Be Rad

[Mark Arbour]

I am re-reading Be Rad again and I am wondering if you are posting edited chapters since there are some lines in the story that I do not remember being in there the first time...

 

 

As Jeremy said, I haven't worked on Be Rad, but I need to. There are some errors in it that I need to fix. I'll have to add it to my "to do" list.

[methodwriter85]

I gotta admit, I really do love how Brad's high school years came back to haunt him. I mean, who hears of a guy who carries a torch so much that he plays the woman scorned 19 years later? Geez.

[Mark Arbour]

As part of GA's conversion to the new system, we'll have to re-post our stories. That's given me a good opportunity to go back and re-read and re-edit some of the earlier stories. I've been working on CAP, but most recently I've been working on BeRad. I've completed re-editing BeRad up through Chapter 11, and I've posted the revised chapters on my Yahoo group. I'll post them here when the new system goes live. In the meantime, if you are so inclined, feel free to meander over to the group and check them out. Nothing of substance has changed, but I think they're easier to read and follow now.

[PrivateTim]

I'm trying to not read this topic too much so I don't encounter spoilers, but I am in Chapter 9 of Be Rad and just have to make some comments.

 

But before I start, Mark, in Chapter 7 I think it was when Jake gives Ace, Lark & Brad a ride home you say "Jake, Ace & I squeezed into the back seat" when Jake was driving, you clearly meant Lark since you went on to say "Lark had his arm around me". You also have Brad meeting Jackie Diamond as if he was meeting her for the first time, you said "Jackie greeted us warmly. Apparently she and Stef were old friends", well of course had to know and love Jackie already since she was the one who got him into the studio to draw with the animator, he surely wouldn't have forgotten her in six years.

 

And I don't like the picture of Stef, he sounds like a Hollywood poofter and Paul Lynde like character when I always thought of being very masculine, albeit with maybe feline like characteristics, but not femme.

 

I also am not wild about the idea of Sam, the committed partner of JP doing the 16 year old boyfriend of his step son Brad. It is creepy on so many levels and just so wrong on so many levels. Maybe consequences come about later in the story, but it is very disappointing. I somewhat get Jake's new found sense of being who he is, but given his infatuation with Brad for so long, it seems odd he would cheat so quickly.

 

I'm not wild about the drug use either. I get a little pot, but coke crosses into a whole new territory and a new level of bad people to deal with. And what happened to Mike, the hot gardner/concubine?

[methodwriter85]

Adam had the same reaction about Stefan, Tim. Kinda funny. I do think that Stefan didn't come off as nearly so femme earlier, but if you think about it, Stefan referred to himself as Greg's "wife" at the end of The Land Whore. It makes sense that Stefan devoted himself to that role and got more femme as the years went by and the 1970's era of androgyny continued into the early '80's. (See: The New Romantics and stars like Billy Ant and Boy George.)

 

Jake having sex with Sam was wrong on a lot of levels. After a lot of lecturing from Sharon(the editor of the team), I can't think of anymore underage sex that happens in the story. The adults don't mess with a character until he's at least 18. I think part of that is a reflection of the fact that it becomes increasingly verbotten for an adult to have sex with jailbait, and the penalties get much stiffer. Plus it's California. If I'm understanding correctly, if you get convicted of a statutory rape in California(where the age of consent is 18), you're seriously done. I don't think any of the characters in the CAP saga are that stupid to risk everything to have sex with a minor, at least by the time they get to the 1990's and those laws start getting stricter.

 

As for the coke...well...in the late 70's/early 80's, a lot of people thought cocaine was a recreational drug that was not addicting. It was as the 1980's progressed that people realized that cocaine may not be physically addictive, but it was highly mentally addictve.

Edited November 18, 2010 by methodwriter85

[PrivateTim]

Okay.... the most unrealistic scene ever in a Mark Arbour story...... no, not f**king Rock Hudson, hell everyone did that.... not the great wealth and power of the families.... or getting f**ked by an admiral... no this!!

 

Four hours after we left Palo Alto we pulled up in front of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. I saw his eyes bulge as we drove up. The Ahwahnee is beautiful in and of itself. A hotel in a national park, built to look like a lodge but with all the luxuries of a top notch hotel, with views of the whole valley. We got out and rotated, taking in the scenery. The massive granite face of El Capitan, the unbelievable Half Dome rock formation, the powerful Yosemite and Bridalveil waterfalls, impressive even in the summer when the water flow was significantly reduced.

[Mark Arbour]

I'm trying to not read this topic too much so I don't encounter spoilers, but I am in Chapter 9 of Be Rad and just have to make some comments.

 

But before I start, Mark, in Chapter 7 I think it was when Jake gives Ace, Lark & Brad a ride home you say "Jake, Ace & I squeezed into the back seat" when Jake was driving, you clearly meant Lark since you went on to say "Lark had his arm around me". You also have Brad meeting Jackie Diamond as if he was meeting her for the first time, you said "Jackie greeted us warmly. Apparently she and Stef were old friends", well of course had to know and love Jackie already since she was the one who got him into the studio to draw with the animator, he surely wouldn't have forgotten her in six years.

 

And I don't like the picture of Stef, he sounds like a Hollywood poofter and Paul Lynde like character when I always thought of being very masculine, albeit with maybe feline like characteristics, but not femme.

 

I also am not wild about the idea of Sam, the committed partner of JP doing the 16 year old boyfriend of his step son Brad. It is creepy on so many levels and just so wrong on so many levels. Maybe consequences come about later in the story, but it is very disappointing. I somewhat get Jake's new found sense of being who he is, but given his infatuation with Brad for so long, it seems odd he would cheat so quickly.

 

I'm not wild about the drug use either. I get a little pot, but coke crosses into a whole new territory and a new level of bad people to deal with. And what happened to Mike, the hot gardner/concubine?

 

 

1. Regarding the error, you're absolutely right. That's one of the things that's been fixed in the re-edited chapters. They're not here yet (see prior post) but they will be when GA converts to the new system.

2. People sometimes change, and Stef goes through a series of metamorphoses. In 1980, as Jeremy said, he was like Greg's "wife" and had adopted some of the more feminine traits that were prevalent in the gay community at the time. You'll notice those fade as he gets older.

3. Jake is a boy slut. You can't attach morals to him, they slide right off.

4. Jeremy made my point on drugs. Whether we like them or not, it was a huge part of the 1980's culture.

5. Ditto with sex with 16 year olds.

[methodwriter85]

4. Jeremy made my point on drugs. Whether we like them or not, it was a huge part of the 1980's culture.

 

It's a huge part of the youth culture in general. I'm sure that when JJ and Will are 17-ish, we'll see them experimenting with OxyContin, Adderall, and Percoet. Probably X and Special K as well. Drug popularity may come and go, but they'll always be around.

[PrivateTim]

So yeah, not sure if I like Brad or not. The last couple of chapters of Be Rad he turned around a little, but the lack of respect he had for people before that and how he treated people really pissed me off. I found him spoiled, self centered, hypocritical and down right mean.

 

I thought he was awful to Jake. Jake didn't break up Sam & JP, Sam did. Brad was so into Jake, but Brad cheated on Jake, yet got pissed off at Jake when Jake cheated on him. Brad was the same way with everyone he dated or did. Brad could get all he wanted, but if his partner did, Brad went nuts.

 

I thought it was totally wrong that Brad discussed Roger's and Mouse's troubles with Roger's brother. It wasn't Brads place as to betray their confidences, certainly at 17 he didn't have the maturity to make an informed decision as to what the best course was.

 

Brad also pissed me off in Paris. As if at 17, he couldn't have fought off Marc who had to be in his 40's by then. I was as horny as the next guy in high school, but I didn't get laid twice a day, or with three guys in a day, or at really inappropriate times. I also had enough self control that if I was dating someone I didn't have to do them, just because my dick got hard.

 

So then, when Robbie has his fling with Gary, I thought Brad's reaction was incredibly hypocritical and if he is supposed to be this insightful, sharp young guy he should have recognized that the times with Gary were probably a reaction to the abuse he suffered back in Claremont. Instead of his petulant reaction, he should have gotten Robbie professional help to deal with the underlying issues that made him want to have sex like that.

 

Lastly, when he beat up Billy the SECOND time and beat him so badly to break his nose and rupture a testicle I would have had Brad arrested and then gotten him court mandated anger management therapy. Everyone deplored how the Hayes brothers beat on Jeff, yet what Brad did to Billy was worse than anything they did to him.

 

Okay, I'm done venting.... Brad is showing promise at the end of Be Rad, but he has a lot of growing up to do before he is back in my good graces.

[methodwriter85]

Brad grows up in Man in Motion. Of course, graduating from college and dealing with the height of the AIDS hysteria will do that to you.

[Caedus]

He definitely grows up, but some of his issued hang around in future. I need to re-read these books if Brad's habits are evident so early.

[B1ue]

Okay, I'm done venting.... Brad is showing promise at the end of Be Rad, but he has a lot of growing up to do before he is back in my good graces.

 

Actually, he doesn't grow up so much as gain more control. He still holds a grude until it dies of old age, yet acts shocked that anyone else is capable of such behavior. And the way he treated Jake, but in his book and later ones, always irritated the hell out of me. Suffice to say that Jake proved himself to quite a bit less of a slut than Brad, yet Brad never found any irony in his condemnation. He is more paltable in Bloodlines and Millenium, but he'll never be my favorite character.

[Mark Arbour]

Actually, he doesn't grow up so much as gain more control. He still holds a grude until it dies of old age, yet acts shocked that anyone else is capable of such behavior. And the way he treated Jake, but in his book and later ones, always irritated the hell out of me. Suffice to say that Jake proved himself to quite a bit less of a slut than Brad, yet Brad never found any irony in his condemnation. He is more paltable in Bloodlines and Millenium, but he'll never be my favorite character.

 

I don't think it was Jake's sluttiness that made him so reprehensible, it's the way he tried to interfere in other people's relationship. Brad's been more sensitive to that. Personally, I don't have a problem with sluttiness at all. To me, that's just a personal choice. I'm also not sure I see Brad as someone who carries a grudge. He's resolved issues with people he hated in the past (Doug comes to mind, and Lark, in Millennium).

[methodwriter85]

I have to agree with Mark on that- Brad's pretty willing to work through any beef he might have with someone, especially after what happened with Billy.

Edited November 21, 2010 by methodwriter85

[Mark Arbour]

I think I told you that I was re-working some of the earlier Be Rad chapters? Well if not, I am/did. Nothing dramatic changed, just a few details were fixed and I tried to make it easier and more fun to read. Anyway, the first 12 chapters have been posted on the new system, for those of you who want a trip down memory lane.

[Mark Arbour]

For those of you who "liked" Be Rad, you've probably gotten annoyed by all of the e-mails you've received telling you I've updated the story. This is what has happened:

 

1. I told you in the post above this that I updated the first 12 chapters. I'm not sure how this happened, but in reality, the new chapters weren't posted to GA Stories, so those of you who rushed back to see if anything was different were probably annoyed to find nothing of significance. I've fixed that, so if you decide to walk down memory lane and re-read this one, the first 12 are now posted correctly.

2. For the other chapters, I read through them, made a few fixes, little things, and reformatted them. An example of the little things I've fixed: I had Stef and Brad pressing their thumbs together in their blood brother sign, when it was, in fact, their fingers they pressed together. I've corrected that.

3. It's my intention to eventually go through this in more detail and refine the rest of the chapters as I have the first 12. If you see notifications in the future, that's what they'll be, but I'll let you know that too.