Would You Follow A Straight Narrator?

[Canuk]

I have no problem with gathan-as-straight-narrator; he seems to be doing fine. I am not sure I like Gathan as a character, but when I try and think why I don't like him it just comes down it a visceral dislike..... perhaps it is related to his sexuality, though when I think of him, his sexuality isn't what strikes me; it's perhaps his all-round gaucheness ( as in opposite of urbanity, which sounds bloody snobbish even as I write it)..... Mind you that I invest this much time and energy thinking and analyzing a character in a fictional story it does say something about the quality of the writing!!!

[Daddydavek]

I was struck with the number of female authors who write boy on boy stories in this venue. Now there is the question of a straight narrator with straight sex. My answer of course, is that if it is well written, has good pacing, and adds some illumination to the human condition, whether straight or gay, young or old, black or white or asian, then of course I would read and enjoy it.

 

A good story is a good story. We call history, history because it is our story. I like that GA has a collection of authors, with varying backgrounds from locales around the world. We are a human family. Whether gay, straight, bi or transgendered, we share some basic DNA, some soul and hopefully some joy. In the ocean of the universe, we are are on this one shiny little blue planet filled with life. We should all treasure it. And each other.

[paya]

There are so many conditions that would have to be fulfilled so that the story kept my interest that I'd probably find another way how to use my time.

[methodwriter85]

I'm just wondering if the reason why some people seem to be hating Gathan as narrator have to do with Gathan being somewhat straight, or if it's something else.

[paya]

I'm just wondering if the reason why some people seem to be hating Gathan as narrator have to do with Gathan being somewhat straight, or if it's something else.

 

I have yet to meet him but what I've heard/seen, he's Hayes and "somewhat straight" - well that's a novelty (I do admit there's Frank but still... the gay genes are so potent in their family ). And I didn't get to reading the next story. But with the straight narrators, the problem is they are not targeted for this audience. I may have said that in a wrong way, I don't know how to express it. But I'd guess people might be interested in seeing a straight acting narrator as they are in seeing an albino animal or a unicorn it's a nice and refreshing ANOMALY () that everyone will go and see, some would even watch it having sex but then they would hurry back home (e.g. to a great hard cock ). So even if it might be something new for Mark to write, changing patterns and all that jazz, it shouldn't be an integral part of CAP or only as a dead end / spinoff - which is how I see Marcel's stories.

 

Edit: uhhh I'm not seeing Marcel as a straight narrator. But as for the saga, it was a dead end, a bit purposeful (to get JP watch the fall of the Soviet Union) and IDK... it wasn't a big success I'd say.

Edited September 22, 2011 by paya

[paya]

I'm just wondering if the reason why some people seem to be hating Gathan as narrator have to do with Gathan being somewhat straight, or if it's something else.

 

OK now that I've met Gathan and got an idea of his character, even if it's too early to make any profound conclusions, I might have a few points from on why Gathan might not be as popular narrator.

1) I think he was chosen as a narrator pretty early. He's introduced in the 50s chapters of Millennium, so the readers didn't get enough time to get to know him so well that they can identify with him as a narrator. I think the same thing happened to Marcel. The only narrator that made it literally from scratch was Matt. In my opinion Bloodlines had been so far the highlight of the saga, at least in the modern era (i.e. since Be Rad; Land Whore and JP's stories are pretty strong on their own).

2) But Matt was gay. IDK what the next story is about, I have some 17 chapters to finish the Millennium, but I expect Mark made another Crampton/Schluter-Hayes couple. The problem is that Gathan as a new character doesn't have much to bring. Starting at college? We've seen that hundred times already. Hockey at Stanford? IDK if Gathan chose to go to Stanford yet but Matt already covered that area. And as I've said above, bi or straight might be a nice thing for a short 20 chapter story - but what's the reason to put such person in the narrating place? What's the aim of the story?

3) Gathan doesn't have any strong link to a MAIN character of the saga. Matt is Robbie's son. Marcel is Jeff's - and Jeff, no matter how important he was, is not a MAIN character of the saga.

 

I hope Gathan is not the one that gets to narrate the 9/11 part of the story (nor any of the teenagers). My opinion is that it should be some very strong character, I'd go for JP himself, even if it was a short story like Summer Love. But as the 9/11 shook America to its core, I think it should be a really strong narrator to do the job. Problem is nobody is interested in him having sex anymore. But I guess it's too early to talk about 2001?

Edited September 22, 2011 by paya

[Linxe Termoil]

Interesting. I would and have followed a straight narrator before. One author who is gay and who has told a story from a straight person's p.o.v. is Graeme (yes, Moderator Graeme) in his story "New Brother"

 

If done right, it can be a rather exceptionally good read. I'll let you be the judge though. Just don't tell Graeme I tattled on him and his talents.

 

Linxe

[methodwriter85]

You make some good points, but I object to the idea of Jeff not being a "main" character. He was. I just can't see how Jeff wasn't a main character, and his death and legacy have been brought up in every single story after he died. I think the problem with Marcel was that he always felt "guarded", and he was somewhat opaque. We'd also been given a chance to meet Marcel at least a few times before he got his own story, but not by much.

 

I enjoy Gathan as a narrator, but you also make a good point- what is he bringing that's new and hasn't been explored before? It reminded of someone I knew who told me they quit reading because it felt like Will was a Brad Redux. That's been changing, though.

 

Even though he's an asshole, it WOULD be interesting to follow Zach as a closeted football player with NFL aspirations. We kinda went there with Jeff, but Jeff's career got sidelined with his drug addiction. I'm voting for him to go to USC so he can try and mess with JJ and Will during their senior year of high school. LOL.

[paya]

You make some good points, but I object to the idea of Jeff not being a "main" character. He was. I just can't see how Jeff wasn't a main character, and his death and legacy have been brought up in every single story after he died. I think the problem with Marcel was that he always felt "guarded", and he was somewhat opaque. We'd also been given a chance to meet Marcel at least a few times before he got his own story, but not by much.

 

I enjoy Gathan as a narrator, but you also make a good point- what is he bringing that's new and hasn't been explored before? It reminded of someone I knew who told me they quit reading because it felt like Will was a Brad Redux. That's been changing, though.

 

Even though he's an asshole, it WOULD be interesting to follow Zach as a closeted football player with NFL aspirations. We kinda went there with Jeff, but Jeff's career got sidelined with his drug addiction. I'm voting for him to go to USC so he can try and mess with JJ and Will during their senior year of high school. LOL.

 

Well... Jeff was an IMPORTANT character but he's not alive anymore, he didn't get the development JP and Stef got. I see the characters of the saga like there's the "holy Trinity" - JP - Stef - Brad, now made to a foursome with Robbie being Brad's equal finally, then there is the inner core with Isidore, Frank, Matt, Wade, Claire, Jack, Cody and Kevin I guess? and then there are the kids and other characters. The importance of course varies depending on who's the narrator but the Holy Quaternity (? how would you call a Trinity in 4? ) is untouchable and always important, in every story. At least I hope Robbie will remain there (unsaddling him after what he overcame would be only annoying and showing how little Mark cares for the Hayes family IMO).

 

And what I meant about Marcel and Gathan was that it took two stories of main staring for Stef to be the narrator, Brad was similar. Matt is the only exception but Bloodlines is an exceptional story. I have yet to see Gathan as narrator, as well as Will, and I'm thinking of waiting till the story gets finished as I'm not really interested in a 13-14 yo narrator's story nor a straight/bi-curious narrator. I'd be just bitchy and that wouldn't help Mark to overcome the crisis. I wish I could help.

 

Choosing the right narrator is always problematic. I think one needs to know what kind of story they want to write, what is the message they want to relate. And pick the narrator fitting that, not vice-versa. I haven't read Graeme's story Linxe was linking here but I could imagine a straight narrator in CAP if he was giving a fresh look at the torment of some of their gay sibling or close friend or whatever - but it would work only as when we had Wade narrating instead of Matt. Because even if straight sex scenes might be fun to write and refreshing to see here, it's not the primary reason I'm at GA reading the stories. And I think the narrators should be at least adult or nearing that age, 13-14 is too low IMHO.

[methodwriter85]

I gotta agree with you on that front. I really thought Mark jumped the gun in picking Will as a narrator- I think his turn should have come in around 2003 or so when he was about to hit 17. I feel like we should have waited until at least after 9/11 before the baton got handed off to Brad's kids. Although I DO think Will's recent character has been pretty good.

 

I think it would have made more sense to follow Wade and/or Matt after Millenium, a fast-forward to the fall 2000/winter 2001 and how they deal with the end of their junior year of college and becoming dads.

Edited September 24, 2011 by methodwriter85

[paya]

Why wasn't Wade considered as a narrator? He'd certainly have things to say? If I remember, 2000 was GWB x Al Gore election, he'd certainly be following it? More like the whole family would? That would also start some tension. And Will as a 13 yo is certainly not interested in politics, well maybe 13 yo Wade would be but certainly not Will... There's the problem with the lack of narrators apparently. Normally Mark would just skip in time but since we're catching up with modern times it's harder to do. There also has to be something to talk about, to express with the story.

 

Anyway, I'm putting off reading PMS until it's done or until the next story is out so that I can go on reading and not lose the context. I still have Granger to catch up with (Mark! You'd better keep my Calvert alive! )

[methodwriter85]

Why wasn't Wade considered as a narrator? He'd certainly have things to say? If I remember, 2000 was GWB x Al Gore election, he'd certainly be following it? More like the whole family would?

 

I kinda felt like that was the next natural step after Millenium, but Poor Man's Son served as the transition story instead. Although I guess PMS served to flesh out the next generation of the Crampton/Hayes/Schluter kids- we have a firmer grip on who they are as people and how they'll interact going into adulthood.

 

With just 11 years separating CAP time from real time, I don't think Mark intends on having these 5-6 year time jumps like the days of yore...it'll probably be more like 1-3 year time jumps at this point from now. As such, there need to be more stories, which means we have to follow more of these guys' adolescence than we have before- for example, we followed Brad at 17, then at 22, and then at 37. At this point we're following Will at 13 and 14, and I'm betting we're not exactly going to skip to 17 because I don't think 2001 is going to get skipped. 2002, maybe. In order to make it so that Mark can write 8-10 stories for these guys(if he indeed plans on following every year up to say maybe 2010, 2011), he needs to have Generation 4 be a really compelling and strong cast of characters. We have to care about what Will, JJ, John, Zach, etc etc get into because we're following them in what amounts to real time, with more stories than we had for other characters before. It needs to stay fresh, and something we haven't seen before, or else the story will become really repetitive. That's why it's crucial Mark set up the character development and relationships of these kids, with inherent drama in all of them, to carry a 10-year long multi-story arc.

 

That, more than anything, is what Poor Man's Son was likely about. I think Mark hit some snags in the character development there, but he fixed a lot of them, and I'm really liking how Will and JJ are turning out right now. Jury's out on John, but I actually think he's cool. Then again, John's going to grow up to look like Colton Haynes and I have a shameful lust for asshole lacrosse players, so I'm not exactly unbiased. LOL.

 

I wish that we had skipped over to Paternity, or had spent less time with Poor Man's Son, because I'm frankly sick of coming up with music choices for the year 2000(LOL), but I see why we had to do it instead of just go directly in Wade's viewpoint of daddyhood and the 2000 election.