Of Ink and Quills and Parchment

Tags

2nd Amendment, Jack Kerouac, Muslims, Qur'an, right wing bigotry, Rosh Hashanah, Sharron Angle, Soame Jenyns, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Writers, writing, Yom Kippur

One of the joys of living, it seems to me, is the ever-present ability to re-invent oneself. So, a few months ago, I declared, amid no fanfare whatsoever, that I deemed myself a writer.

I’m not sure there is some formal standard that one must meet in order to claim this appellation. If there is, I may not meet it. But then I don’t care. It is my claim, and anyone is free to disagree.

Note that I call myself a writer, not a Writer. I reserve the capital W for those who can REALLY write. I scribble, with an occasional dash of brilliance that streaks across the sky and too soon snuffs out much as your average meteorite. A big ado about little–this is me.

I have concluded that being a self-proclaimed writer gives me a certain ability to be witty and slashingly evil. All in the name of sharp-edgy rhetoric, the turn of a phrase that causes a gasp from you my reader. You do gasp on occasion don’t you? Please say you do.

It’s why I adore people like Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman, and goodness knows one of my favorites Truman Capote. And Tennessee Williams! Rapier wit, icy, droll, slicing, eviscerations. I just love them all.

I read this piece today courtesy of 3quarksdaily and frankly the article on a very old book on the study of evil is worth reading, but I include it for its gorgeous quotes. One is by Capote, who in reviewing Jack Kerouac‘s On the Road, quipped:

That was not writing, that was typing.

There is another by the reviewer of Soame Jenyns book, A Free Inquiry in the Nature and Origin of Evil. But follow the link for that. As I said, a discussion of the author’s theory of evil is worth the read in and of itself. Evil here is cast in the greater sense of natural as well as man-made, and Jenyn’s concludes that evil is required to keep balance in a well run universe. I would of course not agree, but that’s a whole other blog post.

Oh just want to throw in my two cents at the GOP attempt to “speak against the nut case pastor in Florida.” Both Sarah and John B. have weighed in and both, as I have heard are tying the impropriety of the Qur’an burning to the impropriety of Park51. Like there is anything remotely similar in the two. Just exactly what is to be expected from moral defectives. Shame on ya both.

Helen weighs in on the book burning over at Margaret and Helen. Never miss these lovely slices of humor and straight talk. Ever. I mean it.

I got to thinking. (You have been warned.) We were watching The Colony last night. It is a reality show where about ten people are thrown into an area somewhere along the Louisiana coastline, as “refugees” of a viral global epidemic. Nine-tenths of the human race is dead. They are left to their own devices. It’s fairly interesting as they scavenge material and food, trying to build a viable community.

They are not doing well with food, and they are starting to show the effects. I suddenly giggled at the possible headline:

 Reality show participants forget that it’s just pretend, and by lots kill a member for food. Body found partly dismembered. One survivor was heard to  say, why “he tasted just like pork, better than the cockroaches we were eating for sure.”  All have been hospitalized and are under observation. Psychiatrists condemn show producers for not making the make-believe aspect more clear. Meanwhile, the partially eaten body of James Kelly was turned over to the family for burial. A closed casket is expected. Authorities are investigating for possible criminal charges. The leader of the survival group, when advised that it was all just make-believe, expressed his sympathy, and emphatically said, that no such killing would have occurred had they not been so hungry, or had they known that a Burger King was right down the street, behind the fence.

Well, so sue me. I have a morbid mind at times.

On a completely different note:

I ran into this at Tikkun Daily Blog: Non-Jews would benefit from observing Rosh Hashanah thru Yom Kippur (Sept 9-Sept 19). I think Rabbi Lerner is right. Repentance and atonement are things we all need, both individually and communally. We are so quick to blame others for the chaotic world we live in. We don’t condone nor commit the hate that swirls around us, but we are complicit when we sit in silence bemoaning the state of things. When we don’t speak out, and let it be known that we disagree with the war mongers and hate mongers who continually tear down bridges and erect walls of division. This is a good read.

Heather at Crooks and Liars has an important question, or at least reiterates one: when has someone crossed a line? When is the GOP rhetoric just too much. When is it dangerous? When it is traitorous? When do we pull back in disgust and turn our backs on such people as simply unacceptable in a democratic state? Rachel Maddow asks this of Sharron Angle and her continuing threat that people may have to resort to their second amendment rights to get what they want. Is this the real face of the GOP? Are they the party of dictatorship?

What’s on the stove: pork chops and parslied potatoes and green beans.