If nonfiction can present Obama in a bad light, then fiction should be able to, too.
I was going to write "Obama's Regime," about a future where Obama has been President for 40 years and has repealed all of the Amendments, especially the Bill of Rights. White men are treated as second-class citizens. The White House has been painted and is called the Black House.
But there is a secret organization who plans to bring down the regime. I was going to make it resemble 1984 in some ways.
Speaking of which, I ought to write "2034" sometime. Hmmm...
----------
51,552 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2008 - 11 12
I'd read that. I loved 1984, and there's something about futuristic portrayals of society that draw me in, especially when things have changed for the worse.
----------------
NaNo '07: Doppelganger (winner)
SF '08: Orange Skies and White Lies (winner)
NaNo '08: ?
50,106 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2008 - 15 41
Err... well, while I have to say I disagree with your assessment of Obama's potential, it sounds like an interesting enough read. Go forth.
----------77,087 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2008 - 15 51
Yeah why not? About time white men got treated as second-class citizens for a change :P
----------go down into hell, if you must, but bring me back a rose...
orchidveil.net ][lost violet press ][ LJ
50,147 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 01 54
*scratches head*
You realise that your story idea is incredibly racist and ridiculous, right? You seem to presume that just because Obama's black that he's a black supremicist - self-projection?
Unless you're meaning it as satire of the right-wing wackos who've been crying doom and gloom...
It's not that you *couldn't* write a worthwhile dystopia starring Obama driving society off the cliff, but I think you'd need a scenario that logically follows, as opposed to just inventing positions for him to take from nowhere.
3,666 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 06 07
Yeah, I'm with Aikanaro on this. Sounds a little contrived, or venting some sour grapes over the election's outcome. Unless you're incredibly clever and thoughtful and perhaps satirical, it's just going to come off as bitter and mean-spirited. In my humble opinion...
----------"The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived." ~Oscar Wilde
63,064 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 07 37
Why Obama in particular?
Personally I don't like any politicians, the want to be in politics should (imo) stop you from ever getting a seat of power, reguardless of where you are in the world.
But if you're gonna write something like that then maybe you should just have the president as a nameless character you actually make up for yourself, you know, rather than slandering someone who actually exists.
Safer route.
----------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2008 - Finding Home - ??,???
2007 - Hope of the Hidden - 50,019
2006 - Fortitude - 50,106
50,352 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 11 52
If there are attack hamsters, I might forgive you.
Might.
50,088 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 12 35
Given Obama would be 80-odd by the time you say they plan to bring down the regime, I wouldn't think it'd be too hard.
He'd be a lot less spry by this point.
----------BFS goals - http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1075131
33,815 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 13 51
Also, your novel will seem pretty stupid in a little under three months, when Obama takes office and does not proceed to abolish the Constitution, enslave the white race or walk around the White House in a puppy-fur coat. It will seem even stupider when he peacefully relinquishes office in four or, far more likely, eight years.
50,374 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 22 25
Please watch yourself. The NaNo forums are not built on calling other ideas stupid.
I don't think anyone should be discouraged from exploring their ideas.Especially when this stuff we're writing is fiction.
----------NaNoWriMo & ScriptFrenzy Staff
114,200 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2008 - 23 14
Ah, it's satirical right? You're trying to paint Americans as a spineless people who would just bow to a dictator for decades and not have a military coup or a popular uprising (I mean they'll all have peacefully handed over their privately owned weapons won't they?) Yay, your book will totally make Americans look bad, well done, you!
I'm dying to see how they're going to manage to treat the people who own and run pretty much every huge, rich corporation in the country as second-class citizens.
How is your supply of sour grapes holding out? Don't eat 'em too fast, they have to last you at least four years.
54,866 / 50,000
Nov 18, 2008 - 18 45
I actually quite like your idea, but agree with SolitarySorrows--you shouldn't do it about Obama, but rather create a new, fictional president. That will make the story more "timeless" and avoid having to over-suspend disbelief (especially once Obama doesn't do any of these things, but even right now I have a very hard time believing he'd do that).
The plot itself could make for a good story, though. There's a lot of complexity in there that can be explored.
----------- - - - - - - - - -
2005 - Resolution. (Won)
2006 - Photogenetic (Won, subsequently EVERY SINGLE BACKUP COPY eaten)
2007 - That Fate Would Never See (Lost, stupid midterms getting in the way)
2008 - Legacy of Giants (working title)
13,369 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 04 34
I shouldn't even dignify this with an answer, yet I feel I must say something. First of all, as has been previously stated, this sounds racist to the bones. Second of all, (here I was going to start a entire political discussion, but then I realized that that would be pointless)
-------------
Ce parfum de nos années mortes
Ce qui peut frapper à ta porte
Infinité de destins
On en pose un et qu'est-ce qu'on en retient?
50,427 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2008 - 22 09
Okay... why would it be racist to write a fictional novel where the president elect goes nuts with power?
You do realize that there have already been people who have written the same thing about our current president (and claiming that he's racist?). Do you claim that the people who wrote fictional accounts of Bush being racist are racist too?
There's plenty of real racism out there.
Let's call out racism where it really exists... not when someone gets the fanciful idea to create a world where reverse racism is the norm. Particularly with a president-elect who is enjoying a following of people who wear his image on their t-shirts. (Sometimes truth really is stranger then fiction.)
I almost wrote a novel with Obama as the central character because I wanted to play with the possibility of an American Idol president who ends up with unchecked power. Granted I wasn't going to write in any kind of supremacist movement... but I'd hate to censor someone else from writing that when it could open up a world of great fiction.
I suppose you also hated Planet Of The Apes, which was the ultimate statement on racism?
You suggested that the person who came up with the idea is doing some kind of self-projection.
I guess if I write about dwarves and fairies, you'd really have me on your novelist-therapy couch?
Sometimes writing is just a cigar.
Sometimes writing about a real popular person and turning them into a nightmare is entertaining as hell. In this case, the idea follows the natural path on how we idollize people and follow them over the edge.
If you have a real argument for how this is a racist idea, I'd love to hear it. But when you say that it the author presumes that Obama's a black supremist, you forget that he/she is writing fiction.
Its fiction.
Please remember that.
-John
You realise that your story idea is incredibly racist and ridiculous, right? You seem to presume that just because Obama's black that he's a black supremicist - self-projection?
Unless you're meaning it as satire of the right-wing wackos who've been crying doom and gloom...
It's not that you *couldn't* write a worthwhile dystopia starring Obama driving society off the cliff, but I think you'd need a scenario that logically follows, as opposed to just inventing positions for him to take from nowhere.
2008 Fourth Down
2007 Darker Than My Shades (30,215)
2006 I.T. (50,275)
2005 Babes With Blades (51,387) ----------
2008 Fourth Down
2007 Darker Than My Shades (30,215)
2006 I.T. (50,275)
2005 Babes With Blades (51,387)
50,427 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2008 - 22 18
On the other hand, if the author was right?
Boy... would that novel sell! Before, of course, the novelist was imprisoned.
-John
2008 Fourth Down
2007 Darker Than My Shades (30,215)
2006 I.T. (50,275)
2005 Babes With Blades (51,387) ----------
2008 Fourth Down
2007 Darker Than My Shades (30,215)
2006 I.T. (50,275)
2005 Babes With Blades (51,387)
114,200 / 50,000
Nov 21, 2008 - 03 40
John, I think you're being naive frankly. Your American Idol president idea sounds intriguing, I'd read that, or at least give it a try. That's a proper "what if" question. It's not the content of the OPs idea that's the problem as such; there have been stories done where the races are reversed in social postion, they can work fine, if the tone is right. IF the purpose of the content isn't to bash one of the races. The tone of the OPs idea does sound racist to me, going by my instincts in the way I read it. I can almost taste the bitterness there. If I get that just from a short forum post about the idea, isn't that very likely to be the tone of the story too?
50,427 / 50,000
Nov 21, 2008 - 19 12
I don't think you have to read it.
We're kinda living it now.
They just announced that a New York school was renamed after Obama. And he hasn't even been president yet.
I get squeamish when people start telling me what a proper 'what if' questions are, especially when it relates to politicians.
I have to repeat this, because I'm not sure you got the point the first time I wrote it:
Did you see Planet of the Apes?
I asked you what it was about the tone. You're still not helping me out on that.
I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but you did berate someone for their idea and call them racist. Like I said; there's enough real racism out there to deal with before you start calling someone a racist for following an idea to the extreme of logic.
2008 Fourth Down
----------2007 Darker Than My Shades (30,215)
2006 I.T. (50,275)
2005 Babes With Blades (51,387)
2008 Fourth Down
2007 Darker Than My Shades (30,215)
2006 I.T. (50,275)
2005 Babes With Blades (51,387)
50,088 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 02 12
Personally, I think any problem I would have with a novel about a racist black President being a dictator for 40 years, is that you never wrote it until the month when America GOT its first black President. The immediate timing seems to link it - at least in my mind, and I'm sure in many other people's too - to it being Obama, and a racist reaction to his being elected.
If you'd written this 5 or 10 years ago, it would have been a speculative novel. It you wrote it 10 years in the future, or even further - it might still be a speculative novel (I don't know how Obama will fare in the role). But by saying you're going to write it immediately after he gets elected... that sends out a message.
Yes, people have probably written novels about white leaders becoming dictators. But I'm willing to bet few of them happened after you elected your first ever (white of course) President? As such, any novels would have been unconnected with *a particular* President. Your timing your novel with Obama being elected might smack to many, as being about him, even if you say it isn't.
Then again, no, I doubt I ever would read it, so it's not hugely high on my list of worries. My to do list for today/this weekend - now that is top of my list of worries ;-)
Regardless of topic, good luck with hitting the 50,000 - everyone deserves some good luck, it's not the easiest of challenges.
----------BFS goals - http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1075131
70,573 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 23 11
You guys, I don't know whether Sammy likes or hates Obama or is somewhere in between, but it's clear his idea is just a totally silly romp that no one's intended to take seriously. As such, I bet if he went with this his novel digressed into something else pretty quickly...but it's probably pretty interesting.
----------2003--Eva and the Killjoys
2004--Edge Friends
2005--The Adventures of Peter Mint
2006--House of Harpers
2007--Halloween Happiness
2008 -
114,200 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 02 22
I have to repeat this, because I'm not sure you got the point the first time I wrote it:
Did you see Planet of the Apes?
Yes, I've seen Planet of the Apes. And no, I don't hate it, why would I hate it? It shows the injustice and insanity of enslaving intelligent beings and treating them as animals, because they're not 'your kind'. It's a warning about man's arrogance in thinking himself the king of the Earth and that everything on it is subject to his rule, and how it would feel to have the tables turned. Why would I hate that?
I asked you what it was about the tone. You're still not helping me out on that.
I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but you did berate someone for their idea and call them racist. Like I said; there's enough real racism out there to deal with before you start calling someone a racist for following an idea to the extreme of logic.
The tone is subjective then, it's the way it comes across to me, it seems bitter and nasty. It echoes the kind of sentiments I hear from people who don't even pretend not to be racist, that the black people are going to take over and do down all the white people, and we're all going to hell in a handbasket.
And extreme of logic? Well, part of my point is that his idea is not logical. it assumes the American people would just allow this to happen and not fight back. That doesn't sound like the American people I know. Also idea that you can somehow treat the people who basically own the country like "second-class citizens" is deeply illogical. How exactly would that work?
50,374 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 09 30
Since I think this thread has diverged from its intent and the original poster has not returned, I'm going to lock it.
King Solomon II, if you would like it reopened, please send me a nanomail.
----------NaNoWriMo & ScriptFrenzy Staff