January 16, 2018

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 339

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation. I think I’m going to mine THIS idea in various ways for a while!) , more specifically covered here: “…sexual transmutation, is the attempt, especially among some religious traditions, to transform sexual impulses or "sexual energy" into creative energy. In this context, sublimation is the transference of sexual energy, or libido, into a physical act or a different emotion in order to avoid confrontation with the sexual urge, which is itself contrary to the individual's belief or ascribed religious belief. It is based on the idea that "sexual energy" can be used to create a spiritual nature which in turn can create more sensual works, instead of one's sexuality being unleashed “raw.” The classical example in Western religions is clerical celibacy. As espoused in the Tanya, Hasidic Jewish mysticism views sublimation of the animal soul as an essential task in life, wherein the goal is to transform animalistic and earthy cravings for physical pleasure into holy desires to connect with God. Different schools of thought describe general sexual urges as carriers of spiritual essence, and have the varied names of vital energy, vital winds (prana), spiritual energy, ojas, shakti, tummo, or kundalini. It is also believed that undergoing sexual sublimation can facilitate a mystical awakening in an individual.”


“That’s ridiculous!” Beatriz Velastagui T. exclaimed.

“No! Really, I read it online!” replied Kaew Savane Xiong (“precious” “mountain” “bear”)

“I KNOW you don’t believe everything you read online, so why this thing?” Her lids narrowed as she looked at him through her long lashes.”

“Are you trying to seduce me?” Kaew – she said it like she’d say ‘cue’; he’d snap, ‘keh-oo’. She’d reply with the same word and he’d roll his eyes – said.

She sniffed and said, “No, I’m trying to send you into godhood so you’ll get out of my hair.” She stepped around him and hurried on her way to chemistry. He followed and she said, “I’m gonna call the deans and charge you with stalking!”

“You can’t because you know I’m going to physics.”

“Then it’s amazing that you believe in something like,” her voice dropped, “sex making someone into a god or goddess.”

He shrugged, “That’s what these crazy Americans think.”

“We’re crazy Americans now!” she said as she turned in to her class.

He sniffed and shook his head. The teasing had gone out of him, snuffed like a candle in a harsh wind. He passed her, head down and slipped into his own classroom. Beatriz was certain she heard him say, “You might be, but me?”


They met for lunch like every other day, but Kaew seemed as depressed as he had been when she’d started teasing him. She dropped her books on the table, startling him. “Why’d you do that?” he exclaimed.

“All right, I’ll listen to your theory. How CAN a Human use sex to transmute themselves into a god or goddess?”

He shook his head, “Supposedly it all has to do with focusing the sexual energy tightly enough.”

“Like how are we supposed to do that?” She pulled an orange out of her string pack and peeled it, making a neat little pile of rough fruit skins at her elbow.
Kaew opened his own bag and pulled out a notebook. An odd figure had been scratched into the green ink that used to cover it, leaving a white circle-within-a-circle and a bunch of odd lines and curlicues. “With this.”

Beatriz closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. “So we hold this magical circle between us and think about sex and, ‘poof!’ you’re a god and I’m a goddess?”

Kaew made a face then said, “You promised you’d listen to me.”

“This isn’t just some cheap trick to get into my panties, is it?” She was rewarded by his deep pinkish-pale blush.

He always stammered when he was nervous, so she knew she’d pricked him as he said, “N…n…no! It’s real! I’ve been studying this for a long time!”

She shook her head, eating three sections of the orange then saying, “Why do you want to be a god?”

He glanced both ways, then prairie-dogged to get a view of the whole lunchroom, then leaned forward and said, “There are people here who deserve to come under the wrath of a vengeful god!”


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