Was: Laramie Tales: New Working Title: Tales of Greenlea County (ARCHIVE)

[opinionista]

I think we're having a Wes/Edna phenomenon.

You Ednas are all rooting for Wayne to get an invite.

You Wes's are all saying he shouldn't!

I'm somtimes an Edna and some other times a Wes. It depends on the situation! 

[mariez]

Very good point, Fabienne.

I sometimes wonder, when all the hoopla of the reception and the holidays dies down, if they'll get the idea to move. Start their new life together in a new home. Just a thought...

L

Yeah, it is a good point, Fabienne.  Just taking a guess here - I might be off-base - but Wes seemed surprised by the answering machine, and maybe Ellery's voice is the one on the outgoing message tape (and speaking of that - I'd love to hear exactly what that says - so many possibilities)  - and he just started talking without thinking? 

Oh, Leslie!  Just think - a "moving" story! LOL!!!  (And in addition to rings, etc. - I love seeing and hearing "Cantrell/Del Mar Household!")

Thanks!  Marie

[Bigheart]

I'm still reading Louise! Of course! Just about 6 chapters behind!! So I've not being reading the thread either.
Hope to catch up tonight!


 

[mariez]

I'm somtimes an Edna and some other times a Wes. It depends on the situation! 

LOL!  Good point - same here - sometimes I'm even an Ellery!  

Marie

[souxi]

Oooo Leslie a moving story is a great idea. Of course if they moved, they,d have to get a new bed, I mean new house new bed. So, that would mean a christening the bed chapter wouldnt it? 
Twinnie, start thinking up things our boys can do in their new bed please.

[magicmountain]

I read everyone's comments with great interest... I am experiencing a bit of a shift in my way of viewing the plot unfolding in my mind (which is largely a matter of inspiration and waiting for what the characters have brewed up for themselves and one another, and this is a contrast with editing and presenting an already-complete tale and getting comments back about it, knowing already in great detail what the future holds, since we have already written it.

Very, very different experiences, I must say.

I am working on the next chapter as we speak, and plan to open the first half of the story up to non-Friends group, since this is really going on quite a long time and the rest of the BBM fandom must have thought I am no longer writing stories!

I did wish to comment a bit on Betty's interpretation above:  I think you really nailed Ennis's reaction to Wayne in terms of accuracy.  For the purposes of keeping the focus on the relationship, I have not introduced any more characters who are openly suffering from AIDS, but will handle this, I believe, in a separate story centering on Wayne and Pinky to provide a perspective on how the opening months of the plague affected its earliest victims, and why Wayne has gone off the deep end.  It is an education for all of them.  I had wanted to put more of this in "Shelter from the Storm", but the plot got too big too quickly, and realized I had to confine the topic.  In reality (but perhaps more in urban locales) AIDS struck hard and deep, and those who had recently found liberation in being gay and proud, suddenly found themselves peculiarly singled out for what the mainstream culture in its narrowness termed the "gay cancer."  As AIDS devastates Africa, killing mothers and fathers with families, leaving children homeless and facing starvation and death, or themselves afflicted, we know in restrospect that the disease does not select homosexual men preferentially, and those who chose to call it the wrath of God visited upon the unholy, are hopefully chastened by the devastating truth that it affects us all, and numbers among the worst endemic plagues of humanity along with infliuenza. 

I have been irked by the lack of realistic treatments of AIDS in this fandom as well.  I don't consider it a plot point - it is to the 21st century what syphilis was to the 18th and 19th, cutting down  promising lives indiscriminately with little hope of treatment or cure: I do know more about the affect of syphilis   in the 19th century having researched it for previous novels, but unlike syphilis, AIDS is still here, and still incurable, and still being spread... and its victims, still ignored.

One of the worries of health authorities today is that younger gay men who have not lived through the mass deaths of 80/90s and have on offer anti-viral drugs are sometimes not taking the safe sex message seriously enough. (The "barebacking" phenomenon also exists in which some knowlingly take the risk for whatever reasons.) HIV infections are on the rise again  in the West as a result. Unlike Africa, in the West the virus now does often target those who engage in unsafe sex and needle sharing practices. This is extremely sensitive because so much effort has been expended in the past to counter the discrimatory stigma attached to people living with HIV by the message that AIDS does not discriminate. But society is not doing these "at risk" young men any favours by not warning them of the added danger they may be in.

In Africa a whole range of other epidemiological issues are in play and AIDS is running riot with governments having very mixed success in addressing the issue. We have the South African President even denying that AIDs is caused by a virus. I hope someone has at last set him straight. Uganda on the other hand has knotched up some successes. Hopefully the availability of generic drugs will help out as the continent is losing the young people it desperately needs to turn the economic ship around and a whole generation are left orphans - not to mention the untold misery being suffered.

Perhaps our resident health guru Leslie could give us the benefit of her views!

[magicmountain]

Back to Ennis. Yes - his fear of catching AIDS through Wayne's kiss would explain his extreme reaction and makes understandable his freaking out.

Remember in Taking Chances when Ellery was concerned that Ennis was not acknowledging the possiblity he could be attracted to certain other men and this was inibiting his exit from the closet. Ennis may be getting more relaxed around Ellery with kissing and endearments etc but methinks that's about as far as it is going to go. If Ennis fancies someone only him and God are gonna know about it!

[louisev]

okay, a quick update before I dash out for lunch with my colleagues!

http://louisev.livejournal.com/205479.html  "31.  Contagious"

Nick meets Ennis.  Or Ennis meets Nick.

[magicmountain]

What next??

[mariez]

What next??

Thanks, Jo - I needed that! 

What an effin' nightmare!    I keep telling myself, "Remember the Christmas stories, remember the Christmas stories - everything will be fine!"  LOL!

Thanks, Louise - hope you have a great lunch!

Marie