers have talked about in recent times [you know, when I HAD co-workers?] suggest that things have changed to where I'm completely out of the loop on what would be interesting to read for the "new" generation.
Or am I better off selling it as a historical document, as it were? =p I keep thinking stories like Bridge to Terabithia will always be relevant, but I have no idea anymore, not with a generation that grew up on the Internet. A co-worker pointed out that the Internet generation already has no appreciation for sending a physical letter in the mail, among other things. Is my book going to be like Holes, a well-written "young adult" book that's really aimed at adults, because they're the ones who'll get it?
[I'm also mortified at certain social elements I wrote in, like the "Twilight emphasizes the importance of finding a boyfriend" joke that's making me annoyingly self-conscious about where my story's going, as hard and regularly as I threw forty-year-old advice columnist into the mix to the point of eye-rolly regurgitation and unconvincing characterization.]
[[but then, that's why it's still a draft]]
It's been some time since I last wrote seriously [in Me Time, anyway--I know folks who've been on a much longer hiatus--but I claim to be a writer and have somewhat less excuse], but I just find myself too depressed to write. FB is giving me hives for a number of reasons, but mostly it's just that anything that seems worth writing about at this point is political in nature [or is about my continued unemployment, which is now related]. I dislike politics primarily because it's so baffling, but also because it's not quite so easy to just pick a side. I want to support #OWS because I currently don't have a job for reasons that feel directly related to what #OWS stands for [I did pay attention at meetings, yes], but I hear things that I don't jive with, and that makes me feel confused about whether it's the side I want. Since there's no single, united voice, it's only natural that some of the voices that come out of ANY such platform are going to be contrary to what I feel.
But then, religion's the same way, so I guess that's why I don't really have one. [Except "mine": "Try your best to live well, and let others do the same."]
At any rate, here are a couple of links I think are closest to what I feel #OWS should be about if somehow it's not:
Open Letter to that 53% Guy--tl;dr: Yes, 53% Guy, you are entitled to be proud that you work hard to earn a living. What we want is NOT to have to work as hard as you do just to scrape by as you do. 40 hours of work a week for a decent wage was established as the standard. Why should anyone work longer for less out of "pride"? You deserve more than that, as does everyone.
What Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About--tl;dr: Lots of charts that show how we're closer to the Great Depression than not, and just how much the 1% has taken from the 99% through crooked means [note: this makes me cry so hard].
My response to the "Not the 99%" pic that gets posted once every ten seconds--tl;dr: You ARE the 99% if you earn less than $350,000/yr, and what we are protesting is the power of the 1% to determine what happens to the rest of us.
The counterpoint to this is the core of what 53% Guy and others are trying to say: "Ultimately, I'm responsible for myself." While this is true, and I agree with it to a point, I resent that my tax money is going straight into the pockets of the 1% instead of back into the system. Really, bailouts that did nothing? Really, lowest income taxes on the richest? Really, putting money into letting women die rather than into giving people jobs, to the point of criminalizing miscarriage [while decriminalizing domestic violence?!]??!
Seriously, this is why I have my head in the sand about a lot of things. Some days, it's all I can do to sleep at night =( This is supposed to be America, where anyone who works hard can earn a decent living, not where anyone who works hard can have everything swept out from under them at the whim of the handful of people who happen to have a shitload more money than almost everyone in America combined.
There are days when I realize things aren't so dire--I personally am closer to the 1% than not--but I have too much empathy for people, and it sickens me that ANYONE should have as difficult a time as to be unemployed for years[!] but willing and physically able to work. [I also don't count on things staying within my realm of understanding--what happens if I'm raped tomorrow and suddenly Bullshit Misogynist Law comes into effect and I'm put on trial for my own raping? FUCK THAT.]
But I think too much, maybe, if the fact that this took me two hours[!!] longer to write than I had planned to spend writing says anything [Holeee Late O'Clock!] >_< As a closer, this is a good mood-lifter: