The Writing Life

I’m on a roll. I use an example to illustrate a social reality. Then I give the background to the example and the social reality. Finally, I go off on a tangent from that social reality. Voilà, I have three completed pieces.

For the past month I’ve been on a writing jag. In all I’ve written three non-fiction political columns, each of approximately 1,500 words. The first uses the term tertium quid to segue into the topic of Perón and justicialismo as a way of introducing the subject of Third Positionism generally. The second delves deeply into Third Positionism, using Perón’s meeting with Ernesto “Che” Guevara to develop the concept of Third World Third Positionism and then circle back round to First World adherents to Third Positionism. Finally, I use a chance comment about Labor Zionism’s implied Third Positionism in my second column to write a detailed essay about the promise and problems of socialist Zionism partially from experience to compare and contrast with my personal experiences on the US Left. Instead of being exhausted by this marathon writing session, I’m wired and itching to write more.

I’ve decided to cap this sudden series as a three-parter instead so now I’m rewriting and reworking all three. Then I’ll give them to my copyeditor one at a time for a final polish before I give them to MRR and publish them on my website. Life is good.