i am buried, just out and out buried, historical research buried, black chronology by ellen diggs
problem is i thought i had this covered, one of my old drafts was more afroworld history than
most folk can imagine, an extensive knowledge that has often informed my current positions
a knowledge i was confident in, i figured surely all i had to do was take that draft, break up those historical
passages into the new framework and done deal, but it appears my historical knowledge is not sufficient,
my model here is memories of fire by galeano, ive probably told you that before, but if i want
to get geleanos strength i not only got to know this stuff i got to be able to extrapolate
i got to take it somewhere it aint been if i want to do sacredhistory, when i say sacred
history i mean biblic, koranic, vedic history, mythicwork, something folk can believe in
a telling that gives the reader a sense of destiny and purpose and empowerment
something they can believe in
what im realizing is that ive got 9 different books in THBOF, each segment is a book worth of writing
i will be lucky if i can get the historical thread done by dec 31, much less the others,
so question now, how do i go forward most efficiently - my biggest outside task is preparing for this forms
class next semester, literary success and the art of significance, using the books of my alums for texts,
thats a mess of reading, not just reading, but breaking their works down, determining signficances,
determining lessonplans for extracting the most from them, for gving my students an edge in the
struggle for literary stature,
so lets say this, on days when im not doing schoolhouse, the mornings & afternoons go
for THBOF, one movement a day is goal, while doing historical research cause i
cant afford to stop moving forward, thats too often fatal, one movement a day should be doable
& prepare for that forms course every evening, this should work, this should work
S/M/T schoolhouse W/T/F/S myhouse (W a tossup, depending on schoolhouse workload)
also ive got a mess of personals that i had on woodshed hold - much as i hate having to downshift
i suspect this will be kinder on my health, maybe i wont have to be burning mojo after all, and as
the magnitude of this task becomes clear, i believe ima have to take better care of my self
lengthen my days, husband my mojo
all my love
rdoc
WEDNESDAY
my condolences to all the folk hammered by the storm, it skipped over syracuse
it wil be interesting to see who brings up point that romney & ryan want to cut FEMA
and devolve emergency responses to the states, its crossstate hammers
like this that only the feds can handle
so i was wandering about the internet this morning and ran across this monstrosity and article entited,
why have the blacka abandoned the repub party when the repub party never abandoned them
a fascinating history account of the repubs party championing antislavery historically, but
just as flawed as the title promises it to be and i didnt need the bio at the bottom to know it
was written by a southern sympathazier, a teaparty activist no less
below is what i wrote in the comments section:
THIS ARTICLE IS AMUSING IN ITS BLATANT AGENDAS
its telling that this onesided tellng of republican race relations stops with the civilrights act of 1865
and has nothing to say about the nixon southern strategy of turning the south against the democrats using overtly racist appeals
and
that the same diehard southerners who were once dixiecrats are now
teaparty republicans who continue to use dogwhistle appeals to racism
any
portrayal of the 'great general forrest' that doesnt bring into account
the massacre of black soldiers at fort pillow is clearly a selective
historical reading
and his speeches, so representative of
speeches delivered by southern elites trying to regain political power
thru black votes, are not put in legitimate context either
this
was a teaparty screed with obvious agendas that decided not to cover the
modern period when the republican party actually did abandon blacks
nor does it engage the severely reactionary role the repub party plays in contemporary american politics
an obvious attempt to trick blackvoters into supporting repub policies inimical to them, and to all americans
it
is amusingly ironic in its continuation of the same southern
rejectionism that it appears to decry historically, but as evidenced by
its lauding forrest, is actually told thru a tea party lens
blacks vote their interests, and the contemporary republican party has made its animosity to blacks very clear
it
has in fact made its animosity to the true vision of america clear, an
america bound to its social contract of looking out for each other, to
building a civil society - its become radically regressive, a political
farce
black oklahoma repub jc watts father once said something
along the lines of 'a blackman voting for a republican is like a chicken
voting for colonel saunders'
that could have been said of all americans
MONDAY
interesting, spent the morning editing down the posts of the couple of last weeks, when your posting
strategy is just sit there and talk abut whatever is on your mind you get a lot of excess wordage & TMI
you dear regulators see me sweating it out, but for historical purposes - polished and concise
SUNDAY ADDENDUM p:m
i think ima stay on the gun, i think i can get thru black chronology and incorp its segments in about a week maybe (joke)
whatever, im just not willing to give up at this point, just have to try to get yet another gear
SUNDAY a:m
deadline is a no can do, got do do research, thought i had enough knowledge of blackworld history
to choose incidents that will exemplify the different movements but apparently such is not the case
ive got books that lay out afroworld history that ive been collecting for decades for just this moment
i had forgotten i had them, one in particular, black chronology - so now im researching, the question is
should i keep going forward w/the draft leaving that major hole, to be fixed later, that might work
but if i give up my deadline i can take care of these obligations i been backburnering in the name of woodshed
on surface this big storm hurts obamas early voting effort, will have to cut back campaigning
to handle it, but hopefully it will draw americans together and make him look presidential
what the hell, im gone, you can tell that was pro forma commentary,
im still kinda down, add not making my deadline to my list of woes
im gone
SATURDAY ADDENDUM p:m
what i got to do is not panic, feeling panicky now, just chill rick, follow the plan
you got a plan, follow it, finish draft of THBPF, then revision of RFTW,
read good novels, do the best you can with yours, try to
take it to higherground but let it be what it is
SATURDAY a:m
oldboy feeling humbled - so ive been reading about the cloud atlas movie, and
the book itself sounded interesting craftwise so i went by the library to pick it up
while i was there looking up mitchel i see 1Q84 by murakami, a monstrous tome i knew nothing of
i look thru cloud atlas and i see its going to be a read, same same murakami, so i order both
and im thinking jesus christ, does the competition ever rest
now im even more depressed because im thinking rest for the weary is not in the league with either
that i can see (or the industry apparently) so now im like wanting to put the hoodoo book of flowers down
and dig into the rewrite of rest, though its likely not to really change it at this point, its just touchup
i think what with this tooth reminding me of my mortality and the industry dissing my book
ive reached that middleaged point where you have to accept that your dreams are
maybe not going to be fully realized, that you are what you are and it is what it is
all my life ive just wanted to be a great writer, thats it
perhaps i am not a 'great novelist' after all, perhaps i am, as reality has been telling me all along,
just a novelist - which is okay, i cant think of anything else id rather be than a novelist, of any sort
so ima just keep humping till the clock runs out, producing product of whatever quality it is
i have been infinitely satisfied with my life, with all its failures and regrets, (some very recent)
ima have to remind myself, once again, of what aishah rahman told me so long ago, when i told her once i wanted to
be the greatest novelist ever lived and she said no art, what you want to do is sing your song the best you can
then you can appreciate others singing theirs
im ok - life is good, i done my best and will continue to do so
im ok
FRIDAY
i have broken a tooth, cant get it capped till monday, walking around w/a nub
talk about a bummer - for some reason its making me feel all 62 of my years
but right now its thrown me off my production - focus, rick,
two interesting articles recently, well, interesting to me
one about obamas groundgame - its going to be so impo to him - i feel like im back in the 60s, back in
memphis, a 12 year old with a picket sign on my back, an 18 year old signing up voters in mississippi
the question for me is are blackfolk gon throwdown or standdown, im offended by the
repub voter repression strategies, they assume they can just trick blackfolk into not voting
and folk like cornel and tavis tripping me out, putting obama down because
obama offended them, or not black enough, or not hardleft enough, whatever
and those black preachers telling blackfolk not to vote because of
samesex marriage (turns out they paid compradors - who knew)
hard to believe - blackfolk stabbing him in the back when he on the frontlines of struggle in 21st century
its like stabbing king, or shooting malcom - blackfolk telling blackfolk not to vote under any conditions is betrayal
we paid a hell of a price in the delta to get voting rights for blackfolk, for blackfolk
to discourage blackfolk from voting for a blackman its more than the soul can bear
been trying to convince myself to do some callbanking, article says
being an electoral force require more than just voting on election day
its worth reading - as is this other article about presidents and political regimes
says regimes are political memes that play out over generations
and presidents are defined by when they come into power in the life cycle of a given regime
says 'reconstructive" presidents are fortunate enuf to come into power when previous regime is falling apart
and are transformational - whereas for instance "affiliated" presidents represent a regime that is in decline
says "reconstructive" roosevelt initiated new deal regime that defined america for generations
until it became rigid and reactionary, unable to come up w/fresh ideas, played out
"reconstructive" reagan initiated reagan regime of shrinking gov, low taxes, antiunion, socialdarwinism, etc
when "disfunctive" clinton came along it was still strong and he had to tack to its winds as dem moderate
says "affiliated" bushes caught reagan regime in decline, rigid & radically regressive, silly stage played out
article says if "reconstructive" obama wins he will be transformational and forge a new consensus
says if "disfunctive" romney wins he will also preside over its demise, unable to satisfy its different wings
in the same manner that kennedy and johnsons support of civilrights broke the back of the dems coalition
what i like about this article put me back in a longgame state of mind when i been whipsawed by the election into a 2 week crises mode, ive garbled the synopsis because i dont have time to really translate it
read it yourself, get your longgame on
all my love
snaggle tooth rick
Glad you still hanging - Well I am finished - Doing mostly poetry now Haiku with some Japanese on line
http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000544783/1969-I-Am-Lucky-to-Be-Me.aspx
Katrina has her book out too. Stay strong Bro Man
Posted by: nanakwame | October 26, 2012 at 04:03 PM