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Dignity - a novel by AC Benus


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Soooo, starting because I just read Chapter 9: Next Day/Crab Shack .  All the way up to this point, as a reader, I've been stressed about the danger to Jack from his illness, from the various people he meets, from the choices he makes about where to stay, and I've been pretty vocal about them... and then Chapter 9 happens, and I'm all sorry for Cordell, Jack's would-be... something really not-good.  You really got me with this chapter, Al. I'm seriously shocked at my own response. It's very illuminating to me of where the real dangers to gay teens may lie in a heteronormative world.

Edited by Irritable1
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Wow, your reaction, and then re-reaction is very informative to me as the author. Cordell seems to be a lightning rod of differing thoughts and feelings. Lisa and knotme offered somewhat polar readings on her after they first read chapter 9 too. You could call those opinions their 'reactions,' and I would like them to speak for themselves, rather than me paraphrase for them. 

 

But your re-reaction is moving, and touches me on an emotional level. Yes. There is continual pressure to be like the rest, and many Gay kids can't really process it because the era of showing positive images of LGBT youth in the popular media is still nascent. But, fortunately it is growing.   

 

If I can also be selfish for a moment, and say the term 'heteronormative' is a bit of a cruel one, although I know you used it with the opposite of malice. It's just the implication of 'normal' in there that is biting to kids who long to be accepted as they are. Maybe hetero-centric or hetero-dominant is more apt. I would not bring up such a fine point if I did not know you, Irratible1, well enough to believe you will understand and hopefully embrace my meaning.         

Edited by AC Benus
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I'll take heterocentric without fussing. Edit: but on recalibration, I definitely feel that Cordell is deeply, profoundly, in the wrong.  You've laid it out pretty clearly... It's not like she can be under any misconception.  I mean, even if Sean were the 17 he claims to be, he's given her his answer really clearly. I wouldn't put her in the same class as the man on the bus... But she's no the one deserving of sympathy, in that scene.

Edited by Irritable1
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I just posted Chapter 11, and read it on-line to make sure it looked ok. By the end, I was in tears. You'd think at least I would be prepared for the emotional impact, but Dawn gets me every time.  

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Ok, now that you have a deep introduction to Jack and Dawn, I would like to know who you see in the roles. Let's say casting for the Dignity movie starts today, and you can call any actors you want to come in and read for it, who would you want..? 

 

I would like to hear from you all. I want to 'see' the way you imagine Jack and Dawn in the flesh and blood (or any of the other characters too - Roger? anyone, lol!). If you want to play, just blurt out a name, and if you add a link to a picture gallery, that would be great so we can all make comments! (Nice comments, of course...)

 

Thanks everyone.    

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  • 2 weeks later...

Steve Buscemi as Roger - just add thirty pounds on him. lol

 

Ariana Grande as Dawn and maybe Sterling Knight as Jack, or oh, I know!! The cute kid who plays in Austin and Ally. i have to Google him. Ross Lynch! He's cute and blonde. He's really tall though - I think six feet maybe. I forgot how tall Jack is...

 

Let's see, Linc should be played by a young Orlando Bloom lookalike. lol Oh hell, I got it! That sexy kid from Victorious - Avan Jogia or if you want to darken him up a bit, Leon Thomas. And I mean this in a non pervy way at all!!! lol And yes, I guess I watch too many kid's shows. But Victorious is a really great show! :P

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Holy Moly Lisa! I have to google all those people...embarrassing. Well, Buscemi i know, and he's great. I can see how he'd deliver Roger's lines, but maybe he'd be good too in Chapter 19....(which i wont give away just yet, lol).

 

But Linc is a tall (about 6'-0"), blond stud. Who fits that description? Jack is 5'-9" and brunette with dyed blue-green hair. He's the only one i can 'see' a specific actor playing. Funny enough, the teen guy I am thinking would make the perfect Jack was in an episode of Boarddwalk Empire with Steve Buscemi! Any buffs of the show will know this scene description, and then can work out the name of the actor i have in mind: a teenage punk thief, Owen, and Nucky Thompson spend hours together in a drippy N.J. cellar. In the morning, all of Nucky's booze is gone, and the kid pays a high price for it.    

 

(BTW, Buscemi should have won an Oscar in 1986 for his performance in Parting Glances, and would have too, if the film had not been the first major release of a Gay love story. Oh well, I guess times do not change, sigh, because everyone agrees Brokeback Mountain should have gotten the best film Oscar, and didn't because it is a Gay love story - and that was 2004!!!!!)

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I thought BBM was in 2005? Db left in Dec. of 2004 and I saw the movie on its opening night some time in '05 with a friend of mine.

 

I just Googled it - it came out Dec. 9, 2005.

 

Anyway...yes, Ang Lee should have won for that and not Crash. Crash was good, but there is no comparison between these two movies. BBM was gypped of an Oscar.

 

Well, I'll have to rethink these actors. lol Of course Ross Lynch could dye his hair, but he's too tall to play Jack and too innocent looking (IMO), to play Linc. Avan might be six feet, I'm not sure, and he could dye his hair but Idk how he'd look as a blonde. Look up the TV movie Rags - it was either on the Disney Channel or Nick. He was in that movie and he wore eye make-up; he was really hot. lol And I mean that in a non-pervy way of course. lol ;)

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Hmmm, not sure. Elizabeth Gillies was a total bitch on that show. But she also showed a sweet loving side when she was with Avan, who played her b/f. She could definitely pull off Dawn's sarcasm.

 

My problem is, I don't really watch TV much anymore and I don't go to the movies much, so it's hard for me to think of popular people now. I'm just going by what I used to watch with Matthew and what I see on his TV every time I go into his room.

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Ok. 2005 for Brokeback Mountain, which makes it even worse, as it is one year closer to our time! lol.

 

I enjoyed Crashed, but i actually thought it was very derivative of the much, much finer movie Magnolia.  

Edited by AC Benus
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Ok, I gotta run. I gotta pick up Matthew from db's and bring him here.

 

He keeps texting me, did you leave yet????? lol Little does he know that I'm not even DRESSED yet!!!! :P

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OMG - Sterling Knight is 5'-91/2" tall! That's utterly perfect. Check out his wiki page. His full name is Sterling Sandmann Knight, and his siblings are respectively called Samantha Scarlett Knight, and Spencer Shuga Knight!!!! Wow, the kids either get their parents' sense of humor, or hate them for it....

 

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

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Wowwwwww - Ross Lynch is totally a jock type. I could see him being Linc, but it would depend on his chemistry with the guy playing Jack.

 

Check out these images i found; hot, hot, and even hotter....

 

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363736107376209533/

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363736107376274346/

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363736107376274343/

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When i look at Elizabeth Gillies, i am reminded about an old Hollywood anecdote concerning Rosemary Clooney. Back in the 50's she was up for a role in a movie playing a nun. The producer saw her screen test, and said she looked like she had been innocent in her life. I get the same vibe that Elizabeth Gillies has never been 15 years old in her life, and could not pull off the role of Dawn. I may be wrong though.

 

 https://www.google.com/search?q=leon+thomas+iii&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SKqxU9GcAcWu8AGl0oCgDA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=763#q=Elizabeth+Gillies&tbm=isch

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