A Revised Twist

Picking at this post for a few days, I haven't been able to pull it together, whip it into shape. It starts running away from me, laughing, taking its own turn, revealing me to be narrow-minded and stupid. My mind spins.

At this point I accuse myself of not being able to finish any of these stories because I am a nihilist. But I immediately recognize that nothing is further from the truth. I believe in a great many things---so many in fact that the beliefs tend to cancel each other out. Good writers are successful because they can eliminate (at least in a given work) all but one possible way of seeing the world. They develop styles and structures because they are following through with this single vision. Robbe-Grillet's novels, for example, are the product of one particular way of looking at the world. As he was writing he was able to block from his mind the knowledge that during most of his life he sees the world in many different ways. If he looked at reality in his daily life as he does in his novels, he would never be able to do a single practical thing like catching a train or showing up for a speaking engagement on time. Is arrogant, spiritual narrowmindedness the essence of the writer? - (from "The Coal Shoveller", by Keith Fort in an anthology called Anti-Story, found on the 50-cent shelf at the library)

Making myself crazy the past few days thinking my one-sided thoughts about antagonist protagonist George W Bush, I remind myself that Presidents Day is obviously (still) the celebration of white males, the march of white "progress" in the USA, and if George W Bush has his way, the world. It is primarily a story about power and world dominance and like other dominant white males I have known, our president is a static character, a passive-aggressive daddy-boss, pleased with himself but constantly displeased with us, his children. And of course secretive, uncommunicative, withholding the necessary information with which we could defend ourselves. Damn, Daddy grounded us again. Wiretapping US citizens is for our own good. Taking away those unfair egalitarian social programs like medicare, medicaid, welfare, WIC, bankruptcy, student loans, funding for public education... is for our own best interest! Trust your daddy!

He abuses the weak and rewards those, like him, who already have more than they need. George W Bush is arrogant, uninformed, disconnected, unavailable, uninterested... just like any ol' abusive husband and father-villain. And the people he hurts the most support him the most forcefully. I have seen the midwest version of the old-boys' club at work. As long as there is uncontested power, the minor white characters (women and men) are protected and sheltered, but watch out people of color! You will be made the villains and scapegoats first, while white people play your parts. As you know, is very difficult for those in power to tell the difference between Italians and Native Americans. We have reached the place in the rising action where white men, feeling control slipping out of their grasp and trying to maintain a semblance of authority, go "on the warpath". One of my students proclaimed the other day that he "is patriotic, and to prove it he watches NASCAR". What can you say to that bit of insane dialogue? You must turn to humor, because comedy is the only safe way to talk about subjects the government has prohibited. They, like bumblingly hilarious but at the same time cruel and sadistic Inspector Clouseaus', are watching us. They secretly torture innocent people, you know. It is for our own good. It's all classified. No, not only in Iraq and not Guantanamo. It happens each day in prisons and reservations, filled with people of color, all across this great land.

OK. Come on, people. Look alive. Get into character! It's time to talk about setting.

Sports, politics, and religion are the three passions of the badly educated. They are the Midwest's open sores. Ugly to see, a source of constant discontent, they sap the body's strength. Appalling quantities of money, time, and energy are wasted on them. The rural mind is narrow, passionate, and reckless on these matters. Greed, however shortsighted and direct, will not alone account for it. I have known men, for instance, who for years have voted aquarely against their interests. Nor have I ever noticed that their surly Christian views prevented them from urging forward the smithereening, say, of Russia, China, Cuba, or Korea. And they tend to back their country like they back their local team: They have a fanatical desire to win; yelling is their forte; and if things go badly, they are inclined to sack the coach... (totally out of context, of course, from "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country", by William Gass in the same anthology)

The critics will no doubt bombard me. They will say to "get with the times". "The world has changed!" "Look how far minorities and women have come!" Postmodernism has toppled all the old structures. Sometimes it seems, though, that we haven't changed at all. The characters are wearing different masks, I think. Or maybe it's that the costumes have changed. But the anti-heroes are ruined. They have compromised too much. To get the good roles, we have sold our bodies and our minds. Our legs are constantly open, and George W is our pimp. Five, six times a day for the US of A. We don't know up from down, good from bad, life from death, truth from lies. We are numb, but we still mouth the dream, and groaning we build to a climax. (Sex sells!)

In closing, I'm sure this project will work. Please. Give it a try. I may have been a black and white thinker in the past, but give me a break. I've been bamboozled! My head is spinning! It is mere overcompensation by one who has been typecast for too long. Another thing that you may as well know about my character is that she has in her list of flaws the inability to befriend people who disagree with her, which makes her unnecessarily lonely. When the time comes for this dynamic character to confront this shortcoming it turns out to be pretty easy! She "happens on" this newspaper horoscope at a doctor's office, or maybe while waiting for a train:

Sagittarian Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman elected to Congress. While serving seven terms, she was an outspoken warrior who fought tirelessly for the rights of women, minorities, and the poor. 'My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear,' she said, 'is my mouth, out of which comes all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency.' Yet one of Chisholm's most famous exploits was her visit to segregationist politician George Wallace in the hospital after he was shot. Her supporters complained that she was consorting with the enemy, but years later it paid off. Wallace helped her win the votes of southern congressmen when she sponsored legislation to give domestic workers a minimum wage. Be like Chisholm this week, Sagittarius. Even as you open your big mouth to articulate controversial truths, reach out to those who disagree with you.

She glances at the others around her, all submerged in their own worlds and realizes that perhaps things aren't as they seem.

Still waiting for a twist ending, I hope that George W Bush doesn't accomplish total destruction of the environment before this is finished. And who knows? His seemingly weak and pathetic character may be exactly what we need to bring some "color" to a future Presidents Day. That is, if this story doesn't end in total annihilation. Who am I to see the wider picture?

I love predicting. Maybe George W Bush is our little Gollum, pathetic but necessary. And we, sitting in the impersonal glare of the waiting room, reading People magazine, submerged in our own little worlds, glance up together to see someone looking at us. We suddenly remember, like deja-vu all over again, that perhaps things aren't as they seem. This may be the beginning of the story. Perhaps we, at this moment in time, are passing through the narrative hook. We realize that all things change.