A double post? From me? Aw, of course not! The post earlier today was . . . uh . . . time traveling! Heaven knows I've done that enough, at least in Animal Crossing.
Anyways, I don't have much to say right now, but there were two things I wanted to touch on, mostly because it's late and I have nothing else to do.
First off: look at this poll.
For those of you who are rebellious and didn't click the link, good for you. Always question the man! The question was, "Do you believe that art can fundamentally change your sense of who you are?" Besides just a poll answer or a comment, I figured I'd share my own thoughts.
Short answer: Yes, I think art can change you.
Long answer: Yes, I think art can change you both introspectively and extraspectively (is that a word . . .?). AKA, it changes you on the inside and on the outside. I think it changes you even more when you're the one making the art.
Lemme give you some examples.
The series Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden are based off of manga, or graphic novels, as we'd call them in the US. It's dialogue with pictures; it's not hard to find scanlations of the chapters so you can read or else keep up with what's going on. I mean, buy the books if you're going to be reading it a lot, but if you want to keep up because Japan . . . well, whatever, I don't judge.
In my case, Naruto has influenced me to a huge degree. It's influenced my writing, which I'll talk about later, but basically, it's what's helped me get into and stay in writing. Naruto is also the reason I met my best friend, which I'm never going to forget, because I really like my friend. I'm also a fan of drawing the characters sometimes (often in drag . . . sorry, Madara!), so it's helped my drawing skills. So it's influenced both my art and my external, working self.
The other example that I can give is about introspective changes inside, or at least demonstrating those changes; when I was younger and had a more difficult relationship with my dad, I noticed after time that all of my character's fathers were either A) not there or B) fairly . . . bad. Them being bad was, of course, on a different level than my dad; he just wasn't around all the time because of work. But some feelings about my dad not being around leaked into my work, affecting my characters.
Art is also a form of support, too. There's a reason we have art therapy, after all, and I know people who make art because it's either that, or having to deal with . . . compromised health (and that's as far into that as I'll get). In my case, I'm writing a novel right now because I know I need to in order to cope with the fact that - surprise! - I'm moving away in a month and a half. Not only that, but guess what kind of novel I'm writing? A coming-of-age novel! See what I mean?
Lastly, I think that art made by onesself can also help explain our thoughts and expound upon them. A few years ago, I was writing a piece that included a part about the main character's religion, or lack thereof. At the time, I'd been having some issues with my own religion, specifically that my mother thought I couldn't "choose" my own religion at my age. When I wrote the central scene for the religious subplot, so much of what was written just popped into my head and onto the page, and I realized only later that what I had written was exactly what I had been wanting to tell my mother: religion is a personal thing and for the person themselves to choose, not their parents. So by making art, I further knew myself.
Anyways, to sum it up again: Yeah, art changes us. But it also helps define us, which I think is fairly important for those of us who need to understand who we are and what the heck we're doing.
***
Anyways, this is the announcement: I have another blog now.
And it's for my CampNaNo novel.
I've been writing second-generation fanfiction for the Naruto series, and I decided early on that I wanted to edit the chapters and publish them along with my work. After thinking about it, I realized that my work was a little more intensive than I thought, and I knew I didn't want to post it all on this blog. As a result, making another blog was the option.
To quickly explain to those who are curious: the story I am writing is about a girl named Katya whose parents, one of which is Itachi Uchiha, are ex-criminals. In order to try and escape the persecution she faces at home, she decides to travel and make a name for herself. Of course, this doesn't go off without a few hitches, though.
You can find my blog for this Camp NaNo novel here; there will be no chapter updates until August, but I will be posting some of my research as I go along, so stay tuned, okay? It's going to be a wild ride!
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