Today Hannah and I went to spend time with a coworker of mine. We finished up American Horror Story: Freakshow and ate tacos. I have to say that after finishing up that insane train ride, I don't think my Death Man novel is nearly as fucked up as my fellow Solstice peeps think it is! I suppose I'll just have to take Sterling's advice and make it much worse and much hotter. I told my coworker about the 'make it worse; make it hot' mantra. I still hold that phrase very near and dear to my heart.
Recently I watched the movie 'The Interview.' Many of the jokes in the movie seem too far fetched to come from truth (the idea that the Supreme Leader is so much like a god that he doesn't even go to the bathroom), but last night I watched the Frontline Documentary on North Korea which was filmed two years ago... and even the most bizarre aspects of 'The Interview' were actually based in truth. In fact, 'The Interview' was pretty fucking accurate.
When watching all of these things about North Korea, I realized that my little dystopian city is actually quite like a microcosm of this country. That my Luminary is the Supreme Leader and that he really does have god status among the elite and the serving class. People fear him instead of love him, but they act like they love him because their fear what will happen if they don't. In North Korea, people are executed for watching foreign movies and television (these things are regularly smuggled in by defectors and others). It's frightening to me that my novel, which I intended as a model of Sharia Law and Christian Fundamentalism, is actually a modern day portrait of North Korea. All dictatorships have common threads, of course, and so it's not surprising the my dystopian mimics NK - it's surprising that it perfectly mirrors it! This has made some things very simple for me as I find I truly have a perfect model for the awful society I am writing about - albeit on much smaller scale.
Apart from inundating myself with North Korea, and sketching and re-sketching maps for Le Nord (North City), and creating a timeline of how North City came into being and who ruled when and how - I've also been filling out job application after job application. So far I've had several email responses saying thanks but no thanks, but no bites. A little bit ago I filled out the application to get into the Spokane Housing Authority lottery - I'm pretty desperate at this point. We need things to happen, we need a life of our own again. I'm doing what I can, but we're pretty financially drained at this point and pretty much out of options until I can finally snag another job.
Also, about four more bills from Kootenai Hospital have rolled in. I'm looking at upwards of $7,000 now - which is more than I make in a year. As soon as my W-2 gets in I will go to the business office and have a nice long chat - also I'll refill out the FAFSA, and get my taxes done, too. I'm hoping for a decent return and should manage one unless something's different from last year. So we'll see. Life is hard, as per usual. But just like the cat dangling from a tree limb on the famous inspiration poster, I'm going to just 'keep hanging on.'
Also, about four more bills from Kootenai Hospital have rolled in. I'm looking at upwards of $7,000 now - which is more than I make in a year. As soon as my W-2 gets in I will go to the business office and have a nice long chat - also I'll refill out the FAFSA, and get my taxes done, too. I'm hoping for a decent return and should manage one unless something's different from last year. So we'll see. Life is hard, as per usual. But just like the cat dangling from a tree limb on the famous inspiration poster, I'm going to just 'keep hanging on.'
I don't even want to think about that ER bill. It makes me so mad! We should also look at subsidized housing as well. I started to last night but was in the middle of talking to Chris and trying to narrow down exactly what I was supposed to do for a paper. We'll look together when we can both sit down and do it.
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