Why is this here?
Sanne and Marcus stories have been floating around in my head for a long time now, often inspired by weird science I run across, mis-hearing song lyrics, and geologists' field stories of course. While I didn't see the "driftless area" map until later, it looks a lot like how I imagine maps of the Desolate Areas do. And I suppose the name of the Desolate Areas was inspired by Captain Cook's name of the Kerguelen Islands, aka Desolation Islands.
I want to read these stories so badly, but nobody's writing them. This is a problem, since I'm not a writer and my characters happen to be geologists and I'm not one. Also, searching the interwebs for what kind of field tech was available in the late 90s is surprisingly difficult.
But so here's Sanne's Notebook. It's a labour of love, a work in progress, not particularly good and even embarassing enough that I don't tell anyone who knows me that I'm doing this. I do have it on a public server so I can open it on any device and (re)read it whenever I want. And I do. I'm re-reading it all the time. Writing it is not scratching the itch, but reading it is.
I enjoy watching Sanne go from a swearing, immature, insecure and frightened young scientist into an understanding, confident person who learns that courage isn't being fearless, accepting her body isn't giving up, and how to love herself and others. I guess that's her character arc.
The sad invertebrate weirdness that is Marcus is never far from my mind. He's a little too excited about things, but that's good, right? He taught me to stop fearing inverts sometime around the year 2020 (thank you! I no longer screech at a wasp or spider and need to kill it with fire). There's not really a character arc though. Maybe he's too old, but he just is.
I really, really like these Desolate Areas. They freak me out in a way that I know I can't really get right in words, but they can scare me like the strongest nightmares.
And anyway maybe, just maybe, someone else might enjoy it too. I'll probably keep this online for as long as I can afford a Linode and a domain name.
Is there a soundtrack?
Not exactly, but there is a particular set of songs that go with scenes, themes and ideas. Most songs are written to be about love but my hearing is so bad that I mis-hear most of the lyrics and come up with all sorts of weirdness the songwriters surely never intended.
I seek to cure what's deep inside /
Frightened of this thing that I've become...
I know Toto intended a love song but all I can think about with that is "werewolves." I mean, what else?
I interpret most of my personal soundtrack as being about scary places and my main characters being there for each other, back-to-back against The Weird and the everyday stuff threatening them. Oh and I saw Hank Green dancing to a techno remix of the Wellerman song and that's when I discovered that while Marcus can't stand music, he absolutely can dance. If students manage to force him, or someone bribes him with enough food.
A few I can put a finger on:
- The stories in general seem represented in my head from endless replay of Grimes' and i_o's Violence without vocals, though it would be cool if a deep low cello did the vocal tune.
- Inside anything underground: Moth by Burial and Four Tet. It's quiet, but things are moving around that you don't see.
- Technical/geological thoughts and actions (bailing wells, viewing rock layers) is just all the low noises in this remix of Ultraísta's Smalltalk.