365/day 19

[bix02138]

365


365/019 · wednesday, september 3, 2008
oscar (wao) · cambridge, massachusetts

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Comments

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

So, how many times during the evening was the word pussy uttered from those velvety lips? You know we care about these things.

[bix02138.livejournal.com]

i recall pussy once. there were loads of fucks, shits, and other entertaining verbiage. he was most entertaining, and surprisingly shy. up close, he was electric in a nonchalant way. the audience questions were tedious and self-serving, and he answered them according to his own lights. oh, and junot diaz was nice, too.

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

He sounds like the 21st century's answer to Karen Findlay. Bravo!

[shimbexprovides.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I heard his NPR interview- the book sounds incredibly readable.

[bix02138.livejournal.com]

it's my next project. my next autographed project.

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

I need to check out his interview. His fan is cute, too.

[bix02138.livejournal.com]

it was good all the way 'round.
it was a swell evening.

[ezran74.livejournal.com]

The cub is quite cute :)

[bear-left.livejournal.com]

I think I need to pick up a thing or two from you about cub hunting...

LOL

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

Majesty, your summons are so majestic that I simply must bow.

I shall provide you a catalogue

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

IF you do me right :-)

you know

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

may be I should write my great American "ethnic" novel? It seems the trend of the moment. Jhumpa Lahiri with Namesake, and now the Spanglish of Junot Diaz from Joisey. Is there a national consciousness for an overdose of PC that morphs into a sort of self-resenting whitebreadness?

re: you know

[bix02138.livejournal.com]

the history of american literature is that of the discovery of new and disparate voices. so... far from being the flavor of the month, it's a recurring, renewing and enriching tradition. and i don't know what whitebreadness is (or, rather, i reject the notion that one normative experience outspices another; what a revolting and, ultimately, racist construct).

Re: you know

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

the history of american literature is that of the discovery of new and disparate voices. - as of when? Black lit has been struggling for nearly 2 centuries with James Baldwin being long honored overseas but still a footnote in the uncaring American consciousness, and at best a knowing reference to the pseudo-elite - even if, granted, Toni Morrisson ranks up there with Cormac McCarthy?

I never said "flavor of the month". But I have sensed a fascination for immigrants stories of late. As though there is no real American story to tell - which there is not. Again, that's only my opinion.

As for "whitebreadness", it ranges from Elizabethtown to ... Lost. Sorry, I'm drawing a blank on a *literary* example(s). But give me a minute. Whitebreadness is the self-centerism of American storytelling that draws drama out of everything from cancer to mountain hiking accidents. There are tragedies that are not necessarily stories worth telling. I know that's a gasp, but... there are tragedies, and there are tragedies.

May be it isn't fair to term it "whitebreadness" which apparently offends you, so my apologies. But the fact is: "whitebreadness", as it were, represents an indulgence in self-creating tragedies that are not worth telling yet litter the American literary and entertainment landscapes.

BTW, "racist" is a part of our heritage we might as well acknowledge and reckon with, instead of pretending it doesn't or no longer exists. If I say something you find offensive, it how it has always been for those who have been offended for a very long time in this country's history without recourse.

re: you know

[bix02138.livejournal.com]

that you cite james baldwin as opposed to, say, phillis wheatley, says something.

there is a real american story to tell, and it changes with the voice of the writer/speaker.

self-centerism is the province of popular storytelling, regardless of culture. i'm processing a huge archive of filipino popular writing and literature, and—believe me—the phenomenon isn't unknown there.

i don't deny racism exists in this culture, but—guess what?—it thrives in all cultures. it would be disingenuous and dishonest to negate the role of racism in the american story, but it's just as dangerous and disingenuous to blithely suggest that past or current injustice somehow legitimizes like behavior. do you suppose for an instant that george c. wallace would have been shaken to his core and made any less a racist because someone race-baited his child or wife?

Re: I shall provide you a catalogue

[bear-left.livejournal.com]

Does it include cub samplers? :)

Re: I shall provide you a catalogue

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

:-) as you wish! Even CUP samplers :-)

You're so cutely wicked, I collapse!

Re: you know

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

that you cite james baldwin as opposed to, say, phillis wheatley, says something. - Such as?... Ah yes, I'm fairly familiar with the poetry of the 1st documented African-American poet. But my point is precisely that such work is more easily revered than the bitter truth about this country as unmasked by the in-your-face style of James Baldwin who continues to be vilified and dismissed only in this country - his own. How dared he! The truth about an abusive America and her imperialistic zeal.

My dear, when subversiveness is revered as much as *peaceful emancipation*, we shall be really free - let's not speak of "equal", yet!

there is a real american story to tell, and it changes with the voice of the writer/speaker. - name one, of late - other than Jhumpa Lahiri's, and now the Junot Diazes' who sweep the awards because they are the only things that are perceived as *real* in America?

NOTE: I'm not saying they're bad. I'm just remarking that they are indicative of a trend.

Of late, what is an American story like the british History Boys?

I'll tell you one you might know: White People (double check the title) by that blogger I saw on Atlantic.com. He chronicles the PC-laden, self-conscious white people in this country who are so eager to say "I may be white, but I'm not that kind of white people!". His hilarious satire of these people acutely denounces their righteousness which makes them just like the people they hate, or have contempt for. That is a genuine American story!

The bitter untold story of "used up" war veterans is another one. Jaredhead is but a tip of that story.

i don't deny racism exists in this culture, but—guess what?—it thrives in all cultures. - a/ Nowhere NEAR the nature and depth in this country! Do not confuse nationalism with racism. Other countries have never claimed multi-racial, ethnic and cultural equality like we do (but that's another conversation). And b/ Saying that it exists elsewhere does not justify any shred of its existence here. PLease! The rhetoric that it is only human nature is the oldest but tiredest convenient form of excuse and/or denial!

do you suppose for an instant that george c. wallace would have been shaken to his core and made any less a racist because someone race-baited his child or wife? - LOL - YES! a/ It sure feels good. b/ His descendants got an idea now! Are you kidding? MLK only started the dialogue on racism. It is the rappers in Brooklyn who have furthered it to wherever they have furthered it today - for better or for worse. They make white people uncomfortable, scared, and despise them forever more! But that's equality. It makes up for the times white people scared them to death!

Let me put it this way: Real equality is when I call you whitebread (even lovingly) and it makes you uneasy as when you call me chink - and you must accept it - that discomfort.

You see, I've gotten used it. I no longer care. You're not used to it. So you still do. It still bothers you. But just because I no longer let it bother me doesn't mean that I don't remember the pain. Nor do I want to forget it. Or should you. That's equality. Fair enough? Painful and difficult for everyone concerned. But that's how it is.

There are some truths in America that are ugly in a way that truth can be ugly like nowhere else. And those of us who understand that can do one thing first and foremost: not excuse it. not deny it.

I'm not saying you do. I'm just saying that it is an unspoken fact littered, for example, on LJ. If you accept that without resenting or questioning me, we're making progress.

re: you know

[bix02138.livejournal.com]

my bad. the monopoly on truth is yours. i cannot know your pain. you have internalized my story, my perceptions, my everymanness. i am nothing until you define me.

Re: you know

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

condescension is a subconscious form of racism :-) Even in retreat?

i cannot know your pain. you have internalized my story, my perceptions, my everymanness. - lol Do you want a kleenex? I love your "my everymanness"! That so rock!... ing (whitebread) :-0)

i am nothing until you define me. - That's right, bitch! That's why you read Junot Diaz!!! LOL

No, you can't know my pain, so little of it there is. Just as I can't know yours. Or we can't know the black people's pain. But we can acknowledge that it's all there?