jews and samurai
Oct. 6th, 2006 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bevjuniorit's nano time again.
the first year i did it, if you'll recall, i wrote a reasonably autobiographical and very, very allegorical novel about god, death, and porn. it was finished before the second week of november was even over, and the novel itself was quite smashing, really, but has basically been chilling out on a shelf for the last 24 months ... some people have read it and liked it quite a lot. everyone, myself included, agrees it needs a rewrite or at least some revision, but i have not allowed myself to take part in this task.
the second year i did it, you may not recall, i washed out at 6,000 of the 50,000 words. i tried to write something not nearly so personal in an autobiographical way but instead in a way that suggested some personal political convictions. right to marry, religious freedom (always a theme since i have basically no religion myself), freedom of expression, etc. at the time i didn't know why i was writing what i was writing and a lot of this description is designed to make it sound better than it actually would have been. which isn't to say that this idea might not one day merit revisiting. in fact, if it had worked the way i remember wanting it to - i knew at the time i wanted it to be a satire of modern life in general and life in gay ghettos in particular - it could have been pretty good, and may someday be, especially now that i have put in some time in the foxhole that is dallas' gayborhood.
this year i plan to bridge the idea of satire and autobiography by writing a novel about personal fantasy. how the way we see ourself can become the way others see us (kind of like invisi-girl in s1 buffy but played out on a much larger scale.) this novel, unlike my first successful attempt at this venture, requires research so i've been reading up on jewish life in early 20th century eastern europe and russia and the japanese samurai, ninja, and yakuza traditions.
the idea is a good one, i think, and i'm excited about it. who knows whether or not it will fall apart, but if you happen to know anything interesting about either of these general subjects (jews and samurai) and feel like passing it along, or sending me links or anything like that, it would be muchly appreciated - i want to find some resources that aren't based entirely on wikiality.
ok, i have now, finally been handed a work assignment so i shall switch from procastinatory mode into productionary mode and get on that, but i just wanted to put that out there.
and if you haven't signed up for nano, now's a good time. start thinking about those novels and getting ready to write on the first, yo. for reals.
the first year i did it, if you'll recall, i wrote a reasonably autobiographical and very, very allegorical novel about god, death, and porn. it was finished before the second week of november was even over, and the novel itself was quite smashing, really, but has basically been chilling out on a shelf for the last 24 months ... some people have read it and liked it quite a lot. everyone, myself included, agrees it needs a rewrite or at least some revision, but i have not allowed myself to take part in this task.
the second year i did it, you may not recall, i washed out at 6,000 of the 50,000 words. i tried to write something not nearly so personal in an autobiographical way but instead in a way that suggested some personal political convictions. right to marry, religious freedom (always a theme since i have basically no religion myself), freedom of expression, etc. at the time i didn't know why i was writing what i was writing and a lot of this description is designed to make it sound better than it actually would have been. which isn't to say that this idea might not one day merit revisiting. in fact, if it had worked the way i remember wanting it to - i knew at the time i wanted it to be a satire of modern life in general and life in gay ghettos in particular - it could have been pretty good, and may someday be, especially now that i have put in some time in the foxhole that is dallas' gayborhood.
this year i plan to bridge the idea of satire and autobiography by writing a novel about personal fantasy. how the way we see ourself can become the way others see us (kind of like invisi-girl in s1 buffy but played out on a much larger scale.) this novel, unlike my first successful attempt at this venture, requires research so i've been reading up on jewish life in early 20th century eastern europe and russia and the japanese samurai, ninja, and yakuza traditions.
the idea is a good one, i think, and i'm excited about it. who knows whether or not it will fall apart, but if you happen to know anything interesting about either of these general subjects (jews and samurai) and feel like passing it along, or sending me links or anything like that, it would be muchly appreciated - i want to find some resources that aren't based entirely on wikiality.
ok, i have now, finally been handed a work assignment so i shall switch from procastinatory mode into productionary mode and get on that, but i just wanted to put that out there.
and if you haven't signed up for nano, now's a good time. start thinking about those novels and getting ready to write on the first, yo. for reals.
