debbiedoesthis

What if they all came back all the people who have bullied and tormented, who disappeared, all the people I loved who said damaging things, that I can't talk to you about because they're not here what if all those people came back? So we have a premise in the book where people are cloned or revived from the dead, a little bit like Solaris but not that, it's not about trying to cling onto a love that's stuck in your memory, it's not about your memory, it's about those very live and very relevant conversations that you still have and you keep having, even though they've gone and how your relationship with that person or those people moves on because You move on and they don't... So how about we bring them all back and then watch as the protagonist, you, me, we are angry with them and we sort through some issues and then, oh, maybe a love is revived and then you reminded that, like getting back with an old flame, you are reminded that you broke up For A Reason and that it was okay that they left. And then another group of people would be the bullies you stand up to and you realize how much of what they said is still with you and how you needed to bury it. And finally there are people who are just brought back to life to decide that They didn't want to be around you - that You were the problem, You were the reason they left.

No. Somebody comes back from the dead through some sort of cloning exercise and you go to a medium and it doesn't work, they can sense the presence, but They don't want to talk to You. We might see fleeting glimpses of their mocking... We can work through our issues like fear, being a frightened... of the woods and spiders and big feelings, and have those conversations with our parents and then, and then I remember that, like witing about music, it's so hard to sneak therapy into fiction without it sounding preachy. And that's a real problem. And this meta overthinking is another one. I'm all about exploring How to do something or Understanding how I Would do something... rather than actually doing anything. So it's it's fatalistic, nihilistic, but here we are: all dressed up with a premise and nowhere to go. But I do do lots of other things. What I don't do is write books. On the other hand Matt Haig writes books.

17/08/2008