A Poem or a Song

First, my apologies for taking almost 6 months to produce another post.
Was VERY busy with my Track & Field blog, this having been an Olympic year.
But still, not a good excuse!
My intentions for this blog was for a much more frequent output.
Then again, it's quality over quantity--eh?

Writers have 2 methods--planned and spontaneous.
In one, you form a plot, give life to characters, draw outlines, keep Thesaurus & Dictionary at hand.
In the other, you apply pen to paper, or fingers to typewriter keys, and let words and symbols fall where they may--to be edited & revised later.

But that speaks to a finished product that--eventually---will look (and even feel) the same at its conclusion.
You will have a book---or a poem--or a short story--or a play--or a song.
It will be--in the end---what you intended it to be.

But what of those "works of art" that BEGIN as a poem, but END as the first in a series of 7 novels?
If you're an artist--a painter--how often does your drawing, your sketch, turn into a brilliant painting hanging on a museum wall?

A lifelong Bob Dylan fan, I've always agreed with those who call him Rock's Bard, its Minstrel Poet.
You have the music, of course, which is often brilliant by itself.
But Dylan's grand legacy will be his WORDS, not his songs.

Take "Visions of Johanna"--which happens to be my favorite Dylan lyric!
I've often described it as an Edward Hopper painting brought to life.
Or as Van Gogh's "The Night Cafe".
Maybe even linked to that mysterious woman named "Mona Lisa".

Dylan's in the meat-bone of New York City, in some "loft" where "the heat pipes just cough", and though "country music plays soft", there's really "nothing to turn off".

Except "Visions of Johanna", a woman in the writer's life who has an intense hold on his tired wracked brain and his lonesome eyes and wounded heart.

Who is "Johanna", a woman who even though "Louise is alright, she's just near", and she's "delicate & seems like the mirror", but who "makes it all too concise and too clear" that Johanna----that woman Dylan loves--isn't there!

Yet, in Dylan's "Vision" he sees "the ghost of 'lectricity" that "howls in the bones of (Louise's) face"---but allows that aching for Johanna to be traded off for this psychedelic visage of Louise--who instead is "entwined with her lover"  in the rapturous movements of love---with the music of "harmonicas" & "skeleton keys" & "the rain" as background.

No wonder Mona Lisa had the "highway blues"!
Who wouldn't?

I digressed.
But what were Dylan's words intended to be?
A song?
A poem?
Journal ramblings of a stoned wanderer?

Same applies to this post.
It began as a piece looking at how one's INTENDED format isn't always the END product!
Though my love of Dylan is passionate, I truly did NOT intend to make his best song the core focus of this post.

That happens with characters in novels too.
In my "novel" about an important (life-changing!) relationship I had with an artist in the late '70's (title of "Identity"), one of the characters was Kate Caplan (Shute), who was estranged from her husband, Mark Shute.
Mark was INTENDED to be an almost invisible minor character, an "extra" in a movie.

Yet midway through, my heroine, "Sally", is at her cabin near Lake Tahoe, alone with her 12 year old son, Charles.
Mark suddenly enters, begins an attempted rape of Sally--only to be stopped in time by young Charles, who scares Mark out the door!

This scene was NOT planned!
I had no idea Mark Shute would do what he did---or that Sally's son would save her!
Or that the entire direction and structure of my novel would be forever changed---making its 2nd half a whole different "vision".

Talk to a thousand authors, and they'll tell you the same story--names changed.

It's nice to do a piece that starts and finishes in basically the same place.
A poem stays a poem--a play is never a short story--a haiku doesn't transmogrify to Whitman's "Song of Myself"!!

But as "traders in the arts", we all know (and try to accept) the volatility of the ingredients and tools we use.
We need to be ready to see three words become a 300,000 word novel.
We must know that characters are more than words on paper--that they are blood, sweat, and tears.

My vision?
I'd love to see Hopper, Van Gogh, and Dylan sitting in that "Night Cafe", or in Hopper's 3 a.m. diner---or in Dylan's "loft"---talking about their visions.

And Madonna?
Well, like all women to a lonesome man's eyes, she "still has not showed".

Our First Woman President

You might be asking yourself, "WTF is this guy doing?  This is a blog on CULTURE!  Is there ANYthing "cultural" about a political race?"
My answer would be, "Yes, there is!"

It might have begun in 1948, when Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn starred in "State of the Union", the story of Tracy running for office, but the greater power--the power behind the throne, as it were--being Hepburn!
There was a farcical attempt to place a woman on the ballot in 1964, when Polly Bergen had "Kisses for My President".

In real life, Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro as his Vice-Presidential candidate, which stirred women's hearts and imaginations!
Would it be possible?

But it really wasn't until 1992 that "serious" movements towards a Female as President took place.
In the actual race, Governor Clinton's wife--Hillary--became more controversial than her womanizing-draft evading husband!
Talk of her hair, clothes, figure--and her being one of the 100 highest rated lawyers in the country--dominated the news!
But it was an obscure--and Impossible to find!--Lifetime Channel movie that truly opened some doors!

Blair Brown starred as a Field General whose strategic moves won a Gulf War--who is urged to run for the Presidency--does, and wins!
The movie was called "Majority Rule"--which isn't so fictional when you consider that women outnumber men--in the population, and as likely voters!
While some of the later plot becomes a bit much--nearer to Hollywood than to Washington DC--it helped give weight to the notion that a woman COULD be our President!
(Interesting that a REAL General was making a name for herself about then--and even being talked about as "short list" material for Veep!)

I've read several novels about women running for, or holding, high office.
One, by Blayne Cooper, called "Madam President", had some good scenes, and some decent dialogue, but the woman was a late 30's lesbian who, after being elected, hires a woman to come live in the White House and write her biography!
It then turns into a "lesbian novel" rather than a serious treatise on what a woman President might do!

For one season--2005-06--a TV show called "Commander-In-Chief" took its turn on the ladder toward building hype behind a female candidacy for the Oval Office.
Geena Davis plays "Mac Allen", a 2-term Congresswoman who quit for ethical reasons, became a University Chancellor, and was asked to become "Teddy Roosevelt Bridges" VP.
Two years into their first term, he suddenly dies, and she fights off Republican House Speaker "Nate Templeton"s attempt to get her to resign, and takes the Oath!
Templeton is played brilliantly by Donald Sutherland, and their battles throughout the 18 episodes shows her savvy--and strength!
The rumors--maybe the truth!--was that Davis was Hillary Clinton--who was said to be planning a Presidential run in 2008!
(Who says "truth is stranger than fiction"?)

Then along came Sarah!
John McCain shocked everyone when he announced the Governor of Alaska as his VP choice!
And for about 3 weeks, it worked!
Her brilliant speech at the Convention, and her popularity on the stump, made people believe we'd have our first female Vice-President.
And with McCain then 72, images of a "President" Palin weren't so hallucinatory!
Then McCain killed it with his stupid move to suspend his campaign to try to stop the economic meltdown, and boom, we had instead our first black President--a man!

And here we are--it's 2016--and the same Hillary Rodham Clinton--now 69 years old!--is on the precipice of becoming--for REAL--America's first President with breasts and ovaries!

It's maybe ironic that Palin endorsed Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner--in a race to STOP a woman from becoming President!
It's been Palin who's been most vocal in speaking of a new Feminist dialogue and paradigm for the past several years, as she's defined in speeches before important "women's groups".
IMHO, it's sad that this argument--and this woman!--has been so severely attacked--even with death threats against Sarah and her family!
The reason--or the MAIN reason--seems to be Palin's total advocacy of a "pro-life" philosophy!
Yet, on every "woman's issue" standard, Palin's life history truly DEFINES feminism--and its child, feminIST!--like no other!

If Clinton becomes President, will life in America be any different than under the rule of the 44 MEN who preceded her?
Look at the many examples around the world.
We've had Presidents (or Prime Ministers) in India, the Philippines, Great Britain, Germany, and Israel, among others.
Those countries are still alive and kicking--to varying degrees!
I can't see "Armageddon" for America with a woman President!

One difference we MIGHT see, however, would be a rush by writers to pen the "great American novel" --an "All the King's Men", or even an "All the President's Men" (if Hillary becomes the SECOND Clinton to face impeachment!!)--although the latter wasn't fiction, but as many reviewers said, read like a mystery novel!

I can imagine novels written about a lesbian becoming President--but with a more serious tone than Ms Cooper's earlier tome.
I can foresee "sex scenes" and marital discord perhaps trading chapters with discussions of peace treaties and terrorists and "global warming".
There would be children, and pets, and in-laws (Polly Bergen played a wonderful Mom to Geena Davis's character in a few episodes of "C-i-C"!), and most likely, affairs!
After all, what's "normal" for her 44 male predecessors would be normal for her!
Why not?

It's politics, yes, to think of what a woman Presidency might be like--but all we need do is look at some of what the movies and novels have said about it to get a fair idea of what to expect!

It would have been great--again in MY humble opinion!--if we had been served TWO women to choose from instead of one!
Imagine a race--if Sarah had decided to run!--between Palin and Ms Clinton!
Between "old feministic" ideas and "new" ones!
Between a "woman of the 60's" vs a "woman of the 21st century"!

The mind boggles.

IMPORTANT NOTE!!
This blog will NOT accept nor publish any comments speaking to the "popular" memes of "Palin as idiot" , or any comments which demean Palin in any way as a PERSON of SERIOUS demeanor and ability!
Same goes for Hillary--though it seems MOST of the attacks have been against Sarah and her family!
Otherwise, feel free to comment!