I LIKE Reading About Happy Families, Okay?
Sep. 5th, 2011 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoyBeen wanting to write some of Kuen’s books, in the American Girl Central Series format because I AM A GIANT NERD.* Kuen’s my redheaded sprite doll—you can see her here—an original character who goes back years in my head. I figured it’d be fun to showcase her world the way the AG books do with their historical characters.
The problem is, Kuen lives in a shameless utopia.
See, when I get all pushed out of shape about larger societal problems, yeah, I try to fix what I can, but my escape is to retreat into designing my own utopia. Yeah, yeah, I know, nobody likes utopia in stories, but I think that’s largely because an author’s idea of what makes a wonderful society reflects a lot of the author’s opinions and crazy biases. But by god it sure is therapeutic to sit around designing a world where things went right the first time. And I see nothing wrong with aspiring for utopia. First we just have to all agree on what that is.
Anyway, I try to work at it. Sure, I cheated and made Kuen’s people inhuman, so I can gloss over any possible objections of unrealism by pointing out that Sprites’ Brains Are Different From Humans’. But I also try my damndest to give them a working infrastructure—yes, I worked out the plumbing and the power grid and the government and whatnot. And I also made it so that not everyone is deliriously happy all the time—utopia’s more just my attempt to fix all the completely out-of-whack systems our own world has in place. These people are on their own for being happy within their system.**
But it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep that up when I write the stories—it’s like trying to run a simulation. We’ll just have to see if I can pull out a functioning, interesting story in a world of sunshine and bunny rabbits. Wish me luck!
*More nerdiness: I also have picked a color and a symbol for each of my dolls, as per the AG standard. To reiterate: I AM A DOLL NERD.
**Also, sprites’ brains being Different From Humans’ isn’t always an advantage. You get the odd supervillain much more frequently.
The problem is, Kuen lives in a shameless utopia.
See, when I get all pushed out of shape about larger societal problems, yeah, I try to fix what I can, but my escape is to retreat into designing my own utopia. Yeah, yeah, I know, nobody likes utopia in stories, but I think that’s largely because an author’s idea of what makes a wonderful society reflects a lot of the author’s opinions and crazy biases. But by god it sure is therapeutic to sit around designing a world where things went right the first time. And I see nothing wrong with aspiring for utopia. First we just have to all agree on what that is.
Anyway, I try to work at it. Sure, I cheated and made Kuen’s people inhuman, so I can gloss over any possible objections of unrealism by pointing out that Sprites’ Brains Are Different From Humans’. But I also try my damndest to give them a working infrastructure—yes, I worked out the plumbing and the power grid and the government and whatnot. And I also made it so that not everyone is deliriously happy all the time—utopia’s more just my attempt to fix all the completely out-of-whack systems our own world has in place. These people are on their own for being happy within their system.**
But it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep that up when I write the stories—it’s like trying to run a simulation. We’ll just have to see if I can pull out a functioning, interesting story in a world of sunshine and bunny rabbits. Wish me luck!
*More nerdiness: I also have picked a color and a symbol for each of my dolls, as per the AG standard. To reiterate: I AM A DOLL NERD.
**Also, sprites’ brains being Different From Humans’ isn’t always an advantage. You get the odd supervillain much more frequently.
