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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > The Bully and the Bullied
The Bully and the Bullied  [message #75269] Tue, 04 December 2018 22:19 Go to next message
American_Alex

Toe is in the water
Location: New York, upstate
Registered: October 2017
Messages: 98



Wow, does this story have a lot of plot twists! Just when I thought it was winding down, something unexpected happens. They must be living in the single most bi-polar town in the world; everybody is either a saint or a bastard, with nothing betwwen. Maybe there is something in the water? I can only assume that it was set at some time in the past; the part where Michael had a phone line installed would, I assume, put us at least 20 years in the past....

One thing about this and a couple of other recent stories here is the depiction of official incompetance, malfeasance, and cruelty. I mean, it's obvious that the author is English (no 13 year old American boy would EVER say "It's about bloody time", unless doing so with a fake British accent), so I can only assume that most British writers here base their ideas on American rural culture from watching the movie Deliverance. Trust me, it's not THAT bad, even down in the "incest belt" of out southern states.



"Able was I ere I saw Elba"
Re: The Bully and the Bullied  [message #75271 is a reply to message #75269] Tue, 04 December 2018 23:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



"American_Alex wrote on Tue, 04 December 2018 22:19"
Wow, does this story have a lot of plot twists! Just when I thought it was winding down, something unexpected happens. They must be living in the single most bi-polar town in the world; everybody is either a saint or a bastard, with nothing betwwen. Maybe there is something in the water? I can only assume that it was set at some time in the past; the part where Michael had a phone line installed would, I assume, put us at least 20 years in the past....

One thing about this and a couple of other recent stories here is the depiction of official incompetance, malfeasance, and cruelty. I mean, it's obvious that the author is English (no 13 year old American boy would EVER say "It's about bloody time", unless doing so with a fake British accent), so I can only assume that most British writers here base their ideas on American rural culture from watching the movie Deliverance. Trust me, it's not THAT bad, even down in the "incest belt" of out southern states.

--
My correspondence with the author gives me to understand that he is a US resident, but one who has spent some time in England.

Please do link to the stories. Type in some text, like the title, highlight it, and press the world with the link on it, and voila!

Plots come down to how far one wishes to suspend one's disbelief when reading. Sean certainly writes about some dysfunctional administators, and his characters can be quite giftedly unpleasant when thar are baddies. I'm content to that level of disbelief suspension because I believe it is possible, though improbable. I also donpt have troubel with dragons and mythical races whe others write about them.

Maybe it's Flint water?



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
icon7.gif Re: The Bully and the Bullied  [message #75273 is a reply to message #75269] Wed, 05 December 2018 14:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Sean E is currently offline  Sean E

Getting started
Location: USA
Registered: September 2018
Messages: 13



"it's obvious that the author is English (no 13 year old American boy would EVER say "It's about bloody time", unless doing so with a fake British accent)"

Tim is right, I am an American - despite what my email addy hints at otherwise. My Pen-name is English, so it really represents "Kentucky English Writer", or KyEnglishWriter.  (Maybe it would be better if I made it KyEnglishWriterWannaBe...! :p)

I admit, this has a dark side of the tale that strecthes things a little, but it was meant to represent the early-to-mid 1980's. I can remember when I was 8 years old (which would put me around 1994), I had a phone line ran from the "box" to my second floor bedroom. Houses we lived in then, in rural Kentucky and Tennessee, I'm afraid were devoid of some of today's conveniences.

As to the "bloody" reference, I overlooked that from an earlier effort, but was thinking it would reflect sarcasm rather than accuracy. My trips to England probably conditioned me on that one in some way I didn't catch it...!

Finally, the context isn't that unbelievable. I had a couple of friends in high school, and met a couple on college campus too, who told me of some things that happened to them in the foster care system. I've also read a lot of tales online and in other places about neglect and abuse at the hands of therapist. Now, given I wrote the original tale 10 years ago before having a more, uh, mature outlook on it all, I probably pushed some boundaries. It was all I could do though, at the time I wrote it, just kind of starting out in this realm of fiction. I thought about toning some of it down (and I actually did quite a bit!), but I also thought I should presevre as much of the original and just clean up the English, mis-spellings, structure and so forth.

As I said with my other effort, When Shadows Pass, it's not perfect, nor meant to be perfect. I'm still learning guys... it's my only excuse...

Thanks for reading though. :)
(PS: One question though - what is Flint water?) 
Re: The Bully and the Bullied  [message #75274 is a reply to message #75273] Wed, 05 December 2018 16:32 Go to previous message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



There is a big USA scandal about the water in a place called Flint.

Every tale is imperfect. Charles Dickens was a decent jobing hack for weekly serials. Rowling.... Well, you know my opinion of her!

So be not discouraged.

[Updated on: Wed, 05 December 2018 16:33]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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