Bored out of my mind at work with nothing to do III

[pegkerr]

I wonder what the chances are of a large pterodactyl crashing through one of the office windows.

That would liven things up.

Comments

[cesario.livejournal.com]

I'll distract you from paperclip counting and pterodactyl longing with a question I found myself curious about. How much of your personal religious beliefs/thoughts/quandaries went into the religious elements of The Wild Swans?

Religion, esp. conflicted religion, is an obsession of mine. Have to ask.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

So sorry there is nothing worse then not having anything to do at work when you already don't want to be there.

That's a drag.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

So, do you have any opinions on the presidential candidates for 2008?

[qwyneth.livejournal.com]

It's a baby coyote!

And fark always entertains me.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

You might be interested in looking at some of the entries I did on the bookworms_inc, community, because the book was the pick of the month last March:

Pictures of the characters

Why I used two doppelgangers for Eliza instead of just one

Questions for readers (These are the same questions I asked you; you may be interested in what other people had to say.)

Mistakes

Parallels.

As for the specific religious elements that you asked about, that grew a great deal, much more than I expected, from my first idea of the book to its final form. Specifically, it worked its way in more and more when I did my research on the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic (particularly in reading And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts) and realized how much the underpinnings of Puritanism caused AIDS to spread. At the same time I was reading about the history of the spread of AIDS, and how officials in the Reagan administration did all they could to drag their feet in warning and treating because the first victims were gay, I was reading about Puritan philosophy about the nature of community. I had William explain this in a speech right before they found Eliza in the woods. They believed that all proper relationships were hierarchical (God over man, husband over wife, parent over child, servant over master) and if you weren't in a hierarchical, proper relationship, then you were literally not part of the community and the community could then wash its hands of you. This is EXACTLY what happened to gay Americans who first fell victims to AIDS. They weren't "one of us" (real proper Americans in proper relationships) so why should we worry if they were dying?

The agony of AIDs we multiplied because sincere people of faith thought that people can't be gay and yet right with God. So they rejected gays who were dying and thought the disease was a punishment from God. The more I thought about it, and the more I researched, I thought that if anything, Christ would appear today as a victim of AIDS. ("He was despised, rejected. . .") Our moral and religious test is to recognize, not that "this person is gay and has AIDS and therefore my religion demands I should despise and reject him," but "this person is suffering, and if I reject him, I am rejecting Christ Himself." Remember the parable "even as you have done to the least of these my brethern, you have done it to me."

That is why I gave Eliza the five wounds of Christ: Anderson spoke of her wounded hands and feet. I added the detail of her rubbing the nettle flax against her side, so that her side would get ulcerated, too. I added a religious element to her trial, comparing it to Christ's trial by having Patience quote the Bible verse about "as the lamb before the shearers is dumb." And that is why I tried to make as clear as I could that Eliza's acceptance and love of Jonathan at the end (when he realizes how wrongfully he treated her) is more than human, more than he deserves. It would take almost a divine grace for Eliza to forgive Jonathan, just as it would take almost a divine grace for the victims of AIDS to forgive the wrong that was done against them for what they suffered. Only Christ (or the power of the divine in each of us that Eliza represents) could have the power to forgive such a great wrong.

The most tragic character in the book to me is William, the Puritan minister. I pity him with all my heart. He honestly believes that his faith tells him that because he loves another man he is doomed to hell. He truly is a man of faith, but he cannot reconcile that with his sexuality. I hope that The Wild Swans will lead to some people thinking, for the first time, that faith and homosexuality do not have to be mutually exclusive.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I'm bored too. So I posted a poll! I find those infinitely entertaining.

[naomikritzer]

I had a job once where I often didn't have enough to do. I wouldn't have minded that at all if it would've been acceptable to just read a novel on days like that -- in most cases, I had 16 projects going but all were waiting for some programmer to get back to me, and if someone actually got off their tush and answered my questions I could finish up, but I wasn't allowed to nag them (I had to nag my boss, who would nag their boss, who would nag them) and my boss got pissed if I bugged her too often. During such lulls in the workload, I was supposed to look busy.

I learned that there is nothing I hate quite so much as looking busy when I have nothing to do. I would rather scrub toilets.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I sent you an email at your LJ address; did you get it? If not, please email me at cak hyphen edit at comcast dot net.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

If you worked for Torchwood in Cardiff, you'd have a pterodactyl as part of the office staff (sort of; mainly it just flies around up near the ceiling in the first episode, but in one of the books, it's put to good use).

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

If you look at the photographic tour of this post:
http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=121
You'll find a pterodactyl guarding a bookstore. This is what entertained me all day yesterday. It was kind of work-related, as we deal with ID problems often enough.

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

OMG- the Daily Coyote just melts my heart (and gives me great photographic envy!). Love it!

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Well, I came This Close to sending you my Lavender article, but I figured you were bored, but not deserving of the agony.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

I had wanted to comment on this, but wanted you to get the first word in. Also, I felt it wasn't really my place to speak up, being an "assistant" to the writer, not the writer in question.

Having said that...

I feel there was a lot of your personal beliefs, etc. behind your impulse to writing the book, especially since you felt unsure about your having the 'right' to.

(I hope this makes sense...)

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Have you been introduced to Left Behind Fridays (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/) yet? The whole site is worth a read, but the reviews of the Left Behind novel is particularly horrifying/entertaining.

I ran out of pterodactyls...

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

But I just got a nifty new icon with Severus Snape in a Santa Hat, q.v. :-D Courtesy of esmestrella, who added the caption of my choice, an adaptation from the infamous firecracker scene in CoS.

There, the work day is almost over. Weekend is at hand...!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I got home and checked my e-mail; I didn't get the email to my lj account. Very weird. I sent a test e-mail to myself using that address and it didn't arrive. I dunno why, but my lj emails apparently aren't being delivered.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Fascinating!

[vass]

In one of the episodes it's put to good use too!

[vass]

*whistles*

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Truly terrifying.

Especially since I have relatives who liked this tripe.

Oh, to have thought of this series first, and done it right.

(Wonder if anyone would buy it if it was done right? It doesn't even match Revelations half the time, or so I hear....)

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're right! I'd forgotten about that.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Very welcome.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

In the sidebar, there's a link to Right Behind which is a bunch of the usual commenter's Left Behind Scenes Done Right. They're worth a look.