[REVIEW/ACRA] End of Month Reviews #41 - May 2007 [spoilers]

[Tom Russell]

On Jun 14, 6:10 pm, Martin Phipps <martinphip... at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I'm not saying that this is what you are doing but,
> ultimately, whether or not Martin ultimately enjoyed the experience is
> beside the point: what made it rape is the fact that he said "No" but
> the Contessa continued anyway.

Yes, but the point of the scene wasn't the "point"-- it was Martin's
emotional distress and discomfort.  In most of my writing and
filmmaking (less so, of course, in my programming), I try not to make
points that can be summed up but rather to offer experiences for
discussion, experiences that can alternatively elate and distress the
audience.

> I still think it's good to experiment with using different words to
> establish a different effect: the slight differences in connotation of
> different words (as you pointed out yourself in the disclaimer) can
> have a different effect on the reader.  If Martin were going to a
> hospital to have his "male member" examined then he probably _would_
> say "penis" and not "cock" for example.  The choice of what word to
> use really depends on how you want the readers to interpret what the
> scene is about: if the nurse at a hospital were to refer to Martin's
> "male member" as a "cock" instead of a "penis" then readers (and
> probably Martin himself) would get the impression that there's some
> sexual tension going on here.

That's a very valid point, and I agree with you whole-heartedly; I
love slight differences in connotation and I try to calculate my word
use for different effects.  It was just that in this particular case I
was going for something different.

> Martin... suddenly has the urge to go watch his "Dirty Nurses" DVD but
> he'll have to wait until his wife is sleeping ;)

:-P

==Tom