I've noticed in all kinds of cultural activity that artists/writers/musicians etc, are often most proud of works that are not generally considered their greatest.
Now I've discovered this happening to me; stories that I felt most proud of on publication can pass relatively unnoticed, while ones that I wrote on a whim for fun might be awarded a Recommended Read or prove more popular than I would have thought.
Do other authors have similar experiences? What stories are you most proud of, and did the response match your pride? Or have you published stories here where you're totally mystified by the esteem in which they're held?
"Should" suggests that it's either right or wrong to do so. If both parties are happy to watch it together - why not? It beats watching the stuff alone.
As for the point about it being plastic - not all the stuff out there is like that. I'd agree that the obviously glossy stuff isn't much fun, but the great thing is that there's something out there for everyone.
We worry too much about what's "socially acceptable", particularly these days. You can get bogged down writing practically anything by worrying about if your characters perpetuate stereotypes and a whole bunch of other stuff. Basically, people are individuals with their own motivations, desires &c, and thus characters in fiction need to be so as well. To suggest that you can only write from "within" your own particular sex/ethnicity/sexuality is basically to deny the commonalities of existence, and the possibility of empathy. Moreover, to put yourself in somebody else's shoes is a vital component of social intercourse - so to suggest that it shouldn't be done is just plain stupid.
As regards the 1st person thing. Even 3rd person writing requires an ability to get inside a character, and from there it's a short step to the 1st person narrative.
Just amazed that there isn't a thread for discussion of potential competition topics. Ideas you might have for future competitions, and discussion of said ideas.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's sitting on ideas, but for what it's worth, I'd be interested in a competition on the subject of Reacquaintance. Basically any story where the main protagonists haven't seen each other for ten or more years.
Any other ideas out there?
Oh, it's hugely enjoyable! Just experiencing the effect my tongue has on a sexual partner is hugely arousing.
I really, really enjoy watching a woman pleasure herself. But there's no way I can keep my hands idle.
A long time ago, when a relationship was just getting started, I hid my stash of porn in the closet before my girlfriend came round. To my amazement she just took it for granted that guys had porn videos and magazines lying around and practically demanded I get some stuff out. Maybe I was a bit naïve - I was younger then. Anyway, I've watched all sorts of stuff with women, but never for long...
I understand that the suggestion is hypothetical, but this, for what it's worth, is my take on it.
The implication in the proposal is that quality equals popularity, which would probably be disputed by all but the most extreme postmodernists among professors of literature.
My own tastes often run to the unpopular or overlooked, and so on a personal level I would be disappointed to see stories disappear for not gathering the requisite number of reads/scores/comments - hell, whole genres would probably disappear. Nor am I a snob in this. Some extremely well written stuff bores me, and some stuff which is obviously not great has some spirit about it that attracts me anyway.
Were such a suggestion to be followed through, it's easy to imagine Lush becoming like Top 40 radio, which is fine if you like the hits, but not so great if you want to be surprised from time to time. Also, there's a real risk that authors would start tailoring their work to quickly acquire reads/scores/comments, which would lead to a significant (and in my view wholly regrettable) mainstreaming of the whole enterprise. One of the great things about Lush is the variety, and I'd hate to see that lost.
There's nothing inherently wrong with sexual variation. One person's gross is another's yum, basically. As long as we're talking consenting adults, everything's fine.
Bukkake is just one practice among many that will divide opinion. If you're going to leave stuff out of a story because you're worried about alienating readers, basically you're going to end up with something strictly vanilla (which in turn will alienate those people who think vanilla is basically paint drying). Just go with what the story needs. If it's integral to the plot, everything else will collapse if the scene isn't there.
I'm firmly convinced that we are entering a new financial paradigm because of all this new technology, while financial institutions, governments and economic elites try to convince us all that it will all be business as usual and happy ever after.
Very little that is free at the point of use is actually free. There's a truism in media studies that if you're not paying for something, you are the product - which is to say that if you watch commercial TV, you as a viewer are the product (as viewer) that advertisers are paying the TV company to hand them. The same is more graphically true with something like Facebook (which is why I don't do it).
Until some kind of new and hopefully better (more equitable/benign) economic paradigm asserts itself, using the Internet is a bit of a Faustian pact. You basically have to work out whether what you want is worth various forms of tracking. Look carefully at what kinds of ads crop up on , and you'll see that they're often related to pages/areas of interest you've visited in the past. Tracking people isn't difficult, if someone really wants to, for whatever reason.
It's really up to the individual to work out the risks/benefits of what they do on the net. Given the choice/means, I'd rather pay for something than feel that "I" was being sold on to third parties. We all know that websites cost money to run and maintain. For that reason I don't have a problem with the idea of a membership fee, per se.
The only thing is that I don't (and you can call me paranoid if you like) conduct financial transactions of any kind over the internet, though I'll probably feel compelled to at some point in the future. I am, though, very grateful for the Bronze Membership and will endeavour to contribute in the same way as hitherto by publishing stories that (hopefully) people want to read.
