he loved to readeveryone ought to
read
if he walked about without a book
between his handsunder his eyes he felt odd unbalancedhis perceptions skewed peering at his surroundings rather than taking
them in in determined peeks random bright
revelations
reading informs
it reminds us entertains
us stomps on orthodoxys toes denies
dogmawhistles
otherwise life is unexamined an
ignorant life
despite apparent ignorance which today seems to enjoy its unwavering
salutary fans
he was reading A Confederacy of
DUNCES how fuckin
appropriate
John Kennedy Tooles 1981 posthumous Pulitzer Prize
winner Toole gassed himself in his car
outside Biloxi Mississippi in Sixtynine things
to do while in Mississippi
while walking he read
I would like to know what the Founding
Fathers would say if they could see these children (he was watching television)
being debauched to furthur the cause of Clearasil. However, I always suspected
the democracy would come to this . . . A firm rule must be imposed upon our
nation before it destroys itself. The United States needs some theology and
geometry, some taste and decency. I suspect that we are teetering on the edge
of the abyss.
Toole ceased revising DUNCES in
Sixtyfive
walking reading he laughed sardonically ironically then he spat aloud Joe Fridays Dragnet bit Just the facts Just the facts ma’am and imagined Joe spinning in his grave at the toutingthe whining
of Fake News of Fake Law and Order
of real Cruelty and somehow vindicating Debasementfeeling
better for themselves at the expense of Others
Toole wasnt necessarily
prescient
the 60s werent quiet
Nixonian weeds were planted they were cultivated and enduring they inevitably one day would unfurl like miserable orchids their
scent a stench permeating the atmosphere admirers Lotus-Eaters lotophages breathed deeply and sighed resisters retched and wiped awful tears and sting from their eyes before their senses rallied and they regained their footing
abject shock takes its toll
who was he when he looked in a
mirror a book clutched in his hand
did he look like act like talk
like the manchild who represents the American presiduncey to the eyes of a bewildered world
no
but then that man didnt read or let alone could walk and chew gum at the
same time
1519, Reggae Friday, 29 6.
18
0944, Saturday, 30 6. 18
935
days remaining or less
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