outlaws occupy an essential role in our culture & we ignore them at our peril...

TUESDAY another early morning work/writing/breakfast/walk in the woods & then...suffering through an hour or so of having my by now ready for the shredder manuscript pages. after which, i went to the bookstore, bought some books, earrings, diet coke and chocolate & decided again that i should stick to "the basics" (even though most trad. writing makes me yawn) and avoid the experimental & that i probably actually have no talent & writing is something i'm probably not cut out for...then i hung out in the woods for a while & felt better...that & a good dose of Howlin' Wolf back in my room...2pm seminar Nick Flynn "Outlaws in Art from Plato to Dorothy Allison"...Flynn started this one off with some great f**king music and then moved into a sweeping overview of outcasts in literature and culture (?)...4 stages of society's treatment of outcasts being #1 banishment (mythical/biblical) #2 prison (away w/in the community) #3 prison of self control (Foucault's argument) and #4 the prison of the invisible in which we make people invisible (i.e. homeless, migrant workers, etc.). ref. Thomas Pynchon quote: "Outcasts occupy an essential role in our culture - they embody the ills of society & we ignore them at our peril". READINGS: Kevin Canty "Tokyo My Love" featuring Mothra (one of my all time favorite Jap. monsters) and "Red Dress" which was stunning. Dorothy Allison followed with a reading from her new novel & as per usual, ripped out my heart and tore it into little tiny pieces. She's nothing short of brilliant and her delivery does full justice to her work. After that, had some beer, attempted to socialize & went off to my room to lull myself to sleep with some Howlin' Wolf & John Lee Hooker...