A Much-Needed Infopost
Jan. 1st, 2009 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iamnotallgirlSo, when the new characters went up, did you go, "WTF, Jill/Jack? What's this person playing at?" I'll totally understand if you did. I can explain.
...SORT OF.
The Canon
Cycler is the debut YA novel by Lauren McLaughlin, which debuted in August of 2008. So it's essentially brand new and it is awesome, you should read it. Cycler is told in alternating first person POV chapters from Jill and Jack McTeague. There's just a catch: Jill and Jack are the same person. Every month since she was fourteen, Jill turns into a boy for four days, and then she turns back into Jill and wakes up with her period. So, instead of PMS, she gets Jack.
Another way of looking at it is that Jack has spent his entire existence as a guy with PMS. FUN!
The Catch
Jill and Jack have completely different personalities; a sort of worst-case scenario of gender dysphoria mixed with MPD mixed with weird. It's tempting to think the schism is due to Plan B (I'm getting to it) but Jack began asserting himself before Jill's mom came up with Plan B. You see, Jill's mom considers Jack a problem to be solved, and when medical professionals went, "We have no clue, lady," she decided they'd have to handle it themselves. She taught Jill meditation and self-hypnosis (with the help of Jill's dad, who's into yoga) so that, as soon as Jill wakes up after transforming back from being a guy, she performs 'Plan B,' a self-hypnosis ritual anchored by the mantra, "I am all girl," whereby Jill blocks out all memory of Jack's four days. Since Jack spends his four days confined to the house, with no access to the outside world except for TV, she figures she's not forgetting much.
Except here's the thing: Jack doesn't bother with anything like Plan B, so he remembers everything Jill remembers. He experiences the outside world through Jill, and he wants to be part of it. He does small rebellious things like create a MySpace account to make himself known (leading to the internet being banned from the McTeague house totally) and request porn to shock his straight-laced mother. And because most of his memories are Jill's memories, he remembers a lot about her best friend, Raimie...and falls in love with her.
Eventually, Jack snuck out of the house to see Raimie, who told Jill about her mystery guy, who connected the dots (he has a scar identical to Jill's on his chin, because, oh yeah, he's her male counterpart), freaked out, and told her mother, who locked Jack in during his next cycle. Jack lashed out the only way he could, at the body that Jill would have to live in, by cutting off his hair with nail scissors. Jill freaked out further and eventually kissed Raimie and freaked out over that some more, because clearly that's Jack breaking through, Jill couldn't possibly have kissed a girl and liked it (end sarcasm, cue Katy Perry). In canon, this led to even more drastic measures being taken. In this version, it led to Jill's mother sending her to a boarding school that swore they could handle 'special' cases: Fandom High.
The Character(s)Jill and Jack share some basic physical traits, since their body just switches gender. Jill is of average height for a girl, so Jack is on the short side for a guy. They have brown hair, which is buzzcut short after Jack's hack job with the nail scissors, but starting to grow out. I ask you to apply suspension of disbelief to that part of their icons for the time being. Jill doesn’t think of herself as pretty, but Jack is described as handsome, so it’s likely Jill is being, you know, a teenaged girl about her looks. They have wide cheekbones and a wide mouth, and a scar on their chin from a figure skating incident when Jill was little. They look, in other words, like fraternal twins. In personality, however, they're pretty much complete opposites.
Jill is a freak trying to be a princess. She never exercises; she's the soft underbelly type. She is a bookworm who’s great at calculus, into boys, and will do practically anything to get a teacher to raise her grade. She lives in terror of anyone finding out her secret, and will come up with wild stories to try to explain what's going on. She wishes she were as cool as her fashion-obssessed best friend, Raimie. Jill is nice to people, but tries to relate to them in the way her mother would deem 'appropriate,' which can be archaic due to her mother’s desire for Jill to be as girly as possible to offset the Jackness.
Jack is a rebel with a jock streak. He's surprisingly buff for someone who's spent most of his existence housebound, since one of his few ways of amusing himself during his part of the cycle is, well, sit-ups. Jack’s interests include anything that asserts his maleness (porn, sports, action movies), and Raimie, whom he genuinely seems to love, or at least have a huge crush on. He’s a quintessential bad boy, but he’s driven to it by how he’s been treated. Jack has never had much experience with other people (actually, sneaking off to meet Raimie was...about it) and so will act kind of inappropriate and blunt, as he doesn’t know anything about how to behave except that he hates the way Jill acts in his memories. Jack wants to be known, but he doesn't want to have to go back home, so he'll be trying to reveal the big secret and keep Jill from finding out about it at the same time.
The Summary
One body, two shapes, two personalities. Jack will remember what Jill's been up to, but Jill won't remember a thing about Jack except that he's a pain in her ass. And for now, at least, that's how they both want to keep it. Their mother's way more evil than Jill yet realizes. And I am going to have so much fun with this.
Questions? Comments?
...SORT OF.
The Canon
Cycler is the debut YA novel by Lauren McLaughlin, which debuted in August of 2008. So it's essentially brand new and it is awesome, you should read it. Cycler is told in alternating first person POV chapters from Jill and Jack McTeague. There's just a catch: Jill and Jack are the same person. Every month since she was fourteen, Jill turns into a boy for four days, and then she turns back into Jill and wakes up with her period. So, instead of PMS, she gets Jack.
Another way of looking at it is that Jack has spent his entire existence as a guy with PMS. FUN!
The Catch
Jill and Jack have completely different personalities; a sort of worst-case scenario of gender dysphoria mixed with MPD mixed with weird. It's tempting to think the schism is due to Plan B (I'm getting to it) but Jack began asserting himself before Jill's mom came up with Plan B. You see, Jill's mom considers Jack a problem to be solved, and when medical professionals went, "We have no clue, lady," she decided they'd have to handle it themselves. She taught Jill meditation and self-hypnosis (with the help of Jill's dad, who's into yoga) so that, as soon as Jill wakes up after transforming back from being a guy, she performs 'Plan B,' a self-hypnosis ritual anchored by the mantra, "I am all girl," whereby Jill blocks out all memory of Jack's four days. Since Jack spends his four days confined to the house, with no access to the outside world except for TV, she figures she's not forgetting much.
Except here's the thing: Jack doesn't bother with anything like Plan B, so he remembers everything Jill remembers. He experiences the outside world through Jill, and he wants to be part of it. He does small rebellious things like create a MySpace account to make himself known (leading to the internet being banned from the McTeague house totally) and request porn to shock his straight-laced mother. And because most of his memories are Jill's memories, he remembers a lot about her best friend, Raimie...and falls in love with her.
Eventually, Jack snuck out of the house to see Raimie, who told Jill about her mystery guy, who connected the dots (he has a scar identical to Jill's on his chin, because, oh yeah, he's her male counterpart), freaked out, and told her mother, who locked Jack in during his next cycle. Jack lashed out the only way he could, at the body that Jill would have to live in, by cutting off his hair with nail scissors. Jill freaked out further and eventually kissed Raimie and freaked out over that some more, because clearly that's Jack breaking through, Jill couldn't possibly have kissed a girl and liked it (end sarcasm, cue Katy Perry). In canon, this led to even more drastic measures being taken. In this version, it led to Jill's mother sending her to a boarding school that swore they could handle 'special' cases: Fandom High.
The Character(s)Jill and Jack share some basic physical traits, since their body just switches gender. Jill is of average height for a girl, so Jack is on the short side for a guy. They have brown hair, which is buzzcut short after Jack's hack job with the nail scissors, but starting to grow out. I ask you to apply suspension of disbelief to that part of their icons for the time being. Jill doesn’t think of herself as pretty, but Jack is described as handsome, so it’s likely Jill is being, you know, a teenaged girl about her looks. They have wide cheekbones and a wide mouth, and a scar on their chin from a figure skating incident when Jill was little. They look, in other words, like fraternal twins. In personality, however, they're pretty much complete opposites.
Jill is a freak trying to be a princess. She never exercises; she's the soft underbelly type. She is a bookworm who’s great at calculus, into boys, and will do practically anything to get a teacher to raise her grade. She lives in terror of anyone finding out her secret, and will come up with wild stories to try to explain what's going on. She wishes she were as cool as her fashion-obssessed best friend, Raimie. Jill is nice to people, but tries to relate to them in the way her mother would deem 'appropriate,' which can be archaic due to her mother’s desire for Jill to be as girly as possible to offset the Jackness.
Jack is a rebel with a jock streak. He's surprisingly buff for someone who's spent most of his existence housebound, since one of his few ways of amusing himself during his part of the cycle is, well, sit-ups. Jack’s interests include anything that asserts his maleness (porn, sports, action movies), and Raimie, whom he genuinely seems to love, or at least have a huge crush on. He’s a quintessential bad boy, but he’s driven to it by how he’s been treated. Jack has never had much experience with other people (actually, sneaking off to meet Raimie was...about it) and so will act kind of inappropriate and blunt, as he doesn’t know anything about how to behave except that he hates the way Jill acts in his memories. Jack wants to be known, but he doesn't want to have to go back home, so he'll be trying to reveal the big secret and keep Jill from finding out about it at the same time.
The Summary
One body, two shapes, two personalities. Jack will remember what Jill's been up to, but Jill won't remember a thing about Jack except that he's a pain in her ass. And for now, at least, that's how they both want to keep it. Their mother's way more evil than Jill yet realizes. And I am going to have so much fun with this.
Questions? Comments?
