I'd say this is a rant, but it could just be a random group of thoughts strung together on some similar thread. I'll let the reader be the judge, as my head won't stop spinning even though i did take my a.d.d. meds today.
Okay, so this is what's been rattling around in my head for somewhere between 15 minutes and an hour(I can't remember). So it's story time boys and girls!
My girlfriend, myself, and a good artist friend of ours (huh, that's wierd. She's a good artist and a good friend, I just saw how I formed that sentence.) were talking about all sorts of crap in the car on the way to and from dinner. Well honestly, they were mostly talking about things, and I contributed where I felt I could. As it seems happens in a lot of conversations. Amongst the topics were people, writing, and art.
This got me thinking, about people mostly. Thinking about how people are stories, and not in a comparative "Bobby is sooo Catcher in the Rye" type of way, but in a way that each person is an individual story. Beginning, middle, end. Introduction of character, character development, conflict, climax, resolution, epilogue.
So, the inherent problem with this concept is that: No matter who narrates the story, who it's about, what conflict the character encounters, who they loved and hated, and the other way around, if they hurt a few people or helped countless others, did absolutely nothing, did everything they could possibly do, or just lived life the only way they knew how, the story is the same. At least in one way.
The ending.
No matter how the story comes to the ending or what form it comes in, it ends. Plain and simple, everyone on the face of the Earth has a story and every single one ends the same fucking way. Which, when you think about it really sucks and is incredibly boring. Maybe that's why most people try not to think about the ending of the story, because up to that point it's really interesting and sometimes exciting, and then ends the same way everyone's does, same old boring death.
Of course that begs all of the obvious questions; Is everyone's story already written? Can I change my story? Why are we in it? Who's the publisher? Will my character be recycled? Blah, blah, blah.
I think the better questions to ask (Mostly because the other questions are about as likely to be satisfactorily answered as I am likely to win a Mister Universe competition and grow a 12 inch penis out of my left nipple.) are more personal. Does my story have any focus points? Who am I writing for? and Is there enough comic relief in my story? (This last one is redundant, because the answer is always no, but it's a good motivator.)
Anyway, back to the death thing. I have a feeling that since everyone inevitably has an ending, there's a reason for it. Our bodies are not meant to last forever, which leads me to believe that our stories here on Earth as people are like individual sentences in stories a damn sight bigger and longer than the Lord of the Rings series.
Either that of whoever designed the human body did a half-assed job. Like we're human 2.0, a beta release with one hell of a bug in the software. If that's the case this asshole was probably fired a long time ago and his bosses have been trying to find the fuck up ever since, because they forgot to make him give them a run down of how he wrote it and what the sequencing is.
Whatever you believe as far as the reasons for our stories, I think everyone can agree that without character interaction, conflict, development, and at least a few small resolutions, our stories would be just as boring as having the same ending as everyone else.
Remember the old question "If your life was a book would anyone want to read it?". My answer to this so far has been God I hope not, because that person obviously doesn't know good writing if they enjoy my book. I know a good writer who's work they should check out though.
I feel like that's a decent place to bring this tidbit of my story to an end. Write on people, write on.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Dreamlog: The Planet of the Apes
This is the first installment of the logging of my dreams. I've had what I would call some strange dreams over my 26 years of existence, and I figured it would be a good idea to get them in some form of writing before I forget them all together. Keep in mind, a lot of these are contextual and may not make a whole lot of sense to the reader, but here goes...
This is the earliest of the weird dreams that I can remember. I had this dream at around 12 or 13 years old.
It started out with me finding myself on a beach, with nobody else in sight. I was wearing khaki shorts, a yellow t-shirt and no shoes. The beach was about 60 feet wide, and the sand was a fairly normal, yellowish color like you'd find almost anywhere. The sky was blue with some wispy clouds, and it was warm. The Ocean was to my left and was blue and calm, and to my right was cliff face made of mostly dirt and almost no rocks that rose about 80 feet out of the sand. All in all, it was a very peaceful and beautiful place to be.
I started walking down the beach without even turning to see if the scenery was any different behind me. I walked for about ten minutes (dream time, that is. who knows how long that ten minutes was in real time) when I saw something ahead of me in the distance. I walked warily closer to find out what it was. There was a slight hill on the beach that I got low behind when I was about 20 yards away, and looked in awe at a rather well organized meeting of apes.
There were three or four rows of folding chairs arranged in a semicircle around a portable stage with a metal podium. The folding chairs were occupied by chimpanzees who looked rather as they did in the movies, and on the stage was an orangutan leading the meeting. I couldn't hear what was being discussed but for some reason I knew it was about me. I wanted to get to a place where I could hear them better, and I thought that maybe their voices would carry up the side of the cliff and would be clear at the top.
I decided to sneak past them by going out close to the water line to get around them, as the apes were gathered about ten feet from the cliff. I kept close to the ground as I moved past them, and it seemed to work. None of them turned to look, and the orangutan was busy engaging them.
Around a hundred yards further, the cliff gradually sloped down to the level of the beach, and I started to walk up the grassy slope, back toward the meeting site. I found them again, still talking away, only now they were about 80 feet below me. I walked to about three feet from the edge of the dirt cliff, to look and listen. Something was buzzing in the back of my head. It was my brain, talking to me. It said "You shouldn't get too close to the edge, it could be dangerous." I was too interested to heed the warning, and for the first time I wasn't scared of the height, so I shuffled closer, to about six inches from the edge. I stood there for about two or three minutes trying to hear them talk when I felt the dirt under my feet shift. "Damned brain always has to be right." I said aloud.
The top of the cliff was a slight overhang, and just as my brain said "You should step back now" it gave way. I was now falling in what felt like slow motion, I could feel the wind rushing past my face and whipping at my clothes as I watched the ape meeting get closer and closer. About halfway through my fall reality started to set in. My brain was talking to me again, "Surviving a fall from this height isn't very likely" it said. I was going to say something snappy back to my brain but I didn't have time. the ground was getting close, and fast. I looked at my feet and prepared for pain.
I saw my toes break the sand's soft surface, and gritted my teeth...
I hit. There was no pain. My knees did not buckle. I was standing perfectly upright.
I was pleasantly shocked at this, I looked up with a "that wasn't so bad" smirk on my face, only to see the orangutan and all the chimps staring at me disapprovingly.
I woke up.
I opened my eyes and laid in my bed with a bewildered look on my face.
This is the earliest of the weird dreams that I can remember. I had this dream at around 12 or 13 years old.
It started out with me finding myself on a beach, with nobody else in sight. I was wearing khaki shorts, a yellow t-shirt and no shoes. The beach was about 60 feet wide, and the sand was a fairly normal, yellowish color like you'd find almost anywhere. The sky was blue with some wispy clouds, and it was warm. The Ocean was to my left and was blue and calm, and to my right was cliff face made of mostly dirt and almost no rocks that rose about 80 feet out of the sand. All in all, it was a very peaceful and beautiful place to be.
I started walking down the beach without even turning to see if the scenery was any different behind me. I walked for about ten minutes (dream time, that is. who knows how long that ten minutes was in real time) when I saw something ahead of me in the distance. I walked warily closer to find out what it was. There was a slight hill on the beach that I got low behind when I was about 20 yards away, and looked in awe at a rather well organized meeting of apes.
There were three or four rows of folding chairs arranged in a semicircle around a portable stage with a metal podium. The folding chairs were occupied by chimpanzees who looked rather as they did in the movies, and on the stage was an orangutan leading the meeting. I couldn't hear what was being discussed but for some reason I knew it was about me. I wanted to get to a place where I could hear them better, and I thought that maybe their voices would carry up the side of the cliff and would be clear at the top.
I decided to sneak past them by going out close to the water line to get around them, as the apes were gathered about ten feet from the cliff. I kept close to the ground as I moved past them, and it seemed to work. None of them turned to look, and the orangutan was busy engaging them.
Around a hundred yards further, the cliff gradually sloped down to the level of the beach, and I started to walk up the grassy slope, back toward the meeting site. I found them again, still talking away, only now they were about 80 feet below me. I walked to about three feet from the edge of the dirt cliff, to look and listen. Something was buzzing in the back of my head. It was my brain, talking to me. It said "You shouldn't get too close to the edge, it could be dangerous." I was too interested to heed the warning, and for the first time I wasn't scared of the height, so I shuffled closer, to about six inches from the edge. I stood there for about two or three minutes trying to hear them talk when I felt the dirt under my feet shift. "Damned brain always has to be right." I said aloud.
The top of the cliff was a slight overhang, and just as my brain said "You should step back now" it gave way. I was now falling in what felt like slow motion, I could feel the wind rushing past my face and whipping at my clothes as I watched the ape meeting get closer and closer. About halfway through my fall reality started to set in. My brain was talking to me again, "Surviving a fall from this height isn't very likely" it said. I was going to say something snappy back to my brain but I didn't have time. the ground was getting close, and fast. I looked at my feet and prepared for pain.
I saw my toes break the sand's soft surface, and gritted my teeth...
I hit. There was no pain. My knees did not buckle. I was standing perfectly upright.
I was pleasantly shocked at this, I looked up with a "that wasn't so bad" smirk on my face, only to see the orangutan and all the chimps staring at me disapprovingly.
I woke up.
I opened my eyes and laid in my bed with a bewildered look on my face.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Yes this actually happens in my brain.
Ok, so today I had the strangest daydream. Yes I said daydream, I was conscious and coherent for this, which to me is even weirder than having a strange dream. I was in the kitchen making myself a cup of coffee, and My girlfriend was in the living room watching Beverly Hills 90210. The show came back from commercial break to some sad scene, and the song "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan (I had to look that up) was playing.
When songs that are unpleasing to me come clawing into my ears my brain reacts with a defense mechanism. That mechanism is to change the lyrics of the songs so they still follow the melody, but but send a completely different message.
As soon as my brain changed the third word in the song from remember to dismember, a music video played in my head. The title of this video I have dubbed "Dueling Psycho Killers Break into Song". It starts out in an abandoned slaughter house. Two very creepy looking guys with disfigured faces stand about 15 feet apart facing each other. A few blood covered women hanging from meat hooks are back against the wall. The music starts, in the same crappy tone as the actual song, and one of the men starts singing "I will dismember yoooou! (and the women on hooks sing backup "Da da da nda nda" The man again "Will you dismember meeee?" and again the women "Da da da ndaaa nda". Cut over to the other man who holds up a knife and sings "I'll make this kniiiife go through your eeeeye, I'll weep not fooor the man with bad kneees".
At this point I shook my head and came back to reality. I thought to myself. What the hell was that? Then went back to my coffee. If Miss McLachlan's song is playing in your head right now, this might actually be somewhat funny to you. If you can't hear it, then I probably sound like a lunatic who nees an inside helmet.
I leave such judgements up to the reader. I'm just happy to have a medium available to let the crap out of my head once in a while.
P.S. You should hear the lyrics my brain came up with for Creed's "Overcome". I may post them at some point.
When songs that are unpleasing to me come clawing into my ears my brain reacts with a defense mechanism. That mechanism is to change the lyrics of the songs so they still follow the melody, but but send a completely different message.
As soon as my brain changed the third word in the song from remember to dismember, a music video played in my head. The title of this video I have dubbed "Dueling Psycho Killers Break into Song". It starts out in an abandoned slaughter house. Two very creepy looking guys with disfigured faces stand about 15 feet apart facing each other. A few blood covered women hanging from meat hooks are back against the wall. The music starts, in the same crappy tone as the actual song, and one of the men starts singing "I will dismember yoooou! (and the women on hooks sing backup "Da da da nda nda" The man again "Will you dismember meeee?" and again the women "Da da da ndaaa nda". Cut over to the other man who holds up a knife and sings "I'll make this kniiiife go through your eeeeye, I'll weep not fooor the man with bad kneees".
At this point I shook my head and came back to reality. I thought to myself. What the hell was that? Then went back to my coffee. If Miss McLachlan's song is playing in your head right now, this might actually be somewhat funny to you. If you can't hear it, then I probably sound like a lunatic who nees an inside helmet.
I leave such judgements up to the reader. I'm just happy to have a medium available to let the crap out of my head once in a while.
P.S. You should hear the lyrics my brain came up with for Creed's "Overcome". I may post them at some point.
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