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END TIME reprinted
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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.
I have my column back from my copyeditor. There are issues with grammar and punctuation which I’m working on now, but nothing problematic about content. Of course, copyeditors are not tasked with editing content, and rightfully so. I already sent the rough to my friend Comrade Motopu for comments and criticisms regarding the column’s subject matter, which is a defense of the ultraleft. He’s good with it. Once I correct my copyeditor’s issues, I’m good to go.
I’ve also got my first line for the next column: “Sometimes a globalist is just a globalist.” It’s a paraphrase of that famous quote attributed, it seems wrongly, to Sigmund Freud that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” With all the talk about globalists being “bad” I thought I’d make it clear that capitalism is a global system run by a capitalist ruling class. It’s open and above board, with its plans openly published in places like the Wall Street Journal. Of course there are conspiracies within capitalism, but capitalism and its ruling class is not itself a conspiracy. Therefore I take issue with conspiracy theorists who contend that a secret cabal of Masons/Illuminati/international bankers/lizard aliens are actually running the world and that globalist is their code for Jews.
My writing starts with an idea. From there it’s either an excited rollercoaster rush to a satisfying conclusion or a slow slog of trial and error teeth pulling that often goes unfinished. Two months ago I promised a friend I’d do a column in defense of the ultraleft. I’ve been plugging away on the subject ever since, doggedly working on approaches until I had three separate attempts in three separate files. Last night I had a conceptual breakthrough about how to knit all three fragments into a single whole, and this morning I woke up at 6am to write. Now, except for some amplification and clarification, the column is essentially done. Of course, it’s not done yet. There’s lots of rewriting and editing on my part before it goes to my copyeditor, and then to MRR. But it’s finished.
I’ve sent my next column to Maximum Rocknroll’s columns coordinator. I do try to get them in before deadline so as not to stress my fellow shitworkers who are also under their own production deadlines. Plus, I consider it a sign of being disciplined as a writer.
Since the subject of counterculture is a perennial one for me, I’ve aggregated all my previous column fragments and notes on the theme of counterculture in one place. Then I spent 2 hours this morning writing the start of my next column related to counterculture.
The long short story/prequel to my novel has reached 11,100 words as a rough draft. Time to let it rest. I’ll come back to it in a week, go through it one more time, and then send it off to a handful of people I know and trust to read the manuscript. I need them to point out flaws and problems in the plot, characters, narrative, setting, themes, and ideas before doing yet another rewrite. After that, it’s find an editor versed in science fiction, hire my copyeditor for a short job, and commission yet another cover graphic from my favorite illustrator.
I have another blog, “What’s Left?”, for my “Lefty” Hooligan columns printed in Maximum Rocknroll. I’ve been slowly closing the gap between when I stopped posting columns to that blog sometime in mid-2008, and when I restarted blogging again in August of 2013. In the process of filling in from then to now, I now realize how sporadic my column writing became as I dealt with the personal crisis over my alcoholism and the depression I experienced when I stopped drinking. It’s New Year’s eve, and I’m overjoyed with another sober year.
playing for keeps 