Posts by David Benjamin
Are you ready for some foopball?
by David Benjamin “On TV the people can see it. On radio you’ve got to create it.” — Bob Uecker MADISON, Wis. — I’m not Ohio State. I’ve been an avid Green Bay Packers fan since I was twelve, but, despite repeated suggestions by TV color commentators like Daryl Johnston, I am not—personally—the…
Read MoreThe first ‘graph Blues
Starting out a story is a challenge that tempts the author to overwrite, to unload his or her whole vocabulary, to deploy an arsenal of literary devices in a sort of prose blitzkrieg. tThe author also faces an implicit market demand to hit the reader with razzle-dazzle, blood and guts, right off the bat. This……
Read MoreThe offshoring of conscience
by David Benjamin “We are going to have a long-term worker shortage. So, bringing back high-labor content products doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.” — Sen. Ron Johnson MADISON, Wis. — One of the capitalists myths punctured by the Covid-19 pandemic was the efficiency of the global supply chain, which allowed corporations to…
Read MoreGuy Montag, eat your heart out
by David Benjamin “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way” —Juan Ramon Jimenez, quoted by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 MADISON, Wis. — Nobody is quite sure whether the school board in Keller, Texas has “officially” banned from its libraries the Bible and The Diary of Anne Frank. They seem to…
Read MoreThe appeal of the ambiguous
Among the most important characters in television history is Tony Soprano, a murderous adulterer who was, nevertheless, likable. His guilt and insecurities inspired empathy in his audience and instilled in them a sense of moral ambiguity rare in popular entertainment. This installment of Write Away ponders the writer’s imperative to create bad guys who are……
Read MoreAbominable masterpiece
by David Benjamin “The Negro race has had enough trouble, more than enough of its share of injustice, oppression, tragedy, suffering and sorrow. And because of the social progress which Negroes achieved in the face of these handicaps, it is best that The Birth of a Nation in its present form be withheld from public…
Read MoreThe wail of the weakling
by David Benjamin “In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed…” —William Ernest Henley, “Invictus” MADISON, Wis. — Jeez Louise, whatever became of the strong, silent type? For all my life, and yours, the first commandment of…
Read MoreWhere do you get your ideas?
Where do you get your ideas? Everybody has ideas, both mundane and fantastic. They run constantly through our heads. When I was sixteen, I remember leafing through ahigh-school yearbook whose editors had captioned, with exceptional wit, every photo in the gallery of seniors. One thumbnail, beneath a boy with a smirk of mock worldliness, has……
Read MoreA hot time in the old town
by David Benjamin “Hot town, summer in the city? Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty…” —John Sebastian MADISON, Wis. — You don’t have to guess what city John Sebastian was thinking about when he — along with Steve Boone and his brother Mark — wrote “ … All around, people looking half-dead, Walking on…
Read MoreThe sacredly profane
by David Benjamin Before publishing my novel, Jailbait, first in a crime series featuring smalltown police chief Jim Otis, I had top consider the impact of the title. The term, “jailbait,” has a long American history asa mild vulgarity not spoken in polite company. However, because the title is appropriate to my story, I kept……
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