quote:Does someone have to be a fan in order to write fanfic? And, yeah, being licensed to create a work in someone else's creative universe is not fan fic. It's "Feed the Baby of Love." Not that I would necessarily put that on the same level as a hypothetical Pokemon novel.
What's the story behind this? What preexisting universe does Feed The Baby of Love [Many Beans Or Perish In The Flames of Hell] take place in?
I really like that story, but it just bugs my wife.
Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :
It's the world of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. It was first published in an anthology called The Bradbury Chronicles which featured stories set in or inspired by worlds from Bradbury's fiction.
The father in the story and the man's middle are both from Dandelion Wine.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Huh. I've meant to read Dandelion Wine for a long time. Now I'm going to have to go do it.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I think it was explained on the audiobook that he was participating in a group homage of some kind where a group of writers were invited to set a story in a Ray Bradbury universe.
[SPOILERS] . . . . . . The story bugs me too. He did indulge himself at her expense. He was unfaithful, even though they didn't "do it." I guess on some level a man only suffers more if he kisses a woman and doesn't sleep with her, but still. I totally feel guilty when I do stuff like he did, is all I'm saying.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I completely agree that he was unfaithful, and I don't admire him for it. I still love the story, though.
I'm reminded of the scripture that we discussed with the 7-year-olds in Sunday School:
Luke 15:7
quote:I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Of course it says many other places that there are no persons that don't need repentance, and that if we say we do not sin, we deceive ourselves.
But I don't have the story in front of me to examine what the male character's point was.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
My point is that I like the fact that even though he did some stupid things, he did a 180 and in the end did what he was supposed to do.
After all, any story where nobody is put in a difficult situation is probably going to be a dull story. In this case, he put himself in the situation.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
My recollection (which I'll grant is imperfect) is that he planned to just go so far and then do the 180, and then patted himself on the back for pulling it off.
The reason I suspect that is because he tuned the guitar. He was not simply caught up in the moment.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:My recollection (which I'll grant is imperfect) is that he planned to just go so far and then do the 180, and then patted himself on the back for pulling it off.
That is not my recollection at all.
From my memory (it's been years since I've read that story), he tuned the guitar because he loved her music being able to hear her play and sing in person was a dream come true for him, not because he wanted to get close to her physically. Also because he wasn't really thinking about the consequences of being alone in the house with a woman he's amired from afar for years and being moved by the music she's making.
Of course, it was easy for him to fool himself about such consequences, as he wasn't entirely sure who she was until she started singing.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
As Jesus said, if a man looks at a woman to lust after her, he has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
He meant to do wrong. He did some wrong. He stopped. He gets blame for what he did, and credit for what he did not do.
But come on, folks. In the morality common in America during the zips, he's practically a saint. Isn't he?
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'in' is. Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I guess the original statement that the story bothered porteiro's wife is off somewhere else in the ether.
I'm not condemning the guy, I've been unfaithful in my heart. But the impression of his self-appraisal was not one I could relate with him in the end. Maybe it's something I would understand differently if I'd read the parent story. Maybe it would have been okay if I'd never known of the parent story and took the story as being about the woman's experience.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
I think a lot of people have the experience of teetering on the brink and stepping back in time. True, they had no business being at the brink. And part of not falling is getting the heck away from the brink and staying as far from it as possible. But we don't consider people who didn't go over the edge as having been through the same kind of crash as those who do fall.
And I wasn't accusing anybody of accusing anybody of anything. I was discussing the moral judgment of a character and giving my view of a very difficult issue.
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