Ask A Pornstar
Ha ha, that's a funny advertisement! Never saw that one, but it's pretty close to what I was aiming for with the narrator's personality before he gets broken down, humbled, and spit out. Not that over the top, though.
I risk my job every time I come to this thread but I love it. I love it so, so much.
I really wish I could read your stories right now but dammit the fucking work that piles up, the final push to graduate high school! Your stores that I have read, your style, has really inspired me to give writing a shot. Thank you, magical pornstar.
Tyler, you should get a robe and a wizard hat now.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
Yes. I'm a magical negro, te-he-he.
Magical negro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The magical negro is a supporting, sometimes mystical stock character in fiction who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white (or non-black) protagonist get out of trouble. The word negro, now considered by many as archaic and sometimes offensive, is used intentionally to suggest that the archetype is a racial throwback, an update of the "Sambo" and "savage other" stereotypes.[1] African-American filmmaker Spike Lee popularized the term, deriding the archetype of the "super-duper magical negro" in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University.[2][3]
The magical negro is a subset of the more generic numinous negro, a term coined by Richard Brookhiser in National Review.[4] The latter term refers to saintly, respected or heroic black protagonists or mentors.
Contents [hide]
1 In fiction
1.1 Examples
2 Outside of fiction
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
[edit]In fiction
The magical negro is typically but not always "in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint," often a janitor or prisoner.[5] He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist.[6] [7] He usually has some sort of magical power, "rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters."[6] He is patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and is "closer to the earth."[2]
The magical negro serves as a plot device to help the protagonist get out of trouble, typically through helping the white character recognize his own faults and overcome them.[2] Although he has magical powers, his "magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character."[5] It is this feature of the magical negro that some people find most troubling. Although from a certain perspective the character may seem to be showing blacks in a positive light, he is still ultimately subordinate to whites.
He is also regarded as an exception, allowing white America to "like individual black people but not black culture."[8]
To save the white protagonist, however, he would do anything, including sacrificing himself, as Sidney Poitier portrays in The Defiant Ones, the prototypical magical Negro movie.[2] Note that Poitier's character is also saved by the white protagonist, as the two help each other throughout the film.
This makes me look at Green Mile quite differently.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
Magical negro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The magical negro is a supporting, sometimes mystical stock character in fiction who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white (or non-black) protagonist get out of trouble. The word negro, now considered by many as archaic and sometimes offensive, is used intentionally to suggest that the archetype is a racial throwback, an update of the "Sambo" and "savage other" stereotypes.[1] African-American filmmaker Spike Lee popularized the term, deriding the archetype of the "super-duper magical negro" in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University.[2][3]
The magical negro is a subset of the more generic numinous negro, a term coined by Richard Brookhiser in National Review.[4] The latter term refers to saintly, respected or heroic black protagonists or mentors.
Contents [hide]
1 In fiction
1.1 Examples
2 Outside of fiction
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
[edit]In fiction
The magical negro is typically but not always "in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint," often a janitor or prisoner.[5] He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist.[6] [7] He usually has some sort of magical power, "rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters."[6] He is patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and is "closer to the earth."[2]
The magical negro serves as a plot device to help the protagonist get out of trouble, typically through helping the white character recognize his own faults and overcome them.[2] Although he has magical powers, his "magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character."[5] It is this feature of the magical negro that some people find most troubling. Although from a certain perspective the character may seem to be showing blacks in a positive light, he is still ultimately subordinate to whites.
He is also regarded as an exception, allowing white America to "like individual black people but not black culture."[8]
To save the white protagonist, however, he would do anything, including sacrificing himself, as Sidney Poitier portrays in The Defiant Ones, the prototypical magical Negro movie.[2] Note that Poitier's character is also saved by the white protagonist, as the two help each other throughout the film.
I'm not going to lie, nor am I going to pc up this statement because frankly its self-censoring dullness. Black people make a great plot device. You people really are magic on paper and film.
Think of the Black Badass. Shaft, Samuel Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Ving Rhames. Black people are naturally cool, due to white ideas on racial interrelationships they are seen as slick, forbidden. They just really look cooler when using weapons and stuff, or quoting the bible.
Black people also make good preachers. From the Dawn of the Dead Remake to Black Snake Moan, when black people start speaking of the Apocalypse you know we are at our darkest hour. They can make religion look lesser, or really make it pragmatic.
Inspirational characters are also made so much better with blacks also. Think of Finding Forrester, now imagine it with a white inner city kid. Now imagine that inner city kid as a rich private school kid. Now imagine that role with Michael Caine. Nothing makes racialy insecure white people feel better than seeing a black person defy all odds, to put to rest any pestering thoughts they keep to themselves and desperately try to put down or ignore instead of realizing, accepting, and working to overcome those racist thoughts.
So we've seen them as heroes, underdogs, preachers, but even better is a black villain. For a long time its been bad taste for a black guy to be evil but we are starting to see a few come back, a nice exotic "Oh hes black but they're ignoring all the rules and having them be a villain!". The Nigerians were a good choice in District 9 because well the whole thing is a racial allegory for apartheid and white dominance, while still showing that black people can just as easily be bad as well as good (bad things do indeed happen to bad people, victim =/= innocent). Resident Evil 5 did this to much controversy even though all it did was take the idea of using a foreign culture (the Spaniards in 4) and making them scary with folklore and stuff. Its a shame they did not explain this like I just did, and instead was like fuck fuck we will seem racist lets make the co-op character black, but not too black, noticeably black but still light skinned enough.
The magic negro still lives, as we can see with the Hatian in Heroes. Yep, its all in a name. His name is probably "Doug", but really why call him that? Hes a magical dues-ex-machina black, really calling him "The Haitian" is very very similar to calling him "The Negro".
We really have progressed past racism as a culture, and moved into an area of political correctness, ignorance of commonplace biases, hypersensitivity, and conversational pussyfooting.
This had nothing to do with anything, you just got me thinking.
We really have progressed past racism as a culture, and moved into an area of political correctness, ignorance of commonplace biases, hypersensitivity, and conversational pussyfooting.
I, also not meaning to be rude or anything, don't think you know many black people.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
I think Tyler is more of a badass like Jefferson Twilight
Who hunts and kills blaculas
We really have progressed past racism as a culture, and moved into an area of political correctness, ignorance of commonplace biases, hypersensitivity, and conversational pussyfooting.
I, also not meaning to be rude or anything, don't think you know many black people.
I'm not going to black-list (the racial equivalent of dick measuring). To be frank, when looking at cinema it really does not matter how many black people you do know. The image of the world painted on the silver screen, black people who are magic, has nothing to do with how many you know in real life. If anything, those ending comments are about the white people I know.
I'm well off, I go to richer places, I run the blueblood circuit- so I am at a disadvantage on knowing black people. I have one really good friend though who is black, and we would spend a lot of time talking about race in the world. We would talk realistically, the way teenagers talk about things like sex, drugs, movies, porn, we did not talk restrained. To explain this I would usually say black, one day a girl comes to me and goes "Thats racist, its african american!". I explain to get black is a skin color, african american is a ethnic group and she still claimed foul. I said, what do you call someone of African descent who was born in Britain. "African-American-British" she replied. Thats not how most people are, but thats my favorite example on how being polite and not-a-dick is the right thing to be, being politically correct has gotten out of hand and foolish.
We would talk gritty, but mostly funny due to my love of late night purple-shirt funny-80's-black-guy antics of Eddie Murphy, or Richard Pryor. We would discuss things like black people and barber shops, white people and salons, and why more white people watch the Boondocks than black people. I would bring up "Who would win in a fight, Malcom X or MLK?". by the way, MLK wins with the rope-a-dope strategy letting X tire himself out.
He was there on scholarship, being one of those motherless children raised by a father working many jobs, one with drugy past who moved out of the ghetto and pushed his son to be his full potential. Me and him would talk about how hes there because hes smart, and so they can show him around to donators who want some assurance that there is due color around. "They can use me for my skin, I can use them for the education" can be summed up by his actions.
So yeah, I don't know that many black people but I have a friend. Hes not my black friend, hes my good friend*.
*For kicks I introduce him as black friend, and also keep a photo of us together in my wallet to prove I'm not racist.
Morgan freeman has made a career out of being a mentoring, magical negro.
Shawshank Redemption (wise inmate)
The Dark Knight (wise exec in the basement)
Unforgiven (wise sidekick)
Se7en (wise mentor to Brad Pitt)
Batman Begins (wise exec in the basement)
Evan Almighty (God)
Million Dollar Baby (wise janitor)
Kiss the Girls (wise detective mentor to Ashley Judd)
Deep Impact (wise president of the United States)
Bruce Almighty (God)
Invictus (Nelson Mandella/ wise ex-inmate/ president of a nation/ God)
Well, having a black friend certainly does prove that racism is finished. I was wrong, forgive me.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
Who hunts and kills blaculas
I am nowhere near as cool. Plus, my voice sounds like Barney The Dinosaur after smoking a bowl of kush.
will you skype with us sometime?
Brentinlouis Wrote: What was that rule about being intentionally annoying?
If you notice there I use sarcasm, or irony, I forget what irony really means. I say the equivalent of this "X is gone, we have moved into an x-free error of (part of x), (result of x), (passive x), (x-in-denail).
Racism is alive, what I'm saying is it is changing forms.
Who hunts and kills blaculas
I am nowhere near as cool. Plus, my voice sounds like Barney The Dinosaur after smoking a bowl of kush.
Well I think I have enough people here that will back me up in dubbing you one if not the coolest Cult additions ever. So embrace it. Even if you sound like Barney after smoking a bowl...which should be your new porn gig. You could bang Baby Bop.
That went a little too far didn't it? Please forgive me
Barney porn... diiirty.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
Racism is alive, what I'm saying is it is changing forms.
If what you're saying is "Racism is alive and/but changing forms" then say "Racism is alive and/but changing forms" because what you're actually doing is conversational pussyfooting.
Don't be a conversational pussyfooter, Raepdog.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Pussyfooter Raepdog? Hmmm....
"Pussyfooting" is a new hardore series due in July, form the people who brought you Blackmaled
We really have progressed past racism as a culture, and moved into an area of political correctness, ignorance of commonplace biases, hypersensitivity, and conversational pussyfooting.
There are more than just black people and white people, you know. I think a lot of people in Arizona (to name a single place) would disagree with you that we've moved past a culture of racism.
There is hope, but not for us.
I have a cult crush... on a pornstar. Shh.
This is a really interesting thread. I can't believe I just stumbled upon it now.
Tyler, your writing is really great. I look forward to reading more of it.
As for my questions (if they've already been answered, I apologize. I got distracted by other things in this thread): Have you ever worked with Sasha Grey or Belladonna? Are they really idolized in the porn world? Their type of niche porn doesn't seem like it would have a large market.
What the fuck you mean, 'you people'?!?!!?
We really have progressed past racism as a culture, and moved into an area of political correctness, ignorance of commonplace biases, hypersensitivity, and conversational pussyfooting.
No. We have not. I don't know how old you are, or where you're from, or whatever. But you probably don't have much world experience if you think this is true. At work, we have mexicans, asians, blacks and whites. A lot of each group. There is a lot of racial "joking" that goes around between the groups, and some of it actually is joking. The majority of it is blatant, disgusting racism coming out under the guise of a joke, because if they didn't joke, they'd get into a fight and get kicked out of the Army. I have met some fucking racist dudes, some white, some black, from all over the country. For you to say that we're past racism is ignorant and you would recant that statement if you were to take a walk wearing other people's shoes.
Step back. Evaluate. Recognize.
She retired from porn the other week.
I gave up on new porn when Jasmine Byrne stopped showing up to work...
I am acutely aware of the impact those words, even in the context of telling a story, can have. I'm not a racist or a homophobe. I don't have a brain-to-mouth filter when writing(I'm worse in person), and I can be an idiot.
My thoughts are pretty simple on the topic. People are smart enough to know when you are using those words out of hate and when you're using them in a 'legitimate' manner.
In fact, I almost hate "the N word" more than I hate the word "nigger". The great Louis CK already said it best
If you are in a situation where you shouldn't be saying it, don't. When it's appropriate, use it so long as you can handle the repercussions of your words.
In fact, Louis CK is the perfect example of how you can use that stuff in a way that is shocking and meaningful, and no one thinks he is hateful because of it. Here is a great Exchange he had with Patrice Oneal.
Tyler, your writing is really great. I look forward to reading more of it.
As for my questions (if they've already been answered, I apologize. I got distracted by other things in this thread): Have you ever worked with Sasha Grey or Belladonna? Are they really idolized in the porn world? Their type of niche porn doesn't seem like it would have a large market.
Met Belladonna just once in my agent's office last year. Very shy girl in person. I found that endearing.
Sasha Grey was my bottom woman (pimp term for his best whore) in a Stagger Lee bio-pic I did for Adam & Eve called Bullets and Burlesque. We had ~20 seconds screen time together. We sat in bed, fully dressed, grinning and staring into each other's eyes. That's it.
I'm not plugged into the porn scene to give a consensus of how people within the industry feel about either of them. I never socialize, and the porn forums are full of delusional, uncouth, savages. And those are the mods and admins.
Dibs on this sig.
This is why we can't have nice things.
This is why we can't have nice things.
No, but she pinched my naked buttocks, giggled, and ran away once. That was sexual harassment.
I think you're an excellent writer. you said you won't be doing this next year... any plans on what you'll do?
Not for me! A friend wants to know.
that is the cutest thing I've ever seen.
“if you want to be a bird,” you said once, “with colorful plumage and buoyant trills, you must also be ready for hollow bones."
This Youtube trailer was just uploaded.
It has to have been in the last 2 years that someone in the porn biz got a lawyer who figured out that adding "a parody" to anyone's IP made it OK to use. Amazing there hasn't been any lawsuits about this yet.
all of those boner pill ads say you shouldnt have an erection for more than three or four hours, but filming can go on for a long time, im sure. how long are you ummm.... at attention? does that lead to any problems?
how many times a day do you come, i mean with all that fluffing and fucking and and blah blah blah.
www.triplebeard.com
http://darkroomreview.blogspot.com
“...There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one's head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people's pain. You ought to have some apprehension that the man you see before you was once even younger than you are now and arrived at his present wretchedness by imperceptible degrees.”
-James Baldwin
I'd watch that.
Tyler, is that tattoo on your bicep real? What is it?
There is hope, but not for us.
I would like to see that.
This is already superior to the actual A-Team due primarily to the fact that the "real" Captain H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock never once got the girl.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Tyler I have two questions.
1 - Is there anyone in the industry right now that you respect and feel is doing good work?
2 - How can the industry be made better? Is there anything you can see making the industry better?
...just lurking.
As flattering as this is, may I suggest you aim higher? I'm the low hanging fruit.
Wait...
Given the chance, you should grab-up Hattie while you can.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Is there really that big of a risk for STDs or do I just hear that in school so I won't even consider working in the industry?
You're a brighter little soul than all of the jaded people here. Never take them seriously. NEVER.
Did you like the movie Boogie Nights?
Actually, it's a great question. We test for Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV once monthly. Syphilis once a year, and Hepatitis is optional. Yes, optional.
The HIV test is called a PCR/DNA. It does not test for antibodies (useless because some infected people take months to develop, or never develop them), it tests for specific proteins detectable within three days to a week.
Before every sex scene, talent is supposed to show each other their current tests. The attitude toward the game of "show me yours and I'll show you mine" is often cavalier.
People have been known to forge tests when they know they have an STD. How hard is it to photo shop a piece of fucking paper?
Although there is a licensed phlebotomist drawing blood for the HIV test, it's ridiculously easy to get past the piss test for the other STDs. All you have to do is carry a urine sample with you into the bathroom,. Nobody watches you give a sample. Hell, you can even do it by mail. Viola, clean test.
There have been two HIV outbreaks since 2004. That I know of. The last one as recent as June 2009. The only reason anyone even knows about the HIV positive people in the talent pool was because an anonymous source came forward on a porn gossip site. The testing center, whose sole fucking purpose of existing is to test and report outbreaks to the industry, hid the infected from us. The test center director said, "It's really not a big deal."
Why did they hide it? OSHA and other gov't agencies are suing them for the debacle of 2004. So they (testing center) let the outbreak of 2009 go unreported, potentially allowing HIV exposed people to continue fucking away with impunity. One HIV positive person can work with five others in a week. Those five each work with five people. You get the idea. It's an exponential affect.
The Clusterfuck of 2004
In the Spring of 2004, Darren James went to Brazil to shoot porn for TT Boys company, Evasive Angles (company named for TT’s passion for boxing incidentally). If one were to go to Brazil or Thailand as talent one could earn $10,000 in 2 weeks. I am not going to speculate as to how Darren got infected, but it is established that he did get infected while in Brazil.
Darren is the kind of guy that took his STD test twice monthly as I understood it, when industry practice only called for monthly testing. It just so happened that within the week he came back from his trip to Brazil he worked with a lot of girls. Those girls in turn worked with guys and girls who worked with even more people. It was an exponential effect. There were probably 150 scenes shot every day in the valley at the time so all this happened within the space of a week.
DJ went in weeks early for his std test (thank God) as he usually does, and when the lab gave him a “detected” result the entire industry went on lock down. The next step was to find all the people who were directly exposed to DJ. Of those, a few girls tested positive. Both of those girls had “current” tests and if not for Darren testing early those girls and Darren could have infected even more people.
When I heard about this outbreak I failed to fully grasp the scope of the situation. It seemed that I was so far removed from it. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Within the span of an hour my phone was blowing up with calls--people telling me that I had in fact been exposed when one of the girls identity was revealed. Of those girls that tested positive, I had vaginal intercourse with one of them. The fact that she had a current test meant fuck-all. I was officially moved to “first generation exposure” and was immediately put on quarantine.
The first thing I did was tell my girl friend. Then I tracked down every girl I worked with within that week and called them all. The response I got from the girls on the other end of the phone ranged from denial, to shooting the messenger, to gratitude Mostly derision.
I was only 32 at the time and if in fact I did test positive I knew I could never train martial arts ever again, fight, spar, or make love to a woman. It was the prospect of infecting my girl friend, whom was not in any way involved with the adult industry and did nothing to put herself in the way of this except to love me no matter what. That killed me. Joke all you want but after facing those grim prospects I would have been ecstatic to get something like Herpes, or Chlamydia instead. So I put myself and my girl friend through a battery of HIV tests that the industry uses.
The quarantine list grew to if I recall, damn near 100 people from first generation like me to fourth generation. There was a flow chart posted on the net and every day people would look to see if their name would appear on it. Young people searching for their name on a list for exposure. A death list.
The entire industry was shut down. News crews came out it. People were hounding Darren for interviews so he had to flee town. I can not imagine what it must have been like for him. Whatever choices he made to put himself in that situation I had and still have empathy for the man. If you ever met him you’d love the guy instantly. His positive attitude and warmth was amazing.
Risks in the abstract suddenly became real. In the past I’ve had a 9mm put to my head and a shot gun aimed at my chest (at the same time) by other people looking for a reason to kill me. This was worse. I thought of the life insurance policy I took out not 5 months earlier and considered suicide as a fleeting thought before a positive HIV diagnosis, so that my girl friend would get a payout.
I’m not soliciting sympathy as I've made my bed, and it would be grossly undeserved. It’s an offering into my state of mind at the time. Regardless of what I felt about myself for putting my girl friend through this I kept up a stalwart front so she didn’t not see the fear. Having her scared served no purpose.
Eventually after a period of say, a month the fourth generation people were cleared fro the “Q” list, followed by the third generation. After taking more tests than I can remember I was cleared too. I still did not go back to work right away. Those two months taking a battery of tests were the longest of my entire life. Being the geek that I am (probably the detachment of denial) my thoughts wandered to of all things game theory and odds. Even if my odds for contracting HIV from vaginal sex with a woman were mathematically infinitesimal, the smallest of odds were of no comfort. Statistics have no memory. Every sexual event with an infected person is a fresh “roll of the dice”. A fresh chance to get infected. I had a lot of time to evaluate my life.
Although I obviously came out of my self imposed seclusion to work again, my perspective on a lot of things has been changed forever. I’ve seen the worst in humanity. Avarice over human life.
During that time frame of the industry wide shutdown some studios and performers still opted to keep shooting. Like i the outbreak was some abstract event going on in some far away land that had no bearing on their reality. Some fourth generation people on the quarantine list were still working under aliases, or forged tests.
And some studios and directors filmed them. They just didn’t give a fuck.
Talent that was not on the “Q” list sometimes price gouged the studios for 2-3 times their rate. For a period, some studios in self righteous afterthought and full of shit putting on airs lectured on how safety protocols need to be improved. They called for a town hall meeting open to all the industry. Reality was the meeting was publicity bullshit, full of self dick suckery and circle jerking made only for the “cool kids”, posturing for the press and accomplishing absolutely fuck-all. The big decisions? No scenes where male talent comes in a girls asshole, and the industry went condom only.
Oh, hahaha. Thank you.
You're a brighter little soul than all of the jaded people here. Never take them seriously. NEVER.
There's is a 40 page excerpt from my novel, "Mettle" published today. I shaped it up in the Writers Workshop. Reading it again I see a few things I'd do differently but it doesn't suck so I'm happy with it. Who knows, none of this may even stay in the novel's manuscript because it's being revised constantly. I certainly don't consider it "finished".
http://sexandmurder.com/ is a horror and splatter-punk journal.
Click the link above, then click "Current Issue" at the top of the page. Under the cover picture you can download the magazine free on your Kindle, computer or whatever e-reader for free. Or you can order a print copy.
Do you think entering the porn industry gave you the creative edge you needed to sell your writing? Do you think being in the porn industry gave you the inspiration to write more and or pursue your writing career?
Another long assed reply.
When I was a kid I read the shit out of Edgar Allen Poe. I'd write short stories and poems trying to be like Poe. I thought Poe was God. My teacher read my stuff and told me if I continued writing I'd be sent on for psych evaluation. I stopped writing. And reading.
I would not be writing if it weren't for three events.
1. Porn. Nobody, I mean nobody out there said or wrote anything worth a damn about the shit I saw go down and even participated in. I wasn't looking for entertainment--just an empathetic (not sympathetic) voice. Someone else out there that could help me work shit out swimming in my head.
You had some porn people, men and women, that had ghost writers schlep autobiographies that cried about "My life was so hard and then I took/slung/sucked/buried the cock and now I'm empowered so look at me!", bullshit. These tomes were a self-loathing-and-bravado packages of flaming dogshit left on a reader's doorstep. Vapid, empty, and intellectually dishonest in so many ways. The author is always shown to look good in the end. Reading one person's book I said out loud, "what a hunk of bullshit." That planted the seed.
2. So last year, twenty-five years after the teacher told me to stop writing, I read somebody thread about the state of porn in the age of piracy on a mixed martial arts forum. I knew something about this so I commented on the thread, mainly to clear up inaccuracies. People kept asking me about my days on set so posts evolved into very poorly written anecdotes (wouldn't even qualify as a stories, I wasn't even thinking about writing) and the thread grew over 100 pages long.
3. In July of last year someone called Tucked Max read an anecdote, ripped my writing apart, then wrote "You suck. I don't know what your plans are in terms of writing but if you work your ass off to improve you might have something. I sold two million books, I know my shit. If you want, I'll help you."
I'm all, "who the fuck is this Internet troll 'Tucker Max', then I Googled him. He then created a writing thread on his now defunct Rudius Media forum where his editors tossed my feeble attempts at stories like the last fifi bag in prison.
It was humbling and I had no idea what I didn't know. I didn't even know basic story structure and this was pointed out to me often. Comments from his editors like, "There's no story here, start again..." and "This piece reeks of amateurism..." were commonplace. I almost quit. Almost.
Tucker's company went under with the failure of his movie, "I Hope The Serve Beer In Hell" the writing critique thread he created for me went away, and we lost touch. I spent the last few months reading the anything related to the craft of writing I could find online and in print.
From fall '09 through the winter I read a lot of novels, collected a stack of rejection slips from literary magazines, and most importantly, kept writing. Using the feedback from the editors that took the time to tell me why they were rejecting my stories I got slightly better and the rejection slips from the magazines turned into accepts.
Seeking more info about the craft of writing, I did a search online that led me to this piece: http://www.laweekly.com/2002-09-26/art-books/she-breaks-your-heart
--which led me to The Cult.
Novel excerpts are in the workshop here where I get tremendous feedback. Not only that, reading other peoples writing has developed my critical eye so I can see shit in my own writing that may be improved. The workshop is a great place to be. My writing continues to grow exponentially.
Anyway, Tucker is reading my novel's manuscript right now. If I know him, he'll say, "This sucks. There's no story here. Start again...", ha ha. It's been a hell of a year.
I want to thank you. Not only has this thread been fascinating, I honestly think it's cured my addiction to porn. "Lifting the curtain," and all that.
I was wondering: what was your take on Max Hardcore's prison sentence? And, while you've mentioned you don't really hang with other people in the industry, do you have any impression of what the industry thinks of it?
Thanks for both your time & talent. It's taught me a lot.
This deserves a good response. I'll get to this later.
I don't know how good the advice he's given you is, but fuck Tucker Max. His writing sucks.
Porn is dead. Whether I can make a living at porn next year isn't even a choice that's up to me. As it stands right now, many months I'm whittling away at my savings--effectively subsidizing my "career". I was one of the few that saved my money when things were good but I'm not gonna give the money back to the house.
Fortunately, my revenues from other non porn related ventures have already replaced my income from adult.
Even if the business was still rocking, I'd relegate my work to the minimum and phase porn out. There's nothing there for me and I'm going backwards as a human being.
What will I do? If I have to, I'll work as an overnight shelf stocker at the K-mart, or pump gas and write during the day.
I have a part-time gig for there for the taking where nobody will give a damn what I've done or who I used to be and the paycheck requires honest, hard work. This appeals to me. A real job. Whatever I have to do, I will do so I can keep crafting stories. My girlfriend of eight years is supportive. If it takes me three decades to make it then so be it.
That ad rocks.
Tagline from the Old Spice youtube account: "We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it."
There is hope, but not for us.