We’re No. 2!
WE’RE NO. 2! July 15 – August 14. 35,000 words. I read Wolf: The Lives of Jack London, by James L. Haley. What is he—some kind of socialist? I read The Great Man and Trouble, by Kate Christensen. That woman is trouble. I order In the Drink from Amazon.com, used. Young and single in New York. I’m old and married in Point and Shoot. Money problems, employment problems, fired for blogging, blacklisted as a writer. Or weighed in the balance and found wanting as a writer. Who wants to hear about your 39th year? Even being a ULA Literary All-Star trading card #2 writer is past glory. That was last decade, buddy. That was ten years ago. Get over it. Move on. I see that DIARY OF AN INTERNET POET: DAILY TYPEWRITING CHEZ JACK THE RAVER, WRITER, and WE’RE NO. 2! form a series of three books called Hick Lit: A Hidden, or Unknown Masterpiece. Then I see Hick Lit is called Generation of Strainers: A Diatribe. Then I drop the subtitle and just call it Generation of Strainers, by analogy with Generation of Vipers, and Generation of Swine. It isn’t whining or complaining, knocking my betters and making fun of New York, it’s diatribe. It’s cocking a snook at New York. Giving New York the raspberry, or a Bronx cheer.
I read J. P. S. Brown’s Arizona Saga and see Generation of Strainers is like his Arizona Saga, rather than like Jack Kerouac’s Duluoz Saga. My stack, 40-Year Run, is like Kerouac’s Duluoz Saga.
Thanks for the copy of Screed. I liked it very much. In fact, I've been reading it aloud to my wife in bed at night. You write in a kind of natural, organic, free-flowing and perfectly lucid style that I much admire
Edward Abbey
Writing about the ULA “Howl” protest, I include a picture with a sign saying “No Fake Howl.” That’s funny because everybody inside is a fake and the people outside, the real poets, as you might say, are disgruntled losers. I add the subtitle No Fake Howl to Generation of Strainers. Then I change it to A Life on Paper. That’s about it. I curdled, it rankles, the writing took over. I left a record. I am invited to speak at Gulf Course Writers Conference in September. I write a pamphlet, 40-Year Run, accounting for my stewardship. Then I write another pamphlet, Writing as Growth: Don’t Expect a Trophy. Then I do a presentation as a slide show, in PowerPoint. I am ready. I expand on the PowerPoint outline and write a third pamphlet, Writing as Growth: The Presentation. Dread Clampitt are going to play at the American Legion by Lake Ella in Tallahassee August 28. Grant Peeples rents us a motel room. I rent a rental car and we drive over for that. I start thinking about Tallahassee, where we got married, in Judge Gwynn’s chambers, in the Leon County Courthouse, in August, 1968.