Check. This. Out.

[OneGrassRoot]

Wow, I REALLY have a hard time focusing on work-work...:eyes:...I started researching one thing ~ media reform ~~ and then followed one interesting thing to the next, to find myself here, sharing this.

Since there are so many creatives here in ASAH, when I read this paragraph (which just happened to be from an article about how to get people's attention about peak oil -- (no I hadn't veered into Googling peak oil), I thought what an UBER cool group project this could be.

There potentially are tasks for everyone's skills: writers, artists, musicians, copywriters, web people, those with clerical and administrative skills, etc. This could be the entry into the larger cooperative publishing idea I've mentioned earlier. ;)

First, read this:

We need good fiction. One of the ways that people envision the future is through books. We've got some sci fi out there, and there are a few good pieces written on the net, but we need our own Michael Crichton (may polar bears piss upon his grave). Where's Barbara Kingsolver when you need her? Write your damned novels, people. Tell people what the future will look like, but most of all, what it *could* look like - no one will start dreaming to get to Mad Max - they want Little House on the Prarie. And we should give it to them - what is LHOP except a reminder that life was not hell without all the stuff we have (ok, don't let them read The Long Winter) - we need a new LHOP, a new vision of a pastoral and lower consumption future, without all the crap. We need to sell it to children, and adults who read children's books. And we need genre fiction - romance, Christian, children's books. Again, all of this is how you tell the story folks.

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/26860

Since I'm rather obsessed with the whole I CHOOSE concept right now, hypothetically imagine this being called the I CHOOSE Series just to get a grasp of the series aspect of it and how it can cover a lot of genre territory.

(OMG, I have to insert this aside to share that this goes back to a creation that has been patiently waiting in the wings: Wishables. Now I'm confused as to how my Wishables dream fits with the I CHOOSE inspiration. Focus on the power of a heartfelt wish and now choose to dream a better world. Hmmmm....maybe one is for children (wishing), the other for adults (choosing)? I know you guys don't care or may have no idea WTF I'm rambling about NOW, but thanks for having patience and trying to understand as you read this.)

:rofl:

Back to this series idea. Imagine books (different age levels and genres) telling stories of where we are now...the realities of the world, to an age-appropriate degree...but most importantly telling a story of the world we choose to create.

Perhaps a common element in the series is that the main characters fall asleep and dream a better world. The element of these dreams can inspire and empower!!! The adult or teen genre ones could have different foci: environmentalism, wellness, equality...all the issues we are currently "battling." These books could show how it COULD BE, if we choose it and move toward it.

Tell the story of the world we choose to create.

For those who want to write children's books, oh how delightful a project this could be! :bounce: And we have illustrators here, too. ;) But it's not limited to children's books; this theme could be incorporated into all genres and multimedia.

Actually, perhaps some of your unfinished works could be part of such a series?

The common theme is to serve to inspire and empower about the world we choose to create...dreaming this into reality through books, music, art.

Dear Goddess, I sooooo can fall down the rabbit hole so easily....but it's fun!

Well, what do you think?!!! Even if we got our feet wet with whoever wants to be involved taking different chapters of a children's book and writing the tale as you see it through your characters' eyes, with another illustrating the same, that would be cool!

As the above-quoted paragraph states, the world really does need all genres to offer alternatives of how we see the future -- so let's offer alternatives which, even with conflict and the typical plot details which engage the reader, offer a POSITIVE resolution, empowering the reader.

[Kind of Blue]

1. I love it when you swirl! :)

As far as I know, there is only one Eden story basically common to all of us with various twists of the world before we came into being and how we came into being.

It would be a good exercise to create other Edens starting here in our common now. I want to call my story Edensong. I would feel much more comfortable sharing it at the "other place" though.

[OneGrassRoot]

2. Oh, yes! I didn't mean to share the stories here....

I was just wondering if this joint effort interested others at this point! My madness is rarely shared. :rofl:

This feels like it could be a wonderful project, and it could DO so many things...for us, for others....

I'm just asking people to think about it; wrap your imaginative, creative brains around the idea, and then let's gather to see what we can jointly create, for mutual benefit and for The Greater Good.

:hug:

:grouphug:

[Kind of Blue]

3. Yes, Ma'am!

Sounds like a fun and worthwhile challenge :thumbsup: :grouphug:

[OneGrassRoot]

4. You know.....to take this even further and more specific...

I have a visually-impaired friend who has always wanted to write a children's book. This approach could be perfect for her.

Write the story of how she envisions the world as it pertains to her specific experience. Perhaps it is a world without such limitations; perhaps it is a world in which what we perceive as limitations now are really strengths....so much potential, so many ways to go.

But stories about racism, inequality, greed....basically look at the original I CHOOSE graphic and whatever is OPPOSITE those words...and write the story of how the world looks when JUSTICE, TRUTH, COMPASSION, etc., etc. are the NORM, and not the exception.

How does that world look?

Sweet. :)


Edit to add that part of the Wishables vision was that I wanted to have a project which engaged kids, with THEM writing the stories and illustrating them, based on their wishes. There are a lot of collaborative ideas to be fleshed out with such a project as dreaming the world we choose to create. :)

[OneGrassRoot]

5. With a gracious bow to IHAD....

Here is a perfect quote for this project, which IHAD introduced me to:

‎"When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality." ~ Dom Hélder Câmara

:loveya:

:grouphug:

[MorningGlow]

6. Totally agree

And it's precisely why I write romantic comedies (formerly known as chick lit).

I'll likely never be on the NYT Best Sellers list, because I can't bear to write what seems to be required to achieve best-sellerdom--tales of serial killers, sexual or other physical abuse (even worse, of children), murder, psychological nightmares, drug addiction, or general grossness--or personal confessions of horrific childhoods (because I didn't have one--and sometimes I think I'm the only writer who didn't).

Instead, I prefer to spend my time with enjoyable characters, and I can laugh along with them and give them love and a happy ending. That way, I know my readers will come away from my story with a buoyant heart and hope for the future. :loveya:

[FirstLight]

7. YES!

I could get on that train, writing books, etc...lemme meditate on it and i'll let you know what I get :hug:

I love your creativity and your ideas, girl!

[lildreamer316]

8. Ok, comedic thought: A new Choose Your Own Adventure series.

Remember those?
But of the four or five or six diffferent outcomes, all of them have fairly 'good' resolutions; just very different ones.
eh? I dunno, just brainstorming here.

[OneGrassRoot]

9. There are so many ways to go with it...

Which isn't always a good thing...lol. Too many options can make for chaos.

But I was thinking along the same lines as you for the young adult/adult series. Not sure exactly how, but something to the effect of the outcomes being different for each main character.

As a reader, we tend to resonate with certain characters based on our own personalities. It would be kind of cool if a book started off with the same story, with five main characters, but at a certain point -- say the point of the character diving into the dream state -- it became 5 different stories, based on the different dreams of each character.

Different outcomes based on different perceptions and perspectives...but again, inspiring and empowering.

What one person views as inspiring and empowering can vary widely, however. One person may think an apocalyptic scenario and rising from the ruins is inspiring and empowering. I'd want to stay away from that to focus on scenarios that don't involve the apocalypse, but instead provide inspiration as to how to avoid the apocalypse. That's kind of my whole point with this idea.

There's plenty of other entertainment out there for writers and readers who love doom and gloom (for whatever reason), imho.

But interesting possibilities to kick around, eh?

*yawning*

nighty-night!

:hug:

[Kind of Blue]

10. Thanks for the tip!

I've never heard of the Choose Your Own Adventure series.

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. All Mimsy Were the Borogoves.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768212/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimsy_Were_the_Borogoves

And

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Lunch

[OneGrassRoot]

12. I need to check out Mimzy.

I've heard of it, but never seen it. Sounds delightful!

:hi:

[Kind of Blue]

13. One of my favorites.

Sometimes, it seems to make sense :rofl:

Jabberwocky From Lewis Carroll Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found there

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. I'm all goosebumps. That's my favorite style of writing.

:)

[Kind of Blue]

16. It's funny how it can nearly make

sense if you stop trying to make sense. To me, it's using nonsensical words to generate the same kind of emotions from listening to a story made of words that are clearly understandable. If that makes sense. Human beings are amazing :)

[rucognizant]

17. Mt husband & I won 1st prize at a halloween party once

dressed as a momerath & A borogrove! was fun!
I always start out my new kids art classes with this assignment. " You are King/Queen for the day. Paint a picture of your world as you see it." It produces wonderful results. I get a measure of the student's skill level and personality!
IS anyone familiar with Marguarite Di Angelis books, done during the 30's & 40's? SHe supported her family of 5, during the depression when her husband lost his job, but her books kept on selling. Bright April was about a Black girl in a racially mixed girl scout troop in Germantown Pa. fully 30 years before the civil rights movement got rolling. Henner's Lydia is about an Amish Family, & the reward of being dutiful ( Saturn)
There was an award winning picture book about anger management, several years ago. It was beautifully written & Illustrated............
but way off the mark, because anger control was go out into the "forest" and yell until you release. What percent of kids in this country have that luxury? And those who do may, MAy, be less angry?
Great idea OGR

[Kind of Blue]

14. I thought the movie was great!

:hi: Thanks for the reminder. It's so cool how one imagination can spark another.

[OneGrassRoot]

18. This article speaks to this subject:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x575057

:hi: