Review of the works of Ganymede
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:34 pm
In response to Jesus' suggestion that there aren't enough reviews, for the amount of stories we've been restoring, I'd like to make my own humble review.
One author that I had never read before the restoration, was Ganymede.
Though you might not agree with his topic, you cannot help but be impressed by his writing style. He writes with actual love for his topics. He doesn't write thinking the reader needs to have everything explained to him. He expects you to be intelligent. He writes instead to make you feel.
What impressed me most, was his ability to describe little moments that mean a lot. They aren't always moments that we choose to focus on, but are meaningful nonetheless.
In A N.I.C.E. Boy, Ganymede writes of a future world where the will to protect children, inflicts incalculably more harm than it solves. Yet it is primarily focused on the relationship between two very lost and damaged people. The meeting between the two main characters, Lane and Daniele Webster is innocent, but immediately recognizable. Both of them are struggling with their own demons and concerns. Both are trying to hide who they really are, yet each is immediately recognizable to the other. As the world around them crumbles, they are increasingly driven together. What they find in each other eventually saves them. Without each other, they are doomed. Only together, can they survive it.
In Platonic Love we follow John and his much abused son Jason. Jason is sent to live with his father for a summer. He comes with terrible baggage. A neglectful mother, and abuse from her boyfriends and fiancee. John is equally damaged. He chooses to live in isolation aboard his boat. He separates himself from a world that has destroyed his belief in love, and his ability to connect with others. Their reunion is strained, but over the summer the two come to know and love each other. The story is about two people struggling to come alive again. Struggling to overcome everything about themselves the world tells them is wrong.
In Platonic Love we see the characters hating themselves. Telling themselves they are flawed, they are unworthy. We see the world trying to reinforce those concepts, and the damage believing it does to the main characters. They are brought together and dashed apart. Crimes are perpetrated on the main characters in the name of the greater good. Only when they finally are brought together, do we see a hope for their world, and a light at the end of the tunnel.
Worm-Hole explores what it means to love. What that connection can accomplish. It is a strange and odd piece of science-fiction. It works with metaphors to explore that human connection. It plays with two seemingly dissonant ideas. On the one hand, there exists a group outside of time and space working to dominate the galaxy and creation. On the other side we follow a present day Stefan. He is an innocent boy, simultaneously exploring his own sexuality, and the limits of his own intellect and imagination.
As the story progresses, we learn what a human connection can really mean. That it can reach across the very cosmos, through time and dimensions, it can change the very world we live in, and make us masters of our own destiny.
The love scenes in Ganymede's writing seem very real. They are not told with the intention of titillating or exciting the reader (though that can often be the result.). Instead they are written to illustrate something real, a part of the human condition we sometimes view as wrong, or taboo. They show that love does not always recognize boundaries, that what we feel does not always conform. Ganymede's writing shows us the damage hating ourselves can do, and it shows the healing that can be gained from truly loving another human being.
Ganymede's view of love, is a selfless love. His main characters rebel at the very thought of owning or controlling another person for their own interests. They hate the thought of using another person for their own lusts. Instead they come to love out of understanding and connection with another soul. The love-making becomes an expression of how the two characters truly feel about each other. A celebration of the human condition, not a condemnation of it.
Ganymede's stories are heavy with the man-boy love theme. You may agree with this idea or not, you can reject it or embrace it. What you cannot reject, is his ability to tell a story about what it means to fight against your own identity, and the damage that can do. You cannot reject the very palpable emotions that nearly jump off the page, or the delicate way he deals with his subject, sometimes flirting with, but never crossing the line for his characters.
He writes with real emotion. The author's scars are visible to all who read his stories.
Ganymede has five stories currently on the archive. First Boy, A N.I.C.E. Boy, "i", Platonic Love, and Worm-Hole. I highly recommend his stories to anyone who struggles with the human condition, or simply wishes to read a beautifully written tale.
One author that I had never read before the restoration, was Ganymede.
Though you might not agree with his topic, you cannot help but be impressed by his writing style. He writes with actual love for his topics. He doesn't write thinking the reader needs to have everything explained to him. He expects you to be intelligent. He writes instead to make you feel.
What impressed me most, was his ability to describe little moments that mean a lot. They aren't always moments that we choose to focus on, but are meaningful nonetheless.
In A N.I.C.E. Boy, Ganymede writes of a future world where the will to protect children, inflicts incalculably more harm than it solves. Yet it is primarily focused on the relationship between two very lost and damaged people. The meeting between the two main characters, Lane and Daniele Webster is innocent, but immediately recognizable. Both of them are struggling with their own demons and concerns. Both are trying to hide who they really are, yet each is immediately recognizable to the other. As the world around them crumbles, they are increasingly driven together. What they find in each other eventually saves them. Without each other, they are doomed. Only together, can they survive it.
In Platonic Love we follow John and his much abused son Jason. Jason is sent to live with his father for a summer. He comes with terrible baggage. A neglectful mother, and abuse from her boyfriends and fiancee. John is equally damaged. He chooses to live in isolation aboard his boat. He separates himself from a world that has destroyed his belief in love, and his ability to connect with others. Their reunion is strained, but over the summer the two come to know and love each other. The story is about two people struggling to come alive again. Struggling to overcome everything about themselves the world tells them is wrong.
In Platonic Love we see the characters hating themselves. Telling themselves they are flawed, they are unworthy. We see the world trying to reinforce those concepts, and the damage believing it does to the main characters. They are brought together and dashed apart. Crimes are perpetrated on the main characters in the name of the greater good. Only when they finally are brought together, do we see a hope for their world, and a light at the end of the tunnel.
Worm-Hole explores what it means to love. What that connection can accomplish. It is a strange and odd piece of science-fiction. It works with metaphors to explore that human connection. It plays with two seemingly dissonant ideas. On the one hand, there exists a group outside of time and space working to dominate the galaxy and creation. On the other side we follow a present day Stefan. He is an innocent boy, simultaneously exploring his own sexuality, and the limits of his own intellect and imagination.
As the story progresses, we learn what a human connection can really mean. That it can reach across the very cosmos, through time and dimensions, it can change the very world we live in, and make us masters of our own destiny.
The love scenes in Ganymede's writing seem very real. They are not told with the intention of titillating or exciting the reader (though that can often be the result.). Instead they are written to illustrate something real, a part of the human condition we sometimes view as wrong, or taboo. They show that love does not always recognize boundaries, that what we feel does not always conform. Ganymede's writing shows us the damage hating ourselves can do, and it shows the healing that can be gained from truly loving another human being.
Ganymede's view of love, is a selfless love. His main characters rebel at the very thought of owning or controlling another person for their own interests. They hate the thought of using another person for their own lusts. Instead they come to love out of understanding and connection with another soul. The love-making becomes an expression of how the two characters truly feel about each other. A celebration of the human condition, not a condemnation of it.
Ganymede's stories are heavy with the man-boy love theme. You may agree with this idea or not, you can reject it or embrace it. What you cannot reject, is his ability to tell a story about what it means to fight against your own identity, and the damage that can do. You cannot reject the very palpable emotions that nearly jump off the page, or the delicate way he deals with his subject, sometimes flirting with, but never crossing the line for his characters.
He writes with real emotion. The author's scars are visible to all who read his stories.
Ganymede has five stories currently on the archive. First Boy, A N.I.C.E. Boy, "i", Platonic Love, and Worm-Hole. I highly recommend his stories to anyone who struggles with the human condition, or simply wishes to read a beautifully written tale.
