The Tower, and other pieces - 2. Maxims and other fragments

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Maxims and other Fragments

"In writing, there are details,

And then there are aspects.

'The soap-on-a-rope is green.'

Green is a detail; prison rape is an aspect."

"The five senses are meant to be used.

Sensualism must inform even the lifeless act

Of reading when alone and quiet."

"Repression breeds Obsession."

"It's the small things that make a house a home;

The insignificant things that can

Make a home of anywhere."

"'Baby,' she said 'you're good at words,

but rhetoric can't always win the day.'"

"'This story comes from a really

sensual set of memories – the kind

that make a person 3D in our recollections –

so I wanted pull out all the erotic stops:

sight, smell, sounds of music and heartbeats –

even the taste of a lover who might never have been.'"

[about my story called: Hair of the Dog that Bit Me]

"'What we need is a Roots moment for LGBT's –

a week's worth of entertainment that can forever

change 'attitudes' about us as a minority with a past;

as a people burdened with hatred for who we were born as;

as a bright flame of spirit to build a better world for our kids.'"

"'Don't call me your "buddy,"' he said "because

you are the man I love. You are the one I'd

walk around the world to get to. You're not

a "buddy" to me – you're everything else."

"A minimalist says: Enough is always too much.

A sensualist says: Too much is never enough."

"'Why!?' he demanded of me. 'Why do I only want

want to write about same-sex love?'

'Yes.' I thought it was a fair question.

He turned professorial: 'Take a random hundred

writers. Put them in a room together. Statistical law

says 12 to 20 of those people will be Gay – whether

they are 'out' or not is another matter. But, we're not

dealing with a statistical average here, we're dealing

with a creative impulse – the drive to write and scratch

the artistic soul. So, out of those 100 writers, maybe

60 to 75 will be Gay.'

'So?' I was getting peeved.

'So,' he basically sighed 'from that majority, barely

one-in-a-hundred will even touch a Queer subject

in print; zero-point-something percent will dedicate

his or her career to the trials and strains that

they have been through personally. The old saw

has it "write what you know," but they don't.

They pump up the myths and clichés of

opposite-sex impulses and desires as what

the market will bear, when all along, kids

struggling with the lie that being Gay is some

kinda big deal, have very little to point to and say:

"Yeah, that's me. That's who I am."'

I felt kinda sick. There was a void; he was right.

As a straight guy, I had never considered

this pressure to conform.

He went on: 'That's why I don't write

"boy meets girl" stories.'"

"In the disjoint

Is also the key

To connection."

"Nobility lies in motivation;

It's expectation that is base."

"Marginalization means you

Let them win."

"'The best death in literature

is the kind you see coming.'

'Like, Macbeth's?'

'No, like Mary in Little Women.'"

"Happiness is what we give

Ourselves –

Suffering is what we get

From our friends and family."

"Couplets should hit like a sledgehammer –

Save the simplest rhymes for them."

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