Writer's Commentary: Daisychain

On Post: Daisychain

Date: January 12

Find it here

With this kind of project, it can be easy to be literal with the songs. And at times, I certainly was. Probably more often than not. However, I tried to break from that at least occasionally and this is certainly one of those entries.

Not coincidentally, it is also a favorite of mine from the Project.

It is, admittedly, a bit self indulgent. You can always tell I am being self indulgent when I do things like reference comic book characters—in this case, The Shroud—when it is not specifically called for. And since it is almost never specifically called for to reference comic book characters…

But, regardless, I still think it works. Sometimes doing something a bit different means you can get away with being a bit self indulgent. Or it does to me anyway.

Generally, amnesia is a.) too common in fiction and b.) almost never accurately portrayed. Sadly, I am sure I contributed to that here too, but I tried to at least show that memory loss is rarely total. The lead may not know his name, but he remembers aspects of himself. He knows he is a lousy judge of age, he recalls comic book related trivia, he can reference Legionnaires’ disease, and so on. In retrospect, I wish I had done a bit more of that, but since the entry is something like 700 words, I suppose I can’t be too hard on myself about that.

My favorite single moment occurs when the lead acknowledges that the hotel reminds him of a noir film and, from then on, his “voice” takes on a bit of a noir narration tone. I figure a guy with no true memory of himself but a remaining knowledge of trivia would adapt and adopt from environment cues. Thus, when he sees something noir-esque and knows noir, it seemed reasonable he would take on some of those trappings if for no other reason than to give him some kind of sense of self, no matter how superficial or temporary it may be.

Just because the Project has ended doesn't mean I still don't value your feedback. Feel free to let me know on Twitter (@UnGajje) or drop me a note at tim[dot]g[dot]stevens[at]gmail[dot]com or on Facebook. If you see anything you like, I am all over the net too, so please check out my other works at Marvel, Complaint of the Week at the Living Room Times, and New Paris Press (which is now up and running) or my various 140 character missives on that Twitter account.