therealljidol week 26: the goal is zero

Jul 31, 2017 17:38

You don’t know what pulled you to the Night Market to begin with. A desire to step outside of yourself, maybe, to be someone else for just a night ( Read more... )

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Comments 22

halfshellvenus August 3 2017, 20:44:41 UTC
I thought you weren't writing this season! Now my previous comment probably seems especially weird. ;)

I enjoyed seeing aspects of this setting in your earlier stories, and yet this approach was wholly unexpected. The idea of voluntarily choosing to enter the fae world is unusual, but to be kicked out of it and unable to go back-- and to want to, so very, very desperately-- is not a story I've seen told before.

I don't see it as being entirely like an addition-recovery group. If food tastes like ash and there's a hole in your heart, you were altered... and I think there is a lot more faith required that it will ever get better. It did, for the narrator (and oh so slowly), but that is a long, long time to wait for food to be desirable and for the longing of the market to die.

Really terrific job on this one.

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j0ydivided August 4 2017, 21:10:58 UTC
Heh. Shh -- not so loud, everyone will figure it out! :)

(You're the first, actually -- I've deliberately kept quiet because I didn't want there to be a lot of fanfare about being in Idol -- and I knew I was taking a risk, writing this piece this week, so.)

i wasn't planning on doing it, but then Gary sent me an email and let me know that I was almost at a hundred weeks and did I perhaps want to hit that arbitrary milestone, to which I went, "ah, fuck", and signed up.

(I hit 100 weeks a few weeks ago. No celebratory post, because that would have meant outing me. :P )

Anyway, thank you! I was thinking mostly of the aftereffects of having taken too much MDMA -- it causes pretty massive depression that it takes years to climb out of as the brain has to learn to eventually correct itself. I probably could have been clearer with that. :)

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halfshellvenus August 4 2017, 23:56:37 UTC
Those arbitrary goals have sucked me back into this game again and again, and that one would be irresistible!

Well, this is better than my kneejerk thought, which was,"Plagiarism! Must avenge friend's artistry!" And then I thought, "Wait..."

The other aspect is that, while I know hardly anyone writes as slowly as I do, you have had a lot going on-- and it's been a really tough time. So I'm back to wondering how you manage to juggle all of this, and how you manage to squeeze out that creativity on top of everything else!

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murielle August 3 2017, 22:02:48 UTC
Wonderful! I confess my first attempt to read was difficult. I think it was me, though. I got up did things then came back and started again...Wonderful! I'm so glad I stuck with it, because I would have missed this elegantly drawn battle. Absolutely wonderful!

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j0ydivided August 4 2017, 21:11:59 UTC
Thank you!

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bleodswean August 4 2017, 15:23:00 UTC
This is a well-drawn analogy for addiction and recovery and would make a really fantastic longer piece! The longing is palatable and the confusion wrought by that longing relatable.

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j0ydivided August 4 2017, 21:12:23 UTC
Thank you! The whole idea/world is something I've thought about expanding before -- if only I had the time. Alas. :)

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swirlsofblue August 4 2017, 20:01:11 UTC
Oh wow, this allegory is so beautifully done, absolutely love it. The concept here is awesome, love the whole idea of the Market addiction, and the longing described is so visceral and brilliantly put, also love the way you depict the journey of her getting better and finally turning away from temptation. Awesome use of the prompt.

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j0ydivided August 4 2017, 21:12:50 UTC
Thank you!

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flipflop_diva August 4 2017, 20:08:23 UTC
This was a really great read. I felt for the narrator so much and couldn't stop reading to see what happens next to her. It was so painful and sad to watch her try to regain her life, and I really expected her to go back at the end. I'm glad she made the choice she did.

(I also love how it's an analogy to addiction and recovery but yet it didn't really feel like that when reading. It felt like a fairy tale where the happy end came first and then the rest began.)

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j0ydivided August 4 2017, 21:15:11 UTC
Thank you! I thought about having her make the choice to go back, in the end, but she'd fought for so much, it felt like a betrayal to give in and have her surrender to the Night Market after all. :)

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