Date: 29 Sep 2013 14:32 Title: An Announcement
Interesting take on what could be a very awkward scene.
The homecomings return of the opening gay daughter, having met someone she cares about at the academy. I do like the joke scene with her younger brother as she tries to pick him a sister out.
I’m glad you shown that even in a neo-utopia of Prime Trek Earth, some people still haven’t been able to shake their old prejudices. Still I enjoy the mother Belinda pointing out the battle he had with her parents over not been their idea of a good husband.
Somehow I feel 2157 will indeed be Lenora and Melissa best year.
Author's Response:
It will and it is. :)
And yeah, I don't think people will fully shake prejudice. Not even, specifically, necessarily, anti-gay. Some of it is more of a prejudging of people who are different.
Date: 17 Sep 2013 01:11 Title: An Announcement
Wow...That's rough. I can certainly appreciate you showing that, despite whatever societal evolutions we might go through as a race, there will always be hold-outs keeping strong (or at least trying to) with the old moral codes. I'm impressed at his very quick growth to try and accept things, but I wonder if that's more because the wife was laying it on with the look (*shudder* the look...). It's also interesting that despite how old his daughter is, Dino is still convinced it's "just a phase." That's cute.
Loved the interaction with her brothers; that was very typical of a guy to say to another guy, so kinda funny to hear it said to her by her brother; apparently they a) know more than daddy is willing to accept and b) accepted a long time ago their sister was gay. A nice little contrast within the family - accepting siblings, disapproving parent. And then, of course, the peacekeeper - momma bear. I almost wonder if she is having a difficult time with it all as well, but can look past it enough to remember that she's still her daughter, no matter who she brings home to meet the parents.
Author's Response:
Belinda kind of knows what it's like to be an outsider - the only non-Italian, the only non-Catholic and so it had to have been difficult to be accepted by Dino's family in the beginning. But, well, you have a baby and suddenly a lot of those objections don't seem so important. But she's right to insist that they not wait that long.
And Dino is old school and he represents, I suppose, the opposing viewpoint. I think those attitudes won't, totally, go away. At least not overnight. And this is not to say that he'll come around when he meets Melissa, either. But yeah - the look - you know that's powerful.
Thanks for reading!
Date: 21 Aug 2013 08:54 Title: An Announcement
I'm amazed that such bigotry still exists then, but that might just be my own wishful thinking there. Light on the description this time, and a bit of that frantic pace; it really does kind of make it harder to really grab hold of, though I'll allow that it might not be that way for other readers. But I'll offer the same suggestion that a poet gave my very favorite author, when he would pare things down so far as to be only the bare essentials:
"...she said (among other things) I was concentrating so on telling a story that I didn't take time to be a poet and express a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by."
It lead, of course, to him writing what I consider to be a perfect novella. ;) But I also figure that the same applies not only to your environment, but also to your people, to their thoughts, and feelings.
Author's Response:
Thank you for the advice. I was taught in school to cut it until it bleeds. It might have been bleeding a bit too much.