Blogging Around

First I read Stephanie's What If? post about what would happen if there was a newly discovered continent today with people that were different (similar to Heart of Darkness). The idea intrigued me and made me think.

Stephanie:
Thank you so much for bringing this up, I completely agree. Even though we view ourselves as highly advanced, and despite the fact that we hope that our society has learned from its mistakes, we must remember that time and time again those assumptions have proven false. If those purple people did turn out to be sitting on an oil reserve I would be surprised if the U.S., China, Germany, Great Britain, Japan (or anyone else in the global gang) did not exploit them. It would be imperialism all over again, and we thought we had moved past that. Although there is more education and knowledge flow than ever before in this day and age, we cannot say with certainty that there would be acceptance of an unknown civilization. Humans are by nature afraid of the unknown, and when humans are afraid they tend to do stupid things (that they apologize for 20-30 years after the fact). Anyway, I also agree that people tend to forget that other people have feelings these days. In a fast paced society where less and less is being done face to face, it is understandable. Treating someone inhumanly though, is completely out of line. So that secret continent with purple people should hope to stay hidden for a couple more hundred years!
-Tessa

After Stephanie's blog, I read Daniel's Best of Week: Story Fragments blog. He had a personal way of writing that I enjoyed and explained the fragmented story concept very well.

Daniel:
While reading your blog, I really enjoyed this post. You have a writing style in your blogs that is personal and informative (and very effective). I agree completely with you on the fact that widowed images are great ways to get into a story. I am also intrigued by the fact that widowed images stick with such clarity and interest to people. I like your idea that by writing about these widowed images, and exploring them, we can discover perhaps why we remember them, or more depth to what we already know. A short story is an exploration and an expression and these fragments we hold so tightly on are worth putting into those works. I had never thought to use these images in different contexts other than writing but now that you brought it up I think I will, thanks! I stopped trying to suppress random ideas a long time ago, and what I find really helps is to just write them down and save them for later. Its nice to get them out, and even when you do, it also helps you discover more about the idea.
-Tessa