"There's no plot. There's no conflict. There's no antagonist."

[intertribal]

Reading Query Shark led me to realize that I did not know what Ilium's "conflict" was.

That can't be good.

Comments

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah. No doubt that book would fail many publishing houses today... but I still remember the little ads you gave me about Gift of the Magi and something else being turned down by contemporary publishing houses for inane reasons.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

what? i remember giving you little things about publishing, but i have no recollection of what they said

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

They were like "what if O Henry was trying to get published today?" (can't remember the other one - Twain?) with a rejection letter that said, you know, this is way too short, or some other criticism that seems entirely irrelevant now.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

heh, that is possibly one of the better short satirical/pithy things i ran across and liked at the time.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

the... ad? or Gift of the Magi?

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

the ad

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

i had a recent look through old drawers and papers...in my preteen years, i seem to have had a preoccupation with short, quote-worthy statements of a anti-mainstream bent. most of them are embarrassing now.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

*an

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

aw, I think it's cute.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

why?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

It shows that you already had the inclination to challenge the mainstream.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

...i guess. but in such a stupid way! ('we all have to start somewhere', yeah, yeah...but it should have been earlier!)

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

at age what? 5?

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

yes.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

it's possible you may not have even had a sense of what mainstream was at age 5, you know. I don't think I did.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

well, not age 5, but i shouldn't have so easily grasped on to the pop imitation of anti-mainstream ideals so late into my teenage years!

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

be glad you started at all!