catherineldf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
catherineldf) wrote2008-07-24 09:17 pm
catherineldf) wrote2008-07-24 09:17 pm
Questions that keep me awake at night...
when not pondering global warming, the general ghastliness of it all and just how the hell I'm going to fit 500 hours work in 80 hours or so-why the hell is the following so fricking popular around here?
Went to a reading recently (names and times frames changed to protect the guilty since this is a general not specific rant) by some of the local literary type writers. In these parts, they likes their memoir, even if their lives are really pretty bloody dull. But they likes it anyway, lots and lots. Especially the following scenario: earnest white person brings lover/partner/spouse/whatever from exotic category X - African, Asian, Latino, disabled, same sex, transgender, Jewish, Wiccan, narcoleptic, actually from another planet, etc., etc. and if the audience is really lucky, a combination of all of the above! - home to meet the parents.
Dear goddess, where to begin? I have heard a few other variations but this seems the most common. If I had a dollar for every time I've sat through this 'memoir,' I might have a car payment by now. At thsi point, there are no new spins on this. Really. The object of desire is nearly always...the object of desire. They seldom get to break out of the little description box with airholes that they inhabit. You don't get to hear them complain about meeting the memoirist's boring family while their supposed beloved has attention-getting histrionics in the foreground. Even the finale is monotonous. This scenario almost always has one of the following outcomes: 1. family freaks out in ugly way or 2. family takes it all more or less in stride. And yes, it is nearly always dinner. Not lunch, not coffee. Dinner.
Okay, so the writer has gotten lots of attention, positive or negative, from their families, which appears to be the point. And what about the exotic other? Well, they're nearly a literary device anyway. Besides memoiring about the almost inevitable breakup when they get tired of being treated like a weird pet will make for a great chapter or two. Can you tell that I find this icky and annoying? Honestly, people, if this is the best you can do for the story of your life that's so terribly unique everyone should want to read it, perhaps you might want to try actually living a bit first instead of worrying about the possibility of your parents retroactively aborting you for your choice of partner. Hrumph...
Went to a reading recently (names and times frames changed to protect the guilty since this is a general not specific rant) by some of the local literary type writers. In these parts, they likes their memoir, even if their lives are really pretty bloody dull. But they likes it anyway, lots and lots. Especially the following scenario: earnest white person brings lover/partner/spouse/whatever from exotic category X - African, Asian, Latino, disabled, same sex, transgender, Jewish, Wiccan, narcoleptic, actually from another planet, etc., etc. and if the audience is really lucky, a combination of all of the above! - home to meet the parents.
Dear goddess, where to begin? I have heard a few other variations but this seems the most common. If I had a dollar for every time I've sat through this 'memoir,' I might have a car payment by now. At thsi point, there are no new spins on this. Really. The object of desire is nearly always...the object of desire. They seldom get to break out of the little description box with airholes that they inhabit. You don't get to hear them complain about meeting the memoirist's boring family while their supposed beloved has attention-getting histrionics in the foreground. Even the finale is monotonous. This scenario almost always has one of the following outcomes: 1. family freaks out in ugly way or 2. family takes it all more or less in stride. And yes, it is nearly always dinner. Not lunch, not coffee. Dinner.
Okay, so the writer has gotten lots of attention, positive or negative, from their families, which appears to be the point. And what about the exotic other? Well, they're nearly a literary device anyway. Besides memoiring about the almost inevitable breakup when they get tired of being treated like a weird pet will make for a great chapter or two. Can you tell that I find this icky and annoying? Honestly, people, if this is the best you can do for the story of your life that's so terribly unique everyone should want to read it, perhaps you might want to try actually living a bit first instead of worrying about the possibility of your parents retroactively aborting you for your choice of partner. Hrumph...
no subject
Once, my then girlfriend had me come with her to a family outing to an art museum followed by a late lunch. The special exhibit we were seeing was about Gaugin. One major theme was how Gaugin started out as a nice respectable married Danish man but then exotic brown skinned women lured him into sin, STDs, debauchery and madness.
My girlfriend's family are uptight descendants of Danes (and very proud of their Danish heritage). I was the exotic brown skinned woman preventing my girlfriend from producing grand children. As you can guess, it was an AMAZING afternoon.
no subject
I once spent an excruciating week with my boyfriend at the time's family - very high up in one of the more uptight Lutheran churches and extremely judgemental. He had neglected to tell them we were living together or anything about me - the bi thing, the Wicca thing, the politics, etc., etc. Good times all around. My favorite moment was when his dad burst into his room without knocking in hopes of catching his (mid-twenties) son in the act with 'that woman.' i was sitting (fully clothed) on the floor reading a book while the son slept on the bed. The look on dad's face was priceless. :-)