Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Lance Haley's avatar

Alexandra -

What a beautiful and salient response to this current crisis. As a white male raised by a single mother and two very progressive-minded older sisters in the 1960s, I grew up quite cognizant of the plight of women in our society.

At 66 years of age, it is no shock to me that our society has devolved while the antediluvian predatory European White Male syndrome that has dominated the world for thousands of years continues to proverbially enslave any human being that does not share their gender, race, or religious beliefs.

Rage is the appropriate response. No more sitting on the sidelines with all the hand-wringing and hopes that somehow things will change for the better. They haven't and never will until responses disquiet the world these powerful men and their minions occupy with an obscene impunity.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote the template for channeling that rage and bringing powerful white men to their knees by adopting the wisdom imparted by Henry David Thoreau in his iconic essay, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. Gandhi's own observation regarding the struggle against oppression is instructive:

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always."

Expand full comment
Billie Hinton's avatar

I have been working on a new novel that I’ve been stuck on (the writing part) but whose characters and story are in my conscious mind on a daily basis. It started occurring to me that maybe this would be best written in screenplay form, as a limited series, and I’ve just started writing a pilot episode and finding that it’s flowing pretty well. I haven’t written a series, though I have a detailed outline of one for another novel (actually a trilogy of novels) that I created with your writing book in my hands. I feel like that trilogy as an ongoing series has some potential, and I think this one might also be best on the screen vs novel. I’ve been doing a lot of writing of flash pieces, mostly creative nonfiction, and publishing them, and have a creative nonfiction chapbook out on submission at 4 presses right now. Have thought of signing on for one of your writing room workshops as I definitely find that having a structure and accountability to a class or group is super helpful. I was in an ongoing writing group that focused on flash and experimental forms from the first month of Covid until last month, and they’ve finally taken a hiatus, so I’m floating a bit and need to find something to dig in on, especially with all that is going on right now politically.

Expand full comment
10 more comments...

No posts