I'm Answering Cycler Questions All Week

Inquisitive people have been asking me fascinating questions about Cycler of late so I'm going to stick this post to the front page of my blog for a while. After that, I'll keep a link to it over there in the sidebar on the right where it says "Ask Your Questions Here."This way all of these wonderfully insightful questions won't get buried in the comments section of a blog post about running.Provided your question isn't obscene (which, of course, it won't be given how pure and clean your mind is) I'll answer it in the body of this post, unless you ask me not to.Deal?Okay, SPOILERS BELOW, so if you haven't read Cycler yet, proceed with caution. Or better yet, read the book already!Kim asks: I believe every person is born with some degree of both feminity and masculinity. Like if you would imagine a number line and on one end is male and the other is female. Some men fall closer to the all female side and some women fall closer to the all male side. In Cycler Do you think that Jill/Jack would have been right in the middle, like a bi-sexual would be, if Jill had never taken steps to seperate herself so fully from Jack?Answer: Hi Kim. Excellent question. I think that western society has tended to view gender in terms of dualities, with male on one side and female on the other. This makes sense, since biologically that’s basically how it lays out (with some exceptions). But gender is not just biology. There is nothing biological about putting girls in pink and boys in blue. There is nothing biological about high heels. Gender is biology transmuted through culture. And while culture attempts to reinforce the duality, individuals bring their own unique personalities into the mix. For this reason, it’s hard for me to see gender as a straight line. Instead, I see it as a creative construct that blends biology, culture, psychology, environment, and probably loads of other ingredients into a kind of ever-changing cocktail.So I’m not sure what it would look like for a person to be right in the middle. Also I’m not sure a bisexual person necessarily occupies that position either, since gender identity and sexual orientation aren’t one and the same.But I think you’re onto something with Jill and Jack. She would probably have a very different personality if she didn’t try to repress Jack so much. Tom asks: How difficult was it to envision and write from the male perspective, as you did with Jack? Did you do any research, or was his mindset mostly a compilation of past experience and insight? In addition, did you discover anything new or surprising while writing his character?Answer: Hi Tom. Jack was one of the easiest characters I've ever written. I just felt like I knew him intimately the moment he was created. I don't think he was based on any men I actually knew, so there wasn't much research involved. But I think he was churning around in my subconscious for a long time. The most surprising thing about writing Jack was how much I grew to identify with him--even more than I identified with Jill. I've never found it difficult to write male characters. No matter who your characters are, they're never you. All it requires is imagination and empathy to comprehend them. Then you just trust your instincts on whether or not you've gotten it right.Monica asks: Will there be a sequel to the book?Answer: Oh yes. There will most definitely be a sequel. It comes out on August 25th and it will astound the senses.Jordan asks: What made you decide to make Jill have harsh feelings towards Jack and even go as far as to delete him from her memory and try to find ways to rid herself from him at the start of the book? I realize that it helps further the plot etc. but trying to put this situation in my life, I feel I would try to embrace this other side of myself. (granted I would look for a cure at the start ha ha) Just like a Yin-Yang one cannont live without the other, its all about coming to terms with the balance. The question is a little out there but I would love to see what you would say about it. Great book and thanks!Answer: Thanks, Jordan. I think I would probably react the way you would react if I discovered I had Jill's "condition." But I'm not Jill. I wanted to explore the limitations of gender stereotypes and obsessive conformity. Plus, I thought it would be more fun if the protagonist's two personalities were at war with each other. But I do think it would be interesting to examine alternate scenarios.Josh asks: Did you always plan to write a sequel and possibly turn it into a series or did the success of Cycler make you want to do it?Answer: Hi Josh. I originally wrote Cycler as a stand-alone. But when Random House bought it they told me they wanted a sequel. I hadn't thought of one yet, but it was clear to me that there was still much to tell. The story came together pretty quickly.Jeanne's students ask: Why is it that the McTeagues have never made an effort to tame or relate to Jack?Answer: Helen McTeague is one of those people who believes that if you starve a problem of attention it will just go away. The idea that Jack might be a real person with needs of his own complicates things too much for Helen, whose only desire is to ensure that Jill survives high school without being destroyed by her “otherness.” Helen McTeague has no room for “otherness.” It’s messy. This brutal, black and white approach to things is only intensified by the fact that she basically has to handle the whole affair without the aid of her husband, who has more or less disappeared into his own personal issues. As for Richard, I could write dissertations on what’s up with him. But, alas, there is a sequel. And I don’t want to spoil it. Sorry.Jeanne's students also ask: . Why is Jack more accepting of Tommy's sexuality at first than Jill is?Answer: I think I answered this below (Greg's question).Jeanne's students ask: Why is Jill's sense of femininity threatened when she finds out Tommy is bi?Answer: When a person is confronted by a totally unexpected revelation, the brain does strange things. It looks for patterns, logic, reasons. It tries to fit the new information into an older understanding of things. Jill has never met a bisexual person (knowingly anyway). She has no real understanding of what it means, only that it is further along the sexual orientation spectrum toward gay than she is. And if Tommy likes boys, does that mean she’s boyish? Remember, Jill’s already insecure about her femininity because of her “Jack problem.” She sees everything through this lens. At that moment, when Tommy reveals himself to her, she’s not seeing Tommy, she’s seeing herself. Her own psychological needs are warping her understanding of the world. This is the core malady of the selfish person, and I believe it is at the core of most forms of prejudice and bigotry.Jeanne's students ask: Is Jack's attraction to Ramie actually a deep-rooted attraction of Jill's?Answer: Now you know I’m not going to answer this one. I’ve always disliked stories that resolve juicy psychological enigmas with simple cause-and-effect answers. Undoubtedly, there’s some crushing going on there. Jill admires Ramie, looks up to her, thinks she’s cool. Is it tinged with sexuality? Possibly. Probably. Maybe sometimes. But I don’t believe in either/or. I think human relationships are vastly complex and fluid. Your friend one day might be your lover the next, or vice versa. Hard boundaries are what we create to protect ourselves from our own lawless longings, but they’re not real. And they don’t really work. And I would never make things so easy for my readers. I want them to wonder. I want that door kept open.Jess asks: I never really thought of a lot of questions about Cycler itself as I read it, but I do wish to ask, what was your inspiration for Cycler? I REALLY enjoyed reading it (it only took one sitting) and that was just a thought that continuously came to mind as I read it. Not many people feel comfortable enough to write about what some might say is controversial so kuddos (or however you spell it lol)thanks.Answer: Hi Jess. This is a question that writers get a lot and most of us have the same rather anti-climactic answer: I don’t really know. In the past, I’ve described the creative process as a kind of swamp where ideas swim around like slimy organisms competing for survival. Some of these little idea fish are brilliant and some are appallingly stupid, but each one fights for my attention. The one that gets turned into a novel is the one that eats all the others.I think the idea of gender as a creative construction is one of the idea fish that has been swimming around in my mind swamp for a long time. This probably stems from a dissatisfaction with the way we play the game of gender in our society. Rather than letting people construct their own versions of masculinity and femininity, we have a tendency to impose our tastes and opinions on others. Not only does this cause unnecessary hurt, it also mischaracterizes what gender really is. It’s not strictly biological or cultural. It’s a cocktail of both.Kelsey asks: Why did you choose the female main character (Jill) to be the "dominant body type" rather than the male (Jack)? Was it because of a personal bias, or because of today's society where the female role has reversed as the dominant one?Answer: Hi Kelsey. I wasn’t aware that we females had been upgraded to gender boss. That’s awesome. Where’s my corner office? And bring me a dude to boss around. I probably picked Jill as the dominant body type because it was easier for me to envision occasionally turning into a boy than the opposite scenario. But pretty early on in the process, I started identifying more with Jack. At first, I thought of him as a cool, sexy, snarling “other.” But by about the third chapter, I realized I was seeing things more from his point of view than from Jill’s. I was looking at Jill, whereas I was looking through Jack. As far as their unequal time allotment goes, two things played into it: 1) the mathematics of the menstrual cycle and 2) the delicious urgency of taking a vital, hungry force like Jack and suffocating him time-wise. As an author, you must be cruel to your characters in order to reveal their deep structure.Trenton asks: With Tommy, Jill’s father, and Jack, the men in the book all seem to have some sort of “hinderance” or emasculation/are subservient to the women in their lives. Is there a particular reason for this? Just curious. Thanks.Answer: Hi Trenton. Interesting question. I wouldn’t describe Tommy as hindered, emasculated, or subservient. But Jack and the Dad both suffer from the anti-male side of anti-feminism. That’s what I was trying to show with the parents’ relationship and with the repression of Jack. People often accuse feminists of being man-haters, but I’ve always found that the women most likely to say mean things about men, are, in fact anti-feminists. Jack and Jill’s Mom is sort of the embodiment of that. She believes men to be a kind of lower species. I think her exact words are “a baby step above chimps.” We’ve seen plenty of examples in literature of the ways in which women suffer from rigid gender boundaries and sexism. I wanted to show how men suffer from it too. Thanks for reading.Greg asks: I also have a question about Cycler: when Tommy reveals his bisexuality, Jill’s reactions raises some questions about our ability to accept differences, but is there any significance behind Jack’s reaction of just shrugging it off? Is it because he’s not involved, or that he’s more accepting then Jill? Thanks!Answer: Hey Greg. Great question. I think there are a couple of things going on with Jack’s reaction to Tommy’s bisexuality. One is that he genuinely has no problem with the *idea* of any kind of homosexuality. He’s pro gay rights. The other is the fact that he probably feels this news will keep Tommy out of contention for Jill’s affections, which is good news for him. Tommy only becomes a real problem for Jack when Jack has to wake up with memories of the ways in which he’s touched Jill. At that point, Tommy’s bisexuality is no longer an abstract concept about which Jack can be tolerant and magnanimous, but rather a physical (if remembered) sensation that threatens his own sexuality.Jill’s reaction is somewhat similar. If you had asked her before she met Tommy what her attitude toward gays, lesbians, and bisexual people were, she’d say she totally accepts them. But once she’s presented with the possibility of an actual bisexual boyfriend, it’s no longer abstract. It crashes into all of her own anxieties about how feminine she is.Notice that both Jack and Jill’s reactions have little to do with Tommy himself and everything to do with their own insecurities. Alas, this is the burden that the gay, lesbian and bisexual community have to deal with. My goal was to showcase the personal transformation from rejection to acceptance by having them (Jill especially) undergo it in a deeply personal way. Jill doesn’t have a change of heart on Tommy’s bisexuality simply because she realizes how wrong it is to be homophobic. She has a change of heart because she realizes, once the shock is over, that it doesn’t matter. She’s still attracted to him.Jack, still has a way to go. But that’s Jack. And there is a sequel.Addie asks: Cycler raised many questions for me but there was one particular question that really interested me. Why does Jack seem to be gaining more and more control throughout the book?Answer: Hi Addie. There are a couple of ways to answer your question. First of all, if you introduce a premise whereby the protagonist wants X, your job as a writer is to make it almost impossible for her to have X. That’s the essence of dramatic tension. In Cycler, Jill’s principle desire is to bury Jack, therefore, I as the author must see to it that Jack, like a zombie, will not stay buried.Secondly, I wanted to experiment with what happens when a core personality trait is repressed. Some people manage this repression brilliantly. But others only feed the trait with their repression. The forbidden aspect of it makes it somehow larger, less deniable. This is essentially a story about conformity and the damage it can cause.