Life’s Weirder Than Fiction

The Fruit of Stone, by Mark Spragg.

To categorize Mark Spragg’s novel as a literary western may sound incongruous, but I can’t describe it any other way. Spragg mixes the gritty, down-to-earth language and life of ranchers with almost poetic prose. It weaves through the story and, when basic words appear, they are almost a shock, like a slap in the face or a bucket of frigid water. His characters are complex, a little bizarre. The flashbacks to the protagonist’s childhood are an intricate part of the story and make us understand who the protagonist, McEban, has become.

The story is simple: two friends who are in love with the same woman, one of whom is married to her. When she leaves her husband, they start a trek to find her.

There’s a sense of dislocation in Spragg’s novel, between past and present, love and friendship, male and female, need and want. Both sides pull at the reader, while at the same time push us to continue reading, to find out if McEban will find, if not happiness, as least fulfillment.

If I had only one criticism, it would be that the frienship between McEban and Bennett is difficult to understand since they are so different, and Bennett is so unloveable. In fact, the two should be if not enemies, rivals. Instead, their friendship supersedes everything, even love for a woman. Yet we aren’t given the foundation of that friendship in the flashbacks, except for one very short scene. Then again, maybe that’s what adds to the sense of displacement; that where there should be indifference there is interest , and where there should be hate, there is love.

I think no other US president has been as ridiculed and reviled as George W. Bush. Here’s another example: the George W Bush Speechwriter. By taking bits of speeches in a databank and mixing them into a speech, you can now hear the prez in a “brand new” speech. Except that some bits are missing, so the message doesn’t make sense.

Is George Bush a victim of technology? With the advent of the Internet, blogs, flash, mp3 and others, it’s never been easier to pass on a message and to spread it. Is Blair or any other head of state the brunt of the same kind of campaign?

My friend Ron Purvis sent me this link that made me giggle at first, and then on second thought I found quite scary. The video is from the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). They developed this video in reaction to the REAL ID bill Bush wants passed. In particular,

Scary indeed. It’s done already, not as extensively but pretty thoroughly, by banks. And recently, my husband had to get a visit clearance to work on his client’s site. He went to an interview and was amazed at the kind of information they had on him: the fact that he was married, what I did for a (non) living, how much money we owed the bank, where we lived, the state of our mortgage…

Credit card companies are now able to track our purchases and determine if the card was stolen simply by the break in your buying pattern; so do systems such as Air Miles, where they can track where you buy and what you buy. We do blissfully buy into it.

The ACLU has another legitimate concern:

Although the ACLU video is a bit over the top, a similar situation could happen. Without realizing it, we would suddenly find ourselves in a 1984 Orwellian society. Or worse, in a Terry Gilliam’s Brazil nightmare.

again

I stumbled on a website (literally, with stumbleupon - beware, it’s addictive) that just made me crazy. Here’s some of the drivel it spouts:

If you’ve never truly considered writing a book, take another look at the rubbish filling bookshelves at airport kiosks. The ‘authors’ of that stuff are laughing all the way to the bank. While English majors and real literary types are screaming at each other in the stuffy halls of academia or the pages of The New Yorker, these clowns are quietly rehashing tired plots and making millions for it. You’re a smart person, so we see no reason you shouldn’t take a crack at making bank as well. (Heck, even if you’re a ding-bat, we think you should give it a try. Al Gore’s books sold millions.)

Excuse me? Writing crap=money? Who’s the idiot writing this, perpetuating mediocrity and the belief that anyone can take a pen and start writing, and make money at it? Doesn’t matter that you can’t write, or string two sentences together. You think you’re smart, so you can write. Worse, it perpetuates the myth that, if you have an idea and write it down, agents and publishers will beat the bushes and each other to take you on.

Sorry, honey, but that’s not what reality is out there. It’s a tough business and, even if you have a well-written story with a dynamite idea, the chances of being published, let alone finding an agent to represent you, are slim to none.

More than 500,000 manuscripts from wannabe writers make it to the desks of assistant editors in the publishing houses a year. Not even a tenth of a percent are published, and that’s fiction alone. That’s the reason businesses like iUniverse and lulu are making a mint, these days. If you want to see your name in print, you have to self-publish.

Even most of the ebook publishers are now closed for submission. The number of people who want to be published exceeds the number of markets.

Idiots comments like the ones above are the reason agents and publishers are so swamped that us legitimate writers -those who feel it’s necessary to work at your craft (craft, see? not business)- can’t get through. I was lucky, Zumaya took me on before they closed their doors for manuscript submission. I feel sorry for all those serious writers who have to compete with people who believe the crap that all you have to do is find and idea and think you’re smart.

And, BTW, if you buy into that, it does make you a clown.