Note: So exhausted, I need a little breather from article writing, so below is a short story from my collection, Blood and Soap (2004). Though the book has been translated into Italian and Japanese, and selected by the Village Voice as one of the best for that year, it never sold well. On Amazon, it has just six reviews! With me now canceled, my stories and poems have even fewer readers. To put the most positive spin on this, I’m an eyes closed, nose pinched acquired taste, like poutine sprinkled with grasshopper flakes. If I remember correctly, I wrote this in 2000 in Saigon, though much of
I thoroughly enjoyed that, thanks Linh. You're an acquired taste to be sure, but definitely not a 'nose pinched' one. You seem to have intended this short story as a parable for our times.
The irony of the modern west is that Ho Muoi’s delusion he spoke English is matched by so many native English speakers who, while speaking a common language, have put their own interpretation on many ordinary words to the extent that they've lost any common meaning.
God once condemned human beings to speaking different languages so that we wouldn't truly know each other. Nowadays we can speak the same language and still be as foreign to our next door neighbour as we are to a pygmy
I've been a reader for several years now and switched from Unz to hear to keep up as I am a great admirer or your writings - makes me feel like I'm sitting in all those cafes right next to you observing life pass by. Anyway, you give so much but I have something for you that you will love - a cool music video entitled 'Omicron vs. Godzilla'. It's a really expert composition by young artists (15 & 18). Feel free to share it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShKbTd6cc
I liked this story. It was well written and original (well, it didn't remind me of anything else).
I spent decades in marketing and have wondered before if you are over pricing your books. Generally writers can make more if there is an impulsive purchase opportunity. Writers often want to set a high price because they feel their work deserves it. Yours does but that might not be best for you. Kindle books can usually make more money and the authors can gain more readers by lowering the price.
Have your ever tried lowering the price of your books to 9.99. In direct sales that is a key price point. I would actually suggest dropping Postcards to 9.99 and this book to 2.99 if you haven't tried it already. Self published writers on Amazon have reported that 2.99 is the most lucrative price point.
Working towards an English degree in the American post secondary system, albeit community college has been fun but depressing at times. I think that I actually have more freedom at community college because most of the students are "proles" and haven't had their minds completely destroyed yet. I'm learning that trying to honor the only language that I know is like trying to figure out how to swim gracefully in a fetid swamp.
An extremely clever and thought-provoking story. My comment is written in what would have been, if I was alive eighty-odd years ago, a colonizer's language, one whose acquisition would then have afforded certain privileges, while requiring assimilation at some level into the colonizer's culture. Of course, English continues to exert this effect worldwide. Rejection of the language of the oppressor or majority can be a political act, asserting independence and autonomy, and this is frequently found in language wars. In this story, I think the freedom to convert the invaders's language sample into an artificial one that one can claim ownership over is the main political act. (As an aside, with the small and degraded language sample uttered by the American, the space of possible inferred languages that might underly it is very large, so acquisition was bound to lead to something weird and idiosyncratic, which the story cleverly plays on.)
I thoroughly enjoyed that, thanks Linh. You're an acquired taste to be sure, but definitely not a 'nose pinched' one. You seem to have intended this short story as a parable for our times.
The irony of the modern west is that Ho Muoi’s delusion he spoke English is matched by so many native English speakers who, while speaking a common language, have put their own interpretation on many ordinary words to the extent that they've lost any common meaning.
God once condemned human beings to speaking different languages so that we wouldn't truly know each other. Nowadays we can speak the same language and still be as foreign to our next door neighbour as we are to a pygmy
I've been a reader for several years now and switched from Unz to hear to keep up as I am a great admirer or your writings - makes me feel like I'm sitting in all those cafes right next to you observing life pass by. Anyway, you give so much but I have something for you that you will love - a cool music video entitled 'Omicron vs. Godzilla'. It's a really expert composition by young artists (15 & 18). Feel free to share it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShKbTd6cc
I liked this story. It was well written and original (well, it didn't remind me of anything else).
I spent decades in marketing and have wondered before if you are over pricing your books. Generally writers can make more if there is an impulsive purchase opportunity. Writers often want to set a high price because they feel their work deserves it. Yours does but that might not be best for you. Kindle books can usually make more money and the authors can gain more readers by lowering the price.
Have your ever tried lowering the price of your books to 9.99. In direct sales that is a key price point. I would actually suggest dropping Postcards to 9.99 and this book to 2.99 if you haven't tried it already. Self published writers on Amazon have reported that 2.99 is the most lucrative price point.
Anyway hope you post more of your other writing.
Linh
Was watching a PBS special the other day about a cave in Aldene, France that had 60 to 70, 8,000 year old footprints that were fossilized in clay.
They brought in women trackers from Namibia to determine the size, weight & gender of the Neolithic people who left the prints. Fascinating stuff.
As Yvonne once sang...
We want you to sleep well tonight
Let the World turn without you tonight
If we try, we'll get by
So, forget all about us, tonight
Bill
Beautiful and brilliant, perfect and priceless. Thank you.
I ordered your book on Amazon. Will that work? Rest up, truth warrior!💜
Working towards an English degree in the American post secondary system, albeit community college has been fun but depressing at times. I think that I actually have more freedom at community college because most of the students are "proles" and haven't had their minds completely destroyed yet. I'm learning that trying to honor the only language that I know is like trying to figure out how to swim gracefully in a fetid swamp.
Thank you Linh for sharing your perspective.
It seems he was possessed of a primordial brilliance which, without any practical form to take, manifested itself as a linguistic Tulpa.
An extremely clever and thought-provoking story. My comment is written in what would have been, if I was alive eighty-odd years ago, a colonizer's language, one whose acquisition would then have afforded certain privileges, while requiring assimilation at some level into the colonizer's culture. Of course, English continues to exert this effect worldwide. Rejection of the language of the oppressor or majority can be a political act, asserting independence and autonomy, and this is frequently found in language wars. In this story, I think the freedom to convert the invaders's language sample into an artificial one that one can claim ownership over is the main political act. (As an aside, with the small and degraded language sample uttered by the American, the space of possible inferred languages that might underly it is very large, so acquisition was bound to lead to something weird and idiosyncratic, which the story cleverly plays on.)