Author Topic: Jack's ghost  (Read 2220 times)

Offline twistedude

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Jack's ghost
« on: July 20, 2006, 11:08:28 pm »
Jack's ghost:
I got a reveiw this morning on my new story; he didn't seem to understand it much (do you?), but something he asked set me to thinking, because i didn't know the answer.

First he said--after saying how interesting it all was-- he couldn't imagine Jack making love to Lureen (which I found a bit insulting),and then he asked --why doesn't he make love to Ennis?

I got an early morning post off to him, saying I didn't know, but I would think about it, and I was pretty sure he wouldn't. Since then, fanfiction has been blocked. So I thought.

1) Jack is not a human being; he can't set up housekeeping with anyone, he can't carry on a love affair. he's a ghost.
2) in this capacity as a ghost, he's sort of a cross between Jack and superman. He goes where he is needed.  A lonely woman is dying--though she doesn't know it--who used to be his wife; his son is puzzled about his sexuality, without really having had any experience of one side of it. These are kind of "one shot deals." It's not irrelevant, also, that these people used to be his family.He can also tell people useful things.
3) he is not free to act for any extended period period of time like a human being. (where did all these rules come from, anyway?) In fact, I suppose, he has a limited amount of human, visable form. (I DID hear about a movie where  a woman falls in love with a ghost, and they live happily ever after--"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." But only one.). No, I don't think he's on a ration card; it's kind of a mental and emotional ration card, governed by his own limitations, and his own free will.

Somehow, I meant all this to be clear with the "Clothes" story, but it wasn't. I think it is clearer with the "And I Learned Abiout Women from 'Er" stiory. I doin't mean my Jack-ghost doesn't make love like a human being, but he also looks at it as a task he has set himself; this is probably clearer with Lureen, to whom he is less attached, as a human being, than Bobby. Dunno..

This Jack-ghost  is sort of a --ministering angel--as Annie Proulx called Jack in the short story.  Sorry if this includes sex partners you disapprove of; I--really--didn't think of the word "incest" as having any meaning in this thing. I know there's no point in trying to win people over to liking the "Clothes" stiory if you don't, but I did want to say what i was trying to do. maybe I'm just not a good enough writer.
 
If he were to see Ennis (like, on a "train ride," between Brooklyn and the Adiroindacks), it would be more likely to talk , to say something important, than to make love. Like louisev;'s Ennis, mine also has a partner.  Perhaps the dreams Ennis  had of Jack --and still ocassionally does--were an early form of Jack's  being an angel.
Anyway, he's been in three of my stories, and seems to be getting more real, as an--angel? Ghost? .....
« Last Edit: July 21, 2006, 03:39:55 am by twistedude »
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Offline jpwagoneer1964

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Re: Jack's ghost
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2006, 11:23:33 pm »
LINK?
Thank you Heath and Jake for showing us Ennis and Jack,  teaching us how much they loved one another.

Offline twistedude

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Re: Jack's ghost
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2006, 12:07:06 am »
The three stories with Jack's ghost in them are: A Day in the Life, The Clothes that You Once Wore, and  I Learned about Women from 'Er. There are about SIX links, two under eachof my story postings, which begin 1) Good Old Boy, 2) A Day in the Life and 3) And I Learned About Women from "er.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2006, 12:55:19 am by twistedude »
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters