[16 Dec 11] The Myth of the American Sleepover

[mindstalk]

As mentioned, it's a creative writing exercise in the first week of school. Quality is probably not the point. You can't do research in class in 50 minutes.

No one's talking about the last panel?

[Alice Macher]

Oddly enough, the idea of a gay "romance"/tragedy in Dachau Concentration Camp is a feasible story idea.

Indeed it is. I'm not weirded out over that. It's just the picturing Hank there...that's...unless it's just one of those involuntary images one's unconscious coughs up without one necessarily wanting it to.

[Adrishiana]

Oddly enough, the idea of a gay "romance"/tragedy in Dachau Concentration Camp is a feasible story idea.
Something that a lot of folks tend to overlook when dealing with the Concentration Camps is that it wasn't just Jews getting shipped there.

Roma's, Gays, political enemies, people with mental handicaps, etc. All of them got Die Endlösung treatment.

Not quite sure if Lisa is up to writing something like that though. Would require a boat load of research, and even then there's an issue of characterization and pulling that off successfully and enough professional writers have a hard enough time with that already, let alone an amateur like Lisa.

Oh, it's certainly feasible enough. Thinking about it, though, I wonder if this isn't the lead-in to Lisa receiving a professorly set-down.

[Alice Macher]

Another note, somehow I don't think that Sara and Fiona just wandered into a nice fluffy teen comedy.
Looks more like one of those Art House philosophy movies..

Can be interesting, but not when your brain is already hovering close to data overload.

I haven't seen it, but review quotes I picked up just now via Metacritic describe it as "quiet," "gentle," "beautiful," "lovely," etc. So no, it would appear not to be a mind-screw film. (Though it'd be kinda funny if it were.)

[IS_Wolf]

Oh, I'm well aware of that. My problem is, like I said, with the high probability that the romance is handled very... yaoishly, if you get my drift.

Like I later on edited in, if she's going for shock value. Then she can make it guard/prisoner as well.
Would be a little less predictable if the prisoner was the Seme and the Guard the Uke, but that would probably be expecting too much.

Indeed it is. I'm not weirded out over that. It's just the picturing Hank there...that's...unless it's just one of those involuntary images one's unconscious coughs up without one necessarily wanting it to.

Let's just hope that she was just thinking of a hot gay guy and his image kinda subconsciously came floating upwards.
Course if we want some more nightmare fuel, than the partner would end up looking like Stan.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

"Gay romance at Dachau"

I just have one thing to say to that. Go find a copy of "The Pink Triangle", and sit down with it for several hours. I did when I was 16, and it's stayed with me since.

[Kamino Neko]

Strangely enough I was just watching clips of the Ricky Gervais Show and some of what Karl Pilkington was saying about letters is oddly similar to what Lisa is saying. The difference is when Lisa says it she sounds insightful and when Karl does it he sounds like a moron.

Don't underestimate the effect of having Ricky 'The Braying Jackass' Gervais as commentator on the overall effect. Karl could recite the complete works of Shakespear perfectly, and Ricky's lunatic cackle would make it seem like the most moronic crap ever.

Some of Karl's rep as an idiot is because he's genuinely not exactly a genius, some of it is most likely his deliberately playing that up...most of it is simply Ricky acting like everything Karl says is idiotic. (... No, I'm not a fan of Gervais, how did you know?*)

So, to the observation in question...

Take a true, but not particularly groundbreaking observation...have one person deliver it with a broad humour to an audience who keeps the snark minimal, then have another deliver it with deep self-deprecation, to an audience that treats every word out of his mouth like it's a new low in idiocy, and you've got a recipe for exactly this situation.

* I watched one episode of RGS because it was on directly after Flight of the Conchords. Thought Karl seemed a bit dim, but Ricky came across as pretty much the worst human being ever. I like An Idiot Abroad, where it's mostly Karl (coming across as, again, a touch dim, but not that bad) with Ricky in only low doses (and still managing to come across as The Worst Human Being Ever). The other fellow, whose name I'm blanking on seems nice enough, to the point I really wonder how he puts up with Ricky...

[Adrishiana]

"Gay romance at Dachau"

I just have one thing to say to that. Go find a copy of "The Pink Triangle", and sit down with it for several hours. I did when I was 16, and it's stayed with me since.

Depending on how sensitively (and sensibly) she handles the topic, I could see this coming back with a comment along the lines of "this is inappropriate" or "what were you thinking."

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

"Gay romance at Dachau"

I just have one thing to say to that. Go find a copy of "The Pink Triangle", and sit down with it for several hours. I did when I was 16, and it's stayed with me since.

Depending on how sensitively (and sensibly) she handles the topic, I could see this coming back with a comment along the lines of "this is inappropriate" or "what were you thinking."

I'm shooting for both, for the two need not be mutually exclusive.

[Adrishiana]

"Gay romance at Dachau"

I just have one thing to say to that. Go find a copy of "The Pink Triangle", and sit down with it for several hours. I did when I was 16, and it's stayed with me since.

Depending on how sensitively (and sensibly) she handles the topic, I could see this coming back with a comment along the lines of "this is inappropriate" or "what were you thinking."

I'm shooting for both, for the two need not be mutually exclusive.

Actually, thinking about it, it'd be pretty brilliant (and also horribly, horribly inappropriate) if the professor's comment was "excuse me wtf r u doin" in entirety.

ETA: Unrelated, but is anyone else having intermittent issues with 502 errors and whatnot?

[Tamar]

As for the film, I predict Sara tries the "yawn-and-stretch," or some variation thereof, on Fiona during it, and strikes out.

[brasca]

Strangely enough I was just watching clips of the Ricky Gervais Show and some of what Karl Pilkington was saying about letters is oddly similar to what Lisa is saying. The difference is when Lisa says it she sounds insightful and when Karl does it he sounds like a moron.

Don't underestimate the effect of having Ricky 'The Braying Jackass' Gervais as commentator on the overall effect. Karl could recite the complete works of Shakespear perfectly, and Ricky's lunatic cackle would make it seem like the most moronic crap ever.

Some of Karl's rep as an idiot is because he's genuinely not exactly a genius, some of it is most likely his deliberately playing that up...most of it is simply Ricky acting like everything Karl says is idiotic. (... No, I'm not a fan of Gervais, how did you know?*)

So, to the observation in question...

Take a true, but not particularly groundbreaking observation...have one person deliver it with a broad humour to an audience who keeps the snark minimal, then have another deliver it with deep self-deprecation, to an audience that treats every word out of his mouth like it's a new low in idiocy, and you've got a recipe for exactly this situation.

* I watched one episode of RGS because it was on directly after Flight of the Conchords. Thought Karl seemed a bit dim, but Ricky came across as pretty much the worst human being ever. I like An Idiot Abroad, where it's mostly Karl (coming across as, again, a touch dim, but not that bad) with Ricky in only low doses (and still managing to come across as The Worst Human Being Ever). The other fellow, whose name I'm blanking on seems nice enough, to the point I really wonder how he puts up with Ricky...

Now I've got an image of a scene that never happened except in my mind. Helen and Tharqa are sitting at a table talking to Lisa and asking her the same questions. It's not all that hard since Tharqa probably has the same loud annoying laugh as Rick.

[mindstalk]

Sara: confused by philosophy, drawing blanks in creative writing.
Lisa: enthusiastic about linguistics, writing like a fiend in C-W.

Sara: already interested in Fiona, but it probably helps that they seem lost together, vs. Lisa taking to college like a duck to water.

[Ameyal]

Is it me or Sara looks real nice when she has a genuine laugh?(Yes, even with food in her mouth)

Just to derail the thread: The food on their plates seems to have been multiplied! :O

the "somehow" intrigues me, as it kinda implies that Sara is not on horny-mode about Fiona anymore(OR at least, it has diminished greatly by now)

I'll confess to not know what "Dachau" was, so my first thought was that Lisa was writing something about prison, which would be weird... and now that I know what it is, the only proper reaction after reading whatever she's writing(Specially if she literally uses Hank's description and the teacher knows him) would be "WTF?" if not spoken, at least on the face of the teacher.... which interestingly, we didn't get to see like the other two.

[retrophrenologist]

Ameyal, I don't mean to offend, but... how can someone not know what Dachau was? For an English-speaking person in the early 21st century, it's kind of like never having heard of Mickey Mouse.