LJ Idol, Week 30: "Blank Slate " [fiction]

[dslartoo]

Blasted

Comments

[whipchick]

I really liked "the Weight of Weird" and "ordinary never makes waves". You've really captured that feeling of loneliness and being unable to grasp that it will get better, while still sending out a hopeful message.

[dslartoo]

I definitely tried to capture that lonely feeling. My chief worry was to speak to people who've been there without actually making it worse. I think I managed that, but only time will tell. :)

Thanks for dropping in!

cheers,
Phil

[jem0000000]

You've got a lot of very nice phrasing in here. :)

[dslartoo]

Why, thank you. This is actually the piece that took the most time out of all of them. Strange considering it's the shortest.

I appreciate you coming by!

cheers,
Phil

[kathrynrose]

I liked this.

[dslartoo]

Awesome! Poetry is a studied risk for me, because I know most people really don't like or understand it for the most part. Just most peoples' personal taste. But it's where this piece wanted to go, so I rolled with it. :)

Thanks for saying so!

cheers,
Phil

[minnesattva]

The Curse of Differentia, indeed.

It only gets better if we make it better. I try all the time to do that, and still feel I fall short.

[dslartoo]

See, sometimes I think "it gets better" *isn't* just the result of studied attempts to make it so. Just getting away from the poisonous and spiteful environments of high school is often enough to make a hell of a difference all by itself. But yes, you're right in one respect -- trying specifically to make your situation better is only going to help.

Wait, I just realized you probably meant "if we make it better for OTHER people", that is, we make studied efforts to be cool to the different and interesting people that feel like the outcasts. If that is indeed what you meant, then hell yes. We need more people like you (and, dare I say, me) who go out of their way to single out people like this for the *right* kind of attention.

cheers,
Phil

[minnesattva]

Yes, it is mostly "make things better for other people" that I was thinking of :) Because a lot of these problems -- inequality in fact if not under the law, unfairness, ostracism -- are systemic and bigger than any one person. Yes in a lot of ways my life was better after high school but it also opened my eyes to diversity that my high-school was too rural to even have, and the problems that some people have I wouldn't even have dreamed could exist. And I guess this now is why I'm campaigning for equal marriage and less bigoted queer communities and all kinds of things that I hope will make things better, because we can't count on improvements happening by magic.

[dslartoo]

Not only can we not count on improvements happening by magic, we can't count on them happening at ALL without efforts from us enlightened ones. :)

I don't know. I'm torn, because on the one hand I really am fed up with people who call differences between people as reasons to ostracize or deny them something. I sometimes think there's a backlash against racists, homophobes, etc., and that our society is moving towards true equality with real support for gay marriages, etc., etc......and then gay marriage is outlawed in another state, or somebody gets killed for their beliefs, or the war in a Middle Eastern state over cultural and religious freedoms claims another hundred victims, and I want to tear out my hair and scream "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!!!!". I guess we all have a lot of work ahead of us.

Keep fighting the good fight!

cheers,
Phil

[m_malcontent]

You are a poet too! Who knew!

Nice job here.

[dslartoo]

Well, *I* knew, but then, I do get what you mean. I don't show it much. :)

I'm happy you enjoyed the piece! Thanks for saying so.

cheers,
Phil