"Andrei, wake the fuck up! Flight leave in an hour, do you want to continue rotting in this country or not?"
Boris repeatedly prodded his cousin, who was still drunk after last night’s escapade.
“I swear to god Andrei if you don’t get the fuck up I’m going to leave you here to die.”
Andrei gave his first sign of being alive after last nights drunken escapade, and rolled on his back to face his cousin.
“I also swear to God if you don’t stop fucking touching me, I will break your dirty little fingers.”
Boris smiled at the threats of his younger cousin, and went into his room to grab a few last possessions; his porno magazines and bootlegged Dvd’s, the contents of which were also probably pornographic. The two had lived in Russia their entire lives, with nothing to show for their lives other than a few thousand empty cigarette cartons and liquor bottles. Crooked police patrolled the streets during the day, and if it wasn't the gangs at your throat during the night, it was the junkies. There was no chance for improvement in their lives. No chance for financial success. No chance to become anything other than the drug addict-pieces of shit they had developed into. Andrei’s mother had him when she was 17, to a father of whom she probably wouldn’t even recognize. She quickly fell out of his life due to her constant chase of addictions, so he was raised by his aunt Alisa. Alisa and her husband Bellic suffered conditions similar to Andrei’s mother, only they were much more efficient at hiding their addictions. They stuck around to raise their son Boris and his cousin, but they also did a great job at giving absolutely zero care as to what these two were getting into. Their curfew was non-existant, they attended school whenever they pleased, and weeks were spent away from their household without even the slightest worry for their kin.
"Russian streets turn a child into a man,” Bellic would always tell his family, typically while high on a mixture of heroin and crystal meth. Alisa would usually laugh as this was said, knowing her husband was no more of a “man” than any of the other junkies who roamed the Russian alleys.
In a sense, Boris was like a big brother to Andrei. He ensured Andrei would come up the same exact way he had growing up, nothing more nothing less. He bought Andrei his first cigarette packet when he was eleven, his first beer at thirteen, and his first shot of heroin at barely fifteen years old.Image Source: http://elesabafam.blogspot.com/
In this draft, I really wanted to establish the upbringing of the two central characters of my story. I wanted it to be as dirty, gritty, and unconventional as possible, to really take the reader into their lives. While the place structured in this draft (Russian Streets) will not have a lot to do with the rest of the novel, it will surely set the the standards for my character’s behaviors and decision making. Now that the reader has seen just how dark life has been for Andrei and Boris, they will be much less suprised when the two cousins bring the darkness with them to America.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first blog post I was interested in the storyline of the characters Andrei and Borris. I found the story very intriguing and look forward to seeing where it will develop throughout the rest of our course. The overall visual of the blog is appealing. My only issue is that I am unable to tell what your background is and if it has any relation to Russia. A way to fix this could be to reposition your posts off to the right or left, whichever works best for the blogger. This would allow for the reader to be able to clearly view the image you chose. The picture of the building incorporated in the blog post works well. I have never been to Russia, but this building looks like something I would imagine Id see there. It does a good job of really placing the setting of the story. There are a few grammatical errors in your post, which can easily be fixed. I am a big fan of the dialogue that occurs throughout. It makes your characters more relatable. I don’t mind the cursing very much because I think it helps really present the gritty tough personalities of the characters. I would like to know more about them growing up, and their lives with Bellic and Alisa. We got a glimpse of their background but I definitely would like to know a bit more about them. In some areas the story is a bit confusing because it switches from Borris to a mysterious narrator. Personally I would choose one voice and stick with that throughout. The font the writer chose is very simple which I think appeals with the storyline of the blog. The theme I took from this post was addictions. It was clear that every character in this story suffers from one addiction, whether it be drugs, alcohol, or pornography. I also realize that the Russian streets will definitely play a huge role in your future blog posts. A suggestion for future images could be incorporating more of the streets and what they look like. Overall the content of the blog is fascinating and fits well together.
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