Ripped from the headlines

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Man takes Onion article for joke, dies in ninja incident

Friends of Arthur Robeson (19) say he laughed in response to a news article concerning recent ninja attacks forwarded to him. "He just sent back 'LOL that's great,'" says Jim Culsen (20). Unfortunately the joke turned out to be on Arthur, who completely ignored the article's advice on ninja avoidance. Mere hours later he was tragically caught up... [read more]

 

Terrorist confesses to being President Bush under interrogation

Government agents report shock when alleged terror suspect Alen Brosnie answered in the affirmative to their questioning, repeating "Yes, yes, I am the President. Please let me go." Says Agent Jones "We didn't know what to do, we shut everything down." Interrogations remain halted until word comes down from above. Until then. Brosnie is being kept in a luxury suite. "You don't just torture a guy like that. I mean, the President, jeez"...[read more]

Tracing with idle fingers

    Yesterday I posted 3368 words on this journal. So clearly I am capable of writing a significant amount. My first thought on realising this is the lack of fiction writing I have been doing then likely stems from not knowing what I am doing with it.
    I may have some idea of the broad sweep of things but in nearly every case the immediate details are made up as I go along. For me this takes a long time. What I do not know if this is simply a part of my process or if I simply allow myself to become more distracted than I ought to. Write now I am writing this entry - have resumed at the latter half of the previous sentence - to let my brain churn over a question of terminology. There is a detail of naming in my sekrit projekt which I did not know I would need and so I have switched over to this musing in hopes of letting an answer come to me.
    It did, as I wrote the previous sentence. But I pretended my question was as yet unanswered and wrote it anyway. I do that a lot. The answer turned out to be contained in something I had written ten days ago.

    *sigh* But now I am wondering if I need to make an adjustment to the voice I am using for this projekt. It may not be quite consistent with the frame I am presenting it in. Yes, I am being vague. This is because you are the audience and as much as many people do not mind spoilers, well, you can always know what happens the second time through, right? But you have only one chance to experience something without foreknowledge and for me, that makes the experience precious. It makes subsequent experiences precious too, because then you have a map, then you have an opportunity to see clearer and deeper.
    I think first and subsequent impressions interact to produce a further whole. Interference across time, mediated by the mind of the audience (members). I might scoff at such phrases coming from another because they evoke the impression of something grandiose without describing it. It is fine to do this in a work of fiction, to provoke people to wow at vagueness but I think when actually describing process, ideas, technique, it is preferable to elaborate or you are not communicating, you are flourishing. Which is communication of a sort, but makes for inelegant sentences to say so.
    Back to topic. The more common example is foreshadowing. To see on a reread "Oh yes, this was an omen echoing that future event" or "Oh yes, I see now it might have looked like ve was doing this, but actually ve was aiming for different goals". What I am wondering is if a story can have a more complicated resonance with itself. Not only an increased understanding of what was read the first time, but maybe past and future can produce something in a third direction from their interrelations.
    I am being vague not deliberately. It is late, I am tired and this is an idea I am only just poking at (again?). And I think other people's lack of specificity (that word is an especial tongue-twister for me, much harder than the phrases I learned as a child) comes similarly from not knowing or not being able to articulate. I still wish they could and would.

    Musings like stories never end, yet there are times when a halt must be called and this is one such. Now is time to sleep and dream of what might be.