WORDMASTER

Alright, so it’s not as bad as I had thought - suburban realism is not the only sort of writing that our critics and publishers are willing to take seriously. Nor, apparently, is it still necessary to write in a “spare” and “understated” mode, previously the highest flattery an author could wish for. Nor is it required to have a meager vocabulary, or to offer sex scenes every fifteen pages of the kind to make a gynecologist wince. Nor must one have been published in The New Yorker, thank god.
In other words, I’m just now finishing up Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree, the best and most unafraid novel I’ve seen in a very long time. The man writes as he pleases, and doesn’t greatly care whether anyone likes it or not, in my opinion the first pre-requisite of a genuine artist. His tropes are original and often startling, and his dialogue, not to put too fine a point on it, is about as perfect as it gets for the sort of characters he enlists. He must be read slowly and with delectation, and oftentimes it will be advisable for the reader to close his eyes and allow the fumes, as it were, to waft to the aesthetic centers of the mind. And then, too, the man’s vocabulary is larger than Shakespeare’s, comprising vast numbers of six-, seven-, and eight-letter words

soffit
swarf
wapsy
halms
thook
lunule

but almost none that are longer than that. I began to jot down these words as I read and have now accumulated a list of 176 of them that I hope the readers of this blog will, first, look up and, secondly, send the definitions to me.

macled
sleech
sussurous
hob
spall
carinated

He also has a very interesting story to tell.

ARE WE DYING OUT????

Save in cases of self-sacrifice for a larger cause, suicide is generally frowned upon as a life (no pun intended) choice. How much the worse therefore for an entire culture to knowingly destroy itself, and especially so when that culture happens to be the most creative and affirmative in world history. I ask you to make a list of all the best things that civilization offers – political liberty, classical music, space travel, biotechnology, romantic love, film, medicine, religious tolerance, the writing of history, individualism, etc., etc., and you will quickly admit that at least 85% of these enjoyments have originated in the culture that you presently inhabit. Or would you prefer to live in Saudi Arabia?

I had expected western civilization to chose a quicker and more spectacular mode of suicide than the one that has actually been selected, namely the annual admission of millions of sub-standard folk fleeing the gehennas they have created in the lands they are abandoning. Soon, very soon, we will be witnessing televised animal sacrifice carried out by Rastafarians in our historic venues, the use of English will be outlawed, and our national cuisine will offer naught but tacos and frijole beans. But if you don’t believe me, watch this video.

Alabama Writers Symposium 2009

We had a great time at this year's Alabama Writers Symposium. It's one of the very best events I've attended. I hope to be able to return in the future. One of my fans (Ashlea Singleton) took this photo of myself with the wife.