DavyReader

Jason meets Nathan as Joan Baez met Bob Dylan in Diamonds and Rust: You strayed into my arms.

I think that besides Shakespeare Pasolini may have influenced this Story.

I was under the impression that the lack for formatting reflected Anthony's emotional mess... Would it be far-fetched to draw a line from these two pieces to Tell Me That You Love Me, where the narrator reports on two class reunion, one after ten years, as Death of a Pretty Cool Dude takes place ten years after graduation, and the one after twenty years. like Dead Hour?

I had to read to the very last word and then it took me three minutes to make the connection. It turns out reality doesn't stop at the happy end of a story.

I find it remarkable that Shawns latest row with his mother hasn't had any observable consequences yet. Did Emmy give her a heads-up and was she relieved to learn, by Anthony's anwering the phone, that Anthony and Shawn had apparently been able to sort out their issues for the time being. I doubt we'll ever know, what with Young Sage unwillingness to disclose information just to satisfy the user's curiosity.

So Anthony fixed two messed-up lives within a day, which is really not bad for a former bully. Clear he has major social skills, which include the ability to threaten hostile pieces with physical violence.

To me a surprise is accetable as long as it is plausible in hindsight and it supports the point of the story.

Hi Dom, I'd like to share some thoughts, although they might be gloomy, and although I might not be an expert in psychology: Parents, especially mothers, are prone to ignore reality when it comes to their children. They want them to be happy, and to gain happiness through their happiness. Happiness, in their eyes, implies being married and having children. Deep inside they don't put up with a child not living up to this pattern; they clutch at every straw promising to prevent it from going on with their "deviant" behavior. In my eyes, that Christian propaganda you describe thrives on this disappointment. Interestingly enough, it seems that parents often react in a similar way when their daughter tells them that she wants to become a nun. I therefore suspect that it's not primarily the Christian mindset causing mothers to be adamant on changing their child's homosexuality, but some (genetically coded?) notion of desired behavior. Sticking to that pattern is supposed to provide happiness. Refusing to do so is perceived as challenging the family or society, which is deemed to be unacceptable. Mothers may still love their homosexual children, though, even if they don't accept them, and feel compelled to carry on with "helping" them. But surely this is just one aspect of the issue, and I hope that you will succeed in putting your mother right. Remember that she is acting in good faith.