A recurring theme in author interviews is apparently the stereotypical question 'Where do you get your ideas?'
Although to be fair, nobody has ever asked that of me.
They might say 'What the hell are you talking about?' or 'You're fucked up.'
Anyways, I had a thought the other day that it would be good to make some notes on the topic, especially as it relates to my chapters. It's basically a behind the scenes DVD-type bonus section. I honestly believe there should be more of these in books and I wish there were more for the classics I have read.
I do know John Steinbeck wrote letters to his editor about what was going on. That would be interesting to read.
In the Chapter titled 'By Presidential Decree'.
Genesis - I was driving to work behind a car with a strange Alberta license plate. Over here in BC, there is an annual summer migration of the Red Plates, a name given to Albertans with their distinctive white plates with red lettering. Anyways this license plate wasn't red nor a local BC plate. Curious, I creeped closer at a stoplight and saw it to be a military plate with the inscription 'Support Our Troops'. There was also a picture of a little yellow ribbon that was all the rage when ribbons manufacturers were pushing them out like dot.com startups. But, like the dot.com bubble, so too did the ribbon making bubble burst. But that is for another time.
So I'm thinking of how loaded that 'Support Our Troops' statement is (and I've thought it for years). Support our Troops. The subtext is they are the lowest on the army chain of command anyways, right? People like you and me. Why wouldn't you support these people that have so much pride in their country they are willing to die for what it's leaders want them to do?
But logically, why don't they have a Support our Leaders slogan with it's own ribbon? Doesn't that really make more sense? Our Troops is an abstract concept with no face to it. A leader has a face, someone we can identify with. But troops are nameless, camouflage wearing death machines when it comes down to it. I know, it's very Orwellian and not very original but there's that seed... what if it was a Support Our Leaders license plate?
So all I had was this idea that the joke is a President in a country with no followers needed to do a Public Relations campaign. Something to get people's heads back on straight, to remind them what America was built on. Apathy was destroying the continent because nobody supported anyone anymore. He needed support by his countrymen.
Mind you, the set-up for this one note joke took about 6 pages I believe and as I'm writing to set up this joke I discover the President's Aides are all New Hires with little to no experience, realize very few people have any idea what's on the Oval Office ceiling, there is an official Presidential Pet Groomer, and that GWB has tagged the Oval Office during his 2nd term.
And all this because some Alberta military guy was driving in front of me on the way to work.
