Roots Music, Folk Art, Vernacular Writing
Q: What are the relations between, or among roots music, folk art, and vernacular writing?
A: The artists are looked down on by critics, and professionals, in their
respective fields as amateurs. Untrained, cranks, tinfoil hats. Outsiders.
But they don't think of themselves as outsiders. If anything, they think of themselves
as contenders who can't get a shot at the title because they won't eat shit.
They're simply musicians, painters, and writers. Working in a niche they invented
themselves. Often by not accepting the received tradition. Not from not knowing
it.
They're trying to reach a wide, general audience. Not a cult, or coterie.
Sometimes they break through, not always to the mainstream, but to self-sufficiency,
so they can work at their craft full-time, and get better at it.
Sometimes
they don't.
In writing, Bukowski and Richard Brautigan broke out of the underground,
Phil Dick broke out of science fiction, and Charles Willeford and Jim Thompson broke
out of paperback original mysteries.
Q: And you hope to break out of self-published pamphlets, zines, ezines, the online journal (OLJ), and the weblog (blog).
A: Why not? They didn't look like they were going to. Until they did.
Oh, yea. Anaïs Nin broke out of belles-lettres.
Barry Gifford.
Barry Gifford has a career.
Serializing novels on the worldwide web is the
modern equivalent of the pulp magazines--or pulp novels--Dick and Willeford and Thompson
published in.
I don't look down on myself. And I have a following. The
Buzzard Cult. They keep me from going crazy.
My loved ones are proud of
me.
What more does a man need?
All the rest is busywork and vanity.
Phone calls, appointments, email, and deal-making.
Q: What happens to a person who doesn't make it.
A: They quit, sell out, or turn bitter.
Q: Are you bitter?
A: No, I'm pissed off.
Joe Smith says,
Whiny? Never. Jack is much too angry for that. See, Jack is a man at the end of his rope.
He also said,
Is Jack Saunders America's greatest underpublished author? I don't know, but after reading these 4 booklets, all I can say is that I hope he never stops ranting.
The last ranter who broke through to the mainstream was Hunter S. Thompson,
and he couldn't stand the pace.
He self-medicated himself until he couldn't
write anymore.
Q: Fuck Hunter S. Thompson.
A: No, he's dead. Long live his successor.
If there is one.
I can't see one breaking into the mainstream now, as tight-assed and centralized
as corporate publishing is.
Just because there is a demand for something
doesn't mean we'll get it. There's a demand for public transportation, or cheap
VW bugs, but they're gone, and won't be back. 1967 was the last good model they
made, Bukowski says.
Q: So what do you do? Enjoy the life that you are in? Make pen-pals, through the mail? Network with kindred spirits?
A: Yes. Go to former-hippie powwows. Eat, drink, tell stories. Live
la vie de Bohème. Listen to homemade music.
There's a guy at The Red
Bar who is a chainsaw sculptor. He makes a living at it.
A 300 lb Hawaiian
who drives a red Triumph roadster with a V-8 Engine in it. Outrun the Word of God.
Joe Smith
Joe Smith
Red Roach Press
Box 764
College Park, MD 20740
Dear Joe Smith:
Thanks for The Die. I read them cover to cover, as soon as I get them.
Thanks also for reviewing the four pamphlets I sent.
Here's 32 Short Reviews
of BUKOWSKI NEVER DID THIS.
BUKOWSKI NEVER DID THIS is due out June
1. I'll ask Pat Simonelli, LitVision Press, to send you a copy. He's a member of
the ULA.
I'm excited about the book.
I cashed in an annuity to give
myself a grant to promote it. Then I wrote a book about doing that. OF MAKING MANY
BOOKS THERE IS NO END: A FORM OF INSANITY.
That book is on the web. In
two parts. "Dragging Up: Art Brew Gives Himself an LDA Grant (Last Ditch
Attempt)" (www.thedailybulletin.com/ldagrant/ldagrant.htm) and "Postcards
From Point and Shoot: An Immobilized Hero Novel" (www.thedailybulletin .com/postcards/postcards.htm).
Fraternally yours,
Jack Saunders
Garage Band Books
Box 10501
Panama City, FL 32404