Writing Eddie was fun. I am a computer nerd at heart. There is a lot of me in Eddie.
Computer nerds are people just like anyone else. Inwardly they have the same feelings and emotions as other people, they just don’t address them as much. They tend to live on their computers, even when they aren’t working. The Internet is a store house of information. They can observe life from a far away safe distance. They don’t have to risk an emotional commitment. For some reason our society does not regard computer nerds as virile or sexy. They might make for good providers but they just don’t bring the image of a guy that will curl your toes to women.
Computer nerds may have had experiences with women but women are hard to predict. For a person who deals in logic and if-then statements, women are much too confusing. Unlike the bulk of the population, computer nerds look for the operation manual first, then operate the system. Women don’t come with an operation manual.
The character Eddie is an emotional juvenile. He probably never had a successful relationship in his life and didn’t know how to act. He knew he had the best he would ever get in Carla and loved her the only way he knew how. He spent most of his life trying not to do the wrong thing for fear of losing her. Whether she realized it or not, she could do pretty much anything she wanted and Eddie would never mention he felt slighted.
As has happened to many, Bangkok thrusts you into life face first. A person carries a notion of how things are supposed to work in the world. It is taught from the day your parents take you home from the hospital. If they are good parents, they taught you right from wrong based on western standards. Good people work hard and get ahead. Bad people are lazy and take government handouts. Nice girls only have sex with their boyfriends, eventually marry and have families. Bad girls are promiscuous.
But Bangkok doesn’t work that way. People do what they have to do to eat. There is no unemployment insurance that pays people when they don’t have a job. If you don’t have money, you starve. Pure and simple. You depend on your family for help and they depend on you. Thailand is a relatively poor country without many natural resources to exploit. Many people are involved in farming. The problem is there has been a decades long drought in the farming areas. Lots of people are poor. Sex work, although not admired is considered an acceptable way to support one’s family.
One of Eddie’s first challenges was coming face-to-face with these cultural differences. Like a lot of Americans, Eddie believes everyone wants to be an American. He believes they admire and revere Americans. Since this is not necessarily true, Eddie is forced to reevaluate even this truism.
I tried to write Eddie as an child in an adult’s body. In the beginning, his sentences are short and choppy, his interests are limited and uninteresting to others. As the book progresses, Eddie awakens feelings he had put away a long time ago. His appreciation for his surroundings improves and he starts to see the world in a whole different light. He grows from being rather one dimensional to a full blown human being.
Many computer nerds live in a fantasy world of video games. They can be knights in shining armor or the hero that wins the game. Visiting Bangkok gave Eddie a chance to be a hero in his own life.