Always work in a despised medium.
Blaster Al, paraphrasing Fredric Brown
SCRIB. January 23 – February 5. 28,000 words. Cacoëthes Scribendi had a restless urge to write. Also, he realized that he was in show business. Like a clown. What genre is SCRIB. Jack Remick said Screed was, “…the first piece of American fiction that is not a novel.” It is not only not a novel, it is not fiction. It’s all true stories, Kerouac said, about his Duluoz Saga. Who knows if it’s true. Who would know. Does it ring true to you? You will know. You have a built-in shock-proof shit-detector. Clown is an act. Making a spectacle of myself is an act. You see that, don’t you. The purpose of satire is to bring about change. That’s what makes it different from other forms of comedy. Satura means mixed plate, or medley. Everything under the sun. But its motivation is to improve society by ridiculing society’s foibles and peccadilloes. Using obscenity, pratfalls, fart jokes, dogs humping the knee. Think of Lenny Bruce. You can’t say that. Think of George Carlin. That’s not allowed. Think of Brother Dave, Beloved. Of course, Brother Dave was crazy. He had a swastika in his dressing room. He thought nightclub owners were Jewish. Maybe I’m crazy. How would I know? Brother Dave satirized Earl Long, Governor of the Sovereign State of Louisiana, by saying. “I be damn if I’m crazy.” To the head of the state police, hauling him off to the mental hospital in Mandeville. Long ride with Uncle Earl in the back seat, dog-cussing you. Scrib Online shows SCRIB as it is being written, and discovers its form, and shows where it fits in Jack Saunders’ Stack.
CRITICAL FUDGE:
THE AMERICAN DREAM ENTERS MELTDOWN. February 6 – February 14. 27,000 words.
Just before fudge turns into fudge, or glops up and is ruined, the
molecules are spinning around, in existential uncertainty. This is critical fudge. Nothing makes sense. Nothing works. Look at
KNOCKING AROUND. February 15 – February 19. 10,000 words. The small press movement, mail art, writing and publishing books and pamphlets on the worldwide web. I read Dwayne Raymond’s Mornings with Mailer. I end Scrib Online: In the Hands of a Capable Artisan with the last line from Harlot’s Ghost, “To be continued.”
40-YEAR RUN: A CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ OF JACK SAUNDERS’ STACK. 84,000 words.
WAKULLA WINGDING. February 20 – March 2. 8,000 words. I see that “40-Year Run: A Catalogue Raisonné of Jack Saunders’ Stack” and “Wakulla Wingding” go on the end of SCRIB ONLINE. Oh, well. I might as well make it the way I want to. Who’s to gainsay me? My publisher? My agent? I post “40-Year Run: A Catalogue Raisonné of Jack Saunders’ Stack” online, and start reading through it, trying to make sense of what I have done, and where I will go next, after SCRIB ONLINE. I start what I think is a new book, A HARD CASE, but WAKULLA WINGDING snaps itself off and A HARD CASE adds itself on to Scrib Online: In the Hands of a Capable Artisan.
A HARD CASE: SCRIB WRITES THE ANTI-COMMERCIAL NOVEL IN AN AGE OF MARKETPLACE CENSORSHIP. February 27 – March 10. 15,000 words. I go to the Wakulla Wingding by myself. Balder couldn’t make it. I rent a car and stay in a Best Western motel in Medart. Brenda and I watch The Oscars on TV. I see that Scrib Online is a septet.
OLD FOLKS AT HOME. March 11. 2,500 words. I prepare to celebrate my 10th anniversary online. What is a septet? Poems, prose vignettes, self-interviews, novellas, novels, series of related novels, autobiography. All mixed together, cheek by jowl. Did you see the jowls on that son of a bitch? Yes I did. I remember. Slippery Dick. The media called him Tricky Dick. Slippery Dick is better. What’s wrong with the media? Nothing. It’s show business. It’s a Cinderella story. With no second act. I stop in the middle. I hit my mark and stop. What’s more country than bluegrass? I’m a pretty fair country writer. Put your hand on the radio.