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ORPHAN_ADVENTURES

                                             December 15, 2011


   The orphan is a common motif in
   shoujo fiction, for reasons that
   should be obvious with a moments
   thought: the young adult is about
   to have adventures, about to charge
   out into the unknown and get into
   situations that no parental unit
   is likely to approve.


   So either the hero is a Bad Kid,
   a rebel that refuses to listen, *or*
   there are no parents to get in the way.
   

         Compare this to Unmarried Male
         motif of male adventure fiction:
         for a man with a family to get
         involved with these dangerous
         situations would be irresponsible,
         so either the hero is irresponsible--
         or Required By Duty, in which case
         there are lots of tedious Cops Wife
         scenes ("I am so *worried* about you")--
         or there's just no family there.

             The romantic conquests of the
             hero are prone toward tragic
             death, just to get them out of
             the way for plot reasons.


    The goal is to develop connections,
    so connections must be severed or
    the drive disappears.

        And so, there appears to be
        a gulf here between life and
        fiction...

        Fiction is often built on
        these sorts of evasions.

        And so, what can you do with the idea
        that one can live *through* fiction.

        It would seem that "fiction vs. life"
        is a more sensible angle to take.

                 SURROUNDED_BY_STORIES


   By what method shall I proceed
   from this conundrum?

  Choose an angle, a lens to view the
  material through, and then re-read
  various things I've written on this
  subject after choosing a lens.

    Possible lenses: fiction a drug, I'm an addict,
    hence my drive to rationalize my interest in these
    flawed, pernicious artworks.

    Another: bad fiction is bad, and
    good fiction is good: so where's
    the line?

    Another: work backwards from
    something worth having.  What would
    I really like to discover?  Assume
    it exists, then try to get there.


        I would like to find a way to paralyze
        the mechanisms of political lies.

        I would like to expand the
        values of humanity so that
        humanity is valued.

           I would like to make us whole.

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