in which i am probably doomed
Aug. 8th, 2009 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ontologyI have come to the conclusion that writing is really only an excellent excuse to learn about things I am fascinated by, and my subconscious takes advantage of this by subtly sneaking in especially interesting things into my story. (That, and I have a tendency to think, "THAT IS AWESOME AND I NEED TO PUT IT IN MY STORY NOW.") So, things I have to pursue knowledge of: 19th century drugs and their affect on human psychology; underground cities and the catacombs of London; the worldwide political situation that led to the Great War (sociology ftw!); mental illness and the human mind; the Industrial Revolution; libraries in the modern and ancient world; any and all arcane bookmaking; linguistics; how cultures develop (the vampires, separated from their formerly human state); poker; early twentieth century insults in British; race and culture in 1912 England; why colonialism sucks and leads to Bad Things; literature in 1912; vintage clothing and hairstyles; turn-of-the-century music; cultural understanding of vampire lore (VAMPIRE PUMPKINS FTW!); the three sisters archetype in literature and folklore; Tam-Lin and related ballads; turn-of-the-century food; British Christmas traditions; street-fighting techniques; sword-canes; whether or not they had fish and chips back then and if they were wrapped in newspaper... And I keep digging up more as I write, dear me.
Also, this guy needs to make it into my story somehow. Somehow. Possibly as one of the bureaucratic Department of the Supernatural types. (One primary thing I aim to work on in Draft the Second: making the Department blokes less flat, stock Stupidly Evil Bureaucrats, because... that's senseless and boring. There is no reason for them all to be out of touch and too enamoured of their own power, and I hated it while I was writing it. Bah. That does not mean they can't have silly moustaches, however.)
Also, this guy needs to make it into my story somehow. Somehow. Possibly as one of the bureaucratic Department of the Supernatural types. (One primary thing I aim to work on in Draft the Second: making the Department blokes less flat, stock Stupidly Evil Bureaucrats, because... that's senseless and boring. There is no reason for them all to be out of touch and too enamoured of their own power, and I hated it while I was writing it. Bah. That does not mean they can't have silly moustaches, however.)
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Date: 2009-08-08 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 07:53 pm (UTC)And I really really recommend Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory (http://www.amazon.com/Great-War-Modern-Memory/dp/0195133323/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249761109&sr=8-1) if you want to get a good idea of the literary and cultural climate of the time (OK, a little later than what you want, but still relevant). Fussell is rather brilliant and the book itself is very accessible
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Date: 2009-08-10 01:16 am (UTC)Ooh, thankee -- all of this reading on WWI is a) making me refer to it as the Great War, and b) making me want to write MOAR STORY in which England has entered the war and there are vampires and stuff oh dear. Because the Great War is really fascinating, in a horrifying kind of way, and under-utilised in fiction in favour of the more glamorous, more easily black-and-white-able World War II -- but WWI interests me more, because it's at that weird crossroads of the old and new worlds and ideologies and technology.
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Date: 2009-08-10 02:36 am (UTC)I think it's impossible to overstate the influence that WWI had on 20th century literature, which is partly that I love it so much. And I don't just mean the war literature/poetry, though much of that is brilliant; what would Modernism be without the Great War? I really can't fathom it.
But also, yes, the reason that you stated above is dead on. All war is tragic, but the WWI is the one that gets me the most. Going to the National War Memorial in Edinburgh slew me.
As the beginning of my 'Jolene And I Need To Go To Harvard' campaign...
Date: 2009-08-08 08:15 pm (UTC)Also you are now making me want to go and research all this sort of stuff instead of the relevant CLEPs. I think I need to go to a library.
Re: As the beginning of my 'Jolene And I Need To Go To Harvard' campaign...
Date: 2009-08-10 01:47 am (UTC)halp.
:D
(Kidnapping would be nice. Especially if it were paid kidnapping. With snacks.)
Re: As the beginning of my 'Jolene And I Need To Go To Harvard' campaign...
Date: 2009-08-10 03:39 am (UTC)Apparently kidnapping would be paid and might even include meals. And maybe snacks as part of meals?
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Date: 2009-08-08 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 11:57 pm (UTC)argh why am I thinking that John Cleese looks rather attractive in your iconno subject
Date: 2009-08-09 12:18 pm (UTC)Because he's dressed as a Frenchman maybe?:P I need an animated one of when they start hopping around flapping there hands and saying 'Baaah! Baaaaah!'
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Date: 2009-08-09 01:33 am (UTC)You should compile a big list of all the websites you find with information on the project, and then post it. I bet a ton of us would love to read about the time. I'd always loved the pre-WWI years. :D
Also: catacombs of London = KIND OF SERIOUSLY AWESOME.
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Date: 2009-08-10 01:49 am (UTC)I should definitely compile a list of Helpful Materials! Not least because I will probably need them again in the future and will not be able to find them.
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Date: 2009-08-09 05:09 am (UTC)I suppose the trick to writing the Department people would be to make most of them vaguely sympathetic, especially since many of them might well have got into their jobs all young and idealistic hoping to Make A Difference and got ground down by bureaucracy. It does tend to have that effect--well, politics in general does, seems like. So what you've probably got are a small handful who originally joined the Department to further their own ends and gain power and whatever, another slightly larger handful who started out well, became jaded, and are now only there to get out of it what they personally can, and a large number who still mean well but are also jaded and cynical and just generally tired of the whole thing--who in their own way could be just as dangerous as the others, either because they're too ineffectual to protect against bad elements inside and outside the Department, or because while they mean well, their aims don't mesh with Evy & co.'s.
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Date: 2009-08-10 02:00 am (UTC)I AM STARTING TO WORRY HOWEVER THAT EVY/MR CARUTHERS IS A REIMAGINED COMPOSITE OF BUFFY/ANGEL/BUFFY/SPIKE EXCEPT WITHOUT THE HIM BEING A VAMPIRE PART. BUGGER. ESPECIALLY IF EITHER OF THEM WAS ALSO WESLEY SOMEHOW. (WHICH DOES NOT MEAN THAT BUFFY/WESLEY HAS EVER CROSSED MY MIND IN A SANE WAY, EW WHAT.)
Yeah, I think part of the reason the Department turned out so stereotyped the first time through was because Mr Caruthers is understandably embittered about them, because they keep dragging him through his past and making him use talents he's kind of trying to stuff into a desk drawer in a locked and magically sealed box underneath a lot of papers and some old fish and chips wrappers. (Side note: have just Wikipedia'd fish and chips, and they were totally popular by 1912, which means that Mr Caruthers totally buys a lot of them because he can't be bothered to cook.) And also because I was dragging out random conflict while flailing around trying to find more plot and write a couple of thousand words per day. :/
I should also definitely make at least one who's a decent ally, maybe skirts the rules a little to give Evy and Mr Caruthers Useful Information or whatever.
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Date: 2009-08-09 02:47 pm (UTC)You should find a college library where you can browse and look though the books and learn the things you would like to.