larkin
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Posts posted by larkin
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ncpp (not a cut and paste piece)
In the US, the attack on Pearl Harbor is never forgotten. Every year on December 7, there is an national observance of those who lost their lives.
But there is another day of observance held in the rest of the world but never in the US. That is August 6, 1945. This was the day that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima resulting in 120,000 lives and by today's standards, it was a rather small bomb.
This is not to lay blame nor am I suggesting we forego observing 12/7/41. what is now called, Pearl Harbor Day.
Acknowledging August 6th 1945 doesn't mean anyone was right or wrong but it calls attention the significance of an event that from that day forward, has had an affect on all civilization and we must be reminded ourselves that the threat is enjoying an ominous resurgence on the world stage.
Pearl Harbor is important to Americans and should remain so, but in the scheme of the human experience it doesn't count for much. This not true for the threat of mutually assured destruction.
To maintain ties between these two events means that Japan got what they deserved for the attack on Pearl Harbor and since the US and Japan have been friends and partners for 70 years, this is hardly a constructive way forward.
The US is reluctant to revise its view on history because it reserves the right to unquestioningly support the use of these weapons even without prior attack and on nations that do not necessarily possess nuclear weapons. This will and is, provoking a reinitiation of the nuclear arms race that will be more frightening than anything the cold war ever had to offer. -
I've been known to use the improper contraction, "so's" So's we don't get caught..
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Here is a discussion of subtext that makes points applicable to written stories as well as screenplays.
R
Would David Mamet's, "Glenn Gary, Glen Ross", be a good example of dialog that appears to do a lot of telling but is actually showing the depths and motives of an unsavory personalities?
Not everyone can write like Mamet.
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100 years ago I saw a Rod Stieger film cost-staring John Philip Law as, the new enlistee in the army. The film called the "Sergeant" was about a closet-case boot camp sergeant who becomes obsessed with the young recruit, the oblivious John Philip Law. At the end, the crazed sergeant plants a kiss on the recruits mouth amid loud and chaotic, horror movie music. Then Rod Stieger runs off and kills himself..
There was no rating system at that time and I saw it as a frightened, middle-school student. I think we have come a long way since then..
I am learning that this is an ongoing debate here and I do not wish to rehash it all but only to politely state my own case and a willingness on my part to be influenced by advances made by authors here.
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Rutabaga, It can't be that simple...Is that where you start?
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Some people take a kernel of an idea and fashion it into a story. They design a set and setting and populate it with principal characters.
From there they might outline and organize it's structure and then begin to write.
Try as I might, I can't seem to do this. I can visualize characters of moderate depth. I can construct a place in time out of history or my own life, I can cultivate and interesting style, but the idea of a story eludes me. The few successes I've had were stories that have arose out of my unconscious during the writing process. This is something that you cannot do on command and when I try it mostly results in failure.
What do you do?
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Ok, I get it, we've replaced nudity and beauty with toilet humor...
Am I the only one who misses Milkboys?
never mind, I understand...
My picture morgue has lost its URLS
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I gave it to him to shut him up. This was years ago. Not my kind of editor. I don't write porn. I write stories.
If you had refused, I would agree. You should be true to yourself.
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I don't write porn either. I just include what the characters in my stories are motivated by and very often that is sex.
Just because gay men can now marry doesn't mean that they will all settle down by the hearth.
For the most part they will still be inclined to ramble because that is an inherent aspect of male sexuality and for many it is that passion that drives them. And for some, it fuels creativity.
I no longer want to pander to the wankers as I felt compelled to do on Nifty and I am making an effort to rein in my excesses.
However I am not prepared to completely disassociate myself from investigating sexual elements of relationships because they carry a lot more weight than anyone gives them credit for. Not so much in my own life nowadays, but there was a time when it was right up there with food and shelter.
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You're are right. The author has an easy and intelligent writing style. An accountant and a software coder meeting in some anonymous city. They are commuters and it is one of those chance meetings that can sometimes result in love.
This bears little resemblance to my own ignominious and clandestine encounters but the fact that this story continues to hold my interest says a lot.
Only to part 5 so I'll reserve further comment.
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Sweet story.
We all should be so lucky.
You need to employ a little subterfuge.
It's such a pity to be out of sync.
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Bruin, must you be so nice to everyone?
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What happens behind closed doors is not my concern. One editor I had wanted me to write in a sex scene. I gave him a stroker bit and then deleted it. It didn't belong in this story.
If it didn't belong in the story, you did the right thing..
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Political language is .....designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to the pure wind.
George Orwell.
This piece from the BBC Magazine has all the earmarks of a political smear for the purpose of discrediting a set of competing ideas that are crucial at this very time.
It is possible that Americans are not even reading Orwell these days so this article would have no purpose in the States.
I found this article that challenges the BBC's position.
http://www.orwellsociety.com/the-orwellself-spat-what-it-reveals-about-contemporary-culture/
http://www.orwellsociety.com/category/orwell-work/page/2/
Is the BBC falling under the influence of the Media Giants?
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These flash stories are all part of an early series with similar themes
The Social Worker
By LarkinIt seems like I have been here forever just waiting and waiting. I saw my Mom talking to some people out in the hall and I saw Danny's Parents walk by but I didn't see Danny anywhere. He must be here too otherwise why would his parents be here? A policeman came and brought me down the hall to another room. He shut the door and left.
The room had a few chairs and a table and curiously, no windows. To say I was worried would be an understatement, but why? There was a large clock on the wall like the ones in schools. It just didn't seem to move at all. If it did it moved very very slow. There was a large mirror on the wall. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out.
Finally the door opened. I looked up and saw a tall woman carrying a brief case and a stack of folders. She came in and put her stuff down by one of the chairs. She was very pretty and dressed more formal than any of my teachers. She looked at me and gave me a warm smile and started organizing some papers and forms in front of her.
After she had gotten everything straight she gave me a big smile and said, "You must be Francis. Is that what they call you at school?"
I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Sometimes."
"So what else do they call you?"
I said "Francis."
"You mean you don't have a nick name or something like that?"
Normally, I wouldn't care but she was embarrassing me.
"Sometimes they call me Dusty, but maybe you could call me Francis if it is alright with you."
I like to reserve my nickname, Dusty just for my friends.
She was puzzled at my response. She told me her name was Dianne Carver and that she was a social worker and a psychologist. "You can call me Dianne if you want."
She looked over her forms. "Francis I'm here to ask you some questions. Now don't worry, you aren't in trouble and we asked your Mother and she said it was ok. The only thing I want you to do is to be truthful because it is very important. Do you think you can do that for me?"
I nodded yes. She was quiet for a moment and was writing things down on the form. "Now, your full name is Francis Lake"
She looked up at me for a confirmation. "What was your date of birth, Francis?"
I rattled off, "December 3rd, 1999."
"That would make you twelve, thirteen this December, right? Francis, do you have any brothers or sisters?"
I said, "No."
"And you live with your Mom, right?"
I said "Yes."
It was obvious to me that she already had all this information but I guess she was double checking what I said against the forms.
She went on, "And, what about your Dad?"
I was silent.
She paused for a long moment and then slowly and carefully said, "Francis, I know about what happened to your Dad, I just needed to know if you knew. Suicide is a terrible thing but you must remember that it wasn't your fault."
If she knew, why did she bother to ask me? Why would it be my fault, I was only two at the time.
"Francis, what school do you go to and what grade are you in and do you like or dislike school?"
"I'm in seventh grade and I go to Warren G. Harding Middle School."
I thought for a minute, "It's ok."
"Do you have many friends at school?"
I said, "Pretty much."
"Francis, what do you mean when you say, `Pretty much'?"
"I don't know, pretty much I guess?"
"Francis, when I say that, I need to know if you have a lot of friends, some friends or maybe just a few or none. Can you pick one of those?"
"I don't know, I guess I have a lot of friends."
Francis, when you think of friends, are some of your friends special friends that you spend time with?
"I guess I have both kinds."
"How many special friends do you have? You know the kind of friends that you spend time alone with?"
"I don't know, they don't stay the same, they change."
"Would you consider Danny McGuire a special friend?"
I had a feeling that I had to be very careful about what I said.
"Francis, think very carefully, is Danny a special friend?"
Reluctantly I said, "I guess."
"Francis, explain to me what a special friend is?"
I was thinking that this whole thing was about the old Brooks house getting broken into but every kid in the neighborhood has been there.
"Francis, tell me about the time that you and Danny spend together?"
Now I looked puzzled. I tilted my head and looked towards the ceiling as if an answer was hanging there in space.
"Danny is about a year older than you, isn't he?"
I said, "I guess."
"Did Danny ever touch you in a place he shouldn't?
I made a frown like I didn't understand.
"Francis, you've heard of the concept of good touch and bad touch, haven't you? Well I think you are old enough to know what I am really talking about, aren't you?"
What is she trying to find out, That Danny and I did things? How would she know?
"Francis, in the beginning of this interview I told you that you were not in trouble. I also asked you to tell the truth. If you don't tell the truth, you will be in trouble and lying is a crime. Think about where you are. You are in the police station and we need the truth."
My impulse was to clam up tight.
There seemed to be fire in her eyes. "If someone touches someone inappropriately it hurts people. It hurts people like you and we must do something to stop them from hurting other people."
She drove on. "When was the last time you and Danny were alone together?"
I said, "Yesterday."
"Francis, I want you to think very carefully and I want you to tell me the truth. When you met up after school, and you were in Danny's room, tell me step by step what Danny did."
She knows! How can she know anything? Danny would never say anything and I know I wouldn't.
I said, "We played Playstation."
She could have asked me what game, but she didn't.
"Well that's not what Danny told us. He said you two did a lot of other things."
I have no idea where I got the courage but I said defiantly, "Like what?!"
She was trying to trick me into saying something I didn't want to. It is embarrassing enough to be asked questions about what I did with my dick and what Danny did with his to begin with but this lady wanted to make a federal case out of it.
My rebelliousness angered her and she raised her voice. "If I find out otherwise you will be in serious trouble!"
She sat down and tried to regain her sweet facade but it was too late. I wouldn't answer any more of her questions. I was made to sit alone in the room another hour and then was finally released to my Mom. She didn't know what she was doing when she allowed me to be questioned. Ms. Carver turned out to be the prosecutor. All her talk about telling the truth!
Danny caught on and did the same thing as I did. Clammed-up. We're not criminals, we're just boys and boys do stuff like that.
Had one or the other of us broke down and confessed, the consequences would have ruined our lives.
............And all over what, two boys having a circle jerk, what's the big deal?
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Thank you Chris,
When you write for Nifty there is pressure to write sexual content in every post. I was including sexual aspects of a more developed character in an increasingly complex situations. I did not want to eliminate explicit sex because it was a large motivator for boys on the loose and to hide it would not be accurate either.
As in real life, seduction and foreplay is 9/10th of it, but I was making an effort to not coarse and tawdry.
I don't think that there is enough understood about homosexual interaction. They can romance and fall in love just like heteros but to say that they are the same would not be true either. There are other dynamics more akin to a person's make-up that that drive the sexual impulse. The chemistry of opposites and the pairing of like individuals tells us a little more. Gay men can be mercurial, unpredictable and they can behave differently with different people.
So in short, I still feel the need to be explicit in areas I want to write about. I don't think of myself as writing porno.
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Confessions of a Nifty refugee.
A bit more than a decade ago, I found a pulp paperback book. It was entitled "Hand Job".
I read through it and wondered, Do they really pay people to write this stuff?
Money was not my motivation but I was sure that I could write something better than characters acting in a badly written play. Maybe I could write something that might have some lasting quality about it or even provoke a revelation.
After a few submissions I discovered that the "Hand-Job" people were not interested in my different take.
That lead me to Nifty where there are no shortage of dregs but every once in a while I would discover another person who, like myself was exploring an uncommon expression in creative writing. They were cultivating unique and different voices.
The Nifty oubliette was good for one very important thing. It taught me that in writing there are no limitations and that anything is possible. Whether people like it or not is secondary it is just knowing that you can experiment. Writing about sex is a great send off because it is the first taboo to challenge but for me it didn't stop there.
I am interested in other writers that started out of the Nifty vortex.
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Thank you Graeme, Cole and Rutabaga for your responses.
I didn't pose this question to find out which was better but to see what other people are doing. I was also specific about writing the longer story. My earlier work has been mostly 5 to 15 pages but I have started writing longer. Writing longer often leads me to dead-ends.
I take great pleasure in designing a character with both desirable characteristics and flaws. Usually they are outsider types.
The impetus for the story comes when I drop them into a set and setting that is liable to produce conflict. The conflict is often between the character and the world. I guess you could call this a character driven story. I do not outline, instead I live the character when I write often have no idea where I am going. There is an effort to discover the undiscovered or the previously unspoken.
My question centers around writing the a longer story that is 100 to 200+ pages. In a story like this does the situation become more prominent? (The world, the environment and the circumstances).
Being honest, I have found the biggest and most difficult challenge in creative writing is the story itself. It can be about the character but it is often about something bigger or beyond the character.
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There are so many good writers here. I have a question about outlines for a story of 100 pages or more.
Do you construct an outline?
If you do, how detailed and do you stick to it?
Do you depart from the original plan on small elements or primary elements?
If you do not outline, to you know the entire story before you start?
If you do not outline, do you compose the story as you go along?
Is the conclusion preconceived?
Do you write until you arrive at a conclusion?
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Winston and Julia's desperate attempts to avoid detection could have easily been about two guys.
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I am wondering what is going on with the British press when only weeks ago I read an article where Wilfred Owen the World War I poet was being discredited as being a simpering homosexual coward. This man went into the war full of patriotism and by the end he was disillusioned. He died of the field of battle just days before the Armistice. Google Wilfred Owen.
And now this. A detracting article on Orwell in a country that has more video cameras per square kilometer than anywhere in the world. A country that GCHQ along with the NSA has the illegal and intrusive power to blackmail anyone who dares to speak out enough to cause a ripple.
The author continually refers to Orwell as mediocre and insignificant and from my point of view his warnings about tyrannical regimes becomes more of a reality every day.
If you clear away all the vivid imagery, the cell phones, the blaring sounds and the intrusive social management of the government, you will find Orwell.
After shutting down my TV 9 years ago I see it ever more clearly that this is a tool of social manipulation and cohesion on the part of corporations and the state. The individual is irrelevant.
Why do people put Postits over the cam on their lap tops? They do it because the "telescreen" is already here. It may not feel like the tyranny is here but the foundation and all the elements that Orwell warned about are already firmly in place.
To quote Orwell, "Oceania is at war with EuriaAsia, Oceania has always been at war with EurAsia"
We have been at war for 15 years and we don't even know who the enemy is anymore.
This man seeks to trivialize Orwell at a time when he has never been more relevant! Perhaps we should ask why?
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You are even more of a romantic than I am. The problem is reality.
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She is her mid 80's and I don't blame her for a second.
I think this was an editor/publisher project and that it was the material from an earlier trial that TKMB evolved out with the assistance of a much more thoughtful editor at that time.
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Girl Scouts these days sell outside grocery stores and in malls, and do it in groups with parents about. Safe, and they make a lot of sales.
C
Not in this country, Cole.
Scan to donate
Hiroshima Day, August 6th,
in News & Views
Posted
On my History Blog, (Historum.com) I have debated this issue over and over whether the US should have or should have resorted to other means or whether Truman made the decision or if it was handed to him with all the rationals in place no longer matters to me and I am attempting to raise it to a higher plane.
I envy your childhood trip to Japan. I am sure it had an effect on your life.
I was in Berlin when the Wall came down and I had great hopes but not so much lately...