Atomic Angels: Introduction

Atomic Angels

by Jed Jones

Child web modelling attracts an amateur photographer and a schoolgirl on different sides of the globe: Tracey longs to find her blood family in Ukraine, where Oxana needs Jude to save her friends from the streets. Both girls hope their modelling projects, and the potential profits, will solve these problems; but powerful vested interests pose deadly threats as moral panic rages in the media. Who are the real villains and victims, child protectors and predators, when the chips are down?

Sorry I can't share drafts of my novel outside of closed groups - if I did, too many publishers would reject my novel for that reason alone, calling it 'published already'. However, if you would like to read it, and genuinely wish to offer writing advice or helpful feedback as a reader, please mail me here or PM me at the site where this page was linked.



Why am I writing this novel? The whole hysteria around youth sexuality is messing up the heads and lives of our kids far more than most sexual encounters ever could. Therefore the fears and prejudices that generate the hysteria need to be confronted, and the counter-productive injustices need to be exposed. The only way to lance this boil, once and for all, is with a headlong charge and a javelin. Some readers might be offended by the bluntness, and indeed the sharpness, of my approach.

I will add more links as I find them.

http://www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zP7uY76jlY&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijz6PfJm6VU&feature=fvst
http://www.inquisition21.com

Unscrupulous media hypocrites caught with their pants down exploiting a child web model:

http://cindymodel.com/LettertoOprah.htm
http://cindymodel.com/Openingpagesart/SometimesYouWonder.htm

The truth they don't want you to know: I was banned from Facebook for posting this link on my Wall - to a Parental-Guidance rated documentary film that was showcased at the Gdansk Film Festival in 2011:

http://kino.net/PressKit_PASSION_DESPAIR.pdf



CONTENT GUIDE TO EACH CHAPTER

I am writing a '13+ story', i.e. one which deals with the issue of youth sexuality and the hysteria surrounding it, but does not require any actual sex (i.e. intimate physical contact involving copulation in any form) to be shown in any scene.

However, because one reader's meat is another's poison, here are my advance warnings of what might offend some, so that nobody who would take offence to the content of any chapter need read it in the first place.

Violence in scenes occurs rarely and never exceeds moderate levels, and strong language is minimal and not extreme (i.e. no f-word or equivalent).

PART ONE

CH 1: one main character, a 13-year-old girl, who begins the novel as a street hooker, propositions the other main character, an adult male (1) (but it's a different proposition that kick-starts the story). Includes physical affection, intimacy and playfighting with a 13-year-old, shown in a scene, with no sex. References child web modelling.

CH 2: references, as backstory, child rape and murder, and as current story, moderate violence, vigilantism and child web modelling (not shown in scenes); shows a 13-year-old character engaging in physical affection, and mooning (6), in a scene.

CH 3: references, as backstory, murder and genocide (2).

CH 4: shows physical affection with a 13-year-old, with no sex, in a scene.

CH 5: features two 13-year-old characters who begin the story as street hookers; references child web modelling and torture. No sex or violence shown in scenes.

CH 6: references phone sex, diverse sexual orientations and a George Michael music video set in a public lavatory (3); shows physical affection with a 13-year-old, with no sex, and non-nude child modelling (4), in scenes.

CH 7: references genocide and underage prostitution; shows mild violence and a 13-year-old girl's attraction to a Catholic priest (5), in a scene.

CH 8: references police corruption and child suicide (not shown in scenes).

CH 9: shows non-nude child modelling in a scene (4).

CH 10: references diverse sexual orientations and moderate violence; dialogue includes lavatorial humour. 

CH 11: references child web modelling and vigilantism.

CH 12: references child nudity in the context of naturism, nude child modelling and child suicide (not shown in scenes). Scene with adult nudity (non-explicit).

CH 13: references child web modelling, murder and suicide.

CH 14: references diverse sexual orientations and child web modelling; shows physical affection with a 13-year-old, with no sex, and reactions to a non-nude child-model photoset, in scenes.

CH 15: references child web modelling, murder, corruption and espionage.


PART TWO (set in Ukraine)

CH 16: references moderate violence; shows physical affection with and between teens and children, in scenes.

CH 17: shows the harsh living conditions of street children, and physical affection with and between teens and children, in scenes.

CH 18: references child prostitution; shows the harrowing conditions of street children in a scene.

CH 19: references child prostitution; shows an emotionally-disturbed naked child threatening suicide, menstruation (not sexually explicit or set in any sexual context), and physical intimacy between the main characters, with no sex, in scenes.

CH 20: references underage sex and shows physical intimacy, not sex, with a 13-year-old, in a scene.

CH 21: references underage sex and shows physical intimacy, not sex, with a 13-year-old, in a scene.

CH 22: references underage sex, genocide, espionage and corruption (not shown in scenes).


PART THREE (set in the USA)

CH 23: references vigilantism and shows non-nude child modelling (4), and physical affection with a 13-year-old, with no sex, in a scene.


As a bald statement, this is far more crude and insensitive than the manner in which I deal with the issues in the novel. Of course, it is impossible to judge my handling of these tough and sensitive topics without reading the text; but at least I have flagged them up in advance.


Footnotes:

(1) as in Poldark, which has no age rating on Amazon

(2) as in The Silver Sword, a children's story about three Polish children fleeing the horrors of Nazi Germany

(3) as seen on MTV with no age restriction

(4) less explicit than the sex scene (and less harmful to minors than the smoking and drinking) in the YA novel, Looking For Alaska http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHMPtYvZ8tM

(5) as in The Thorn Birds, DVD rated on Amazon as suitable for viewers aged 12 and over
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thorn-Birds-DVD-Thornbirds/dp/B0002W12LC

(6) Famous mooning characters include, Bart Simpson (age 10), Mischa Barton's character in Lawn Dogs (age 10) and Emily Lloyd's character in Wish You Were Here (age 13).




MORE BAD NEW LAWS....

New laws, such as the one which criminalises cartoons, so that Bart Simpson mooning is 'child porn', threaten creative freedom on a false premise - that the way to conquer evil is by expanding the definition of what counts as evil, and potentially criminalising everybody. Meanwhile, the real villains get an easier ride, now that they're needles in a haystack.

The easiest way to destroy liberty and justify a police state, is by playing the 'child protection' card. Pernicious emotional manipulation of the masses. A clever idea. Guess who thought of it first?

"As long as the government is seen to be working for the benefit of the children, the people will accept almost any curtailment of liberty."

- from Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler

When will writing.com take a stand against this threat, rather than appeasing the campaign being waged behind my back to suppress my work?

A few weeks ago, I logged on to my portfolio, only to discover my entire bio had been removed by a senior moderator because it included the term, SEXUALITY, in the context of celebrating sexuality and confronting bigotry.

How, and to what extent, are people under the age of 13 protected from evil, or from harm, because they can't read this word here - taking into account that they seem to have free and easy access to the song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liNnCKPeEv0

http://www.lyricsg.com/9880/billy-bragg/sexuality-lyrics

There is no age restriction on this song at Amazon that I can see:
http://www.amazon.com/Sexuality/dp/B0031N2SNK/ref=dm_att_trk5

Homophobic bullying blights the lives of children under 13. But, how can we spread pride and positive values about their sexuality when we are not even allowed to speak the word in front of them? We are fighting the bigots with one hand tied behind our backs - Section 28 all over again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28



A sensible answer to a young author wanting to write realistic YA fiction:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090429093005AAChfzS

My novel ticks the boxes. Thanks to HP Wombat. The quotes are from her answer:

"Those things [underage sex etc] have all been seen in numerous YA fiction. Catcher in the Rye has all of those [...] One of my favorite books, Looking for Alaska by John Green, has [them] too."

- Which begs the question: why should young adults over 13 be barred from reading about them in my novel? Why is the topic of underage sex banned from YA novel review groups on WDC?

"The important thing is that you're not glorifying them just for the sake of glorifying them."

I don't. My novel is about the harm to minors caused by the hysteria around youth sexuality. You can agree or disagree, but a novel with something to say about the state of society is neither socially irresponsible nor a moral vacuum. Anybody looking here for cheap erotica will be disappointed.

"In Looking for Alaska, Green writes a very sexual, very awkward scene in order to prove a point [...] He was showing how vapid and shallow physical intimacy can be when there is no emotional base."

In my novel, it's the emotional base that drives the story and the characters, including the physical intimacy.

"Teenagers do those things, so why not write about them? Speaking down to teens as if they don't KNOW the things that are going on around them is just insulting."

Amen.

"Of course, you won't get much support from a publisher if you just write a trashy YA sex novel without any story."

I'm not.

My novel is not specifically YA in the sense of only being for young adults, but the subplot is narrated through a 13-year-old character in the 3rd person. And there is a story.




CHAPTER RATINGS CHANGED BACK TO 13+

Instead of rating some chapters as 18+ I have posted content guides to each chapter, above (without, hopefully, giving too much of the story away in advance). Now nobody need read any chapter which they think might offend them, and then impose their will on everybody else by demanding censorship.

TMK the scenario has not yet arisen where a member of a private group with access to my novel objects to their teenage son or daughter reading any chapter which the teenager in question insists on reading. If and when this happens and is brought to my attention, I will withdraw my novel from the group rather than practise blanket ageism against everybody aged between 13 and 17.

Access to my novel while I'm still writing it, is already heavily restricted to a small handful of private groups and individuals, to avoid the 'published already' trap, as explained at the top, and because I don't want to publish it until it's finished.

Of these groups, very few members are aged 13-17 TMK (how can you ever be sure on the Internet?). In fact, at the time of typing this, I am not aware that anybody between those ages is an active member of any of those groups! Inactive members are unlikely even to be aware that my novel exists, let alone click the links and read it.

Beyond the 13+ limit, I believe it would be wrong in principle to impose any further universal age restrictions. To do so would be taken as offensive in most cultures and communities of the world, including communities within the English-speaking world, such as ASFAR, NYRA, The National Coalition Against Censorship, and the Naturist movement.

A 12-year-old girl who dances through the streets of Rio in a bikini, as part of the Carnival, would probably find it rather absurd to be barred from reading a text-only novel about child web models when she reaches the age of 13.

Besides, barring everybody aged 13-17 from reading a novel which addresses the whole hysteria around youth sexuality would pander to that hysteria. This would be somewhat self-defeating.

Moreover, precisely because the story is about the politics of sex - about hate and fear, and the more fundamental values than sex that are at stake - the focus of the story is on the emotional development of the characters, impacted by the sexual politics of their world, rather than sex itself. Therefore, the story does not demand any explicit showing or telling of sex and its 'physical mechanics', and there is none, which already complies with the requirements of the 13+ rating.

And, precisely because the novel challenges the political status quo of the English-speaking world - the poisonous, oppressive and counter-productive approach to child protection, which is harmful to minors - any campaign to suppress this work is an attack on the democratic right of the people to question the policies of the people in power.

Free speech is already curtailed by a censorious minority. To speak and get heard, effectively, you need access to the tools (literacy, a decent education) and a platform (the media, including the Internet). The latter is increasingly controlled by a handful of corporations based in the USA. Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, AOL, et al, censor with impunity and without accountability. American imperialism of the Internet.




DOUBLE STANDARDS: one rule for the mass media, another rule for everybody else

"I let the boys pull my knickers down but I didn't tell my mum I'd been naughty because I wouldn't get any sweets." Dialogue like this is heard from witnesses in a criminal trial at the Old Bailey, as two 10-year-old boys are disgraced in front of the whole world, and added to the Sex Offenders Register alongside child rapists and murderers, for playing Doctors and Nurses with a 9-year-old girl.

The tabloid press had a field day exploiting these children on its front pages for EVERYBODY to read, whatever their age. Child porn for the masses.

Here's Billy Bragg again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBh2oAvsSSc

(BTW, scousers are people who hail from Liverpool. They have boycotted The Sun en masse ever since the 'newspaper' blamed supporters of Liverpool Football Club for the Hillsborough disaster.)

The mass media can pass off anything it likes as truth, in the language it pleases, but different rules apply to writers of fiction.

The 13+ rating requires 'mild' references to sex (while references to violence can be 'moderate'. Note the double standard. What does this tell you about our 'civilised values'?). The definition of 'mild' and 'moderate' should depend on the language and manner in which the subject-matter is approached and handled, NOT the subject-matter per se OR the stance taken, just because it questions official wisdom.

Social critiques with the most pressing need to be heard, are usually the ones most likely to be censored - as a result of demonisation by dominant discourses of academic and political elites, and the mass media.

Subjects of demonisation in human history have included religion, women practising medicine (spun as 'witches' by the spin doctors of the day), communism, homosexuality, youth sexuality, and child modelling on the Internet.

I am not claiming real 'demons' don't exist; I am arguing that who is doing the demonising, and why - the political agendas and vested interests driving the demonisation - should be taken into account.

In the UK, we've been round this block with Section 28 - a law which criminalised schoolteachers for 'promoting homosexuality' when they tried to educate kids against homophobic bullying and hate speech. Thankfully, Section 28 is now history, along with the homophobic AIDS hysteria that plagued the 1980s.

The USA has been round this block with Senator McCarthy, and more recently with Senator Foley.

In a climate of hysteria, anybody with the insolence to question the wisdom or justice of the mob is immediately condemned as a heretic for 'promoting' or 'advocating' whatever the mob identifies as the latest evil. e.g.:

"If you defend a Communist's right to free speech you must be a Communist.
If you're a Communist you must be a sympathiser of the Soviet Union.
If you're a Soviet sympathiser you must be a spy and a traitor."





THIS NOVEL IS DEDICATED TO the countless thousands of children and youth across the English-speaking world who have suffered from hate speech, hysteria, paranoia and persecution, in the name of child protection. Teenagers, punished for puberty. Kids, named and shamed on public registers alongside child rapists and murderers, branded as monsters, stigmatised and segregated like the Jews in Nazi Germany - all because they played Doctors and Nurses, mooned their mate's Blackberry, or sexted their boyfriend on his birthday.

We call this 'Sarah's Law' and 'Megan's Law'. If this state of affairs is supposed to be the way we honour the memory of murdered children, then I call it a grotesque insult to their memory.

INFLUENCES

Though a work of fiction, several true stories influence this novel, which I hope keeps it true to the realities of the Internet child-modelling industry. My fictional modelling agency, based in Ukraine, grows to the scale of LS, with the same commitment to artistic values, and the social conscience of Swissarts.

The basic scenario of my subplot, set in the USA, reflects the true story of Cindymodel from Curt Newbury Studios, though my storyline and characters are completely different.

In the true story, a television company told Cindy blatant barefaced lies, deliberately raising the hopes of an ambitious ELEVEN-year-old model that her dream of fame would come true - while all the time planning a nightmare dreadful enough to drive a grown woman to suicide.

This duplicity secured the co-operation of Cindy and Curt with the production of a television show that twisted and distorted Cindy's material out of recognition by her, and spun her as an abuse victim - in her words, "A little whore, for ratings".

http://cindymodel.com/LettertoOprah.htm
http://cindymodel.com/Openingpagesart/SometimesYouWonder.htm

Thankfully, the story has a happy ending. Somehow Cindy found the inner strength to appear on shows like Oprah and give as good as she got. She bounced back. At the time of typing, she is 17 or 18 and still modelling:)

The outcome, and impact on Cindy, of this abuse of the power of television, in the name of child protection, could easily have been a lot worse. My speculation on this inspired me to write this novel.

Since I began writing it, I discovered another true story which may yet influence me, too. I hope it does. You've heard one side of the story about the industry. Here's the other side: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zP7uY76jlY&feature=player_embedded

"Don't I get to have any say in whether I'm a victim or not? Well, I'm saying it: I'm a victim - of the federal government, and no-one else."

- former Sandi Model, speaking out in defence of Webe Web and her father, Jeff Pierson, photographer and devout Christian, who was blackmailed by the FBI into taking the rap for a victimless crime he didn't commit.

It was the most cynical kind of blackmail: they threatened him that his wife would go to jail and both his children to foster care, the same day, pending trial, if he refused to sign a binding plea agreement.

By cruel and hypocritical irony, the blackmail depended entirely upon the decency and love for his family, of a man painted by the mass media as a monster - and this, in the State of Alabama, the so-called Bible Belt, where the institution of marriage and 'family values' are supposed to be held sacred.

Jeff Pierson has served one year of a five-year sentence in a medium-security prison, from which he gets no leave to spend any time with his family.



I pay tribute to Jeff Pierson, Curt Newbury, Alexander Fradis, Daniel Leuenberger and all other photographers of child models who applied the highest professional standards to their work and always put the interests of their models first.



Music massively inspires and influences my writing. Some character names are taken from songs (thanks to The Beatles and Eric Clapton) and all my part and chapter titles are song titles (in case you hadn't noticed). Lest I be accused of plagiarism, I tribute them here (subject to change).


Part One: Unknown Treasure (Blank & Jones)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B0hH-CuBHc&

"When you've got something to believe in, you know there's no turning back." Four people discover inner strengths when they find themselves pitted against mighty adversaries.


Chapter 1: Motherless Child (Boney M)
http://bombmp3.me/download.php?mp3_id=7302324&title=Boney+M.+...


Chapter 2: The Fear (Lily Allen)
http://bombmp3.me/download.php?mp3_id=9013880&title=Lily+Allen::PLUS...

N.B. I am rating this link 18+ because the lyrics include strong language


Chapter 3: 1933 (The Ukes)


Chapter 4: Not Gonna Get Us (t.A.T.u.)
http://bombmp3.me/download.php?mp3_id=6598644&title=Tatu+-+Ta...(


Chapter 5: Shelter Me (Cinderella)


Chapter 6: Girl You Never Knew (Georgia Wonder)


Chapter 7: Living Darfur (Mattafix)


Chapter 8: All The Things She Said (t.A.T.u.)


Chapter 9: The Model (Kraftwerk)


Chapter 10: God's Footballer (Billy Bragg)


Chapter 11: Which Side Are You On? (Billy Bragg)


Chapter 12: Art For Art's Sake (10CC)


Chapter 13: Layla (Eric Clapton)


Chapter 14: Who Knows What Love Is? (Strawberry Switchblade)


Chapter 15: On Every Street (Dire Straits)



Part Two: Desire (Blank & Jones)

The demands of love are tough. Who comes first when the chips are down?


Chapter 16: She's Too Tough (Foreigner)


Chapter 17: Leader Of The Pack (The Shangri-Lahs)


Chapter 18: Rat Trap (Boomtown Rats)


Chapter 19: Clowns (t.A.T.u.)
http://bombmp3.me/download.php?mp3_id=7227268&title=Tatu+-+Cl...


Chapter 20: Temptation (Heaven 17)


Chapter 21: All About Us (t.A.T.u.)


Chapter 22: The Name Of The Game (ABBA)



Part Three: A Dangerous Age (Gerry Rafferty)

Tracey discovers her attractiveness terrifies American society, and puberty has been censored.


Chapter 23: Genius (Georgia Wonder)


Chapter 24:


Chapter 25: Gomenasai (t.A.T.u)


Chapter 26: Forgive Me (Sorrow)


Chapter 27:


Chapter 28: Resurrection (PPK)


Chapter 29: Michael (Strawberry Switchblade)



Part Four: Insurrection (PPK)


Chapter 30: Always The Sun (The Stranglers)


Chapter 31:


Chapter 32: Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)


Chapter 33: Winds Of Change (The Scorpions)


Chapter 34: Poor Hearts (Strawberry Switchblade)


Chapter 35:


Chapter 36: New World In The Morning (Roger Whittaker)

CAMPAIGNS AGAINST BOOK CENSORSHIP

http://ncac.org/what-we-do

Book charting the history of book censorship 'to protect children':

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809073994/inquisit21st-20/104-5390782-61...