Shiny and Happy
For the first time in three years, I've been writing a new short story. It's called "Aperture" and it stars a young woman named Hope, who is held up at gunpoint. She turns on the attacker and in the process, a little girl is killed.
I had a workshop of it the other night in the Lighthouse Writers class, and I thought the comments were pretty positive, given that the story was 2 weeks old. I think the story needs to be a few pages longer--and maybe I need to take out the part about Hope having a vision--and then it will be ready to go.
For a long time now, I've had an idea for another story collection (in addition to The Price of Silence, which I've been working on for years) called Women in the Wrong. Hope's story could very well be the first one in that collection
A new take on the cartoons
Check out this article in the Nation:
"The Right to Be Offended"
More comment begging
I decided to turn off comment moderation, since that seems to be preventing people from leaving comments on my blog.
Word verification is still on, though.
Please, leave a comment so I can see if the comments are working now.
Hey you!
I know at least 2 people are reading this blog, because they said they were.
Nobody has commented since December. I’m beginning to feel really lonely.
Write something, please!
Don't apologize
I read an article today that really pissed me off.
Apparently some Danish newspaper, and then some French newspaper, published a cartoon that showed Muhammad, the Prophet, with a missile instead of a turban on his head. See the cartoon
here. If that link doesn't work, go to Yahoo News and look for "Protests over Muhammad Cartoons Escalate."
Muslims (at least, some Muslims) are up in arms because Islam forbids making images of the Prophet (that's idolatry) and because the cartoon is disrespectful to Islam.
On the first count, the people who drew the cartoon aren't Muslims, so they aren't bound by the prohibition against images. And on the second point--well, the response to the cartoon proved the cartoon's point.
In Palestine, militants went around saying that if there was no apology for the cartoon, they would begin shooting Europeans.
Remember former Senator Jesse Helms getting so pissed off at the National Endowment for the Arts? "Pissed" is apropos because he was incensed by a work of art the NEA had funded called "Piss Christ." I never actually saw the offending artwork, but it was supposed to depict a crucifix in urine. According to the secondhand information I read, the artist was protesting the commercialization of Christianity.
Disrespectful?
You bet.
Making a political point?
Also true.
Helms tried to shut down the NEA. That was ridiculous enough. If he wanted to shoot somebody, he didn't say so, as far as I know.
I'd say it's time Muslims made like Jesus in the temple and cast out the Pharisees from their midst. If they really want Islam to be the religion of peace it's supposed to be, they need to get rid of the militants. They need to make it clear to these people that their reactions are uncivilized.
And lest I seem holier than thou, there are days when I read about so-called Christians in this country and feel the same about them.
Don't apologize, Europeans. You have a right to point out that some Muslims have turned religion into an excuse for violence.
Americans are so formal
I learned something today while copyediting (good, isn't it?)
I had always thought that thee, thou, thy, and thine were formal versions of you, your, and yours. Turns out I was wrong: they are the informal pronouns.
Wikipedia explains it all. If you trust Wikipedia, that is.
