One Over X News

Fantasy, Why Not? (The Third Bout)

When I was starting out in school even the textbooks for first grade reading were a challenge for me. Back then there was nothing close to political correctness. Before the entire class I was embarassed and humiliated. The other students laughed at me as I stumpled over even the easy words. I had a lot of problems.

My first grade teacher wasn't all that patient with me. She did not condemn the class for laughing at me. I don't even know if it would have done any good. I dreaded it when she called on me to read aloud. It was likle being flogged in public on a daily basis.

The printed words danced around before my eyes, performing a hypnotising ballet. It took all of my effort to mentally wrestle them, subuding them for the instant it took to keep them still. I only needed a few moments but at times it was impossible, especially with the pressure of impatience and some other smart-ass bluriting out the word. I stumbled and stammered, himmed and hawed, trying as best I could to sound out the syllables - the way Mrs. Skillings was teaching us.

I have mentioned in previous posts that suffer from dyslexia. I was in college before I knew what my problem was. Certainly no one knew what it was back then.

The school system passed me along, never really correcting the problem while hoping that it would go away. I had my eye tested regularly. I suppose the logic was that if I was having trouble reading that I probably had a vision problem. My eyes were fine, even beyond 20/20 at that point. The disconnect was in the wiring between my eyes, the optic lobes of my brain and how the cerebral cortex processed the information.

Clearly I was not stupid. I was a good student in my other courses because I had a pretty good memory. I did very well in math, science and social studies. It was reading out loud that killed me.

I have already gone over in a previous post how I overcame all that. So I won't go into it in detail again. The point I needed to make was that even though I hated reading time I loved the stories.

Once we have graduated from dealing with the world of Dick, Jane, Sally, Tommy, Spot and Fluff, we were given a more advanced book. I made an effort to commit an entire story to memory. It was a story about a troll that lived under a bridge. For some reason I loved that story. For some reason when I was very young I was also a sucker for fairy tales.

Obviously such a feat would have never been possible if I did not have a pretty good mind. The wiring needed to be corrected somehow, the programming needed some troubleshooting. I was passed along all the way to the fourth grade before I figured out a way to fix my problem.

As I matured my tastes changed. I liked cowboys and indians, super heros and science fiction. Still I never lost my affection for a good fanasty theme. It as a genre that I also enjoy as a writer. It is almost as wide open for creatity as science fiction but generally there is no need to focus so much of the suspension of disbelief. To be reading a fantasy is to expect magic and supernatural events.

I find that a some otherwise very well written science fiction spends too much time and effort exploring the gadgets that decorate a futuristic landscape. Whenveer I write science fiction I do some of that too. I try very hard not to as i is a distraction from plot advancement. Gadgets are irrelevant unless the plot is influenced or the characters depend on the gadgets in some essential way.

In One Over X and especially in From The Inside To The Closer I tried to focus more of the way the world worked as a socio-economic system and how the world around Andy Hunter influenced the decisions that he made that served as the key event that triggered a seqnece of events affecting other people and other worlds. Having said that there are 56 pages of dealing with gadgets. Int he second edition those pages are no more.

I was a little surprised at how others that have read Book 1 and found all sorts of things that I never purposely put there. Then again the things that they were finding are really there and as I go back and read what I composed so many years ago it is almost like reading it for the first time. I find all sorts of loose ends that are addressed in later books. The significant and perhaps incredible part of the realization is that I never designed the books to fit otgether in those ways. It just happened. There is a reason even if there is not direct intent.

Lately I have preferred to write in the fantasy style. I have the inspiration of a very creative indvidual to thank for nudging me into that direction. It is good to have a close friend to count on when you need some fresh ideas. The amazing part of all that is that her influence has only rarely been direct, as in suggesting a character or a plotline. I have more often been inspried by a conversation or a story that she has told me.

I have received a good bit of feedback on The February Second post. I am very glad that so many people read and enjoyed it. Considering how it was distributed it may become one of those things that gets forwarded to you from other people. So be it. I hope people remember where it originated.

My kids think that I should write more humorous stories and essays. I have a warped sense of humor and of course so do my children. They understand me and laugh at even my most bizarre jokes. Why? It is genetic. I have never be confident that my humor would translate well to the general public. I am certain that at times it would.

I am afraid that I was not endowed with the gift of writing to be purposely funny. I do and say funny things, spontaneously. The way that I perceive the world is off center and at times even twisted. I am not sure that what I perceive would translate universally to others. I could not make a living at it being funny.

I am more of a 'sit down' comic. If on stage, I would stare at the audience and observe their multple group interactions. To me that is entertainment. I like watching other people interact. I am afraid that would be boring for an auidence, regardless how many strange faces I would make.

I like pointing out the irony in life. I like finding irony in what I write. That is my style and for the most part fantasy is the best vehicle for me to produce an amusing set of characters and a challenge or epic proportions...like saving the world, whichever world that may be.

E

posted by Unknown @ 11:26 PM