A personal diary keeping people abreast of what I am working on writing-wise.

Monday, November 21, 2005

I'LL NEVER BE MAN ENOUGH FOR YOU

Tom Spurgeon's excellent Comics Reporter site has an in-progress list of the major comic book releases of 2006. 12 Reasons Why I Love Her is now on there, listed individually for myself and Joelle, and also in the title listing, where the numerals in our title means we are in pole position.

Orange Juice's "Consolation Prize" has been my anthem as of late. I'm coming to accept my sidekick role in life. There are a lot of also-rans out there, the second place boys and girls. This may be a future theme of mine, perhaps the next long Lance Scott story, how there are a lot more Mercutioes than Romeos--which would explain why I liked Mercutio so much from the first time I read Romeo et Juliet, even if I didn't know it at the time. Wry jokesters of the world unite and take over. (Please don't e-mail or post well wishes or be concerned that I am sad-sacking it around the house, I'm just whittling on the wood of thought here. If you do this, you will annoy me, and I will go away. (Unless that's what you want....))

I am forever fascinated by the Jungian powers at work. In writing, I am constantly discovering that choices I made with no particular intention lead to bizarrely appropriate discoveries and meanings. The names of the Scott brothers, for instance, all after knights, have been weirdly appropriate. Lancelot's propensity for anger and rash romance, Percival exiling himself to a monastic life after the discovery of the Grail, etc. I really just chose these names willy-nilly. I am a very inconsiderate person in that way. In The Everlasting, I had to pick a name for the love of Percy's life, because in my initial notes she was named Sadie, which ended up being the name of Lance's cat (and Suede fans will understand why, as they've heard the sound of the streets, they've felt the cold of the night). I picked Iris. I have no idea why. Last week, I discovered this little tidbit about what the flower with the same name represents: "Over the centuries the iris has come to symbolize faith, wisdom, hope, and promise in love."

Trust me. One day, this will make sense to you, and you will think I am one crafty fucker. I am not. It's just dumb luck. Which I have a lot of. Apparently.

Current Soundtrack: Marion, The Program

Current Mood: pensive

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[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

3 comments:

david golbitz said...

Regarding the "sidekick role in life," have you ever read the Sir Apropos of Nothing trilogy by Peter David? The stories concern a young man with a lame leg who realizes early on in life that he's destined to be nothing more than a sidekick in other people's adventures.

So he hijacks their stories.

They're very funny books, if you ever get the chance to read one or two.

Jamie S. Rich said...

No, I never did read that. Can't say I'm a big Peter David fan, really.

david golbitz said...

I hear that a lot. People either really enjoy his work or don't like it at all.

In regards to the larger question of the sidekick role, I always used to feel that way, but one day I decided that I did indeed star in my own story. It's simply a story in which no one else seems to have much interest.

Which, given further consideration, might even be worse than being a sidekick-for-life...