WEDNESDAY
trudging along, still turning notes into text and processing the kenyan tragedy
im taking the death of kofi awooner personally, met him a the palf ghana conference
insufferably arrogant but you could say the same about me
and im supposed to do sls kenya this year, 1st time i did it was right after the mombassa
bombing, everybody else bailed but me - and im going this year too if they dont cancel
but ima tell you im about tired of these fundamentalists, christian teaparty fundamentalists
trying to impose their punitive beliefs on the rest of us, islamic fundamentalists killing folk
in the name of allah, afrospiritual fundamentalists stuck in the archaic past, hell even
literary fundamentalism irritates me
i got to go, im so behind, ima kick off rootwork press this year
im start by doing my own backlist, aglb and the revised mojo rising
i been waiting for whoever buy rest to bring out backlist too
but best i get proactive on this, every semester i get letters
from professors asking if aglb is available for their classes
doing my own work totally embarass me so im not going to do promotion
i just want them to exist, and i want my revised mojo rising to be out there
i have really really taken that book to a new level, this the prophetic work
its become the kind of sacred work i want in my arsenal
and i want it in the dialogue, even if it gets ignored, i want it in the dialogue
the macarthur passed me by again, whats wrong w/those folk,
they keep fumbling the ball
im out, i got to put rootwork press into gear on top of all my other obligations
and i refuse to come off of the hoodoo book of flowers, i got to get another gear
all my love, rest easy kofi
a luta continua
rdoc
FRIDAY
so i am in process of turning some 200 pages of notes i got from that website into flowerisian poetry
and i see it wont suffice - its missing too many beats i already have, i see their primary reference
is the unesco history of africa, 7 vols and i just ordered them, i got to choose my own significant beats
and having the encyclopaedic knowledge about the hstiory of the world appeal to me - i just hate that
im too far on now to get years of mileage out of it but if it informs my current works that will have to suffice
im just slogging thru the mud now, putting in the hours . . .
SUNDAY
hello world, let me see if i can do this concisely
i been tripping, bonnie left for weekend and i stepped into the zone
last month or so i been spinning my wheels, sweating thru turning
old notes into text, problem been my notes arent balanced, for instance
i had tons of notes on the islamic conquest of the north but little for instance
on the central kingdoms, over the years my interests have been focused
but i was thinking i had everything i needed so i was struggling but eventually
had a gap i could not skim over, ancient ghana, so i went to the internet
the internet has so changed how i research a novel/holybook
i remember when research meant trekking to the library, if not certain libraries (schomberg)
and laboriously going thru their stacks (card catalogs) but now im working on something
a research question arises, i satisfy it instantly, got to know how to separate
the substance from the fluff but thats always been the case
so ghana, among other sites i found this one on bbc africa, it was so full and concise
i went to home and found a compact concise history of africa that covers all the basics
so ima use this for my template, my historical africa section, then weave my own more
selective licks in and then weave it all into a divine narrative - basically thats what holybooks
are, a cultures historical narrative written as divine mythology
so basically im stealing,, as someone once did to rootsblog, came thru spent about 20 secs on each page
everypage for 10 years - same thing im doing, long enuf to save and paste each section to a word document
in a way its stealing, but thats why they put it up there, for scholars, artists and the interested
to use it as a springboard to the next step and
me using it as the base research for a wouldbe holybook
universalizing an the african way of god would tickle them
by the time ive reworked these notes to extract the essence they will be mine, in my voice
its a curious process
one problem when a new project starts getting good to you the bargaining commences
10 years lord, give me 10 more productive years and i will be satisfied
as a project nears completion the bargaining becomes intense, 10 months lord, please, lord
then its done and you relax - okay, now i can go, now i can coast - then you pick up another
project and the bargaining starts all over - 10 years lord, 10 more productive years and i
wont ask you for nothing else ever again -
i was cool for a minute but now i am anxious again, doris jean
austin once said every book done makes it easier to die
all my love
rdoc
addendum: ex: essentialization: of todays post this is what made it to facebook:
when a new project starts getting good to you the bargaining commences - 10 years, lord, give me 10 more productive years & i will be satisfied - as project nears completion the bargaining becomes intense - 10 months lord, please, lord, please - then its done and you relax, - okay, now i can go, now i can coast - then you pick up another project and the bargaining starts all over - 10 years lord, 10 more productive years & i wont ask you for nothing else - doris jean austin once said every book done makes it easier to die
which on twitter became:
when project starts getting good the bargaining begins, give me 10 years lord - doris austin once said every book done makes it easier to die
i enjoy getting ruthless on a text, being forced to decide
just what is essential here, just where is the power
im gone, i got to go
SATURDAY
hello world, this was a facebook post, dont have time to redo it
most of it you already know, dear regulators, but i felt like it
was a concise statement of where i am, thats what i
like about facebook and twitter, force me to be concise
what i work out here, 1st i boil it down to facebook size
then i do it twittersize, an excercise in digital communication, essentialism
im gone, been in the zone all weekend long, rickydoc rolling
told myself no more novels - been working my afroam holybook, the hoodoo book of flowers, novel (rest) done, its time - been many drafts over many decades, ive tried biblic, koranic, iching and ifa, nothing has worked, much less been numinous - but while in china this summer read journey to the west and gripped the monkey king, blew my literary mind, still working wouldbe holybook but its become a novel of sorts, highjohn the conqueror as pilgrim thru time & space, shapeshifter influencing those points where humanity crossroads in our quest to be greater than we are, holybook as novel is awkward fusion but it is my passionate belief that it is only thru fusion of forms that you come up with new works, new licks, new ways
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