All Comments on 'Epistolary Therapy 4'

This is smart, susan. Allusion to an iconic figure in the structure of a letter gave me just enough to let my imagination run with it.

I''m greenmountaineer. For some reason I can't log in to comment.

I should have remarked in my earlier post I have some familiarity with letter writing and journal keeping as therapy for mental heath patients. The way you cleverly joined process with content ending in its missing the therapuetic mark, so to speak, was amusing and sad at the same time.

In the last decade or so, I've created this set of characters for a graphic novel. There are some more developed than others. Because of my lack of artistic skill, it hasn't really come to fruition. I continue with the narrative as life goes on. It is sort of therapy for me but it is also a fun way to remember those who were inspiration for the project. If you take a look at artwork on here, I've completed what I call "visual bios" for four or five of the characters. Without real artistic skill, the project remains an epistolary narrative. I have snippets of the story scattered through my poems too. Welcome to the Bitter X's world!

My idea for this graphic novel is based on a host of some of my favorite reads. First and foremost, the Marquis de Sade. Theoretically. Power and control. Force and will. I can't explain that enough. I'm fascinated by trauma theory as well. The results of extreme victimization that doesn't lead directly to death. I've taken from Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada as well which is a postmodern slave narrative. The work of Alan Moore, particularly Lost Girls and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with broken women as lead characters. I'm a bit stuck now and letter # 4 might lead X somewhere else, I mean she's finally dressed. Not sure if she's ready yet. Then there's the matter of LaBelle Orange. She's X's "other side." The more poetic of the two. I want to write her out but she keeps emerging with forgiveness in her heart. She's 6'9 in heels. Difficult to tuck away.