#it's like. partly referencing primary sources and partly referencing the show and partly total made up bullshit

[gingerteaonthetardis]

TELL US ALL ABOUT YOUR MIDGELENNY FIC AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THEM IN GENERAL. (Yes I am an enabler, asking you to inflict your obsessions upon my dash, why do you ask? XD)

akshdksjsks thinky, you are always my enabler and i love you for it <3 also, i was literally about to message you and ramble about how the WIP just broke 20k, literally right now, and once again... i am maybe halfway through? possibly not even that? kill meeeeeeee, i have to stop doing this to myself

but okay, here's the thing. it started with me thinking, "what if lenny (the character, not the man) had the chance to do it all over?" and i got stuck on this premise, which you already know about—it's loosely based on this book life after life, where the lead character keeps getting born and reborn, living subtle variations on the same life (occasionally wild variations, too). i'm sure there are loads of other books like this, but this is the one i read earlier this year, so it's fresh in my head.

i wanted to explore the idea of lenny with foreknowledge, lenny knowing where it ends and still choosing to walk certain paths. lenny realizing that in every lifetime—somehow, no matter what, there's midge. in some form or another, his life gets tangled up with hers, even just for a second. lenny screwing it up. lenny fixing it. lenny dealing with addiction, not dealing with addiction, lenny cutting himself off from any possibility of ever developing an addiction at all. i mean, dear god, the whole thing does ultimately come down to me wanting to Put That Man In Situations. so i went to the source, obviously.

only... now i've read lenny(the man, not the character)'s autobiography, i've started reading 'the essential lenny bruce,' i've watched hours of video and listened to hours of audio content, i've started reading supplementary material—i am in too deep, bestie, and i have only discovered more Situations to Put That Man In. because in some ways, his comedy really does feel prescient. in other ways it is hopelessly outdated, but god damn—when he got it, he got it.

so, what if he'd had unlimited chances to get it wrong, right, and everything in between?

anyway, good luck parsing all this brainrot, here's your applause for sticking it out: