/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2177551]

The main character, in this little chunk, is discrediting his own retelling of the story, which is supposed to suggest it could be one of the many possible fictional pasts he could have lived through, which is treated true throughout.

But I don't think I captured that AT ALL. What do I need to clarify? Everything? Please be specific.

The monologue will be in the next post.

[Anonymous No.2177555]

My mind is in, what most would refer to as, a state unfit of re-telling the past. You see, I am a poet – a translator of mental and emotional realities and fantasies for all things that could be or been. For the past not to be told with universals and possibilities is simply... Strange. When human nature strives on knowledge which feeds on the past, how could one truly understand when we can only learn once? The torture! The inescapable nostalgia and regret, the impossibly rigid memories, lost, and unreal beyond your imagination – why let yourself cry tears only to be suspended in history and cried over again in the future? Without choice, there is no knowledge and no freedom. With the present, there are both. If I am forced to restrain my life to something as frightening, as morbid, as inhumanly brutal as the past I’d prefer it to read less like an eager epitaph and more as a choose your own adventure novel. The past lacks the sanity in its concept and is but a lesson to be learned – that there is freedom in the now, the ever-changing.

[Anonymous No.2177903]

bump

[Anonymous No.2178157]

Sorry, /lit/. Bump?

[Anonymous No.2178204]

The "cry tears" is a little...Strange. What else would he cry? Take "tears" out! OUT! OUUUUUUUUT!

[Anonymous No.2178230]

>>2177555

I swear. If Alan Moore had the Joker say this in "The Killing Joke" instead of the short "past = multiple choice" quip, I would have swallowed the comic in a rage with its pseudo-profound desperation.

Wait a minute! Maybe...maybe your monologue could benefit from such brevity, yes?

Or do you want me to swallow it? I will.

[Anonymous No.2178274]

>>2178204
Whoops, my bad.

>>2178230
Wow, I just finished read it. (never read many comics)
>"Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"

Well, shit... I didn't even think of 'multiple choice'. I wrote it with Aristotle's Poetics (slightly) in mind.

So, should I just scrap this part and start all over? Joker said pretty much what I wanted to... How could I say it without downright plagiarism?

[Anonymous No.2178276]

>>2178274
>I just finished read it.
reading*

Actually, should I just not include it at all and go for another approach for the main character to discredit himself? It sounds like the same idea regardless of of how I'd change up the words.

[Anonymous No.2178328]

>>2178276

Hey! How about dice? Hint at the multiple choice taking rather than have him say it plain out.

No. Don't use dice. Too obvious. How about showing the use of a backspace? How about showing the use of a ba How about showing the use o How about showing the use of some sort of editing tool so he can edit his past?

[Anonymous No.2178467]

>>2178328
By the end of the story he's shown to have altered the events at the beginning of the story and his reasoning based on past events changes every now and then. I'm just having a hard time making it seem obvious to the reader. And then I feel like I'm patronizing the reader. Throughout I've scattered hints (not exactly backspace, but definitely editing of sorts), but I still don't think it's enough.

And dice wouldn't work since you have no control of the outcome unless it's rigged or changed.

Alright, thanks.