Words I Didn't Use

     I didn't use the words "MMA", "cagefighter", or "bodyguard" throughout this story for several reasons:

     1) MMA was a new concept in the turn of the millennium, and at the time, the UFC had recently turned from a martial arts competition to the striking and grappling mixed style we see today, so the term "MMA" wouldn't have been popular in 2002.

     2) Although I have nothing against cagefighter/bodyguard romance novels, I didn't want Fighting Animals to be confused with such works. 

     3) In order to create an atmosphere of danger and suspense, I used words like "private" and "security" more than "body" and "guard".

The Soundtrack

     The bulk of the soundtrack comprises three albums: John Mayer's Room for Squares, Maroon 5's Songs About Jane, and Matchbox Twenty's More Than You Think You Are, all of which were released in 2001-2002.

     Room for Squares was John's Mayer's debut album, released when Mayer was just twenty-three years old. Mayer, who has suffered from anxiety attacks from the time he was a teenager, wrote songs like "Not Myself" and "My Stupid Mouth" not long after his diagnosis.

     According to Adam Levine, Songs About Jane was inspired by his complicated and intense romance with Jane Herman Bishop, a California model turned Brooklyn-based writer. Levine, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, has also stated that the sound for the album was influenced by his time in New York, where Maroon 5 was formed. 

     The months that followed September 11 saw a slew of radio-friendly songs, Matchbox Twenty's "Unwell" and "Bright Lights" being two such singles, the former talking about mental illness and the latter about losing a loved one to New York City.

Delilah and JR Were Inspired by Real People, But Not a Real Couple

     Fighting Animals combined two short stories I'd previously written, one titled The Brotherhood and another titled The Comedy Central Roast of Tyra Banks.

     I was inspired to write the latter after responding to this memorable Tweet from Broadway actress Laura Benanti in 2016: 

     Needless to say I was embarrassed, but inspired. 

     I wrote The Comedy Central Roast of Tyra Banks that same weekend. It was a comedy centered around a supermodel who struggles to find success as a stand-up comedian. It wasn't my best work, so I shoved it in a drawer.

     Two years later, I revisited the story to see what I could do with it, and in my research, I found this video:

https://youtu.be/B_SCZOfaYwo

     The clip is from 2004, when a then-24-year-old Pakistani-American from New York City named Nargis Fakhri auditioned for America's Next Top Model. It's less than a minute long and doesn't say much, but what blew me away were the hateful and bigoted comments underneath it. 

     If people listened to this video with their eyes closed, all they'd hear is an All-American girl with a thick New York accent, I thought. She may have been more affected by 9/11 than any of these people, but all they see is a face and a name and they make up their own story.

     That's when the gears in my head turned. 

     I took apart The Comedy Central Roast of Tyra Banks, and once I put it back together, it had taken a new, more powerful direction, with the main character now inspired by Nargis Fakhri.

     Although she inspired the Delilah Nisar character, what I wrote should be taken as fiction, not biography.

     Here's Nargis Fakhri (now an established Bollywood actress) doing stand-up in 2019.

https://youtu.be/G8nH-yTfLSo

     Another character inspired by a real person was Jay "JR" McIntyre, who borrows plenty from Hollywood actor Tobey Maguire, and while Millennials are familiar with him, younger readers may not be.

     Maguire, like JR, was a vegetarian (now vegan) and animal rights advocate. He starred in the first Spider-Man film in 2002, a film thought to have revived the once-dead superhero comic book sub-genre after 9/11.

https://youtu.be/TYMMOjBUPMM

     In order to not draw direct parallels between the two, I referred to JR's film as "the superhero movie" or "the comic book movie" throughout Fighting Animals.

     Tobey Maguire was also the subject of criticism after he and other A-list celebrities were involved in an illegal underground poker ring run by former Olympian Molly Bloom, similar in tone to JR's activities with Billie and The Ravens.

"Neo-Noir" Multimedia

     According to Wikipedia:

"Neo-noir film directors refer to 'classic noir' in the use of tilted camera angles, interplay of light and shadows, unbalanced framing; blurring of the lines between good and bad and right and wrong, and thematic motifs including revenge, paranoia, and alienation."

     Neo-noir films like Memento, Taxi Driver, and Fight Club make up a large part of my all-time favorites. I dreamed of telling a story inspired by this style of film-making, but I still loved the intimate feel of the literary novel. When I settled on making Fighting Animals a novella, I knew I had to bring the most essential neo-noir elements to such a non-visual medium, without packing too hard of an experimental punch.

     That's when GIFs came into play.

     The purpose of the GIFs was not to make up for what wasn't in the text, but rather to "set the mood."

     Similar to lit candles on a dinner table, they're meant to add to the atmosphere, without drawing too much attention to themselves. This keeps the reader from being "whip-lashed" between black letters on a white backdrop and a moving picture. This, coupled with a contemporary twist on familiar film noir archetypes (femme fatale, anti-hero, etc.) aim to create one smooth, cohesive narrative with a cinematic aftertaste.

     To capture the spirit of neo-noir, most of the GIFs don't show complete human faces, which have been psychologically proven to be distracting to the naked eye. This keeps reading eyes from looking at a GIF for too long and getting sucked out of the fiction in the text. In addition, most human faces shown in GIFs depict a side profile, a face in shadows, or the eyes—the most human part of the face—closed or covered.

     In line with the title, images of wild and/or violent animals, including wolves, ravens, dogs, tigers, lions, foxes, horses, owls, and hawks, make up a large number of the GIFs. Most of these, however, show the animal's face in full, with little or no use of shadows. Blood and violence were never shown within the animal GIFs, making the animals look almost more human than the humans (in both the GIFs and the story).

     If you'd like to learn more about neo-noir, superhero films, and post-9/11 cinema (and you have fifteen minutes to spare), check out this awesome analysis of 2008's The Dark Knight by The Take:

https://youtu.be/cfm-ttvZhSc

Discussion Questions

     What I love most about literature is how it brings well-read, intelligent people together to discuss new ideas, and one of my favorite things about Wattpad is the community of readers and writers who gather around stories to share their points of view.

     I wrote Fighting Animals to discuss, and perhaps find solutions to, the problems in my world, and perhaps they're problems in your world, too. Below are just a few questions, centered on the themes of this story, to stimulate conversion. I'd love to hear your thoughts, as even I, the author, don't have straight answers.

Feel free to be as candid and open as you'd like, but please be respectful. This section will remain monitored and any hateful comments will be removed.

     1) At no point throughout the story did Delilah say she was Muslim. Rather, it was the people around her who assumed her to be based on her appearance and the social tensions of the time. Would identifying as a follower of a different faith (or none at all) have changed others' perceptions of her? Why or why not?

     2) While The Ravens aimed to bring humans and animals together through violence, The Brotherhood aimed to keep humans and "animals" segregated through peace. Which of these two groups, if any, operated from a high moral and ethical standard, and which group was more successful in fulfilling its mission?

     3) Both Conner and JR are offered a chance to be heroes by violent groups (Conner by the Knowlton skinheads and JR by The Ravens), yet they each respond differently. What personality traits, values, etc. do you think lead Conner to decline and JR to accept?

     4) Towards the latter part of Fighting Animals, it's hinted that JR, who's Jewish, pursued a relationship with Delilah as a way to cement his anti-Islamophobic stance, despite his family's impending disapproval of their union. Are his actions commendable or self-serving? Were Delilah's reasons for being in a relationship with JR any better?

     5) Although JR and Delilah remain sexually faithful throughout their relationship, they share intimate parts of themselves with other people. Could this be considered cheating, and if so, who was unfaithful first?

     6) Stella and Max, who are much older than the main characters, mentor Delilah and Conner, respectively, through their careers and lives. However, both Delilah and Conner made life-altering decisions without consulting them. Would JR, who lacked a mentor, have benefited more from mentorship, and if so, how?

Final Thoughts

     To all my Muslim readers and friends:

     I don't experience what you experience everyday. I am not subjected to the same social judgments as you are. I don't know what it's like to be in your shoes.

     I do know, however, what it's like to be perceived as "exotic" rather than just human. I know what it's like to have to extenuate your "Western-ness" so others can stop walking on eggshells. I know what it's like to be asked if you need an interpreter by someone in uniform before you even speak a word. 

     Perhaps, although we subscribe to different faiths, we're not so different after all.

     I'm not my president, and I'm not your enemy.

     To all my readers, Muslim or not, remember that everyone on this planet has influence, because we all belong to social groups. Everyday we make choices that either encourage those in our circle to love and accept others or to label outsiders as enemies.

     Heroes are not singular to the "Marvel Universe". They exist in anyone who chooses to fight their own versions of The Darkness, whether it be addiction, mental illness, hatred, rage, or fear. 

     Thank you for making room in your hearts and minds for my characters. Their pulses are powered by your imagination, and when they come alive, I do, too.

-Lola