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Biospheres
Apr. 22nd, 2008 04:34 amEach movie generates its own little biosphere and has its only little ecology and its climate, and you're attune to that more than anything else. So when people say "is there anything you wouldn't show on film?" or "would you draw back?" I say, if I do it's only because of that biosphere. What is appropriate? What works within the ecology of that movie? So in one movie sex and blood would be very up front, like in "Crash" because it's sort of the subject of the movie. But in another movie, like "The Dead Zone," it would not be appropriate. It would be disproportionate.
There's no sex really in "eXistenZ," except metaphorically. There was an opportunity to have sex scenes, and we were all willing to do that. But as the film evolved, we thought it would be wrong. It would take away from the metaphorical sex, which is all this plugging in and that sort of stuff. That's more interesting. It has more resonance than if you suddenly saw a real, naked sex scene in the middle of all that. It would unbalance all that -- almost invalidate it. So if you wait, the movie gradually tells you what it wants to be, and you have to sort of go on with it.
- David Cronenberg
Full disclosure: I'm writing on a darkfic that's dark. The premise is dark, and the story follows through on the premise. It's handled tastefully, I hope, and there's gonna be a big ol' "Warning: Rape" on the header just in case non-con comes off as a weasel word. Because this isn't one of those sexy, sexy rape fantasies so much as it's one of those sexy, sexy sick people doing sick things and good people trying to respond.
And that quote up top? That's what I feel like. Like, 99% of the time, when you click on one of my stories, you're not gonna get rape (even the oblique references version). But this is a story that really can't work if the worst that happens is a woman gets taken out for a bad night on the town ("And then he didn't give the waiter a tip!" "I will avenge you.")
So really, I think it's a bit limiting to say "I would never ever write X". Because if the story's screaming "Write X! Write X! This will be so much better if it has X in it, come on, don't be a pussy!", then you're just mis-serving yourself to write the second-best story you can write. The big concern, at least that I have, is that people will think you're just doing it for shock value or that you're just being needlessly sadistic. (Or, in my case, that people will think it's OOC for the racist, genocidial, megalomanical, evil, insane, psychotic Master to take his love of powerone fifteen steps too far).
I read a story, more on it later, that put Superman through some Hostel treatment for some hardcore h/c later on (the comfort part, that is... as in, reduced to a child-like mental state, traumatized, crippled... I think the only thing the author didn't do was give him an erectile dysfunction, because he needed that for later...). And I hated it, because I thought the story's biosphere absolutely did not support all that crap. It used to be light-hearted, fun, with moderate angst... you know, like a Superman story, not something that would send Stephen King running for his teddy bear.
There've been stories that I've wanted to write sex scenes for, but I don't think the tone was appropriate for it. To go from wacky hijinx to Barry White. Sometimes you have to be kid-friendly. Like, it's not even a fade to black, it's a fade to sorta dark can we get some lights on in here? Why, those two people are kissing! And perhaps that is all they are doing?
Oh, look, it's the next morning, they had a sleepover!
I just wish some people, instead of cramming all their species of animals into one biosphere, would make a new biosphere for the animals to frolic and play in. Babs/Dinah (at least explicit Babs/Dinah... bisexual key party FTW) wouldn't fit into The Other Wife and the hardcore h/c didn't fit into this story I read the way it would've fit into a sequel or AU of the original story. I can understand how, in a long-running fic, you can want to throw stuff against the wall to make it stick. But even when you have the BEST IDEA EVAAAAAAAR!!! you should still stop to think "hmmm... does this really fit into the story I'm trying to tell or would it be best-served if I locked it into the plotbunny drawer and came back to it later."
Then, maybe three weeks from then, you go to the plotbunny drawer and say "that idea was terrible! What I eventually did was so much better! I'm so glad that I didn't try to put a square peg into a round hole... hmmm... Square Peg/Round Hole OTP!"
There's no sex really in "eXistenZ," except metaphorically. There was an opportunity to have sex scenes, and we were all willing to do that. But as the film evolved, we thought it would be wrong. It would take away from the metaphorical sex, which is all this plugging in and that sort of stuff. That's more interesting. It has more resonance than if you suddenly saw a real, naked sex scene in the middle of all that. It would unbalance all that -- almost invalidate it. So if you wait, the movie gradually tells you what it wants to be, and you have to sort of go on with it.
- David Cronenberg
Full disclosure: I'm writing on a darkfic that's dark. The premise is dark, and the story follows through on the premise. It's handled tastefully, I hope, and there's gonna be a big ol' "Warning: Rape" on the header just in case non-con comes off as a weasel word. Because this isn't one of those sexy, sexy rape fantasies so much as it's one of those sexy, sexy sick people doing sick things and good people trying to respond.
And that quote up top? That's what I feel like. Like, 99% of the time, when you click on one of my stories, you're not gonna get rape (even the oblique references version). But this is a story that really can't work if the worst that happens is a woman gets taken out for a bad night on the town ("And then he didn't give the waiter a tip!" "I will avenge you.")
So really, I think it's a bit limiting to say "I would never ever write X". Because if the story's screaming "Write X! Write X! This will be so much better if it has X in it, come on, don't be a pussy!", then you're just mis-serving yourself to write the second-best story you can write. The big concern, at least that I have, is that people will think you're just doing it for shock value or that you're just being needlessly sadistic. (Or, in my case, that people will think it's OOC for the racist, genocidial, megalomanical, evil, insane, psychotic Master to take his love of power
I read a story, more on it later, that put Superman through some Hostel treatment for some hardcore h/c later on (the comfort part, that is... as in, reduced to a child-like mental state, traumatized, crippled... I think the only thing the author didn't do was give him an erectile dysfunction, because he needed that for later...). And I hated it, because I thought the story's biosphere absolutely did not support all that crap. It used to be light-hearted, fun, with moderate angst... you know, like a Superman story, not something that would send Stephen King running for his teddy bear.
There've been stories that I've wanted to write sex scenes for, but I don't think the tone was appropriate for it. To go from wacky hijinx to Barry White. Sometimes you have to be kid-friendly. Like, it's not even a fade to black, it's a fade to sorta dark can we get some lights on in here? Why, those two people are kissing! And perhaps that is all they are doing?
Oh, look, it's the next morning, they had a sleepover!
I just wish some people, instead of cramming all their species of animals into one biosphere, would make a new biosphere for the animals to frolic and play in. Babs/Dinah (at least explicit Babs/Dinah... bisexual key party FTW) wouldn't fit into The Other Wife and the hardcore h/c didn't fit into this story I read the way it would've fit into a sequel or AU of the original story. I can understand how, in a long-running fic, you can want to throw stuff against the wall to make it stick. But even when you have the BEST IDEA EVAAAAAAAR!!! you should still stop to think "hmmm... does this really fit into the story I'm trying to tell or would it be best-served if I locked it into the plotbunny drawer and came back to it later."
Then, maybe three weeks from then, you go to the plotbunny drawer and say "that idea was terrible! What I eventually did was so much better! I'm so glad that I didn't try to put a square peg into a round hole... hmmm... Square Peg/Round Hole OTP!"
