Blog on the Lillypad
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
 | Meeting with a Raleigh Book Club
To my surprise and delight, a book club here in Raleigh NC chose to read my online book, Strange Darkness and discuss it for their monthly meeting, held last night. They invited me, as the writer, to come and talk over the story with the group. Pizza was served, and knowing this ahead of time, I ate dinner at home (I'm allergic to most of the ingredients in pizza). I later wished I had not done this, as Linda, the hospitable hostess for this month's meeting, also served up a salad that in itself was a smorgabord of selections. And then there was a white chardonnay and also some red wine, elegant chocolates, and a lavish cake. |
I'm not used to having the general public take my Doctor Who stories that seriously, but the group enjoyed Strange Darkness. I started the meeting by explaining my history of writing Doctor Who fan fiction, explained the series to them, as briefly as I could, and then fielded questions and comments. With at least one forthright feminist in the group, they were taken back when I said I was not a feminist (as most professional women are). But the conversation focused on the story's assertion that while equality is a term that gets bandied about quite a bit (and yet is rarely defined), the workable method of good relationships between men and women rely on balance and adaptation.
The story is a mystery about men who are loving husbands killing their wives as this "strange darkness" overtakes them. The London police call in UNIT (a military intelligence organization) to help the investigation, and so the Doctor, the Brigadier, and Jo Grant enter the story and form an uneasy alliance with Chief Inspector Jules and his uniformed officers. The story explores gender differences and the different methods by which men and women approach problems to solve them. I was able to express the Bible's view of men and women and expand on it by talking about the principles of masculine and feminine (as opposed to male and female).
And, of course, we also talked about writing, about the use of fiction as an escape, as a commentary, and as a means of comforting others. We also talked about Doctor Who and what made it survive for 26 years in production with almost no budget. It was a good experience for me, and the members told me they enjoyed it very much.
