Let me tell you about myself so you can understand who I am, why I create works of digital storytelling. I have released digital storytelling within the science fiction genre at “Baja Clavius: Moon Men Deep Inside”. But I also am known for creating illustrated stories that are outside of science fiction. See my extensive collection of illustrated stories posted on Gumroad to learn more.
If you would like to contact me, I will respond to email sent to me at desouza3d@gmail.com.
About My Creative Works
I create three-dimensional (3D) images of masculine men in peril. I am a gay man and I work as a artist exclusively in the 21st century digital realm from Las Vegas. I choose to use contemporary computer hardware and software as my artistic tools instead of pencils or paintbrushes that you hold in your hands.
The majority of artists and illustrators depict females. This is a well-known truth. I choose to depict masculine men in peril within what is known as the bara genre of underground art. See a large collection of my creative works within the bara genre of underground art by visiting my page on Deviant Art.
If you are a blogger or other media writer, this website has a high degree of background information about me that can help you write an article or commentary about me or my work.
That’s me in the photograph about to be killed by the Predator who appeared suddenly one day in Las Vegas, Nevada for no apparent reason.
That’s also me in the photograph taken in 1891 or 1991 in historic Deadwood, South Dakota.
Not for a Mass Audience
I accept that my creative works—and bara in general—will not appeal to a “mass audience” in the gay worldwide community. Some gay men have said that they especially like how I depict men so realistically. Others not so much.
I get emails and other messages from guys who obviously “get” what I’m trying to do. One comment explains what I mean. The guy wrote this:
“Never have I been so aroused. I always feared to delve into my darkest fantasies but with you, I feel supported and understood. Your stories are a perfect blend of light and shadow, to put it in very simplistic terms. I confess that what also arouses me is a detail that most would find insignificant but which holds tremendous eroticism. Curled toes. That’s a soft spot of mine. I associate it with violent orgasms, when pleasure wracks the body, makes it convulse and twist right down to its toes. Thank you for your amazing work and your willingness to share it with us. I do hope to see more and more of it and praise you for your lack of fear regarding a subject most would not dare to broach.”
I accept that some gay men prefer men who choose to appear or behave or speak like females. There are many chosen affectations and behaviors and speaking styles of such men.
I know that my stories and images of highly masculine men who are muscular are not appealing to gay men who prefer stories and images of men who choose to appear or behave or speak like females. In my creative works I deliberately use the bara underground art genre which is well-known to be provocative and also unlikely to appeal to gay men who prefer men who appear or behave or speak like females.
Science Fiction Time Travel Adventures
Provoking readers is a very different process compared to provoking viewers with visual works. I chose the science fiction time travel adventures genre deliberately so that my novel would turn out to be emotionally challenging and not at all “safe” in the intellectual or visceral sense. I did not attempt to create something that would make money for me or for others. But, I did attempt to create something that would make readers/viewers think about issues that they otherwise might not think about while enjoying spending time with masculine and muscular male characters.
What I’ve created is a science fiction time travel adventure, but it is also true to the bara genre. This is because I depict gay male same-sex feelings and sexual identity with masculine, muscular males that sometimes are violent and exploitative. Read more about bara.
What does my work in that genre say about me? Most writers will admit what I admit here: We do not like violence and exploitation in everyday living. We write about violence and exploitation. It’s fiction. It’s only pretend. It’s only art or make-believe. As such, I do not advocate for violence and exploitation in real life.
My target audience is gay males, but straight females also are known to enjoy the bara genre.
I suspect that what I’ve created probably will not be made into a traditional Hollywood movie because the story and characters do not fit into the framework of major motion pictures that tell science fiction stories. Yet, I definitely can imagine this would make show business sense as a series of episodes for streaming on Amazon or Hulu or Netflix.
This all started when I began writing the story in 1990. At first, I crafted the story so that it would be a straight-line narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. But, that format did not suit my storytelling needs and I became very frustrated.
So, as the new century arrived I chose a different approach. I revised the story so that I could use nonlinear storytelling. See how that approach turned out in 2006. I ended up switching to the science fiction genre and time travel as the framework for telling the story. Pretend or make-believe violence and exploitation are readily found in the science fiction genre.
Don’t conclude that science fiction advocates for violence and exploitation. That is not the case at all. And, I ask you to accept that I am not writing about the kind of civilization or people that I hope actually will exist hundreds of years in the future. What I wrote is fiction that is rooted in science. It’s all intended for you to escape in your mind to a place very unlike where you live right now.
I’ve been told that my work seems similar in feel to the BBC’s Doctor Who and Torchwood television series. I was not trying to emulate any particular science fiction time travel storytelling. If I did anything consciously, I chose to entertain and challenge my readers with storytelling that is unlike most of what you can find today in print, on television, or in movies.
Pen Name
I’m a citizen of the United States, born in California. My heritage is Portuguese from both my parents Edward and Evelyn Goulart. The word madeira is Portuguese for wood. The surname Desouza is a variation of the surname Souza from my old country grandfather on my mother’s side.
Before I had reached the age of 30, I had earned both a master’s degree and doctoral degree in communications. I started out wanting to make a living as a college professor. But I discovered a stunning truth. That profession is not the best for job security due to toxic office politics in the academic field. Plus, a person is not paid very well when just starting out in this profession.
In 1996 I started publishing online under the pen name of Madeira Desouza. Then in 2007 I branched out into creating original 3D digital images for online publication also using that same pen name. But most people know me and refer to me by my nickname, Woody.
When I was a boy, I had an irrational fear that I would turn out to be merely an ordinary man.
During journalism school, I grew to admire writers who distinguished themselves through their professional works. But, I also must confess that I developed a very strong attraction to the well-known practice of writers who use a pseudonym. I discovered in those days that Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Filtered through the perceptions of a teenage boy, that was the coolest thing I had ever come to know about the writing profession.
No surprise that Mark Twain has remained my favorite American writer of all time. Not that I think I am as good as he was or ever will be. But, I seek to be humorous like him, to tell vivid and imaginative stories like he told, and, yes, to have a memorable nom de plume like his. I created a pseudonym for myself that would sound considerably more Old World ethnic compared to my own birth name while being a name that everyone should recognize no ordinary person would ever have.
It does not really matter whether someone with a pseudonym is prominent and globally identifiable like Mark Twain or Stephen King or J.K. Rowling or Jay Z. The simple reality is that having a pseudonym is a timeworn way of differentiating yourself from everyone else.
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