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[grey-reverie.livejournal.com]

hey all

does anyone know of any good fiction about multiples we could look up? so far the little media weve seen about plurals doesnt really cast us in a favorable light..

were (cody and i) trying to turn this sadness of ours into something, so were writing a fiction focusing on multiples. its basically about a young girl whose in love with a singlet, but he doesnt believe her until theyre in a near fatal accident and he somehow ends up in her system. since ive never been much of a writer im just using all the people from my systems as characters, makes it easier to write it out, but eventually ill change their names, since it would be the ultimate in tackiness to leave them like that. if we had our way, and we had the skills and patience to pull it off, wed love to make a manga out of this (maybe some day) but for now a novel will do.

anyways... anyone who is interested in being part of the story, or reading it whatever lemme know and ill add you to the friends list. probably wont post anything til sunday though

-lukies, professional scapegoat

Comments

[shandra.livejournal.com]

Set this House in Order by Matt Ruff is not a bad novel about 2 multiples, although I thought it fell apart at the end a bit. That's about it that I can think of although I look forward to hearing other recommendations.

[redrainstorm.livejournal.com]

"its basically about a young girl whose in love with a singlet, but he doesnt believe her until theyre in a near fatal accident and he somehow ends up in her system."
That's AWESOME! HA!

I've not read fiction on multiples. I think I'd be afraid to. Depending how it's written it could make singletons think of all multiplicity as fiction in any sense. Or, they'll believe it and really think their boyfriend (outsider) can hop in their system.

[grey-reverie.livejournal.com]

hmm, that is a very good point, and i was thinking about that just this morning. im basing some of it on personal experience, but am meshing in some other ideas for stories weve had to make sure it doesnt turn into a opinionated rant instead of a story. there already seems to be an abundance of factual based multiple stories that try and explain the way things work, but were just going for a simple story that doesnt need to fully explain the way things work. ive found the most enjoyable books (for us) tend to be plainly written stories that use good imagery to tell the story, so thats what were aiming for. i dunno, i dont see this ever getting past the communities, as i think no matter how much we try and dumb down the storyline most singlets are just going to scratch their heads. we mostly just want to write something enjoyable for all our fellow multiples, ya know? maybe if everyone really likes it wed try and take it somewhere ^^

hopefully the story we write wont be too abstract and youll enjoy it ^^

besides, most singlets already seem to think of multiplicity as fiction, and those that would really think they could hop into a system... well, ill be sure and put some kinda disclaimer in there about that >XD

-lukies

[zenboiuke.livejournal.com]

Wow... that sounds like a really kewl idea ^^

~Kier

[echoesnspectres.livejournal.com]

We would recommend This Alien Shore (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0886777992/) by C. S. Friedman. The protagonist&'s multiplicity is sort-of trauma-based but it is (or becomes) functional. The book is very good about accepting differences in general, especially neurological ones like Tourette's, OCD, autism, paranoid schizophrenia, etc. It also has a very good Sherlock Holmes-type autistic character. :) We liked it.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

There are some novels with plural characters on our books page: http://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/books.html

Somewhere, Gabriel had a list of novels with plural characters. He and Jessy were going to tackle them a few summers ago, but most of them were unavailable at the time. They probably all end up pretty much the same (integration, happy ending, laaaaa! "I would miss Carol, but somehow I knew she would always be a part of me, just like Dr. Higgins said." @.@)

[appadil.livejournal.com]

Gabriel.... would this be in connection with the comm? I joined there recently and it seems rather dead, but I'm hoping if someone less shy than me posts there, it'll liven back up again. (If no one does, I'll eventually work up the courage to post myself, but it would probably talk longer.) Hmm... that'd probably be a good place to crosspost this question to, actually. There's also the community, but it's more oriented towards advocacy while is sort of more "book-review"-ish.

Anyway, I'm going to rattle on for a while because "multiplicity in the media" is one of my current perseverations.. Not all the portrayals are bad or stereotypical, especially the farther you stray from "clinical" multiplicity. I think maybe authors/scriptwriters/etc feel more comfortable with the idea of many-characters-in-one-body when they can distance themselves from the lable of "MPD"- calling the situation anything else makes it easier to get away from the "mental illness" stigma and the need to adhere to current medical models.

Back to the original question, I've heard good things about Aristoi, though I haven't yet managed to get a copy myself. If you like scifi stuff and don't mind your multiples being non-human, the character Runt from the Wraith Squadron series of Star Wars books is from a species that are naturally plural, as are the traeki from David Brin's Jijo trilogy in the Uplift series (albeit in a rather alien way for the latter).
I've also seen some semi-decent webcomics, although they're all really rather hit or miss- a fair amount of people on this comm seem to like Kagerou (http://www.electric-manga.com/)
, and there's also the exceedignly obscure and rather silly DNMS (http://mayuzane.bruneistudent.com/pages3/dnms_manga.htm/), and the more realistic Johnny Public (http://www.johnny-public.com/comic.asp/). The last looks like it's going to be tackling the issue of integration head-on, but I have no idea how the writer plans to handle it.
If you like console-style RPGs, you might enjoy Grandia II, but if not, I wouldn't really reccomend it as it'd be too much of a chore to get to the good parts. You can find the game script online anyway, if you're curious enough but don't want to actually play. It's technically more "possession" than multiplicity, but interesting and surprisingly positive nonetheless. On a similar note, if you can tolerate the kiddishness and the commercialness of it, Yu-Gi-Oh might be palatable. It's corny, but it has its moments, especially if you can grab a sub rather than the toned-down 4kids dub.

Sorry for going heavy on the sci-fi and fantasy rather than realistic fiction, but I haven't had a chance to really hit my "reading list" yet, so you're getting the stuff that's more "normal" for me to read. I hope this helps.
(http://www.livejournal.com/community/plural_watching/) (http://www.livejournal.com/community/pavillionhall/) (http://www.livejournal.com/community/plural_watching/)

[appadil.livejournal.com]

Oh, CRAP. I must have forgotten to close a tag in there somewhere....

Err, I really don't want to delete and retype all of that, so I'll just point out that the first "the ___ community" that got its name eaten was supposed to be for plural_watching (which most of the linktext takes you to), and the seccond was for pavillionhall (which is linked to the "more oriented towards advocacy" phrase). Clicking on the word Kagerou also will take you to the correct site.

Sorry about the mess- next time I use tags I'll preview to make sure I got them right. I feel really embarrased about gorking it up like that.

PS- I'd really like to read your story when it's up, if that's okay with you.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, we mess up like that all the time, we save temp copies so we can delete and re-post if we SNAFU. Unfortunately, LJ doesn't let admins fix things like that.

Gabe is in sporadic contact with plural_watching on this subject. Most of his writings are indeed for Pavilion's Media Reviews (http://www.karitas.net/pavilion/library/library_media.html). However, there's a certain amount of crossover, especially since the Jinkies were involved with Pavilion for a while. Both Pavilion and plural_living were created out of an activist motivation.

Science fiction and fantasy mostly deal with multiplicity more fairly than "realistic" fiction. You'll find two reviews of Yu-gi-oh at Pavilion.

I think the Mental Health Association and similar organizations have far too much pull with the film industry. Look at what Ron Howard was forced to do to A Beautiful Mind because of pressure from so-called mental health advocates to attribute the protagonist's recovery to "new medication". If we want to change the way multiples are portrayed in film and TV and by news media, we're going to have to get a ton more clout than we now have. A handful of people writing letters won't do it.

You can buy a copy of Aristoi off our books page...

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Look at what Ron Howard was forced to do to A Beautiful Mind because of pressure from so-called mental health advocates to attribute the protagonist's recovery to "new medication".

*blinku* THAT was why he did it? Wow. I thought he believed the audience just wouldn't buy that he'd learned to handle it on his own. ("You'll never control it without medication!" Boy, where have we heard THAT one before...)

[blackwing-angel.livejournal.com]

I <3 Kagerou

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

If you like console-style RPGs, you might enjoy Grandia II, but if not, I wouldn't really reccomend it as it'd be too much of a chore to get to the good parts. You can find the game script online anyway, if you're curious enough but don't want to actually play. It's technically more "possession" than multiplicity, but interesting and surprisingly positive nonetheless. On a similar note, if you can tolerate the kiddishness and the commercialness of it, Yu-Gi-Oh might be palatable. It's corny, but it has its moments, especially if you can grab a sub rather than the toned-down 4kids dub.

Heh, we know a few systems who really liked Yu-Gi-Oh-- we've mostly read the manga, which is cute, if a little formulaic. Another one you might want to check out is "Hikaru no Go," which is about a young boy possessed by a ghost from ancient Japan-- it's not multiplicity per se, but there are a lot of factors in the way Hikaru and Sai operate which we definitely identified with, especially the way he's always commenting on things going on outside the body.

On the subject of RPGs, have you played Xenogears? We've got a very spoiler-laden take on plurality in the game: http://www.karitas.net/pavilion/library/articles/m_review_xenog_amo1102.html

Sorry for going heavy on the sci-fi and fantasy rather than realistic fiction, but I haven't had a chance to really hit my "reading list" yet, so you're getting the stuff that's more "normal" for me to read. I hope this helps.

Actually, I've noticed that a lot of SF/F literature deals with plurality, and often in a more original and thoughtful way than more 'realistic' novels, which tend to stick to the MPD formula.

[appadil.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I thought I'd responded to this comment already... I'm terribly sorry for replying so late. I wasn't trying to ignore you or anything, honestly...

I'd never heard of Hikaru no Go, but one of my friends has seen it at his college's anime club and has already recommended it to me, so I'll be trying to get my hands on a copy.

Have you played Final Fantasy 7? I'd never thought of the game as particularly implying multiplicity until someone else pointed out that interpretation to me, but looking back on it, it's starting to feel like a "definite maybe" to me based on some of the dialogue... I swear, that game sometimes seems to be deliberately unclear. I really ought to post to the Plural Watching comm or something.

As for Xenogears, I'm somewhat familiar with the plot outline but I haven't actually played it yet, though I plan on doing so once I beat some of the other games I'm working on. (Which is too many- Alice, Earthbound, Yoshi's Island, Planescape:Torment, Evo, Breath of Fire 5... I need to just focus on one at a time!) I think I tried it at a friend's house once and got as far as the first town before I had to leave, but that was all.

Thank you for the reccomendations!

[pengke.livejournal.com]

If you like the scifi/fantasy, you might like The Orphan by Robert Stallman (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671467581/qid=1116645939/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-7811106-6187145?v=glance&s=books). The book ends kind of abruptly because it's part of a series but it's very interesting. It falls under the category of non-human multiplistic being.

[appadil.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recomendation- I'll keep my eyes peeled for it.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

We do actually have a list where we collected all the (novel-length) fiction about multiplicity we could find. Some of it is debatable and seems to be more about things like possession; we'd really need to read them to get a good idea. Should we put it up on our page?

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Yes, please.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Some sites reviewing novels/comics/movies/etc. with plural characters:

http://www.karitas.net/courts/media_reviews.html
http://www.karitas.net/pavilion/library/library_media.html (...There's a review of "Identity" on that last one; I forgot we had that.)