Posts by David Benjamin
The old razzle dazzle
by David Benjamin “‘I think that livestreaming this attack gives me some motivation in the way that I know that some people will be cheering for me,’” ― Payton Gendron MADISON, Wis. — An unencrypted smartphone dialog intercepted by an undisclosed federal agency after white-panic gunman Payton Gendron murdered ten Black Americans at the Tops…
Read MoreThe commodities box
by David Benjamin “She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and is collecting veterans’ benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. And she’s collecting Social Security on her cards. She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.” …
Read MoreDon’t Do It, Kid!
As the benefactor of a scholarship competition for young writers at my alma mater, La Follette High School in Madison, I have a chance, at least once a year to converse with promising young writers. I cheer them on, but also worry about the challenges they face if they expect their talent to bestow fame……
Read MoreJudge Sam and the revirginization of America
by David Benjamin “No pity. After the carnage we are left with the hope of a purified humanity.” ― Tristan Tzara, The Dada Manifesto 1918 PARIS — There is nothing more poisonous to civil society than purity. The purity police reared their shrouded form and bared their scythes again this week, in the pinched, pious…
Read MoreThe seven keys of storytelling
This issue of Write Away derives from a presentation I’ve given several times to young writers. There are many habits, some of them peculiar to a particular writer, that a storyteller learns and then cultivates. The seven I’ve listed here are—or ought to be—universal. The seven keys of storytelling A question every author hears is……
Read MoreLe chat qui se faufile dans chez nous
by David Benjamin “When it rains in Paris, it bleeds into swift little gutters. You can see your reflection over its mercury embryo.” ― Sneha Subramanian Kanta PARIS — An apartment in Paris is like Nietzsche’s abyss. It looks into you, senses your weaknesses and spoils for its chance to pounce. Twenty-five-odd years ago, in…
Read MoreA simpler time? Yeah, when?
by David Benjamin “… You can’t go back home to your family—to a young man’s dream of fame and glory, to the country cottage away from strife and conflict, to the father you have lost, to the old forms and systems of things which seemed everlasting but are changing all the time…” —Thomas Wolfe…
Read MoreThe atomic mother-in-law
by David Benjamin “… I couldn’t help anyone because I… was seriously injured. My entire face and both of my hands were burnt. I went home to Midori-machi stepping over the bodies of the injured and the dead. They looked like forgotten baggage…” —Woman quoted in The Witness of Those Two Days: Hiroshima &…
Read MoreThe Midwest: American Literature’s Diaspora
This issue of Write Away examines a quandary: Why is there a Southern school of literature, but no equivalent Midwestern pantheon? It is arguable that the heartland has produced more great storytellers than any region in America. Why doesn’t the midwest get any respect? The Midwest: American Literature’s Diaspora Among a hundred threads of American……
Read MoreMy big sister’s radio
by David Benjamin “… So many deejays so far away/ You oughta heard the records they would play/ On that little transistor, my big sister’s radio/ My big sister’s transistor radio had a song for my heart and a song for my soul/ One for my heartaches and one for my fears…” —Tommy Castro…
Read More