musings: feeling reflective at the moment
i still feel like im spitting in the wind sometime with this thing
like im just talking to myself, but then i get the occasional
'hang in there brother' so i guess i got some readership
i take a lot of personal pride in doing a good literary job of it
irregardless, in being significant and substantial in my posts
its my policy as a literary man to be substantial, to write work that matters
otherwise im wasting my time, my craft, my talent, my life
though i crave readership i kinda dont care if nobody is listening
the future is my true audience
i wonder sometimes though about my eclectic interests
politics, literature and hoodoo is a strange mix and i fear boring folk
and then the personal focus feels self indulgent sometime
but im kinda self referential anyway, part of being an artist
specially when im in the woodshed and its book book book
researching/reading this book now called the falling hills, its all about
nathan bedford forrest and the fort pillow massacre of black soldiers during
the civil war, which plays a large part in rest for the weary
being a memphis boy and being reminded almost daily (grave w/statue
on horse in middle of the city, fort pillow site rebuilt as state park) of the
souths love affair with nathan bedford forrest i plan to work him over
and i need to do a really good and craftful job of it
nathan bedford forrest was a slavetrader, founder of kkk, and massacred black
soldiers after capturing fort pillow - and the south loves his dirty drawers
apparently unable to make a living off anything but blackfolks misery, after the war he tried
to build a cotton plantation on presidents island using black convict labor
forrest died there, apparently after drinking bad river water
(god i love it, the mississippi killed him)
in RFTWs reality, josephus johnson, a survivor of the fort pillow masscre and
forrests convict servant/orderly, helps arrange his death using mississippi river water
and some homegrown hoodoo poisoning
i had all these scenes setting it up but reading this work (an awful awfully racist work)
and getting all this background info on forrest i think what i will do is just do one scene
on presidents island
forrest near dying and feverish and thinking back on his life while being attended by his
faithful servant who he realizes has probably had something to do with his sickness/death
i can get a lot of mileage out of a scene like that, be difficult to do it right but whenever has
that stopped an ambitious writer, might have him half assed recanting his evil ways, oh
that would infuriate the sons and daughters of the confederacy and their fellow travelers too
okay, enuf speculative pleasure, i got to get back to work
i try to keep my posts tight, mostly as a time investiture thing
but also so even if you arent interested it doesnt take up too much
of your internet time, nobody likes reading big blocks of text on the internet
also i try to be witty and funny (mostly ironic) and do interesting tricks w/text
nothing like what i would like to do because i dont have time to
really think about these posts, i got too much work to do
i was thinking the other day when i wrote about the dead in iraq that
they were going to come back to haunt bush one day
and had this idea of a flash fiction piece where the dead come to haunt him
but to do that right, ie not corny, man i would have to sit down and think about it
do rewrites and all, and i aint got time for all that
i will try to add a little more literary flavor, stories and the like
okay okay, a couple of quick current events comments
and im out of here, i got to get back to work
you win some you lose some
the public beat back the attack on public broadcasting
and forced the house to rescind the 100 million cut
but another republican operative has joined tomlinson
as president of the corporation of public broadcasting
this has proven bushs must subtle or rather, most effective
weapon, he keep puts folk in charge of progressive institutions
whose purpose is to kill the institution while they are there
from bolton at the un to the industry insiders at securities and
environment and now public broadcasters
and not only operatives but rabid operatives, the most rabid
he can find - witness bolton
so dont rest on any laurels gang
the battle for the future of public broadcasting has just begun
the rightwing asendancy has targeted it
as as is generally the case we just playing defense
and its becoming clearer too that they are not going to give up
on privitizing social security, their latest gambit is astounding
in its chutzpah
the problem is that they still got a chance of winning this one
if only because they are so singleminded about it,
this one probably wont fly, but we have to remain very very vigilant on this
they are setting the democs up right now as voting against the lockbox
and going to try to run on that during the 2006 elections
bush has pushed them into a state of madness on this social security thing
they know it doesnt fly for the american people and would like to let it drop
except for the true believers who just dont care
okay okay, i gotta go
i got a novel to write and not enuf hours in the day days in the week
years in the life
be well
be wary
be safe
arf
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