October is here! (and the best news is that no lockdown is in sight)
September was big with the expected and unexpected publication of my first two short stories. October is starting off strong with a 20 page critique for the novel Monday, and the first in-person writing group finally. It was the most fun writing group Pup has attended all year.
I wanted to start with some of the discussion from that group, because it leads into themes of my two unpublished stories. Because the location was changed, it led to me being late and the last person to show up. Which meant that everyone else had already heard about what people were writing, and they were all interested in me discussing my writing. It did make me feel a little self-conscious, though of course as writers don't we all just want a cart blanche to talk about our writing? It did mean that the discussion was steered by topics in my writing.
This week I did send out the original Maerchen genre story which I have been collaborating with another German writer member of this group who did not make it for this meet-up. Because when I undertake a project to recreate or imitate a particular literary genre or structure, I like to create as much authenticity as possible. That meant that I wanted this story to have an original German version, so this collaboration was less a translation of, and more a German telling of, the story I wrote down in English. The English and German versions are supposed to be created side by side conjointly to have the result of two original language versions. He did send me a draft to incorporate to my version before sending out to a submission deadline, but we will continue working on the German version, and the evolution process of both versions, in the future.
The story that I finished at the end of August was the first story I have written that brought up some of the themes in my life focused on German identity and journey. That was the topic that became a discussion of interest at our writing group meeting, for a few reasons. I mentioned that the main character is based on my cousin who has a box of paraphernalia from a father, who was a member of the Hitler Youth generation, she did not know. This is a conversation I have had with her for several years because she is also a writer and has been trying to write a book about her father. She and I have discussed films like JoJo Rabbit and Final Account, and how for nearly a century other people have told the story of Germany, largely because Germans did not want to talk about their own story. However the problem with this is that it does not tell the story of the journey Germany and Germans experienced in the wake of these detrimental years in their history.
The organising woman for the writing group is German, and said yes, every family has one of those boxes. Her discussion confirmed that my story nailed the emotional generational trauma effect. She said that her parents' generation were shamed for it and told that no one could discuss it, so her generation has no answers about what motivation their grandparents had to participate. Only the inherited shame without answers from people who are now dead.
These are the stories being told now about this period of history of 20th century in Germany. These are appropriate stories, not stories about Nazis but... Not Nazis but PTSD.... Not Nazis but anything. We are tired of hearing about Nazis. If you are writing about or telling stories about Nazis, you are not an informed member of the conversation. There were generations in the wake of the Nazi generation. Many members of those generations are still alive.
An interesting point was brought up about the genetic changes that happened to generations undergoing this kind of trauma, genetic changes that can be passed down through generations once introduced. This has been studied in similar populations of European Jews comparing those who escaped Europe and avoided the Holocaust versus those who endured the holocaust. There is a genetic change in one population versus the other.
We observed this is also likely true of German populations who were in Germany enduring the generational brokenness. Compared, say, to my family, who was not in Germany during that era. You could compare my genetic code to one of my cousins whose family was in Germany during that time and perhaps see genetic markers that they possess and I do not.
Obviously there were people in the group who were not German, which is what led to the organiser explaining to them what exactly it looked like for her in particular, and for Germans at large. The generation who were children during World War II who were raised by broken people, who had no idea what they were being punished for, became emotionally closed off. That was the emotional state of the parents of younger generations today, who were raised by emotionally traumatised parents.
German story tellers like Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck are telling these stories about Germany. This is the conversation and the stories which should be told today. Nazis are small but influential characters in these stories, but not the main characters.
This story also involves a theme of a character having finished his PhD during the pandemic in mineralogy, specifically isolating the lithium deposits on the Moon. One of the men in the group said that he actually wants to develop a screen story about a mining operation on the moon, so that was funny.
This story has been submitted to contests this fall. Wish me luck!
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