Theoretically a Writer

As someone currently watching both Widow’s Bay and Twin Peaks, I have been thinking, “What makes a USA based story feel like it is in the eastern or western half of the country?” And the best answer I can think is there’s a continuum: on the East Coast characters see the rules as set, but sometimes want to game them, and West Coast characters think there are no rules but the ones self assigned. When things go wrong for East Coast it’s “this is what happens when you don’t listen to the lessons of your forebears” and when they go wrong on the West Coast it’s “you are more alone than you can understand.” There is essentially a gradient of one to the other going across the continental US.

There is a Southern axis of this, which is that the rules are a fresh coat of paint over rotting wood. When things go wrong for the South, it’s “this was the result of generations of sin, you’re just the chump left holding the bag.”

widow's bay is like what if a nightvale sister city situated on the coast of new england was ran by the spiritual successor to the mayor from jaws but the tourism push was motivated by crushing paternal guilt and his podunk constituents (including his son) did not respect his authority even a little bit. and the show was a comedy

the thing widow's bay does with the final girl is super interesting to me. i don't have fully formed thoughts and i feel like i should know more about the horror genre to truly convey them, but it's just this thing where the final girl is any age and she's everywhere. the story doesn't end with her overcoming the obstacle, her life continues, and how do you continue after the impossible has happened to you? patricia is the clearest archetype, she survived as a teen only to still be the final girl in her 40s after a lifetime of dragging rumors and shame after her for having survived in the first place. she never stopped being that final girl! ruth is another one. she is elderly and survived a life of pain and loss, only to be the moral compass of the story as the final girl in the warren bloodline. everyone wanted to dismiss her because old birdies like her seem so unimportant, only to be the most important piece of all. sarah westcott was also a final girl of sorts, tasked to be warren's last wife and his downfall. she had to crawl through mud and take charge of children she didn't even know to try and save herself and a town (she didn't even belong to!) plagued by her husband's arrogance. warren's daughter frances was also a final girl. she endured the literal extermination of all her family and survived the drowning and lived long enough to have children even though the man who took care of her never treated her as a person. over and over again, women survive and endure in widow's bay. like even after her attack, lauren survived, even if not of sound mind, and became the wife in the attic asylum amidst pain and loss. but she endured, she thought of her son every second, she was trying constantly to reach out to him. there's just a lot of resilience from specifically the women in widow's bay. even the name of the island, it points at a woman who outlasted her husband. it's all final girls. we're all final girls. and we never stop being final girls.

40k fanfic idea I would do myself if I was capable of focusing on anything at the moment: following the travails of a Tau administrator of a recently conquered hive world, in charge of improving some concrete facet of life (say, water distribution infrastructure) for people in the underhive.

Look I think it is commendable to write a book. That takes work no matter what. But man are there some bad ones out there.

Love me some lancerposting.