the moon's day releases unusal thoughts
Nov. 6th, 2006 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brightlotusmoonI woke up in the middle of the night kind of shocked, after the dream... I realized that when the novel is published, some people may accuse me of "ripping off" the X-Men comic, the Phoenix Saga, and Jean Grey. Which is ridiculous. The only similarities between Jean Grey and Dana Ryan are reddish hair. The only similarity between the X-Men's Phoenix Entity and my Phoenix avatar is that they are both cosmic forces representing life and death. Which, now that I think about it, might be enough for hardcore X-Men fans to cry foul. Forget the fact that my Phoenix is honestly based off of the Four Mystical Animals of Chinese mythology, and my story actually features the Dragon, the Tortoise, and the Unicorn. Forget the fact that I wasn't even reading the X-Men comics anymore at the start of my novel in 1999. It is entirely possible that there is some minor subconscious influence left over from my high school X-Men fangirl days, but by age 20 my interests had turned to real mythology and not comic book legends. Honestly, how often does the Phoenix as spiritual entity come up when discussing myth and the human psyche? Many times. It just so happens that Marvel Comics was probably the first mainstream, public popular publication to capitalize on the idea of such a mythological, subconscious concept becoming real, becoming tangible, becoming... human, as it were. And their Phoenix more of an omnipotent life force, almost a god. Mine is only a small part in the while mess. It's one single divine force in the universe, one avatar, one creature. It does not hold the universe in its grasp, but yes, it can influence reality and existence. Life and death.
So there.
It just bothers me. Earlier yesterday, I had gotten an email. Someone had been reading through my livejournal, the entries that focused on the novel. And he asked me right out, was my book based off of the X-Men's Phoenix storylines? He said it, and elaborated, in such a way that made me want to defend myself. That irritation translated in a bizarre dream that night, in which I was typing up the final pages, and kept getting phone calls from strangers, yelling at me not to finish, I'd betray Stan Lee (I didn't understand either). And at this point, my resolve is stronger to finish it, my story, my plotline, my characters, my world.
Just thoughts.
So there.
It just bothers me. Earlier yesterday, I had gotten an email. Someone had been reading through my livejournal, the entries that focused on the novel. And he asked me right out, was my book based off of the X-Men's Phoenix storylines? He said it, and elaborated, in such a way that made me want to defend myself. That irritation translated in a bizarre dream that night, in which I was typing up the final pages, and kept getting phone calls from strangers, yelling at me not to finish, I'd betray Stan Lee (I didn't understand either). And at this point, my resolve is stronger to finish it, my story, my plotline, my characters, my world.
Just thoughts.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 06:45 pm (UTC)i'm sure you're not consciously trying to copy any X-men plotlines, but things do have a way of seeping into the subconscious. However, if there's enough difference it shouldn't really matter that much.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 07:36 pm (UTC)Good For You! *Hugs*
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Date: 2006-11-06 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 02:17 am (UTC)Do you know Sienna and Dys well? I'm sorry I wasn't able to stay and talk; if I hadn't started feeling oogy I could have talked to Sienna more. I like her a lot.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 02:18 am (UTC)Thank you.
*grins*
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Date: 2006-11-08 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-08 09:07 pm (UTC)To be honest, I have no idea where some of these common SF/F concepts started, and I never really cared because each author does it so well...