Art/life stories?

[LaRascasse]

I'm a little busy to be writing as of now, but I want to get some notes down on paper so I can start working on them when I get a job. *Fingers crossed*

There is a theme I want to explore in a story. As of now, I don't believe my writing is at the level where I can pull it off flawlessly, but no one died trying, right?

The theme is art/life, where someone becomes so engrossed in art (in this case a play), that she begins to "lose" herself in her role. My idea is to take it to the point where she can no longer clearly distinguish reality from her role in the play. The closest inspiration I can draw is the film Synecdoche, New York, but my idea goes further into the mental degradation of the actress in question.

The erotica in it stems from the fact she is playing a romance heavy role and well... falls in love with the main character who her role is romancing (not the actor playing the main character, the character itself, if that makes any sense).

I am looking for advice how to get into the head of a character and show distorted mental states, particularly struggling to make out reality and fantasy. The style is third person limited, focused on her.

 

[KatherineAlex]

First thing that comes to mind is Black Swan... beyond that this is what comes to mind.

Not sure if you are thinking of going the direction of DID, on a mental health level. Might be interesting to consider. With Dissociative Identity Disorder if she has had heavy stress or a proclivity/predisposition she could very easily "fall in love" with this alternate reality, purely on the dissociation.

Many artists become mentally strained in the midst of an important project. (Speaking purely from personal experience), the project/art is quite literally everything (at the time).

Here is a link to a DID Artist who pains differently when in each personality. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2008/sep/11/mentalhealth.art

I would treat the "mental states" as separate characters, relative strangers to each other and neither is sure which reality is which. At some point there is no longer a fantasy because each of her personalities owns their reality as fact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder

I may be totally and completely off the mark, but that is what I took from your question.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Its called GOTH and EMO and PUNK. Really any time people take the art to the point of body sculpting and tats and piercings gone wild. They become their medium.

 

[LaRascasse]

First thing that comes to mind is Black Swan... beyond that this is what comes to mind.

Not sure if you are thinking of going the direction of DID, on a mental health level. Might be interesting to consider. With Dissociative Identity Disorder if she has had heavy stress or a proclivity/predisposition she could very easily "fall in love" with this alternate reality, purely on the dissociation.

Many artists become mentally strained in the midst of an important project. (Speaking purely from personal experience), the project/art is quite literally everything (at the time).

Here is a link to a DID Artist who pains differently when in each personality. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2008/sep/11/mentalhealth.art

I would treat the "mental states" as separate characters, relative strangers to each other and neither is sure which reality is which. At some point there is no longer a fantasy because each of her personalities owns their reality as fact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder

I may be totally and completely off the mark, but that is what I took from your question.

Thanks for the reply.

My idea is similar to Black Swan. Actually a closer match would be something like Perfect Blue. I am not looking for dissociative identity disorder in this story, rather someone who slips away from reality into the warm, fuzzy world of her play. Like an escapism, with the help of a liberal amount of drugs. If you would like, I could describe the idea in more detail, but I don't think this is the forum for that.

 

[sr71plt]

I have written several stories using paintings as integral to the seduction and/or other elements of the plotline--often with the protagonist seeing in a painting what's going to be played out with him. It's a favorite device of mine that I find can be quite erotic and permits all sorts of work with emotions and foreshadowing.

 

[RuzieD]

Someone already mentioned "Black Swan" but there is another thing that came to my mind. There was an episode of Star Trek the next generation called "in Frame of Mind" in which Commander Riker was slipping in between two realities. The first, he was Commander Riker on the Enterprise acting in a play called "in Frame of Mind" in which he was a mental patient. The second, he actually was a mental patient who believed that he was really Commander Riker.

It was a great episode.

I fully approve of this premise. It would be tricky to do. You certainly need to add mental illness to make it work. At the risk of stereotyping, plenty of actors/actress have addiction issue (an addiction to sex would be an obvious choice for Erotica); and drugs have a way of destabilizing the mind.

Also, you might want to look up a biography on Peter Sellers. He was an amazing method actor, who got so good, that actually forgot who the "real" Peter Sellers was.

 

[sr71plt]

You certainly need to add mental illness to make it work.

I don't think so. We're dealing with erotica here. Being overwhelmed by erotic obsession should be enough to cover it.

 

[RuzieD]

You know, you're probably right. No need to have mental illness. I still think some kind of addictive personality might make it more convincing.

 

[D_Lynn]

I think I would demonstrate this through the inner dialogue in a way that progressively shows the mental state as blurring lines of reality, along with dissociative thoughts.

Let me try to explain through examples:

Early on in the story, the actress comes home after rehearsal. You describe her doing some routine task and in her mind (demonstrated through her inner dialogue) she is viewing the task through the eyes of her character, not her own.

Gradually, as the story progresses, her inner dialogue becomes more fragmented. Short phrases, often random; completely non-linear. If the play is from a different time period (example 1900) than the present, this is even easier to demonstrate because her inner dialogue would begin to use old-world phrases.

Later on in the story, her inner dialogue seemingly blends her actions at home with her actions on stage, often planning for events with her on-stage love at her home. And then taking that to the conscious/physical level where she is, for example, disappointed when he does not show up for dinner.

Does that make sense? Just some ideas...

 

[sr71plt]

Sure. Sounds like a good approach.

 

[lovecraft68]

You know, you're probably right. No need to have mental illness. I still think some kind of addictive personality might make it more convincing.

Not mental illness, per se, but an obsessive compulsive disorder would be something that would lead to this. Everything the character is involved in, they treat it as life or death and get "sucked in"

 

[lovecraft68]

I think I would demonstrate this through the inner dialogue in a way that progressively shows the mental state as blurring lines of reality, along with dissociative thoughts.

Let me try to explain through examples:

Early on in the story, the actress comes home after rehearsal. You describe her doing some routine task and in her mind (demonstrated through her inner dialogue) she is viewing the task through the eyes of her character, not her own.

Gradually, as the story progresses, her inner dialogue becomes more fragmented. Short phrases, often random; completely non-linear. If the play is from a different time period (example 1900) than the present, this is even easier to demonstrate because her inner dialogue would begin to use old-world phrases.

Later on in the story, her inner dialogue seemingly blends her actions at home with her actions on stage, often planning for events with her on-stage love at her home. And then taking that to the conscious/physical level where she is, for example, disappointed when he does not show up for dinner.

Does that make sense? Just some ideas...

This is called method acting, its been around awhile.

 

[RuzieD]

Yeah, Love Craft OCD would be perfect. Based on D_Lynn's short description, I could imagine this character as a OCD method-actress.

Oh, D_lynn, even if you do not explictly make your character have a mental illness or disorder, or whatever, if you write it well someone will pick up a DSM-IV and diagnose your character.

People even do this with poorly written characters. Did you know that Anakin Skywalker was borderline?

 

[annanova]

I'm a little busy to be writing as of now, but I want to get some notes down on paper so I can start working on them when I get a job. *Fingers crossed*

There is a theme I want to explore in a story. As of now, I don't believe my writing is at the level where I can pull it off flawlessly, but no one died trying, right?

The theme is art/life, where someone becomes so engrossed in art (in this case a play), that she begins to "lose" herself in her role. My idea is to take it to the point where she can no longer clearly distinguish reality from her role in the play. The closest inspiration I can draw is the film Synecdoche, New York, but my idea goes further into the mental degradation of the actress in question.

The erotica in it stems from the fact she is playing a romance heavy role and well... falls in love with the main character who her role is romancing (not the actor playing the main character, the character itself, if that makes any sense).

I am looking for advice how to get into the head of a character and show distorted mental states, particularly struggling to make out reality and fantasy. The style is third person limited, focused on her.

Oh, let's talk. Seriously.

Yeah, Love Craft OCD would be perfect. Based on D_Lynn's short description, I could imagine this character as a OCD method-actress.

Oh, D_lynn, even if you do not explictly make your character have a mental illness or disorder, or whatever, if you write it well someone will pick up a DSM-IV and diagnose your character.

People even do this with poorly written characters. Did you know that Anakin Skywalker was borderline?

A borderline character? Yeah, he was close sometimes.

 

[LaRascasse]

Thanks for the help.

Another potential thing I was pondering over was the format of the story. Initially, I wanted to do it in third person limited, to give the reader a view of everything (on the outside looking in).

I've been thinking about it since and have been intrigued by the idea of "stream of consciousness" narrative or the "unreliable narrator" device. In both cases, the story is told strictly from the POV of the actress. The reader sees, feels and thinks only what the actress does. The effect I am trying to emulate is that the reader will not be able to make out whether the events actually happen or happen only as her hallucination. Is that the way to go?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Oh, let's talk. Seriously.


A borderline character? Yeah, he was close sometimes.

Borderline or, more likely, histrionic personality. Histrionics are the drama queens in every sense of the word.

No way is it OCD.

 

[damppanties]

It's interesting to me how people throw out mental illness like it's a personality quirk.

 

[sr71plt]

And vice versa.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It's interesting to me how people throw out mental illness like it's a personality quirk.

Most of us have little or no experience with mental illness; it is kinda overwhelming to observe but is rarely observed. But our culture hypes everything, especially when the goods are shoddy. No one advertises Rolls Royce.

 

[annanova]

It's interesting to me how people throw out mental illness like it's a personality quirk.

Oh, that was not my intention. I have no capacity to judge in that regard. My comment was more about the weakness in Lucas' characterizations. This is a debate the mister and I have on a regular basis. He claims that Anakin Skywalker is fantabulous, and I say he is a whiny, poorly-written caricature who had no personality to benefit from any amount of quirkiness.


LaRascasse, I think you're heading for a very interesting story. As an actress, yeah, it happens.

 

[TE999]

I recall reading a short story once about an actor who would be so taken with a role he was playing he would become that person. If he was playing a bum, he'd live like one; a playboy, he'd be out drinking and dancing and screwing the girls.

Then he was given the part of a serial killer ...

You could have your character (in the first person) drifting in and out of reality and the part he's/she's playing; espousing the differences aloud and/or thinking about them. You could also have interactions with friends and other players in and out of character. Kind of a Bi-Polar approach.

 

[sr71plt]

No one advertises Rolls Royce.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjpTbtDItJs

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I recall reading a short story once about an actor who would be so taken with a role he was playing he would become that person. If he was playing a bum, he'd live like one; a playboy, he'd be out drinking and dancing and screwing the girls.

Then he was given the part of a serial killer ...

You could have your character (in the first person) drifting in and out of reality and the part he's/she's playing; espousing the differences aloud and/or thinking about them. You could also have interactions with friends and other players in and out of character. Kind of a Bi-Polar approach.

dr. jekyl/ mister hyde is done already

 

[sr71plt]

dr. jekyl/ mister hyde is done already

And now is coming out in a medical TV show that will probably last three episodes.

 

[sunandshadow]

Elizabeth Vonarburg has a short story collection, and at least one of the stories is a semi-surreal story about art being kind of overwhelming. Also, one of my how-to-write books has an example (I think a movie) about a woman artist who has isolated herself from society in her apartment, and also loaned a guy some money in the spirit of artistic solidarity/trust, and then she needs to travel cross-country for a relative's wedding or something like that, and the guy she loaned the money to denies he owes her anything, and so she's suddenly feeling lost in the larger world... I'd have to look through my books to figure out the title. The movie Gods and Monsters had a theme where memories/dreams of movies were sort of taking over the mind of an old actor; that one was borderline erotica. One of the cases in Pet Shop of Horrors also involved and actor who couldn't separate their role from reality, I believe. It also seems like a topic Woody Allen must have covered in one of his many movies.