Dear Charlieje,
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Charlieje (imported) wrote: Wed Aug 13, 2003 6:06 pm
But music notwithstanding, you have done an excellent job of developing some real people, with real problems and issues,
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There is a simple trick to achieve this: I think of real people I know, or have known. Each of the characters in my stories is pretty real, with changed names of course. Maybe not all of the things each one does was actually done by the "model" after whom I fashion each character, but at least the main reactions, moods, ways of thinking are taken from specific real people. This story is very personal, and highly autobiographic, even if none of the charcaters is exactly me, but rather autobiographical issues appear distributed among several of the characters. Life is more phantastic than the best phantasy...
So, roughly 90% of this story is real - even if the most important happenings are in the other 10% ! They were real only to the stage of dreams, for my childhood friends and me. None of us ever had the determination to go through with it. But we dreamed and phantasized a lot, and I think that with pain killers available, at least two or three of us would have done it! Crazy enough we were, I assure you...!
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Charlieje (imported) wrote: Wed Aug 13, 2003 6:06 pm
The fact is that kids sometimes do know their own minds - all we as adults need to do is to make sure they have all the facts. If we don't, well, those who "rise above" will find their own way.
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Very true. When I was still a child, I very consciously decided to try my best at avoiding that irritating adult custom of treating children like cute little things who know nothing, when I would be a grown-up myself. In that time, when some adult treated me as what I was, we were instant friends. If another adult treated me as more mature than I really was, I tried to rise to that level. But if someone treated me like a baby, that poor person was instantly condemned into the lowest, most stupid class of people I knew! I have tried my best to keep this childhood promise fresh in my mind, and when nowadays I have anything to do with children, I treat them like normal people, who know what they want. They have thanked me by treating me like a normal person too, not like a stupid old guy!
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Great job, Il Musico!
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Thanks...
And now I must go reading. I just saw that The Tribes #32 is out, and that can't wait until tomorrow! I have the feeling that Androboy has put more than just a little of himself into that story!
All the best,
Il Musico.