Limelight Inbox

[makedown]

[email | nyoom meetings | neighbors | fan comments on her novels | chance encounters | text or calls if you're one of the few people who have her number]

Comments

[makedown]

Are you trying to turn the wheels of plot now? Or are we talking vampires?

[thefaultinthestars]

I was against the plot because you were happy, but actually you're telling me you've just compromised to things being acceptable. Certain impossible things are possible if you're the main character.

[makedown]

For the record, beheadings and body parts moving on their own when they're severed doesn't sound better than acceptable to me either.

[thefaultinthestars]

Who told you about beheadings?

[makedown]

Someone who wasn't wedded or bedded.

[thefaultinthestars]

...oh, yeah.

[makedown]

[goodbye drink you were great]

"Oh yeah" doesn't sound too good.

[thefaultinthestars]

There was a performance like that. Was the person on Acidia?

[makedown]

I don't know and I didn't ask. Was it a family vs. family thing?

[thefaultinthestars]

Yes, each Family has their own cabin. We all live together. The performances are often somewhat competitive. Though usually not in any significant way. It's not usual for 'everyone to win'. But that particular performance, well... we were put into groups of 4, and had to rank which of the other three we wanted to protect the most, basically.

[makedown]

A popularity contest between main characters? Really?

[thefaultinthestars]

Wed, bed, or behead. Isn't that ultimately the spirit of the game?

[makedown]

Yes, but you're all main characters. Doesn't that mean those beheaded were demoted for being bad at main charactering? How is that allowed? Is no one thinking of the narrative implications?

[thefaultinthestars]

It's just a popularity contest among ourselves. And are you telling me you couldn't write a good arc out of being voted least popular and having your head temporarily removed?

[makedown]

If I had to.

[thefaultinthestars]

[laughs]

You don't like that kind of story?

[pours out half of his remaining whisky (which is almost all of it) into her glass]

[makedown]

[his leftovers are accepted]

See, if I wrote something like that for myself, it would be more about the how. What is the process? Who does it? What are they wearing? What is it like for them, do they know the person they're beheading, what are their tools? What happens to the head afterwards? Why do they need to behead someone, and is the answer to that satisfying? It wouldn't be that game at all.

[thefaultinthestars]

So you want to tell it from the executioner's point of view.

Well, that could also be interesting. The producers are also main characters.

[makedown]

[nods]

It's not that victims don't need their stories told, but I don't want to be the one to do it. I'd rather tell a happy story with a good ending, but if that's what it has to be, then at least I want to get technical about it.

[thefaultinthestars]

Are victims excluded from happy stories with good endings?

[makedown]

I wish I had the energy to say yes, of course, you caught me, but no. I meant it as a matter of focus.

[thefaultinthestars]

[sips his whiskey]

I wasn't sure if a story with victims still gets to be called 'happy' even if it ends well, eventually.

I don't think you'd like the sort of story you ended up with, if you got on the boat.

But is running away from your family again and again going to end happily?

[makedown]

You can always have a happy ending in fiction, because it's fiction, if you want to write it. But stories that focus on victims are often an exploration of victimhood to some degree, and that's what I don't care about. I was really just thinking of some conversations I had a few days ago that didn't sit right with me, though.

[clink clink, at least she can play with the remaining ice]

I think actual victims can feel happiness, just as people who have everything can have a miserable life. It's a matter of perspective. And that's why I don't think compromises are bad. I was happy here, not because things were perfect, but because it was something I chose. That's what makes running worth it, even if it's unsustainable in the long term.

[thefaultinthestars]

...I can understand that much.




Would it be better if they were dead?

[makedown]

No. If they died they wouldn't get to feel angry and frustrated and embarrassed and defeated.