I See Stories

I'm off the writing wagon and back on the street. In the muck, actually, but that's a story for later...(author smoothly changes topic before reader bats an eyelash.)

These past few nights, reading a lot of poker-related blogs and threads--researching, I like to think of it--I've come across stories unlike what you ordinarily see in the literary gamut.

The Good:

Scouring twoplusto, I found a fascinating, honest, and insightful thread: Ask Layzie about Heroin Addiction/Doing Time In Prison If you know anyone who has drug issues, I really urge you to pass this along to them. It's just a dude who's talking openly about his experiences-- getting addicted to heroin, going to prison, getting clean. He will answer any question. Paul Philips' blog also yieleded some worthwhile stuff--a pretty good mix of humor, politics, and poker content.

The Bad:

Overwhelmingly, most of what I found online did not amount to a satisfying, thought-provoking, or even funny read. A lot of stories lacked nuance or any form of redemption.

I'm thinking specifically of three posts I read on Boy of Destiny. I don't even know whose blog this is; I found a link to it on twoplustwo. Two of the posts detail failed dating experiences in which asshole guys try to hook up with girls because of the "challenge" or the promise of large tits. A third story recounts a man's experience in Korea where a prank leads to a man's suicide.

All three stories fail badly, leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the reader.

But these stories interest me because 1) they are real 2) they are of obvious significance to the teller 3) that they are related in this fashion is a unique product of the internet and modern conventions of personal documentary.

I was thinking about these stories in the context of the values they represent. They seem typical, the romance predicaments fairly standard. They carry the assumption that most men desire sex, that this, as the sole driving force in a relationship, tends to workout badly, which I tend to agree with.

So why do the stories fail so badly? Is it merely a case of the author not doing the work to lull us into the fictive dream, to assume the correct position relative to the material to allow us to see the tragedy or the genuine emotion involved? Probably. I think there is a pattern in that the stories seem not to show the narrator/protagonist having complex emotions, or even

Meta-moment: I wanted to invoke the issue of "architecture," to question whether these stories fundamentally have enough conflict to make them succesful, even if they were realized perfectly. But, thinking about it, they clearly do; several of mine don't. Fuck.

Meta-moment 2: this is awesome. I'm workshopping strangers' blogs!

What can I gain from these stories?

I want to read these personal narratives and gain some new intuitive feel for the set of issues confronting man in our time, particularly the poker playing subpopulation (the topic of the story I will write in entirety between now and Tuesday, minus two paragraphs previously posted), but having insight's into the human soul isn't as easy as it sounds.

Or more likely, I could steal them, see if I can tell them with any better luck.

If I can get myself to write, maybe I will.