Radio Chthulucene 87.9 FM

I’ve had to think a lot about my project in the past week. My draft ended up being much less finished than I would have liked to be—I’m not super content with what I have at the moment—but I plan to make many amendments to it in the next few days. 

Voice is hard. I am trying to build four distinct voices in my project. Mother. Father. Bottom. Top. Moving from mother to father, bottom to top. 

I need time to flesh out their vocabularies, the thought processes. As much as I consider intention when drafting my work, I tend to think only in individual words. The piece may take on a voice more broadly, but I have trouble controlling it. I need to harness the power of voice. 

“Children are just young, but youth doesn’t equate to not knowing any better. They know. They always know.” I was reading Lily Hoang’s novel Underneath recently. The voice is astounding. It is relentlessly consistent, precise. She doesn’t let you, for a second, forget who is speaking.

What could I say about my mother’s voice? About the mother’s voice? About the voice of the mother in this piece. A mother who is flattened by her husband’s vigor. Who only has enough love for her two sons. Who is tired, who doesn’t care anymore. How does she sound? What would she say?