Journal of. Published under the auspices of the HiSky* Trust, founded 1957 to promote disorder. (*Hiss-Key)
David Raffin (postHumorist, poet, Metaphysicist)
(*Metaphysics : Branch of philosophy dealing with first principles: abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.)
Author Daniel Keyes died last year. He wrote the masterpiece Flowers for Algernon which was first published as a short story in 1959 and later expanded into a novel.
Flowers for Algernon was part of the new wave of psychological science fiction, its story slightly set in the future and eschewing rockets and other planets instead giving readers an epistolary story presented as the journal of a man with an IQ of 68 before and after an operation to increase his intelligence by three hundred percent.
The book is on the American Library Association’s list of 100 most challenged books, wherein librarians track the efforts of non-readers to prevent children from reading. Labeling the book as “filthy and immoral” is, in fact, a high recommendation, especially to teenagers.
It was required reading when I was in the seventh grade, to the consternation of one classmate who was angry that “They want to make me read a book written by someone who can’t spell.”
The book is actually about self realization and loss.
An interesting note about the story: it was written for Galaxy magazine, but the author refused to change the ending so it appeared instead in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. When revised into a novel it was rejected by many publishers, again because the author refused to change the ending. It has never been out of print since publication.
Over at the podcast Escape Pod, they have an episode featuring a reading of the original 1959 short story. (link)
Richard F. Yates, engineer of the nightmare express.
The test says “Do not spend too much time on any one question. If you do not know the answer, guess. Guessing will not be held against you.”
How can they say guessing will not be held against you? It makes no sense.
The questions are multiple choice. If you guess you have a one-in-four chance of choosing the right answer and a three-in-four chance of choosing the wrong answer.
If you choose the wrong answer that will be held against you. Therefore, should you guess, there is a three-in-four chance guessing will be held against you.
The statement is misleading. They mean: should you guess right– only in this case will guessing not be held against you. They won’t say “You guessed right on question four. Zero credit.” They mean they can’t read your mind– should you guess right.
If you guess wrong it will be the same as if you marked the wrong answer through careful deliberation.
Those odds, one-in-four, three-in-four, may change depending on whether or not any of the answer choices are obvious.
I spend one-fourth of my time on the timed test filling in the circles on the answer sheet. The pencil lead– graphite, really– filling in the small circles. Completely. No lines outside the circle. No empty white space inside the circle. Care in a task which does not affect the outcome in any meaningful way. That is my foible.
The larger problem of the bizarre statement of fact that is not a fact, and is not even logical, is an example of the sort of thing I observe constantly and how I think about it. It’s the reason I think human society is absurd.
This is a selection of older material from my first book “Rhyme or Treason, hard fought illusion of choice.” This is basically the sampler CD I used to bring to readings, without the ebook which was included on the CD.
Once I was at a theater as a zombie movie was letting out and I overheard a serious looking man in a suit say to his partner while exiting, “Highly improbable.”
Everyone’s a critic.
An image, stolen from Richard F. Yates, having not a damned thing to do with this article, yet capturing the ennui of the issue.
“Phillip Currie from the University of Alberta has recently uncovered a juvenile Chasmosaurus belli that was so complete and intact, he was actually able to speculate about the cause of death.”
*** Sadly, the dinosaur expired after eating plastic.
It is past time we ban dumping of non-biodegradable garbage in the distant past. We would already be seeing the complications of this dumping, were it not for the fact that our dumping of toxic waste is constantly changing our current reality. “It all looks the same to me” say the temporal shift change deniers. But mark my words: The garbage you dump in the past will return to you thousands of times over, even if you don’t ever realize it.
This post commemorates the centenary of Orson Welles as well as the 1946 blinding of US WWII veteran Isaac Woodard.
In 1946, Isaac Woodard was discharged from the US military, after serving in WWII. Hours later, while still in uniform, police asked him if he was still active military or discharged. When he replied he was discharged and going home he was beaten severely and blinded in both eyes. He was then thrown in a jail cell and denied medical treatment. He was brought before a judge and fined $50. They took all the cash he had in his wallet and were disappointed that he could not sign over his discharge paycheck to the court. He was dumped at a hospital the next town over and days later found by his family, before being taken to a veterans hospital.
Orson Welles made an issue of the case in a powerful presentation on his radio program Orson Welles Commentaries, following up on it for weeks until the policeman was found and named. Soon after, Orson Welles Commentaries was cancelled by ABC radio. Welles revisited Woodard in 1955 for a television program produced by the BBC.
Woody Guthrie wrote a song titled “The Blinding of Isaac Woodard.” Guthrie said, “I sung ‘The Blinding of Isaac Woodard’ in the Lewisohn Stadium one night for more than 36,000 people, and I got the loudest applause I’ve ever got in my whole life.”
Chronology of coverage on Orson Welles Commentaries (Wikipedia):
July 28, 1946 Orson Welles reads an affidavit sent to him by the NAACP signed by Isaac Woodard, a black veteran who was beaten and blinded by South Carolina police hours after he had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Welles promises to root out the officer responsible and makes the case a major focus of his weekly show.
“Welles took up the cause, having always been outspoken on issues of racism and turned the event into a scathing attack on postwar racism and ingratitude.” (Bret Wood) 47 August 4, 1946 Second program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
Welles remarks on world peace negotiations and Congress. 48 August 11, 1946 Third program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
Welles reads from his July 1944 editorial, “Race Hate Must Be Outlawed.” 49 August 18, 1946 Fourth program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
Welles reads and responds to a letter from a white supremicist, and reads from his December 1943 editorial, “The Unknown Soldier.” 50 August 25, 1946 Fifth and last program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
“The NAACP felt that these broadcasts did more than anything else to prompt the Justice Department to act on the case” (Museum of Broadcasting) 51 September 1, 1946 Welles is told in September that ABC is unable to continue his sustained program after the October 6 show.
This incident caused US president Harry Truman to give a speech about civil rights to the NAACP in 1947, introduce a comprehensive civil rights bill in 1948, and desegregate the military.
David Raffin
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When I was in the Netherlands I saw 