Opinion A:
Also if Joe and Chris don't end up entwined, you're going to have to write an alternative ending just so I can cope emotionally and continue with my day.
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I hope, I pray that Chris sees that he loves Joe so much. And I know it's not going to end with Joe and Chris happily ever after- but god I wish I could change it so they could.Opinion B:
Why anyone would want Joe to end up with a guano-head like Chris is beyond me. The story is about Joe's growth, and it's obviously bringing him to a point at which he's worthy of Andy. Chris - despite the fact that he's a fucked-up child and therefore deserving of sympathy, like the rest of us - is a means to an end.Judging from the e-mails and comments, Chris and Andy are the two characters that people seem to really, really like -- although Chris also has a lot of detractors. For me, it's just cool that people have a strong feeling one way or another. Anybody else feel like giving their opinion?
Myself, I fucking love all of these characters, including Joe's asshole brother Rob.
I also want to mention that Chapter 28 should be done and posted soon-ish. Not necessarily this weekend, or even the weekend after, but it's around 80% complete and the rest is falling into place.
I think so many of us want Chris and Joe to be together because we know what it's like to have someone you feel so incredibly connected to—someone who when you're with them it just feels 'right.' The sad reality is that not all of those connections last forever, which feeds into Opinion A.
ReplyDeleteOpinion B comes from the bitter pill that many of us have had to swallow—the fact that relationships don't often last when the two guys are at different places in their growth. At this point, Joe is ready to love for the first time. Chris is only ready to fool around. Sex is easy, but love is hard, which is why there is an inevitable expiration date on their relationship. They are just going different places.
In the end, I'm of Opinion C. I know that Joe and Chris aren't meant to be. I love both of them as characters, so I want the best for them. When they do part, I want Joe to use it as a way to finally finish growing up and become his authentic self so he can be the right person for the right someone he'll find. I want Chris to use the loss of Joe as a trigger to start some internal recognition. Chris' story breaks my heart—when he hurts Joe, he's also hurting himself. It must be a scary, lonely place inside Chris' head, and I've known a lot of guys just like him.
Well, it seems Chris got the short end of the stick. He seems to have distanced himself from the crowd. Still feels sad, getting a character that was developed/revealed throughout the story to have the unceremeonious fade to obscurity. Still leaves a bad taste in the mouth seeing the resolution as 'distanced away', of all things.
DeleteI actually agree with both comments. I wouldn't want Chris and Joe to "end up together" as they currently are. As Joe put it, “But really, in your heart of hearts, how could a reasonable person look at our respective limitations and amputations and think we would lock hands and walk out into an indefinite future?"
ReplyDeleteBut at the same time, as much as the story is all about Joe's growth, we can hope that it's also about Chris's growth, that he isn't just a static man-child character who functions in the story only as a foil to Joe - the final catalyst to Joe's coming to terms with his sexuality, the closet case to Joe's eventual liberation. Maybe he's a guano-head right now, but if he returns to Joe's life years later in the middle of Joe writing the story, a changed man, I would cheer them on.
That being said, I actually think the story will end with Joe single. I commented a while back that maybe the happy ending he refers to in the first line isn't a happily-ever-after love ending (which would be inconsistent with the "deflationary realism" of the series, as one commenter put it) but rather Joe ending up as a well-adjusted gay man who's out and at peace with himself and his sexuality. I'm thinking more and more that not only will Joe not get back together with Chris, he won't get back together with Andy or Matt either. They're all a part of his past and his youth and if this is a coming-of-age story (which is how I read it), the resolution will come from Joe growing up and moving past not just Chris but the whole college experience - and the post-college ennui foreshadowed in the constant graduation=death talk and the passing comment that he remembers single nights of college better than the entire year he was 24.
Or maybe that's all wrong and jpm is taking this in a completely different direction. I’m looking forward to finding out - and I’m really excited that the next chapter is almost ready!
Awesome! I was kind of afraid that you would become one of those authors who just stopped posting and their stories lie unfinished. I'm so glad that you aren't one of them.
ReplyDeleteI have to confess I'm still hoping for a happily-ever-after with Chris. I never would have figured Andy as a contender. I would have thought that Matt was more possible. There is a third option to Chris/not-Chris though, the story is a lead-up to present day. Then something happens to get Chris and Joe together. That would be the ending, the two of them deciding to give it another try. Although, the more Chris acts like a douche, the less committed to the idea I become. The letter thing made my blood boil. I've never had something similar happen, but I've had something I had poured myself into dismissed by someone I cared about. The rage/shame was awful. I'm surprised Chris didn't get the snot knocked out of him.
I never considered Andy as a contnder. I agree with lessthan, I think there is a bigger connection with Matt than Andy. Matt and Joe have more in common and I felt that, earlier in the story when Matt was still in school, if Joe came out of the closet, that they would have had a chance at an actual relantionship.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see Joe and Andy end up together.....Matt was too "bossy" for Joe.....whereas Andy still likes him and would be the perfect spoil for him...as for Chris, well I can't see him ending up with anyone...not wanting to be unkind but Chris is too too selfish and spoilt....can't wait for chapter 28!!
ReplyDeleteAfter Chapter 26, I was hoping for Joe to end up with Andy, but I get the feeling Andy is firmly planted in friend/brother surrogate zone. Chris seems to be becoming less and less likeable as the story progresses, perhaps because it is not very clear what is going on his head, and perhaps because he has no focus in life and it would be a shame if that entropy infected Joe. Granted it is Joe's story, but perhaps we could have another chapter with Chris's POV - chapter 17 was amazing - before Joe leaves college. Also, I think there is a typo in the story - I think you wrote that Joe texted Matt in the middle of the night but then Andy called. Can't wait for the next installment and as a New Yorker, I am really hoping that Joe ends up in New York and we will get to enjoy a couple of chapters with your keen eye of the New York social scene.
ReplyDeleteNope, no typo! Remember, Joe really wanted to talk to Matt, who's usually his default advisor when he needs help. It was late so he didn't want to wake up Matt, then he started feeling emo about high school so he called up Andy, partly because of the Pacific Time difference.
DeleteThanks so much guys. Very cool to read your thoughts. It feels a little like gossiping about my good friends, and it's also helpful for me to know how people perceive these guys as I'm going forward. (Probably the best thing about writing this serially.)
ReplyDeleteAndy is the alternative!? Shocked that popular consensus isn't that Matt is the non-Chris option
ReplyDeleteI'm firmly rooting for Chris, I just adore that character, you have no idea how much! But if not him, then I'd much rather have Joe be with Matt, not Andy.
ReplyDeleteReally wish for Chris to come to his senses though and march out of the closet.