Strange Tomato (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strangetomato) wrote2012-10-22 02:26 pm
strangetomato) wrote2012-10-22 02:26 pm
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So that's what the story is about...
Overheard behind a bookcase in a house on Bay View Drive, Belladonna Cove:
"...True enough. Some things are just personal. But we had to do the right thing to safeguard everyone against that source of evil. I'd hate for Jocosta to have died in vain."
"Dear sister, how I miss her."
"And I as well."
"Well, nevermind. That's a story for another day."
"Yes. This one's about Bella. The mystery behind her disappearance."
"And Strangetown. Aliens. The sims who hate them and the sims who love them. Or those foolhardy enough to do both!"
"About death. And Death's son."
"And the terrible consequences of meddling with mortality. And about flowers. Don't forget flowers."
"I thought it was mostly about sex?"
"No, really it's about identity. And family. And love. Aren't all stories worth telling really about that when it all boils down to it?"
"Yes, but now we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?"
"Yes, indeed, sister. All in good time."
Note: I was revisiting what I'd already written for the long-suffering Chapter Thirty-Five (part four) of Strangetown, Here We Come (the damn thing is actually written if I can ever get pics for it), and I'd forgotten all about this little snippet here with the sisters breaking the fourth wall to discuss what, if anything, the story is actually about.
What do you think? Did they nail it?
My vote's on "I thought it was mostly about sex?" ;)
"...True enough. Some things are just personal. But we had to do the right thing to safeguard everyone against that source of evil. I'd hate for Jocosta to have died in vain."
"Dear sister, how I miss her."
"And I as well."
"Well, nevermind. That's a story for another day."
"Yes. This one's about Bella. The mystery behind her disappearance."
"And Strangetown. Aliens. The sims who hate them and the sims who love them. Or those foolhardy enough to do both!"
"About death. And Death's son."
"And the terrible consequences of meddling with mortality. And about flowers. Don't forget flowers."
"I thought it was mostly about sex?"
"No, really it's about identity. And family. And love. Aren't all stories worth telling really about that when it all boils down to it?"
"Yes, but now we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?"
"Yes, indeed, sister. All in good time."
Note: I was revisiting what I'd already written for the long-suffering Chapter Thirty-Five (part four) of Strangetown, Here We Come (the damn thing is actually written if I can ever get pics for it), and I'd forgotten all about this little snippet here with the sisters breaking the fourth wall to discuss what, if anything, the story is actually about.
What do you think? Did they nail it?
My vote's on "I thought it was mostly about sex?" ;)
no subject
The beginning is really different, it's simpler and feels more like actual ingame stuff, if that makes sense? I like both that and how the story developed into something bigger, it's like it evolved and grew up, along with its central characters. :)
What sorts of troubles are you having with your game? I don't know if I can help, but I can try to offer suggestions, at least?
no subject
I've been meaning to read that one. Do you recommend it? I have to admit being a little put off by some reviews saying it's a bit too dude-centric (dick lit? :P). I don't mind a focus on male characters as long as some care is also given to the female characters. How do you feel about that in that series?
In the beginning, I had a direction for the story and then I really played it out and documented it, so it was much more informed by gameplay. Later, I lead with the text a lot more. I do like both ways of doing things in different ways. The former can really provide some nice surprises and shape the story, which helps in the early stages, I think. Also, reading the first couple of chapters reminds me that I had written it in a way that looked ahead to my future plans, if that makes sense. Both Ripp's and Nervous's stories hinted at things to come.
My game troubles remain as they were in this post. I have since patched my game, updated my graphics card drivers, and attempted to update directX, but that gave a message saying I'm already up to date. I'm at a bit of a loss.
ETA: I'm PMing you details on my directX 9 compatibilty troubles.
no subject
I did notice the hints about things to come when rereading, though, especially with Nervous. :) Ah, surprises... I think I've become so controlling that I don't allow the game to surprise me anymore. I don't really play that much anymore either, I seem to spend more time doing makeovers and taking lots of pictures. Sometimes I think about giving TS3 another go, but the thought of learning all I need to know to get the game to run nicely and not do dumb things, and then potentially getting too sucked in and as addicted as I have been/sort of still am to TS2... it's too scary.
I'm really surprised that people think A Song of Ice and Fire is too dude-centric. It has a LOT of major female characters/female point of views, close to or equal to the number of major male characters. Well written ones, too, and varied, and they all have their different struggles, good points and bad points. That's true of the male characters too, of course. The character writing is just really well done, in my opinion.
And while the world in the books is both extremely sexist and classist, that's sort of the point - the author is pointing out how incredibly flawed and unfair this system is, both in his own world and in our own, both past and present. I absolutely recommend the books. :) And I'd be interested to see what you think of them! Just to warn you, though, there's a lot of fairly graphic descriptions of very bad things happening to people. It's not a nice world.
I don't know if you've seen or glanced at the TV series. While it's good, I like the books much better. There's less random sex scenes in them, too. Silly HBO.
no subject
If I don't manage to get back into posting the story, I plan to post my plot outline for those who want to know where it was going. It'll probably seem incredibly zany when written in summary form, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. Well, ideally I won't need to post it, but I'm trying to be realistic here.
I love playing Sims 3, but for now it's a very different experience. It doesn't tug on my fannish strings the same way and so I'm not in storytelling mode as much. I play a completely vanilla game right now. I don't use any hacks or cc. I might get a few of the eye and skin defaults at some point, and maybe one of the story progression hacks. I don't even care that much that it's flawed and all that. I'm just playing.
I hear you on getting "sucked in." While intense fan immersion is a wonderful experience in some ways, I also fear it a little. One, I don't have as much time to spare now, and also I worry about the way my Sims 2 obsession mirrored/shadowed the development of my last major depressive episode. I think escaping into a game is made more appealing during times like that, but it isn't what drives the love of the game (or show/book/whatever fannish thing). Still, the association makes me wary, as it would.
I've heard that defense of A Song of Ice and Fire, too, so I was wondering which to believe. Ultimately, it's one of those things you need to read to decide for yourself, but it's not a light read. XD I really respect your opinion, so that sounds good to me. I'm all for showing things in a negative light if that is a commentary or, you know, it serves to make it real. I don't mind it being gritty and such if the characters are written with care. Thanks for the recommendation. :) I might get it on my Kobo e-reader for easy parental reading.
We only have Netflix right now, but I hope to take the first season of that out of the library (the SO is interested, but only in the show, not the books). Too true about HBO, but then again I don't really have a huge problem with random sex scenes. :P
no subject
Sims 2 (and other fannish obsessions of mine) has certainly been a way to escape reality. Mostly in a fairly harmless way, but sometimes it's been too much and it just eats up time that I feel like I should have spent in more productive and, frankly, healthy ways. While I've never had anything as serious as your depression, I have struggled with pretty bad anxiety in the past, and my mental health has been somewhat unstable ever since then. So having that little world to escape into and just relax completely with is very pleasant, but there has to be a certain balance. Spending too much time on it comes with a big dose of guilt, and that's not good for a stressed mind. So yeah, I'm wary for much the same reason.
I might try TS3 again with your no/absolutely minimal-CC approach and just *play* it, but at the moment I have several other, non-sims games I like to do that with, so my game-meter is pretty much full. :)
I'm very curious about what your opinion of ASOIAF would be now. :) One of the criticisms I've heard is that, if you're writing about a fantasy world that you can make into whatever you want, why would you make one that is so sexist? But you wouldn't be able to tell a story which involves women overcoming and dealing with sexism without sexism being present. Not saying the books are perfect, one could easily find various issues if looking for them, but I feel there's much more good stuff than bad. So I do hope you give them a try. :)
Hah! Yeah, it's not so much sex scenes I mind, I just wish there wasn't a 10:1 naked lady:naked dude ratio. :P
I'll respond to your PM later. :)