META: Adventures in Comprehension-- Why I did it...

[cabbagewielder at yahoo.com]

> I don't remember having a traitor arc in the original run of
> Teenfactor, and I seem to recall being against such a story from the
> start.  I could be wrong; feel free to refresh my memory.

  You were against it-- but ultimately agreed to let me do it.  It
made the draft of the Killfile Wars ABC issue which I got you okay
stamp on.   If I'd known I'd get a 'you can do something now-- but
don't try to do anything with it later' I wouldn't have done it.


> If you knew how to actually write a paragraph-- let alone a story-- I
> think you could work wonders.

  I do plenty of self contained stuff.   I just don't post it to
R.A.C.C. because it is a) not comics oriented b) is actually probably
even more brutally cynical than my RACC stuff and c) about 40% of it
isn't even fiction.


> >   2) Almost every issue has the narrator going to places within
> > themselves that make them (as characters) uncomfortable.
>
> What's the point of going beyond a comfort zone if you're not
> intelligent enough to pay it off?

  I think a lot of them have paid off.   Others were about to reach
that point.   They aren't now because I am not going to finish or post
them.   I thought The Grim Seeder issue hit things I wanted to say
really hard.   Probably just a tad harder than I would have liked
actually.


> It's like a child's idea of what anger is, of what adulthood is.
> Which, then, makes it intensely personal, doesn't it?

  I know what anger is.  Most of that story is something that has
happened to me.  Both sides all five characters at one time or
another.   I have been the enraged brute, the innocent bystander, the
victim, the collatoral damage and everything in between.

     Adulthood is about making tough decisions in such away that
minimizes the damage to everyone but yourself.     I do this all the
time.  It means taking responsiblity for what you do.   Been there--
done that.   You know what?  It was a case where examined the pros and
cons-- and made my decision.    If it means not posting the rest of
the series-- so be it.

> That dialogue is also what we call a "cool line".  Cool lines, of
> course, have nothing to do with characterization, theme, or
> storytelling; they have everything to do with ending a scene,
> especially if you're not intelligent enough to end the scene with any
> actual depth.

   I had stuff planned for after that.   I never wrote it-- and never
will.   I thought from that point on it'd be a better story to tell
from Electra's point of view.  After I handled a few other stories.
(The Grim Seeder Origin, Crompton's Tale, The look in the direction of
where the series is going issue.)

> And it's a facile viewpoint, the kind of thematic ice cream that
> M*A*S*H or other crappy sitcoms might scoop up for the unsuspecting
> adult.  It's as facile as "the heroes are just as bad as the villains"
> and other nihilistic cynicisms that you insist on mistaking for actual
> depth, intelligence, or thought.  It's as stupid as "any strong
> reaction is a sign of good writing" and I think you use it to excuse
> your faults.

 You can claim to understand something.  You can chose to forget or
sort of give lip-service forgiveness to someone but understanding is
an entirely different matter.    Understanding requires a frame of
reference.   Which is something Carolyn lacked.   I think you lack it
here.    I am not cynical because it is hip or cool.  I am cynical
because of what I have seen and what I continue to see all around me.
I realize this is how thing are-- how they have always been-- and
found that individuals can be okay but over all people suck.  But what
can any of us do-- we're only human.



> You are a spoiled child, and until you grow the fuck up, I'm not going
> to read any of your stories, now that you're back (and of course we
> all *knew* you were coming back, after you were done posturing and
> pouting and playing the victim, you over-reacting self-centered emo-
> slut).

 Actually, I'm not.  I cam to post my side of the story and then be
gone.   Because I get the idea of a public sandbox.  It give and
take.  You know what?   Had I been I would have taken the characters--
mutilated them a little-- but then refurbished them and actually
brought them back in the condition you wanted them in four years.
Especially since I'd been about eight issues from the end.



> After all, without someone else's characters and plotlines to butcher,
> you might actually come up with something resembling an original,
> intelligent thought.

   No-- you shan't hear from me again.    Between work, the non-
fiction story about  a teenager with sudden onset hearing loss and a
few non-comics related fiction-- my schedule is far too booked up.