Sorry, Mate; I Bat for the Other Team

Labels: , , , , , , , , - Friday, August 15, 2014

In television dramas (yeah, I'm gonna be harping on them for a while: get used to it), there's this thing often mentioned during a relationship. They call it "playing push and pull". Sometimes this refers to what most English-speaking folk refer to as "playing hard to get", but sometimes what "playing push and pull" really means is emotionally dragging someone back and forth.

Aren't they the same thing? No. One is a manipulation whilst still anticipating a concrete, specific result (Person A and Person B end up either in a relationship, or they don't). The other has a sort of third party element, because it isn't what one Person A does to Person B regarding themselves; it's what Person A does to Person B in order to shape or manipulate Person B's view or perspective of Situation C (which could be a couple pairing, traumatic circumstances, what have you).

Another possibly new-to-you term coined by drama addicts: Second Lead Syndrome. In short, SLS is the affliction of the observer rooting for the third party in a love triangle--the one who obviously isn't going to win. Most dramas, at least 95% of them, leave the Second Lead cold and alone, or if they're generous, with some glimmer of a positive occurrence via some other avenue in the last five minutes of the last episode.

The most brilliant dramas, though, are the ones where both romantic prospects are written in such a way as to drive the reader running back and forth between camps. How? I swear it's gotta involve some sort of potion or magic spell, or soul-selling sorcery. Do the writers make both options so prime as to be a golden choice either way? Are they they drama equivalent of a Mary Sue? Nope. Those don't work. As with novels, it's boring.

Not that I'm an expert, but the trick is so far as I can tell lies in giving something admirable and something vulnerable to both . . . and then taking turns in revealing those things so that the reader/watcher/voyeur/whatever is never quite convinced which is the "best" relationship. A Thing to watch out for, though. Waffling. If your Object d'affection goes back and forth between the other two points of the triangle, he or she better do it for believable reasons. Same for the observer. You aren't necessarily going to switch teams mid-game just because the coach does. You may be switching beforehand, because you know something the coach doesn't, or you may not change your mind at all, because you have a broader view of the game. The character going back and forth just because the two prospects show her some new shiny thing time and again is . . . annoying. I once read a book wherein the girl claimed to love two boys at once, and she got all hot and bothered no matter which once was kissing her, or looking at her with goo-goo eyes. And I mean within pages, paragraphs even, of each other. I call "bull crap". You can be sincere to either, but not both, and if you think you can, you are deluding yourself, because that is a sign of needing to take some time to figure yourself out. That is a cop-out, a lame plot device, and a serious abuse of a good make-out scene. RESPECT THE MAKE-OUT SCENE. Sorry. Mini-rant.

Anyway.

Playing 'Push and Pull'. Manipulating a reader so that he or she can genuinely fall for One or the Other and Back Again multiple times before the last page of the story. The subject can become a heated one, and it's often polarizing for fans. Team Edward or Team Jacob? Team Will or Team Jem. Team Sorry I Have A Headache or Team So I Can't Bother with Other Examples. But was there ever a moment when A Team Edward member was swayed--even a second, even for just a blink or a sentence--over to Team Jacob? Sure there was. Was there a moment when a reader though, "Oh, yes. I know these two really want to be together, but wouldn't it be so much healthier/happier/sweeter/just for the other two to end up a couple, instead?" Of course.

So, how are you going to do it? How are you going to make a reader question their own preference? Second guess their own hearts? Spare a sigh for the other?

Get crackin'.

Personal Note: Youngest wants you to know that the Goblin King is famous for being a rock star.

Sometimes Someone Needs to Say You Suck

Labels: , , , , , - Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Well, okay, maybe not, "You suck!" verbatim, but something at least along the lines of "Uh, you might wanna rethink this," or, "Sorry, not feeling it."


That person is hopefully someone whose input you've actually asked for, like a critique partner, or a beta reader. Sometimes, if you don't have someone to tell you when you suck, your have a harder time feeling good about the times you don't suck.

It has been a very long time for me to have a person to tell me when I suck. A. Very. Long. Time. It's no one's fault, because life happens, and the people who used to tell me when I suck are terribly busy with the life happening. Starting new careers, reproducing humans, reproducing more humans, surgeries, education. It's tough enough (though worth it and never impossible) to keep up with being friends, let alone getting told I suck.

I'm busy, too. I went back to school. *pauses for applause*. I'm literally a soccer/basketball/band mom to three fledgling male humans (sometimes more, depending on whether or not any of my "might as well be half mine, anyway" kids are over--right now I have at least one of them every day between 7AM and noon). I have a husband who works hours that suit us, but would seem wonky to the rest of the world (We often get up at 6 or 7, send off small people to school, and then go back to bed until 10 or 11). I study Korean on the side. I have a metric crap-ton of creative hobbies--knitting, origami, watercolors, illumination, doing weird things to my hair.

Point being, I have a lot to distract me from writing, and not a lot of people to harass or encourage me when I slack--not writers who have an insider's idea of how that can be problematic.

BUT! Recently, I got one (yes, I make her sound like a scarf I found in a shop). We agree on about 92% of the stuff we talk about, which is great, but I think that 8% we disagree about is more helpful, because it means I have to look at something differently, and that's what I need. I need a point of view that can clearly say, "You suck," when I need it (J doesn't ever actually say I suck, and she's much more tactful than am I, but you get the idea). Sometimes she gives me a little poke and virtually whispers, "This sounds too formal," or, "You're trying too hard, here." I'm finding that invaluable. She also says lovely things, things that make me feel wonderful, but it's the troubles she points out that almost make me feel better.

Because would she highlight the bad if she didn't believe in my ability to improve upon it? Probably not. I wouldn't. I say evil things to her all the time. I question things in her writing mercilessly. Why? Because I'm pretty sure she's got the gumption to figure out the answers and apply them.

Yeah, it's hard to accept our own suckation, and our first instinct is to resent being called out on it. I am a generally aggressive, defensive, prickly person, I know, but it's a serious leveling up in your maturity game if you can begin looking at constuctive criticism as a positive thing.

Think of it as someone's faith in you.

Personal Note: No lady, that's not Sebastien Solis; that's my kid.


Hello, 13-year-old supermodel.

YA Meets Kimchi

- Tuesday, July 29, 2014

You likely didn't realize there are several YA/MG writers who also happen to be K-drama addicts, but it's important do, because we are totally willing to make you one of us . . . Kdramas are awesome, and personally I've always felt one of the reasons so many YA authors love them has to do with the basic traits most Kdramas have. Love story (usually a triangle)? Check. Angst? Check. Overcoming obstacles? Check. Hot boys and pretty girls (your tastes as they apply)? Check. FEELS-filled first kisses? Almost always. Even in the Kdramas geared more toward adults the kisses come few and far between, but when they come you fall over from all the darling.

Actually, because we are weird, and addicted, and contagious, a group of YA writers has gone so far as to fan-cast Korean actors and actresses for either film adaptations or reboots of  YA/MG novels we love, and I get to be play, too. (Laura said so!) 
The YA Meets Kimchi series has included recasts by authors like Rachel Carter, Laura J. Moss, Corey Wright, Katie M Stout, and book reviewer Christina over at A Reader of Fictions.
 
I've chosen my favorite book of all time, which just happens to be a teen read having existed before the term "young adult" as applied to books existed (think 1967).

 The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton

I've been in love with the (sadly) fictional Ponyboy Curtis since I was four years old. Yeah: four. I've been in love with Hinton's novel about him since age thirteen. Hinton was only sixteen years old when she wrote about a group of rough neighborhood kids in Tulsa, OK (my birthplace), and the fallout from one of them accidentally killing a rich kid, or "Soc"--short for "socialite"--while trying to save narrator Ponyboy, as said Soc is actively trying to drown him at the time.
Told from Ponyboy's first-person reverie in the form of an essay assignment, The Outsiders is a somber, pensive, and sometimes brutal social commentary on the class system within late-60's Tulsa, but it isn't without its brighter moments between the dark.

 I sob like a like a hired mourner every time I read it.
So, without further ado, a Korean recasting of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders.

Ponyboy

Ponyboy Curtis, played by the ridiculously talented and versatile Yoo Seung Ho

Ponyboy Curtis. Fourteen, but looks older. He's the youngest Curtis brother, runs track and smokes, considered very bright by his teachers, feels bullied by his oldest brother, Darry, but adores the middle Curtis brother, Sodapop. More introspective than most "greasers" (or kids from the wrong side of the tracks), Pony sees people, including his fellow greasers, from a more objective angle. He's isn't naïve, but he isn't hard like some of the other guys with whom he hangs out. When Johnny Cade unintentionally kills a Soc one night while trying to protect Pony from a drowning, Pony runs away with Johnny to evade retribution and jail time.

Sodapop

Played by Lee Hyun-Jae, a perfect actor for a character described as “movie star good-looking”.

Sodapop is, as are most middle children, the peace-maker and intermediary between Ponyboy and Darry, not to mention the rest of the greasers. While not the smartest kid on the block (he's dropped out of high school already), Soda is charming to a T, upbeat, and intuitive regarding others. Soda’s laugh can usually cool down most hot tempers, and of course girls everywhere swoon over him . . . but he doesn't seem to notice, because he’s devoted to his long-time girlfriend Sandy.
Darry



Played by Philip Lee, a man who can move in ways that pay homage to previous Darry, Patrick Swayze

Darry is the eldest Curtis brother. He’s built like a ton of bricks, but has trouble showing affection. Having had to take on the role of mom and dad since the Curtis boys’ parents died a car crash a few years before, he often appears harsh, but his motivations are brought about by fraternal concern. In a rare show of denseness, Pony interprets Darry's criticisms as resentment and dislike for his youngest brother, however, all the other guys in their group insist just the opposite it true: Darry is hard on Pony because he sees Pony’s potential, and he feels guilty for not being able to give Pony more advantages.

Johnny










Song Joong-ki, a kid so gorgeously baby-faced you’d never peg him to play such an impossibly tragic character as Johnny, but trust me and the people who cast him in Werewolf Boy, he CAN.
Johnny Cade, aged sixteen, but described as looking like a scared puppy that’s been kicked too many times. Fragile, skittish, vulnerable, Johnny is not only the kid most likely to be found hanging out with Ponyboy (often to avoid being screamed at or beaten by his own dad), but also the recent victim of a serious bludgeoning by a group of rich boys with nothing better to do. Something about Johnny engenders a sense of protectiveness in all the guys in Pony’s group, even the street-hardened Dally. However, Johnny is not without his own brand of Zen. In a certain exchange with Pony, Johnny makes Pony promise to “stay gold”, a reference to Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold Can Stay. He wants Pony to never let himself get so bitter he loses the “gold” or young part of himself.


Dally
Song Jae Lim as Dally, because holy frak, can this man play cynical AND broken.
Dallas "Dally" Winston, survivor of the streets of Manhattan from the time he was ten till now, his early 20’s. He’s the most temperamental, most violent of all the boys, and understandably so. He’s a brute crushed by his own inability to stay out of trouble, so instead of waiting for it to find him, he goes out in search of it.  All the same, when Pony and Johnny run to him first after accidentally killing a Soc, he’s quick to think of the best-case scenario for keeping them at least relatively safe in a pinch, and when Johnny’s fate takes a terrible twist, it’s Dally who goes crazy from the loss.

Two-Bit


            




Yoon Shi Yoon, one of my favorite goof-able actors in the Korean world, just the kid to play a kid always ready to laugh, or pull a switch blade.
Two-Bit Matthews, so named because he always has to put in his two-cents’ worth. Jovial, silly, playful, Two-Bit can steal anything not nailed down, and is too busy joking to take much of anything seriously . . . unless of course his mastery  of knives is needed, in which case he’s ready to back up his friends. Hey, what else is “practically family” for?

Steve
  



  


Lee Jong-suk, because he isn’t afraid to make a dumbass of himself, and face it, Steve is a dumbass.

Steve, Sodapop’s best friend and co-worker at the garage/gas station where Soda works. There’s honestly not a whole lot to know about Steve outside of that, except boy can shove an enormous piece of chocolate cake in his face in pretty much one go.

David




                   


              
                                                        




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Quite possibly the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen playing a smiling, murderous psychopath, No Min-woo.
David the Soc. Not a lot to be said about him, either, except to note he’s the Soc trying to drown Pony at the playground, and whom Johnny subsequently kills in self-defense. As an actor, Min-woo seems pretty fond of cameos, and besides, his schedule is kinda insane right now, so offing him near the beginning of the adaptation really suits.

Bob




 
            
Kim So-hyun. Don’t even get me started with this guy, just know he’s got just the right charm to make readers/viewers understand what Cherry Valance sees in Bob.

Bob the Soc: owner of a red Corvair and leader of the group of Soc boys getting a ride in it. Bob’s going out with Cherry Valance—at least when he hasn’t pissed her off by being a complete jerk. He wears a large ring on his right hand, a ring that—a few days before—did serious damage to Johnny’s face. Cherry sticks up for Bob during an enlightening conversation with Pony, saying that he isn’t all bad and could even be sweet.


Cherry


                




Park Se-young. Isn’t she lovely? And playing a Joseon-era queen, she’s proven she can play a complex, strong, thoughtful woman.



Cherry Valance, the intelligent, non-biased connection between Greaser and Soc. From a wealthy family, but aware that things are “rough all over”, she’s mature, loyal, adamant, and still compassionate enough to grieve for the people lost during the course of the story, people from both sides of the economic median. She defends a cruel-seeming Soc, but also admits she’s not immune to foul-mouthed Dally’s charms, without actually succumbing to them.

Marcia
                                             
Bae Suzy. Highly popular and most often cast as a stoic, self-centered lead or second lead, I like the idea of seeing Bae play the cameo-sized role of Marcia, Cherry’s care-free, bubbly, unself-conscious bestie.
Every popular girl needs a cute, optimistic BFF, right? Marcia’s place as Cherry’s partner in down-time has little screen time, but serves to not only lighten the mood, include a few witty quips, and act as a buffer between increasingly-hot tempers (hello, Cherry vs. Dally!), but she also subtly underscores Cherry’s value as an unprejudiced, atypical pretty girl, because Cherry clearly doesn’t have any part in making herself a Mean Girl with Marcia as her hanger-on. Also, because Marcia doesn’t have any problem hanging out with Greasers—in fact, Dally’s crudity in making a pass slips off her like water off a duck’s back, and she even sort of flirts with Two-Bit in the same sort of silly style to which tends any conversation involving the prankster.
I won’t spoil you on the storyline any more than I have to, but I don’t think it would be wrong to say The Outsiders has the same emotional payoff of Green’s An Abundance of Katherines or Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
 . . . And just so you have some basis for comparison, two more photos: a shot of the original cast, and a photo of my own personal copy of the book.
From Left to Right, Emilio Estevez as Two Bit Matthews, Rob Lowe as Sodapop, C. Thomas Howell as Ponyboy, Matt Dillion as Dally, Ralph Machio as Johnny, Patrick Swayze as Darry, and Tom Cruise as Steve.


Diane Lane as Cherry Valance



My much-loved copy.


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