Sunday, September 7, 2014

Progess on "Abandoning Paradise"

Getting the Tony Bram's Orchestra part online felt like a good highway marker, lots of progress, etc.

Like hell ... I just checked and I've hardly dented it.  The book has another thousand lines.

There's no secret to blow as you already saw it so there's Le Tour, Le Mans, Stonehenge, major coolness with Mr and Mrs Lefty.

Big chunks were chucked out of the Scotland section and even that didn't make much difference.  There was a lot of negativity as heroin and hopelessness tainted everything.  None of that needs to be in there particularly since it smashes the point with a twenty-ton brick.  OK, I fookin' get it that you abandoned paradise.

So there's a hard edit on the Scotland bit and it will make a better book of it.  The purpose is not to make it a 'feel good' book as crashing the scooter didn't really feel all that good my foot stayed pretty good and wrecked all the way to Edinburgh.  The purpose is to incite adventures although ideally going toward Paradise rather than away from it.  Thrashing what Paradise is not serves no purpose as it's irrelevant because you know what it's not already or you wouldn't be looking for Paradise yourself.

Editing anything else is difficult as the continuity will break if much of anything is removed.  Don't read this as getting economical on anything.  They said I have unlimited disk space and that's never a good idea.  I will use it.

(Ed:  why?)

Because I giggle to myself while I'm doing it, whoa, man, they will dig this.  It's not that they dig me as they probably don't but the story is amusing and if I pull a good vibe while I'm doing it then I figure someone else has a pretty good shot at one as well.

There is major poignance behind it as there are some sacrifices that were made that you'll never know.  I have no 'tell all' aspect as I already did with writing about heroin as trying that was about the sleaziest thing I ever did.  The poignance and sacrifice are altogether different and this is Shakespearean tragedy so it would defile it with irrelevant negativity.  Really it serves only as displacement but, worse, it corrupts the actual story.  The above is all you can be told or it would just be a reality show so it will make for a delicate edit.


I would be working on it now but the realization of how much still waits was a big surprise.  I knew there was a lot but, in American, there's a shit ton of it.

Euros:  I have never been quite sure what differentiates a shit ton from a ton of anything else.  In the telling it sounds like someone didn't have only a ton of something, man, he had a shit ton of it.  The implication is a ton gains something due solely to it being comprised of shit.

Yanks:  Consider the implications in a global world.  If other countries pick up this slang, as they often will, be prepared to hear, perhaps while wearing a tuxedo at an opera and on seeing something large, your German friend says, "Das ist ein shit ton, mein Bruder."

This may not be what you want.  I'm very sure it's not what the people around you want.  How should he know it will offend so many.  When you hear slang in another country, then presumably it's good so it's ok to say something like, "Das war fucking cool, mein Bruder."

No, in fact, I don't make this up (laughs).


So, a pause to review.

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