WISDOM OF THE
SAGES
EPISODE TWO –
WINTER 2015
Hello People of the World;
Here we are once again as I take up the keyboard
and type out my thoughts in the thrum and haul of a coffee shop. Once again, I
write to regale you with my, oh, so fabulous thoughts on things and stuffs that
seem to matter only to me.
Looks like we made it to February. What do you
know? There is still snow on the ground and people are freaking the fuck out
about it. Who would have thought? Right? Snow? During winter? Man, the changing
of the seasons can totally catch you unawares. Those sneak bastards. Let’s get
this month’s edition started, shall we:
1 :[ So, I have found what is tantamount to a big
deal for me: I found a illustrated version of Three Kingdoms at the Half Price
Books. I am always on the lookout for all the different versions of this epic
tale. I have at least six different editions of the novel including FOUR of the
Moss Roberts’ translation. I have the latest three-volume Tuttle Publishing
edition, which I reviewed as part of my “BEST OF 2014” post. The sixth version
is a very condensed, English language graphic edition of the story done in a
very cartoony style.
The story continues to tell the tale of the Three
Kingdoms period (180 – 240ad) of Chinese history that Americans only know
through the “Dynasty Warriors” games. The pages are black and white, the style
is distinctive, and the story condensed in a way to include as much information
through dialogue as possible. I have not finished reading it yet. I want to scan
and color the images as a sort of project. It is published by Morning Glory
Publishers in Beijing.
I was perusing the Chinese History section of Half
Price when I came upon it. It has a near blank white cover and is the size of a
fat magazine. I saw the “THREE KINGDOMS” title on the spine and grabbed it
thinking it was a photo or essay magazine. But when I opened it to see the
cartoony illustrations inside, I was so happy to find it that I bought it
immediately. So, it looks like I will have to write up an update to my “Three
Kingdoms” article on my sister ‘blog….
2 :[ Adventures in the Chicago Public Library: Have
you every heard a man eat a bag of potato chips in the dead quiet of a library?
You are in for a descriptive treat. Let me do what we call in the film biz, a
sound design, using the written word:
Imagine the usual quiet of a large library, the low
hum of the lights, the murmurs of people speaking low, the steps of people on
the tiles, the scoot and honk of chairs, the occasional sniffle, throat
clearance, or cough. You can hear the clothes move the patron sitting in the
same alcove of you, then, the crinkle of plastic bags and the tearing of a chip
bag. You look over and this person is doing nothing but sitting there looking
at a laptop.
You turn back to your writing and the quiet settles
back in.
Suddenly you hear it, the “quip!” of the potato
chip crunch, the smack of lips, the clicking of teeth the mushing of the chip,
then the mouth opens again, the lips part, tongue moving, a noise like boots
being pulled from deep mud, the “sluuupk!”, ‘smack”, “quip!”,
“crunchcrunchcrunch” with the ticking of the jawbones and clacking of teeth,
then, like a loop, it starts again, crunch, smack, swuup, smack, crunch, over
and over amplified in the quiet of the library, again and again, the smack of
the lips annoying the fuck out of you but you refuse the say anything, not
because you are scared of confrontation, but beneath it all, you inwardly
respect how fucking much this one LOVES eating potato chips.
3 :[ Coffee Shops: So, I had the Snob Discussion the
other day concerning the status of being in a Starbucks because being in a
Starbucks is so terribly awful that many folk I know will never, ever meet me
there, because: CORPORATION!
It all came down to a bunch of arguments: That we
are being sold the Symbol of Starbucks, that carrying around the compost cups
with the green logo is being sold to us as a status symbol. No, not like going
to an Indie Coffee Shop is not a status symbol at all. To me, Starbucks is the
great social leveler now. I mean I see all types of people cross through a
Starbucks, whatever shop I go to. I see only a specific type go into indie
shops. Yes, location is important. I get it. The shop at Chase Tower gets the
bankers. But I also see homeless and teenage gangbangers wannabes buying $4
cups of coffee.
You can argue Fair Trade as well that happens with
the Indies. But a few studies show it does not always. The other argument says
that Starbucks lead to gentrification of poorer neighborhoods. But it is
Starbucks I see putting in investment in the South Side. I do not see Julius
Meinl and mom & pop cafés putting up stores on the south side. So, I will
keep going to Starbucks because despite the reputation of corporations (I still
do not believe they are people, sorry.) I know that Starbucks does take care of
its employees. So, I can compromise my sense of virtue and morality for a hot
chocolate and free wifi. I love the humanity that comes through a Starbucks, that’s all.
4 :[ COFFEE SHOP – The Authority of the Only White
Guy in the Coffee Shop: Despite two other people sitting at the table, a
Northern Arapaho and a woman, a woman walks up and asks the only white man sitting
way at the end of the table if she can use the chair right next to me. Weird.
5 :[ Speaking of writing, I am thinking of putting
a halt to my new novel entitled “A Rez Tale”. No one will get it. When I
explained it to my most trusted voice, they thought I should be doing it as a
Sherman Alexie Clone novel of “two Indian Men on the reservation”. That has
been done to death already. Much of it by Alexie himself. My story adds a twist
to this trope but it was deemed unneeded.
I was disappointed to hear this. I guess you could
attribute it to ego. Because “How DARE you question my genius?” I guess the
reason I was disappointed because this twist in my story was seen as unneeded.
Why?
It all comes down to expectation. What do people
expect when a Native man writes stories about the reservation? So, why would a
plot twist like this one be out of place It all comes down to expectation. Are
you expecting the twist? Why would such a plot twist be out of place in my
story? What are you expectations? This is not a typical “rez tale”… you see?
It is like making a film of HAMLET. What are your
expectations of that? Why “A Rez Tale”? Many do not see it: by doing it upsets another
stereotyped genre, the Native American Reservation Story. I guess I will stick
to the safety zone of my “Blue Woman” stories since Magical-Realism in a Native
Setting is generally accepted now….
6 :[ Native American Hypocrisies: It seems that I
can never get away from the blatant hypocrisies of our Native American people.
I typically list seven (basically because seven is a “sacred” number) Using
Traditions, then not. What I love is when someone can argue against using the
traditions of up keeping the earth, maintaining that relationship to our
environment to keep companies from stripping our natural resources and ruining
the planet. Then, saying then stating that it is not our tribal traditions to
accept gay marriage and people. Hypocrisy. Traditions change. They are never
what they start out as, so we can still keep the planet together and accept gay
people.
All this just proves one thing: traditions are dead
people’s baggage. Let’s stop carrying it, huh?
So that is it for this month. Still playing it fast
and loose with WOS for now. Keeping it short and sweet these days. Feel free to
comment, correct, or contradict anything you read here.
Until next month, remember “I try to show the schemers
how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2015 Ernest M Whiteman III
