Fun with Alternate History

I joined the Alternate History Discussion Group yesterday and so far I've put forth two alternate time lines. One, Hermetic studies remain a legitimate field of study that is not just limited to New Agers and Fringe people. The Second, Howard Philips Lovecraft assassinates President Calvin Coolidge. These are both for my amusement. The Hermetic one is more thought out, as I wanted to write a novel that would basically be something like William Gibson if William Gibson had worked under Numerology and Kabbalah. I call it Hermetpunk, or maybe Occultpunk. I prefer Hermetpunk.
I seem to be getting more and more into science fiction again. Ever since I started reading Philip K. Dick I thought, I should read some more science fiction. I feel like I'm getting back to my roots again. I'm also coming up with sort of science fiction stories, which I may go into at some point. Probably not though.
Also, update on the alternate history. The Lovecraft assassinating Calvin Coolidge turned into Lovecraft attempting to assassinate Coolidge and failing horribly. So far all it's done is eliminate the Cthulhu Mythos from the time line, and probably keep Coolidge from making any more public appearances for awhile. Which he didn't do much of anyways.
That's it for now. Bye.

Untitled

I'm getting a bit bored with all this Frosh Week nonsense and would like the real meat and potatoes of University to start. I've got all the books and things. I guess what I'm really feeling is, well something like isolation but also that I'm not being fulfilled intellectually or spiritually. I wish that there were other writers I could talk with. Unfortunately I don't know where to find such people. I could ask people passing by if they are writers, but I don't think that it would be particularly efficient.
So far I haven't written anything but blog posts at University. This makes me feel a bit sad and I feel I should try and get some writing done while I'm here.

56 Pencils

I don't think I made this wide knowledge on my blog, but I love pencils. I would consider a big box full of fresh unsharpend pencils a great present and logically presume that whoever game me such a gift cared deeply for me and if not a blood relative was probably coming on to me. This is something that my sisters make fun of me for, saying I have a thousand pencils. Well today, because I had nothing else to do I decided to look through my pencil case and figure out how many pencils I have anyways. And the answer is that there are currently 56 pencils in my pencil case. The question has been answered. I also have two pencils hiding somewhere and 48 let to be sharpened pencils. That would make a hundred and six pencils. By then however, most of the pencils featured in the above picture will be to small for usage.
Also, if anyone has any environmentally friendly ideas for what I can do with my discarded pencils that would be excellent.

The Songbook of Naos Ben-David

My friend Kron's Internet is down, which makes me feel somewhat lonely. I've enjoyed many fine conversations with him over the MSN this summer, and my favorite coffee shop feels lonely and a bit overwhelming, to the point where I am know listening to Charlie Parker on my Ipod as you can see. I was trying to get the picture of Charlie Parker in, but my Ipod screen is too shiny.
Good news though, I've written a poem. Or it may be a song, it could be both, but it's mostly a song. I call it "Evangelism Blues," and it's part of a project I'm calling The Songbook of Naos Ben-David. Yes, I know I'm starting a new project. I'm always coming up with new projects. Short Story Anthologies, Poetry Anthologies, Series of Novels, Borges-inspired Encyclopedias, but this one I'm going to do. I actually plan on having a Songbook of Naos Ben-David published. I've already got it set in my mind, I always saw Naos as a sort of singer-songwriter and I figured that I might as well write the songs that he sings. Sure, this first one isn't going to be Naos' Blowing in the Wind, but I figured it was as good a place to start with as any. I'm going to write eleven or twelve more for the first album. Maybe I could also learn how to play guitar so I could write the notes. Or maybe that would just distract me. I could have someone else make the notes.
I also discovered a new website called Poets.org. I'd link to it, but my computer has been all bitchy since I downloaded Firefox. Just go to www.poets.org, it's got all kinds of great poets and poetry and articles and things. I'll probubly set up a link to it somewhere on my blog. It's a great website.

More on Weimar, Novels this Time

I want to update you people on the events of my life, but so far nothing much has happened. I have a good idea of what I have in store for the various poor PCs into the world of Weimar Berlin, all the important people in the Consiliuum are set up, all I need to know is get all there information down. I think that if I do everything right, then I can get to 1933 by the end off Winter Term. By then I'm seriously hoping that the characters are smart enough to run, but I'm sure I can drop enough hints that running would be a good idea. Still, I plan on having all kinds of fun, and the environment is just messed-up that we can have various PCs of unethical leanings. I'd like them to take the moral high ground on some issues, if only because I like being around moral people. At least they won't be the most unethical people in this game, I should keep that in mind. Heck, I don't even need to make-up characters that are worse then them, one of the NPCs is Adolf Hitler.
Still not writing much. I've got a kind of Burrougheseque story involving Naos, Helen and a Nationalism Disease which I may or may not write, but I don't know if I like writing stories about Naos and Helen in the Desert. I honestly think I'm not ready to write the story of Naos and Helen. I see it as more of something like Doctor Zhivago meets Masked and Anonymous if it was written by Philip K. Dick. As such I see it as being pretty urbane. I should also read Doctor Zhivago if I'm going to make that connection.
I am not really reading anything at the moment. I am trying to get into Knut Hamsun's Hunger, but so far I haven't gotten into it. I'm also trying to read Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End. Haven't gotten into that either. I think I should make a list of books I should read. I'd like to read more Philip K. Dick, and when I get back to University I'm probably going to pick up a book of his short fiction. I also want to read some of the various books I have on me that I have yet to read. I still mean to read Paul Bowles, so I should probably get started on either The Delicate Prey and Other Stories and The Sheltering Sky. I'm going to have to make a reading list at some point. I do plan on reading some Christopher Isherwood when I get to University for the campaign though.
Anyways, waiting to get to University. Not sure how many days it is from now. Going to try and read some Gary Snyder.

Solve Et Coagula: The Magic Naturalist Magazine

Today the spectre of Nazism is not as powerful as it was yesterday. I believe that this is because I am now writing it out in a form that can help restore my sanity. I am currently working on a piece of short fiction that I believe will help me deal with the existential stresses of National Socialism. This short story will hopefully express the issues I have, while at the same time tear a hole of complete absurdity into the entire idea of Nazis. I think that's what Mel Brooks did with "The Producers."

Speaking of writing, I have been thinking about my idea of the perfect literary magazine. This would be one that I would help publish and it would be linked to the idea of Magic Naturalism. It probably would be THE Magic Naturalist magazine, "Solve Et Coagula." I came up with this idea last night. It would be a single magazine that would have an issue every three months or so, usually with a theme of some sort that would give a loose theme. The theme wouldn't be to important however, and some issues may not even have a theme. It would also have more or less the same group of artists, all of whom would be in contact with each other, thus we would have a highly regional magazine made up mostly of the Magic Naturalists. Each issue would feature what those particular Magic Naturalists were doing and show examples of Magic Naturalist stories, paintings, poems and articles. It would also have transcripts of discussions made by various members of the Magazines, in retelling form or through copying down MSN chats. There would also be a special "Guest Feature," in each issue where we would get someone who is not from the Magic Naturalist group proper who would act as a guest. If this was a perfect world I'd probably see if I could get Alan Moore to be a "Guest Feature," because I have officially declared him a Grandfather of Magic Naturalism.

I basically got the idea from the Hermann Hesse book I'm reading. It's called "The Glass Bead Game," or "Magister Ludi," but I'm calling it "The Glass Bead Game," because that's the proper name. It's about the life of a guy called Joseph Knecht, and takes place in an unspecified future were the Intelligentsia has evolved into various monastic orders and the highest form of which is a bunch of people who play the Glass Bead Game, which is some kind of multi-disciplinary game that is very complex and only really smart, educated people can play. I was really struck by the idea of the Intelligentsia Monks, because they seem to be doing this right, and not in a way that I'm doing. They're unconcerned with fame or money or any of that stuff. This made me question my own goals, am I writing because of fame and money? I certainly want to get paid for my writing, but I'm not so sure about fame. I don't want fame, yet I would like people to read my work. Is having people read my work the same as being famous? Mind you, I don't want a, say Michael Jackson level of fame, where they wont shut up about me. I don't want paparazzi following me around. But does the paparazzi follow writers around? Are they're really any famous writers anymore? I feel out of touch with the common man, if they're is such a thing? Is the common man the people who watch Entertainment Tonight to see if John and Kate have broke up yet and which one has custody over the plus 8? Do people follow Salman Rushdie around, or that guy who wrote American Psycho? I don't even think I know any famous writers of today. Well, I know Salman Rushdie and Thomas Pynchon, know of them I mean, but they aren't followed by paparazzi. They both have to lie low, or Salman Rushdie does. I think Thomas Pynchon may have CIA connections, but that's just baseless hypothesizing.

I don't think we live in a world were writers are famous, they're just well known. I also think that if I really wanted too, I could probably disappear from Gossip Columnist Radar. But anyways, to tie everything back together, I wanted to make this magazine, which we will call Solve Et Coagula for now, as a way around this. It would be more a way for various artists with similar interests to communicate, and show they're work to each other. "See, this is what I did. Love what you did there. See that guy, man I loved his photography, we should have him in the Zine sometime." That sort of thing. I think it would be a good idea. It could be worked around the whole fame and money thing, and we could all just concentrate on the Art.

Canadian Literature and It's Relationship To Me

I'm writing this at the public library in my hometown and you should expect more posts from here in recent days. I'm hanging out here to save money as whenever I'm at Revel I tend to buy stuff, usually food and I've already bought a book and an ice cream with the large amount of government money I came in with recently. I can also get more writing done here I imagine. I'll tell you how it goes.
Anyways, Today I'd like to talk about Canadian Literature. It's something that I'm really comfortable with, as I don't really see myself as being involved in Canadian Literature. I'm not familiar with Canadian Literature and have very little knowledge of it other then what I've heard. I read very little Canadian writers. Most of the people I read are either American or British, and among by favorite authors are a Russian and a Chilean. Also, I don't really know if I want to be considered involved in Canadian Literature because I don't feel that Canadian Literature is really taken seriously. Maybe it's because most great Canadian writers haven't been dead long enough, but I just never saw myself as a real Canadian. I just sort of live here. I don't even know if I'll spend most of my life in Canada. The idea of living in another country is seeming more and more appealing, since I feel dangerously close to America sometimes. I'm growing more and more distrustful of America and the capitalism I believe it represents. I'm becoming more and more worried about what I hear of economics, which I'm seeing more and more as a lie, a giant con, that the entire world is being brought into.
Anyways, back to Canadian Literature, I'm wondering right now if I am going to end up in that category because I'm a born Canadian. I don't even know that much about my native literature, except it has something to do about survival. I don't think much of my writing has anything to do with survival. I don't even know if that was just Margaret Atwood shooting off about Canadian Literature. Anyways, because of my ambiguous relationship with my national literature, I plan on doing readings of the following writers in the near future.

1. Robertson Davies (I really liked The Rebel Angels. I found What's Breed in the Bone pretty long-winded and boring though. I figure I have to finish the trilogy off at some point though. I'm hoping it will be better then the last one)
2. Timothy Findley (A friend suggested his book Pilgrim)
3. Mordecai Richler (No reason, he's just Canadian and I like his name or something)
4. Leonard Cohen (I figure I should add a poet and Leonard Cohen is someone I feel I should read more off)

And that's it. After that I feel I have read them I will think I will have a better handle on Canadian Literature. I may also read some Margaret Atwood, though my last English teacher said she came off as an angsty white girl in her novels. Other then that I don't know what else I should do about this. Probubly forget the whole thing.

So How Is Your Summer Going, Dylan?

I really hate summer.

There are many reasons for me hating summer. The one that most easily comes to mind is that it is hot and I do not do well with heat. At all. And the problem with this can largely be tied to my feet. They are very sensitive and generally need socks. I tried wearing one of those new rubber clog shoes that my mom picked up and my feet were achy and sweaty. Also, because I hate footie socks with every fiber of my being, I can only wear normal socks and because of the all-powerful laws of fashion I cannot wear shorts and longs socks. It's annoying.

Another thing I hate about summer is that I have nothing to do. This is especially important this summer because I have nothing to keep me occupied except my erratic reading and writing patterns. However, I do feel I have written more then I have written more and some good stuff too. I'm back at Naos and Helen, since I'm now working at them through the medium of the short story. This gives me the chance to explore them in short bursts which my attention span and patience allow. I'm working on two Naos and Helen stories more or less simultaneously now, but one of them is pretty psychological and is getting hard for me to write, since I want the characters to act naturally as compared to the world they live in which is bat shit insane.

On the subject on my ability to write things I am having doubts about my capability in the means of poetry. This I blame on Stephen Fry. I've been trying to read his book The Ode Less Travelled, to get an understanding of how metre works and I don't think I'm that good at metre. I try to write stuff in metre and I'm thrown off. Then I try to write free verse, but I can't get that either and then I feel guilty because I don't read a lot of poetry and when I do I can barely understand it, though recently I did read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock a couple times and I think I got that, although I picked up at some point it was about prostitutes and impotence so that may have helped me. Still, I appreciate T.S. Eliot's poetry and I like his style.

In other news, I sent my short story "Godot is Dead," out to The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction. I'm not sure if they'll take it. I think the story is pretty out there, but I don't know if it is the kind of out there that Bizarro fiction demands. Also, it's a Jack Monsairty story, so it has a "wizard," though I think of Jack more as an occultist, and that might turn them off. I have only sent it out recently and I have yet to here back. I don't know exactly how long I should be waiting, the next issue will be published in October so I imagine before or around I get to University.

Concerning Michael Court

Sending my short fiction to my friend Michael is one of my favorite things, largelly because he always gives great reviews. I think I could easily count him among one of my few fans outside my family. I just sent him "Godot is Dead," and he went on about how much he loved it. It may just be because he always sends emails in huge font, but he did ask me "Are you SURE you're not copying these stories from someone else and making an absolute fool of me? It's not just that they are so intelligent, it's that they are so grown-up and witty." I can also back this up because whenever he talks about my stories he's practically as enthusiastic as me, probubly more because he's more openly emotional then I am.

Michael, as I call him, is an old guy I meet at the local coffee shop readings we used to have. He was writing poetry at the time, like most people who went and we would usually talk about things after at a bar. Once Seymour and I even managed to talk him into coming over to my place and we talked about writing and stuff. It was alot of fun, since I see Michael as a very important person in my life, an older wiser writer who has more experience in such things as poetry and the great writers and things that would involve wisdom. He's really a drastically different personality from mine, which is probubly a good thing because he is more upbeat then me and I can be a pretty dark and depressing person sometimes. Look at the last post to see what I mean, I found that funny and that was about an assassination attempt. A really lame ass assassination attempt, but still.

I can't really describe Michael's work that well. I've read a bit of a short story he wrote about a boy who was lost in the Amazon and alot of his poetry, which reminds me of Rumi, short and sparse and with a beauty of it's own that I don't appreciate as much as I should. We do have something of a minor compotition to see who will be the first one to publish a full length novel, so we'll probubly look over it at somepoint. I'd like to read over his novel since it sounds pretty interesting.

Games and Stories

Last night I finished watching Season 1 of the Wire. I didn't bring that up, that I was watching the Wire. It's a police/crime drama from HBO that is pretty good. After watching it I want to set a Hunter: The Vigil game in Baltimore, but at the moment I am working on two different World of Darkness Games, one is a Mage: The Awakening Game that is to be set between the first two world wars and a Chanegling: The Lost game to be played here in my hometown. A friend of mine wants to see how these roleplaying games work, and I thought I'd do WoD. Changeling just came from the fact I'm setting it in my hometown, which I see as either having Changelings or Werewolves, and I'm going with Changeling. It's also appropriate because Changeling usually has that crazy aspect, and most of my friends are a bit crazy.

I'm also working on a short story called "Leviathan." I'm not going to get to much into it, but I wrote the first bit last night. I ended up getting a sort of spiritual high from writing it, and I hope to try doing more of it later tonight when everyone else is asleep. It may also be a good idea to do it while I'm on that high. When I'm done I think I'm going to send it to The New Quarterly. I doubt that my last story "The Summet of the Minotaurs," will be published since it is actually a part of my first novel.

Also, I'm thinking more and more about getting involved in somekind of Spoken Word thing. I've been liseaning to quite alot of Spoken Word poetry and I'm getting the point where I'm thinking, I can do that. Also, the few times that I've gotten involved in poetry. The problem is I'm not really that into the idea of getting up on stage and performing. It may be a passing fad or something.

Roberto Bolano and Me

My relationship with Roberto Bolano and his work is like a Roberto Bolano novel. I have read the works of Roberto Bolano, I have gotten down on my knees in awe of the man's work and in some example of cosmic irony I will never see him. It's not like in Bolano's work, where he is hiding out in the Sonara Desert, he simply died before I could meet him face to face.

I've been thinking of this because I've been reading 2666, which is Roberto Bolano's last novel in every sense of the word. It was the last novel he ever wrote and it is the culmination of years of writing novels. I can see connections with The Savage Detectives, since both have plot elements of searching for a writer that has disapeared. This is also key to my relationship to Bolano and his writing, because somehow you loose the writer, or never find the writer.

This is all part of somekind of underlining fatalism that runs through Bolano's work, but despite this I can't help but feel somekind of optimism that runs through his work. I wondered earlier if Bolano believed in God, and if so what he thought of God. That might help me understand his writing more.

I'm trying to emmulate Bolano's writing at the moment. He has a certain way of writing that I am picking up in his translations. For one thing he almost never uses dialouge. I'm trying that in a short story, but I don't want to get to into it because then I'll sound too much like Bolano. This is also part of another story where I, or my fictional avatar, goes on a mission to find Roberto Bolano, or a fictional avatar of Roberto Bolano, in the Sonora Desert or something. I don't know if I'll write this, because it sounds to much like a Bolano story, or if I'll just write it as a piece of Gonzo literary criticism.

Maybe Bolano still is alive, maybe he is hiding out in the Sonora Desert, or maybe he has left warnings about something that lurkes in the Sonora Desert, something sinister. Maybe it is ourselves.

Insominia Maximus

Well, I broke my record of sleep deprevation. I didn't get to sleep until 6 in the morning. This bothers me, largelly because when I get like this I become worried that I'm doing something wrong, and I can't wake anyone up and tell them. The only people I can think of are suicide helplines and gay helplines, none of which I know off, of for that matter would be appropriate.

The only good thing about my routine is that I'm at my favorite cafe. I've barely been up an hour and I've already moved in over here. The problem is now I'm worried about my physical apperance. I think I do look a bit tired, and my teeth aren't that good. A few days ago they were in pain, but I flossed and it went away. Maybe I should floss when I get home. But I shouldn't bore you with how my body is doing. That's probubly rude for all I know.

My novella progress seems to have stalled, which annoys me. On the plus side I'm getting good reviews of a short story I wrote largelly to amuse myself. Michael (or Rowan as I may have called him, but I will be calling him Michael from now on) also gave me alot of useful advise, for instance that I'm writing for an audience that lives in the future and that I should think of them. I think my Dad may have brought this up, but for some reason when Michael said it there was more of an effect on me. Maybe it's because Michael is a writer, or reads more then my Dad and has more authority in this sort of thing. That is probubly it, but I've been thinking about what exactly this audience thing is. For a long time I thought I'd just write for myself, but since I want to be published I'm going to nead to know who exactly my demographic is. I don't think I ever used the word demographic before. I'm going to ask Nora what she things my demographic is...

(waiting)

...she says my demographic would be around 20-30 year old University education caucasians (mostly males) who are in a creative field, like writing or television. She also sees my writing as a bit like Quentin Tarantino, possibly as someone who would do a film version of one of my novels. She did say thats he could be wrong about that, but if she's right my audience will be made up largelly of hipster film geeks. Despite the fact I have no idea of what hipster culture actually is except the decadent inheritors of the counter-culture with bad haircuts, fashion senses I don't understand and something I largelly see myself as an outsider to, I feel largelly alright with this.

I also think that I may have an autistic audience as well, and by autistic I also mean parents of people with autism as well. Since I have Aspergers Syndrome, I will have all kinds of parents thinking, wow this guy has Aspergers Syndrome, maybe little Billy has a future. That makes me feel a bit happy, because then I could help all my Autistic Brethren. I could be like, I don't know, that guy who wrote a book about his minority that brought national identity to them. Angus Wilson or something like that.

Death and Ego

Still haven't gotten a job, but that can all be blamed on the fact I haven't gotten up to do it. My writing has slowed down, which is also due to my own laziness. I seem to be better at writing down ideas then stories. I'm also coming down with a stuffy nose, which hasen't stopped me from dropping by my favorite cafe and drinking a nice warm cup of hot chocolate.

Well, besides the stuffy nose there isn't that much I can talk about. I went to the funeral of a friend's relative, but I'm not going to go into that because it's not really my business and it certainly isn't yours (unless you are said friends, in which case you know what I'm talking about). And while I was there I began thinking about death. Death is something I think about, specifically my death, late at night. The fact that one day I won't exist anymore is a bit bothersome and scary. I'm very used to having at least some awareness about what is going on in the world around me and the fact that one day this will all just stop scares me. Also, there is the fact that I'll miss my own funeral, and generally I like things that are about me. Since funerals are all about the dead person, I'd be missing out on one of the few times that it is all about me. That ticks me off, because I'm a very egocentric person.

Which brings me up to other bit of internal life news. I'm realizing that I can be a pretty self-absourbed person sometimes. I mean, I'm not an egocentric jerk all the time, I think. The problem in all this is at somepoint in my life, after I have reached the first milestone of living on my own I want to have a girlfriend, maybe even a wife. If I am to do this I'm going to have to become less egocentric, as I'm going to have to live with another human being for a longtime. Maybe I'm getting to far ahead in my development. Ah, maybe I should just stop talking about all this before I give to much away to the trolls.

Well, all I can say for now is that things are looking up. I am feeling better emotionally and my nose is feeling better as well, maybe because I took some Reactin earlier, but other then that I don't know.

Performance Poetry and Me

I just wrote what, aside from "Anarchy Baby," may be my first poem in the performance poetry tradition, which when all is said and done may be the one form of poetry that I have the most experience with. I got my real interest in poetry from liseaning to Indeefeed: Performance Poetry, which I have linked to my blog. As such, I've been thinking that I may try and become a performance poet. I'm still going to write poetry, but I am also thinking that if I can find any, I might try my hand at the poetry slam. (Is it just me or is my writing starting to have a more distinct flow?)

It may not be that I'll be good at slams, but it may just be that this is where I have learned how poetry works, and the reason I though hey I should get involved in poetry because this is cool. And I am starting to get the style, and it is remaining my own. At least, Nora, who heard the poem, called "LEADS Employment Services," said that she liked it, because she likes my writing, so I figure that it sounds like me. It always makes me feel good to write a poem, because I usually write poetry in one go, but I think it over in my head and decide that this is what the poem is going to be about. Sometimes I go back and edit, but not often, maybe because I don't write much poetry. I think I'll write more later, I even have two ideas I'd like to get started on. Nora suggested a project that we can work on, which could lead to my first publication in an actual book. How great would that be? I'm even thinking of recording some of my poetry and sending it over to Indeefeed: Performance Poetry. I've been toying with that idea for awhile, and with this boost of confidence from Nora, I think I may be able to do it. I'll have to check with a friend who I know has recording equipment. I hope I can get on Indeefeed, because that would be one of the high points of my life so far, and when I'm on my death bed I could probubly consider it one of the top ten points of my life, but since I'm only nineteen I'd have to wait awhile to be sure. It would certainly be up there with my first kiss and the time "Cattle Man's Folly," was first published.

So finally, I'd like to bring up the fact that as soon as I'm done publishing this, I am going to send a link to this to Mongo, the guy who runs Indeefeed, so he can read this. I just checked his website and noticed that he hasn't had any comments on the blog for awhile. I know how it feels when people don't comment on your blog for a long time, and I want him to know that things are alright and that he is doing important things. So Mongo, when your reading this, thank you for all you have done. I hope to be on your podcast someday. Keep up the good work.

Writing yer blaa-blaas out

I went to the cafe today, mainly since I may or may not be getting involved in Roger's exhibition. I sat there fiddling away on my laptop and didn't really get anything done, except look up stuff on how to write a murder mystery and an interesting story that could turn into a murder mystery at a later time. I never really got to talking about how I might get involved in this exhibition, since Roger suggested that I could do some poetry because of how he was impressed with my Manifesto. In the end we didn't talk that much. Roger's a pretty quite guy, and I don't think I can do a reading at his show anyways. I don't have anything prepared and I can't think of anything appropriate to read.

In the department of writing, my novella seems to be coming along. I'm going to have to edit it up on a different computer then my laptop though, because I simply don't have the ability to properly edit it on my laptop because the mouse won't let me cut and past on the word processor. Along with this, I also want to get started on another short story, and while I'm editing my novella I can write something shorter. I don't have an idea. I'm toying with writing a Jack Monsairty story, but I see the Monsairty stories as primarily mysteries. Maybe I should try writing something about Jack that isn't a mystery, just a straight up story. I can't have him detecting all the time.

I also talked to Rowan, and he suggested I just write little sketches of characters. I've written two I think are alright based on characters for WoD games I've toyed with making. He suggested I write about actual people, and I may do that at some point soon. At the moment I just feel a bit inadequate. Maybe it's because I woke up so late and I have been rained on. Anyways, I'm going to type this up therapeutically to see if I can't get something out of this.

As I spoke of last post, I want to write metaphysical mysteries. These will be most prevalent in two novels I have planned, which will both be mysteries of a sort, but before that I'd like to get a handle on the mystery-genre. I want to try my hand at writing a mystery or to before I get onto those novels. But now that I think about it, I don't really want to write a mystery at all. The mystery format tends alot towards plot, and I want to concentrate just on the character. The mystery seems to be a hollow puzzle (was it Ms. Scarlett in the Library with a pipe wrench?) where as the questions I want to ask are more metaphysical (Is Modernist Jesus real or is he just a prank of Gertrude Stein and a secret cabal of critics?). But also, the Big Novel is a murder mystery, but it's also a bit straight forward as the reader knows what happened before we even get to it. I might not even introduce the novel until page 150, where as in a traditional murder mystery you have the murder in the first 50 pages, and not know who the killer was unless it's Colombo or something. I'm also worried I might start relying to much on the mystery plot structure and I don't want to be seen as a mystery writer, I want to be scene as a writer of Great Literature who just so happens to write the odd mystery, but in a Borges-Eco sort of way.

Ah, this isn't helping. I'm going to shut this off and leave you here.

Manifesto and Mystery

Yesterday I meant to talk about my first real attempt to start an art movement. I think that I may have gotten somewhere at Waterloo, but I'm starting to think that my hometown can be a much better place to start because I know more writers and artists here.

Basically, I'm working on a Manifesto, a Magic Naturalist Manifesto. I don't want to get to involved just yet, but I already talked to two friends. Let's call them Roger and Rowan. Roger is a painter I've known for awhile and when I showed him what I have done for the Manifesto he was very impressed. We then ran into Rowan, who's a retired actor and a sort of elder statesmen of the local poets, at least in my opinion. He didn't like the idea of a Manifesto as such, so I doubt he'll sign it. I appreciate that, since in the Beat Generation of my life, Rowan fills a posistion somewhat akin to William S. Burroughs, except without the drugs and the homo-sadism, which is a good thing.

I'm not going to get to much into Magic Naturalism, except that it is my first attempt at a form of Remodernist Literature. In the end it will probubly only apply to myself, but Roger is pretty interested in it and I think I may have set something off. I've been interested in writing a Manifesto ever since I read the Remodernist one, and if I ever get this into a legitimate movement with people in it besides me and Roger, I may try setting up a magazine. I may just end up editting a major magazine as "The Magic Naturalist Issue," which according to a podcast I liseaned to on starting your own poetry movement should have four really good poets or writers, which can (and will) include me, as well as commentary. The commentary may just be my copy of the Magic Naturalist Manifesto. But again, this is only being made as a pattern that I can follow. Remodernism, while a great idea, lakes the neccesary structure that I find neccesary, not that Magic Naturalism is structured, it's just a list of ideas about writing and art and things like that.

I am thinking about writing in the mystery genre, at least as a format, but I'm not sure I want to write murder mysteries. I have a few ideas for murder mysteries, but I'd like to try something more like Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday," which isn't really a murder mystery, no one is murdered, but I would like to do something that is pretty heavy on the metaphysics. To do this I realize I need to read a lot of mysteries. I'm going to try and read as much Chesterton as I can. So far I've only read seven Chesterton stories, one book "The Club of Queer Trades," which was amusing and a Father Brown story called "The Resurrection of Father Brown." I think that Chesterton's prose can be a bit...Edwardian let's say, so I may just try reading other things. I still have two Rex Stout novels I need to read, and I do enjoy Rex Stout's writing style.

2005 Words!

Well, my writing slump has been kicked in the ass. I have written 2005 words today for a novella that I plan on writing for the Malahat Review Novella Contest. For the next month or so this project will take most of my time. I plan on getting around 2000 words a day, and if I do this I'll have the first draft done in 10 days. I could probably do better then that because I have a bit of it written already, I just need to get it all in. Maybe tomorrow I'll drop by Revel and email what I have done already to me and edit on my home computer.

The Malahat Review is a Canadian magazine, and they offer annual writing contests for novellas or long poems. Since I don't think I'm that good of a poet as of yet, I'm going to send them a novella. If I finish this, it will be my longest work of fiction, coming between 10,000 to 20,000 words. I'll be hooking up a little progress counter on my blog. And on this post I will make a link to the Malahat Review Novella Contest Website for any of my readers, and I know a couple of you are writers, who would be interested in this.

And since I know a lot of writers, if any of you want to send me anything on writing contests that would be great. Here's the link for the contest, and I hope that people read into this.

Update on University and Spiritual Journey

My Exam is finished. I am officially a free man. I even got my Ginsberg essay back. I got an 85, which I feel a bit disappointed about because that was a damn fine essay.

As many of you may know, I have been looking into the Western Mystery Tradition as I like to call it, which has lead me to develop an interest in the Kabbalah, or Qabbalah, or Cabala. However you spell it, I have recently been in contact with the guys who run the Chasing Hermes podcast. One of them, Jason, has dropped by and said hello. I emailed him earlier, because I had the Naos dream. His theory is that Naos represents a higher order of my being and thus might be more interesting then stuff that one usually sees in lucid dreams. He also made the comment that he would really like read what the "Kabbalistic" literature I come up with, but warned me that I should avoid getting to preachy. I agree with him frankly, because preachy writers can be annoying, unless it's Robert A. Heinlein because then I can giggle about all the polyamory. He he, Heinlein you dirty old bastard. Anyways, I don't think that will be to much of a problem. I already have plans for religiously themed novels, and I hope they can turn out something like Dostoevsky's work. He writes what is basically religious-themed works, but it's still pretty cool.
Amyways, I'm looking into the Western Mystery Tradition very seriously now. I'm reading a book on Kabbalah by a guy called Gareth Knight. He seems to be alright, but I'm still a student of this and have yet to put it into practice. What I have got is that meditation is very important and that the Western Mystery Tradition emphasises living in this current world, as compared to the Eastern Mystery Tradition, which doesn't care so much for this world. I know a guy who can teach me meditation, but he comes from the Eastern school. It may be the same thing basically. I also had a lecture David Lynch made about how meditation has helped him with his movie that seemed interesting. I hope to apply these very soon. Now that I don't have an exam to worry about I probably will. I will also be looking into lucid dreaming and astral projection, since it seems like fun and might give me a few ideas for stories or poems.

I Am Remodernist

Better make this quick, since there is going to be an outage at 2:00 AM in California. As many of my readers may know I am looking into the art movement Remodernism, which is in protest against conceptual art and spritually bankrupt postmodernism. As I am a writer, and most Remodernists are painters this causes some problems, but thankfully Remodernist is a do-it-yourself movement. I imagine that if I am writing something then it should have a plot and get an emotional reaction and have something interesting to say about humanity and the world it inhabits.
Anyways, awhile ago I wrote an email to the folks down at Stuckism International, which is the head-quarters of the first Remodernist movement. They're British. Anyways, They gave me a reply today about getting involved in their movement. This just has contacts I should make, with some guys called Jesse Todd Dockery and Bill Lewis, who I will contact as soon as I can. They're involved in Remodernist literature or at least interested in it. I'll be sending them emails as soon as I can. I might even send them copies of my work, or at least tell them if they're interested I'll send over a few short stories or poems. I really hope that this could liberate my voice as a writer, because if I am to be a truelly great writer then I'll need my own voice, something that people will read and say "Oh, they're is Dylan C.G. Thomas. This is a Dylan C.G. Thomas book." I want my last name to be an adjective. Also, it is about time Postmodernism was taken down and we put up another major theory for a few decades. Remodernism seems as good a movement as any. Also, one of it's major proponents, Billy Childish, has a few novels and poems out. I'll have to get them and see if there any good.
In other news I am slowly getting my outlines for my English exam statred. I have finished one, and worked a bit on two today although I only got any meaningful detail done on one, mostly because I would like to write that one so I can complain about David Antin, who I think is a smug bastard who dosen't know what it really means to be a real wordsmith. If Remodernist painting is against conceptual art, then Remodernist literature is against David Antin, and John Cage to, because that whole "Writing Through the Cantos," thing I had to attempt to read was just a trick and one I am not amused by. So Ezra Pound is odviously seen through his art. So what? Art should have ego in it and if your so obsessed with the elimination of the ego then don't get involved in art.

Well, that's about it. Have a nice day.

Elaboration on Short Rant

So as you may have read from yesterdays post, I'm worried I don't have enough experience to be a good writer at the moment. This is a problem as the themes that I plan on writing involve revolution, God and our relationship with God and various other Metaphysical concerns. I'm cool with it now, but I think I should go over it.

To deal with this I'm going to try writing short stories from my own experience. I'm going to write things about my friends and family and the life that goes on here. I'm still going to write my more fantastic material, but at the moment I'm going to try writing at least three people stories involving my home town. I think I got two of them, but I think they can easily evolve into science fiction mysteries, sort of like "Fringe," which I watched last night. God that's a great show. Maybe I could write four or five over the summer. That would be awesome, and maybe the two short stories about Naos and Helen and one with Jack Monsairty.

I'm just talking to a friend of mine, we'll call him George Ripley. He's a science guy and he was telling me that I'm ahead of my time because I'm autistic and don't drink coffee or alcohol or take drugs. As such he says I'm evolutional ahead of my time or something like that. I don't think I understand what he said or even if it's true, but it makes me feel a bit better about my place in the literary canon.