Update on the latest novel, and a bit of bitching and ranting

posted by johnnypain @ 1:15 AM
My characters have to write a manifesto, and hopefully this will not come off as pretentious as the idea of writing a manifesto seems.

I mean, if you follow my mind at all on the path it is weaving through these blogs, you know I want to make something of a statement with my book, too.

Nothing obvious like save the trees and whales -- fuck those trees and whales (My dad was killed by a half tree/ half whale in Nam ,and I still have ISSUES, okay? And don't get me started on that fucking rain forest...). No, Preaching to the choir is boring, like cheating at a game. I hate art with such obvious messages that you think, "I could have said that better in one sentence."
That is why my paintings are about bringing beauty into the world, and my writing is about fighting the culture war. I have my own little culture I am endorsing, of course, and hope to insert it into the big discussion, you know?


Writing can can be done by writers just to make money, but like I always say, and even sometimes mean, "Money isn't reason enough to work."

Don Delillo had a character who was so desperate for a niche market that he started writing porno aimed at kids. Americana. I like white noise better -- it's about a pop culture professor of Hitler who can't speak german, or admit as much to anyone. Made me laugh out loud. And I am one of those guys who rubs his chin after hearing a joke and just says something flat like, Hey, that is a good joke,' etc... like I am back in a meeting trying to write skit comedy.


And this brings us back to the manifesto that my characters have to write. I am going to use a little of the prose in here from Why I Write, or some such entry.

They are basically going to do something along the lines of Dogma 29 or whatever that film group was that was trying to film naturally, with less of the fakeness of hollywood, or something... I did like their ideas, though they all went on to bigger and better things as soon as the budget's went up. Never dig your heels in about an opinion about how you will do your art forever, because your art may have other ideas. God, that is a little mystical for me.

Well, time to hit the novel. So far, I have everything set up to write a big scene involving rape... which is not going to be fun.

I want to say in here, too, that I really am grateful all of you folk out there are responding so well to my writing. I am getting more people already than I would have ever expected, topping 1,000 yesterday and 1100 today. I hope you all come back now, ya hear?

I will report on how the writing went later on tonight. My girlfreind is out so I finally have the place to myself for a change. Since she has been laid off, she gets in my way a lot, but I love her too much to make a big deal out of it, and she tries to give me time to create. WIthout her, god knows, you scribe here would be living in public housing, since, as you know, my body is crippled.