Remember Whoever When
Dec. 3rd, 2006 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladeanUPDATE: You people are completely stupendous. Don't stop; if you wanted to post something and haven't had time, feel free, if you want to, because I'm sure not done yet. I apologize for casting my net so wide that it's hard to organize your thoughts, but don't worry about it. Every single comment has been pure gold. I ought to take you all out for dinner, were it physically possible.
I have just realized that I have a gap in the background of my book. I'm not sure that anything I do or use to fill it in will make it onto the page in any discernible form, but I'm finding myself stopping a dozen times in two hundred words to wonder about stuff that I don't know, and some of it can't just be made up. Naturally, in this extreme, I turn to LJ.
I did this once before, on Usenet, when I asked people who were willing to talk about their experience of online romance to tell me about it. The book this was all supposed to go into took several years longer to write than I had hoped, the protagonist turned out to be vehemently against online experiences of any sort, and the character who actually had the experience was not a viewpoint character, so it all turned out rather sideways to expectation; but I still found the information people so generously gave me useful as a kind of very deep background. Then I forgot to put them into the acknowledgements. Just so you know.
It seems foolish to say that there is no obligation -- how could there be? -- but when I did this on Usenet, I got a number of very indignant emails from people who seemed to think that I was implying an obligation. So -- there is no obligation whatsoever to even read the rest of this entry. As always.
If, around 1987 or so (a few years earlier is useful, later than that year is not, alas), you were a teenager, had a teenager, or hung out with teenagers, I'd be interested in anything that you can remember and wish to mention about what it was like: how it felt (though a lot of that is timeless and universal), what you or your nearby teenagers read, ate, watched, listened to, did, worried about, or loved. I have no desire whatsoever to bring up unpleasant memories for anybody. I realize that this is akin to asking people not to think about a pink elephant. Stop it at once.
I don't expect to use anybody's personal anecdotes in recognizable form (nobody anywhere being much like the character who's holding out on me), and would certainly ask permission to do so should I be wrong in my expectations. If you don't mind participating but don't wish to post in public comments, it's fine to send me email -- the address is on my LJ profile page. Letting me know your geographical location at the time in question would be useful. And yes, I will be doing other research, but I want to do this too. Naturally, as I said above, nobody is obliged to grant this desire.
If you do, I'll try to remember to put you in the acknowledgements, should you wish to be there.
Also, anybody who doesn't fall within this demographic or have memories of people who do, but is reminded of something and wants to post about it, feel free to do so. It may not be useful but, it's bound to be interesting. I don't want to stifle the conversation in the least.
Thank you.
P.
I have just realized that I have a gap in the background of my book. I'm not sure that anything I do or use to fill it in will make it onto the page in any discernible form, but I'm finding myself stopping a dozen times in two hundred words to wonder about stuff that I don't know, and some of it can't just be made up. Naturally, in this extreme, I turn to LJ.
I did this once before, on Usenet, when I asked people who were willing to talk about their experience of online romance to tell me about it. The book this was all supposed to go into took several years longer to write than I had hoped, the protagonist turned out to be vehemently against online experiences of any sort, and the character who actually had the experience was not a viewpoint character, so it all turned out rather sideways to expectation; but I still found the information people so generously gave me useful as a kind of very deep background. Then I forgot to put them into the acknowledgements. Just so you know.
It seems foolish to say that there is no obligation -- how could there be? -- but when I did this on Usenet, I got a number of very indignant emails from people who seemed to think that I was implying an obligation. So -- there is no obligation whatsoever to even read the rest of this entry. As always.
If, around 1987 or so (a few years earlier is useful, later than that year is not, alas), you were a teenager, had a teenager, or hung out with teenagers, I'd be interested in anything that you can remember and wish to mention about what it was like: how it felt (though a lot of that is timeless and universal), what you or your nearby teenagers read, ate, watched, listened to, did, worried about, or loved. I have no desire whatsoever to bring up unpleasant memories for anybody. I realize that this is akin to asking people not to think about a pink elephant. Stop it at once.
I don't expect to use anybody's personal anecdotes in recognizable form (nobody anywhere being much like the character who's holding out on me), and would certainly ask permission to do so should I be wrong in my expectations. If you don't mind participating but don't wish to post in public comments, it's fine to send me email -- the address is on my LJ profile page. Letting me know your geographical location at the time in question would be useful. And yes, I will be doing other research, but I want to do this too. Naturally, as I said above, nobody is obliged to grant this desire.
If you do, I'll try to remember to put you in the acknowledgements, should you wish to be there.
Also, anybody who doesn't fall within this demographic or have memories of people who do, but is reminded of something and wants to post about it, feel free to do so. It may not be useful but, it's bound to be interesting. I don't want to stifle the conversation in the least.
Thank you.
P.
