Jack Saunders-The Proust Questionnaire

Jack Saunders is a true blue Florida writer. He is the real thing and in this day and age, they are scarce. What I enjoy most about his work is that it's soaked in Florida cracker lore and culture. He is our own Marcel Proust, as he works on an immense epic novel that he posts online. Parts of this massive literary feat have been published via traditional channels through out the years. One such volume that was published not too long ago by Pat Simonelli's Lit Vision Press was Bukowski Never Did This. I also highly recommend Forty, which could be his most accessible work. Jack Saunders reminds me of The Ramones. Like The Ramones, he is an immensly inspirational figure. To remain in the underground for so long, puching out volume after volume despite constant rejection by the mainstream is an odyssey of Herculean proportions. I salute you Jack Saunders, Florida writer.




1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What I'm doing now.

2. What is your greatest fear?

Used to be letting my loved ones down. Now, I can't think of any. I let them down and they still love me.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Small-mindedness.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Small-mindedness.

5. Which living person do you most admire?

Most of the people I admire are dead or old. When they die, I think, "Oh yea. I admired him." Alive, they're out of the limelight. Private.

6. What is your greatest extravagance?

I steal time to write. From my employer and my loved ones. I stole 38years.

7. What is your current state of mind?

At peace.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Is it's important to you it's not overrated.

9. On what occasion do you lie?

I haven't noticed any pattern to it.

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

I could stand to lose some weight.

11. Which living person do you most despise?

Anybody associated with George W. Bush. I don't much like him either.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man?

A sense of humor. Intelligence.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Intelligence. A sense of humor.

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

I fucked up.

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?

So far, my wife Brenda.

16. When and where were you happiest?

Just writing about that. On sabbatical after Lucent Technologies laid me off. I was on unemployment.

17. Which talent would you most like to have?

Sing and play a musical instrument.

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I worry too much.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Writing the great American novel without a lot of encouragement and support.

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Don' want to come back. Pretty sure I'm going to die.

21. Where would you most like to live?

Where I live now. Parker, Florida.

22. What is your most treasured possession?

Don't own anything I can't do without.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Receiving several rejection slips a week.

24. What is your favorite occupation?

Writing hardback books for money. Haven't done it yet, but still hope to,before I die.

25. What is your most marked characteristic?

Irritable and preoccupied by writing.

26. What do you most value in your friends?

Loyalty.

27. Who are your favorite writers?

Charles Bukowski, Charles Willeford, Hunter S. Thompson.

28. Who is your hero of fiction?

Henry Chinaski, Hoke Moseley, Hunter S. Thompson.

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

The Unknown Soldier.

30. Who are your heroes in real life?

See No. 27.

31. What are your favorite names?

Bob, Bill, Jim.

32. What is it that you most dislike?

Arrogance. Possibly aggressiveness.

33. What is your greatest regret?

Didn't make a living writing.

34. How would you like to die?

Soon. Go to sleep and not wake up.

35. What is your motto?

Always merry and bright (from Henry Miller).

Noah Cicero Proust Questionnaire

Noah Cicero is the author of The Human War, The Condemned, Burning Babies and Treatise. He currently resides in Youngstown, Ohio. I first read him on web site called Lit Vision. I think we were both published on the same issue if I'm not mistaken. My favorite book of his is The Condemned. The thing I like about Noah Cicero's writing is that I can't really compare him to anybody else writing today. To me, he stands on his own as far as his style. His spirit, I would compare to Henry Miller.



1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?Being ten years old holding sparklers on a nice summer night.

2. What is your greatest fear? Currently, trying to have any courage at all.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?coldness

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?talking a lot

5. Which living person do you most admire?living people scare me

6. What is your greatest extravagance?ice cream

7. What is your current state of mind?okay

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?ambition

9. On what occasion do you lie?i don't lie, i remain silent on certain issues


10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?my forehead

11. Which living person do you most despise?the person who invented text messaging


12. What is the quality you most like in a man?quietness


13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?quietness



14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?devastating

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?fuck i don't know

16. When and where were you happiest?i don't want to answer that one either, i feel like I would be discriminating against other moments

17. Which talent would you most like to have?perfect pitch

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?that i don't have perfect pitch

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?scoring a touchdown in junior high football

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?women's underwear, preferably a cute pair


21. Where would you most like to live?i have no clue

22. What is your most treasured possession?my photo albums


23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?asking someone for money knowing you'll never pay it back

24. What is your favorite occupation?kickin' ass and takin' names



25. What is your most marked characteristic?sarcasm, cruelty to those who deserve it

26. What do you most value in your friends?quiet

27. Who are your favorite writers?Jack Kerouac, Richard Wright, and Richard Yates

28. Who is your hero of fiction?Cross Damon

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?Diogenes

30. Who are your heroes in real life?That's depressing

31. What are your favorite names?tasha

32. What is it that you most dislike?a lot of talking and really any kind of loudness

33. What is your greatest regret?it doesn't matter, does it

34. How would you like to die?i'm a writer, what do you think

35. What is your motto?devastating

New Old Story

The Acentos Review has published a story of mine called The Demons. It's a story I wrote a while ago and it's actually one of my favorites. I tried to get it published with no luck, and finally did a little rewriting of some parts and sent it back out. I am appearing in their first anniversary issue. I congratulate them on a great online lit mag that concentrates on Latino writing. There are other cool writers in that issue you guys should check out. Here is the link to my story:


http://www.acentosreview.com/June_2009/Zablah.html


and cover of the issue with some great artwork by Irene Martinez:


http://www.acentosreview.com/June_2009/June_2009.html

If I Ever Fell Better Lyrics by Phoenix

They say an end can be a startFeels like I've been buried yet I'm still aliveIt's like a bad day that never endsI feel the chaos around meA thing I don't try to denyI'd better learn to accept thatThere are things in my life that I can't controlThey say love ain't nothing but a soreI don't even know what love isToo many tears have had to fallDon't you know I'm so tired of it allI have known terror dizzy spellsFinding out the secrets words won't tellWhatever it is it can't be namedThere's a part of my world that' s fading awayYou know I don't want to be cleverTo be brilliant or superiorTrue like ice, true like fireNow I know that a breeze can blow me awayNow I know there's much more dignityIn defeat than in the brightest victoryI'm losing my balance on the tight ropeTell me please, tell me please, tell me please...If I ever feel betterRemind me to spend some good time with youYou can give me your numberWhen it's all over I'll let you knowHang on to the good daysI can lean on my friendsThey help me going through hard timesBut I'm feeding the enemyI'm in league with the foeBlame me for what's happeningI can't try, I can't try, I can't try...No one knows the hard times I went throughIf happiness came I miss the callThe stormy days ain't overI've tried and lost know I think that I pay the costNow I've watched all my castles fallThey were made of dust, after alLSomeday all this mess will make me laughI can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait...If I ever feel betterRemind me to spend some good time with youYou can give me your numberWhen it's all over I'll let you knowIf I ever feel betterRemind me to spend some good time with youYou can give me your numberWhen it's all over I'll let you knowIt's like somebody took my placeI ain't even playing my own gameThe rules have changed well I didn't knowThere are things in my life I can't controlI feel the chaos around meA thing I don't try to denyI'd better learn to accept thatThere's a part of my life that will go awayDark is the night, cold is the groundIn the circular solitude of my heartAs one who strives a hill to climbI am sure I'll come through I don't know howThey say an end can be a startFeels like I've been buried yet I'm still aliveI'm losing my balance on the tight ropeTell me please, tell me please, tell me please...If I ever feel betterRemind me to spend some good time with youYou can give me your numberWhen it's all over I'll let you knowIf I ever feel betterRemind me to spend some good time with youYou can give me your numberWhen it's all over I'll let you knowIf I ever feel betterRemind me to spend some good time with youYou can give me your numberWhen it's all over I'll let you know

The Lazy Reader's Review of Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya Translated by Katheirne Silver

Moya was born in Honduras but grew up in El Salvador. The book paints a great picture of the hell that Central America went through in the 80s and even before that, when most of those countries were run by Generals and like 12 families that controlled all the wealth.

The story of El Salvador's bloody civil war will be slightly different depending on who tells you the story. If you meet a guy from El Salvador who's family was well off, or just from a family that could be considered upper middle class and perhaps middle class because there weren't many of those, you'll hear a story about the terrorists that hid in the mountains and kidnapped people spreading their communist ideals to the mass of poor people living in little villages helping protect this people that were behind most of the horrible massacres of innocents and drive by shootings and churches and yada, yada.

Now if you meet an illegal Salvadorean immigrant working, say, at a restaurant as a busboy or a dishwasher you will hear a slightly different story. His story will probably be more about how the mass of poor people were stuck in the middle of a civil war between the rich, (us backed military) and the intellectual, college students, poor, wanna be Robin Hood, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and perhaps, even, George Washington all for ideology and the future of the country. He will also tell you stories about how entire villages were wiped out by US backed military death squads. Entire families slaughtered because a guerrilla fighter passed by the village the night before passing out propaganda flyers.

The funny thing is, is that they're both partly right. Real wars are hardly as simple as black and white, or bad or good. Real war, and specially civil wars, are a complicated thing.

Either way, El Salvador has gone through it's Civil War, so the country may be at their own point in History where they need their own Spanish American War to unite the country, and maybe, sending troops to Iraq helped that cause a little bit.

So the facts are the guerrillas were fucked up by dragging the poor into their war, and the Salvadorian government were even more fucked up by trying to kill off the problem of rebellion. And the US was fucked up by giving money to these deathsquads. So everyone was at fault but that doesn't detract from the fact that little countries like El Salvador and Guatemala have a whole generation of survivors that are traumatised at having witnessed and lived through one of the most horrible massacres of people since the Holocaust.

What I like about Senselessness is that Moya doesn't try to point the finger as much as just already state the truth after the facts. From the first paragraph we have the wonderful set up and setting given to us: Paranoid, lush, womanizer, atheist hired by the Catholic Church in unamed post-civil war central american nation to copy edit thousand page document with the testimonies of the survivors of an Indian massacre perpetuated by the US backed military not too long ago. It doesn't get any better than that folks. Moya's writing reminds me a lot of Hunger by Knut Hamsung. The book is very similar too in the way the frantic narrators are running around the city. It almost feels also like the kind of book Bukowski would have written in he had grown up in Central America. The great theme of the book also is, is the narrator paranoid? Or is he really being chased by the military for his sensitive work?

But what makes this great piece of literature work is the way Moya handles the topic. The work is funny, sad, tragic, ironic, and brilliant all in one. If the narrator wasn't funny, this would be a waste. I think what Moya is trying to tell us is also that there comes a point, where we have to laugh at the history of our countries for if not, we just might go insane looking back and we will never rebuild or move on.

The US had the Red Badge of Courage and the Spanish American War and the BOOM, we hit the BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!

El Salvador had Iraq, (perhaps a future war with Honduras?) and now Senselessness by Moya.

Buy it, and laugh, and cry, because that is what life really is.

SPOILER ALERT- DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

If you haven't read the book by the extremely talented Junot Diaz please skip this post be I will be discussing the ending of said book.

Here we go. I'm giving this book 3 1/2 stars. Keep in mind I give the Cather in the Rye 4 1/2 stars.

I loved the book but I thought the ending was lacking. And I thought the character of Oscar needed a little more chuztpah. Is that the word? Or bigger balls. But i could definitely relate to Oscar. I didn' t really date in high school or Junior high for that matter, but only obssessed over extremely hot unnatainable blond cheer leaders who I'm sure are on the way to Cindy Mcain land.

But let's get back to poor sexless, friendless, D&D loving, Oscar Wao. The apparently Un-dominican Dominican. I loved the story about Oscar and his sister and Junior and his mother in the DR when she was growing up and rebelling and the story about her father.... and how he tried to save his family against the great evil of the dictator. ....BUT WHY GIVE ME AN ENDING WHERE OSCAR SACRIFICES HIMSELF FOR A STREET WHORE? I felt a little cheated to say the least. Give me a break, anybody can assume that Oscar would have gotten his nut off in the DR on any of his visits at the age of 12 and up......via any hoochie. And here is the big clue regarding the ending. Notice how Junot Diaz, ahem, sorry, I meant Junior backtracks to explain that Oscar finally had some sex and didn't die a virgin. See, at least if Oscar would have gotten some before, then I could maybe buy his sacrifice. Are you telling me Oscar couldn't have gotten a regular hoochie in Patterson or even a prostitute??? Yes a PrePagada...lol Okay what about a stripper? If he would have met her at at strip club it could have been more belieaveble. So it was his turn to rebel and do the crazy shit that his sister and mother did when they were younger, and follow the curse which he wouldn't survive because he was the male of the family??? And I know he was looking for love and he got what he always wanted from that girl, even if it was brief, but I just don't believe that kept his holyness or saintliness or whatever you call it from leaking out of him. You are actually telling me that Oscar would have never met some nerdy girl that was into D&D and comics and all that shit online????? I knew a lot of nerdy dudes (myself included) who's first real relationships during their nerd days was with equally nerdy girls from canada they met online. And maybe they met or never met, but still that still does count as experience. Having online or phone game helps you get real game eventually. I feel like Oscar could have died for a different cause, rather than dying by just simply confusing sex with love. Specially with a girl he could have had any time he went to the Dominican Republic. Are you really fucking telling me that his uncle never tricked him into going to a prostitute or strip club to get his nut off???? That is the Latin American male tradition! But don't get me wrong because I loved 99.9 percent of this book except for the end, and the catch up end where he explains that Oscar got laid so the reader won't be mad if the kid died without getting any action.


To me, the ending makes the character of Oscar Wao seem like person that went against the world and just gave up to die for a prostitute with a kid and a gangster boyfriend.

I want to read endings that tell me that no matter who you are, as long as you take risks no one else will take, you will be a winner, you will get that special girl that you really want, you will make that great work of art, you will be remembered, because you never gave up, even if you were a fat, nerdy kid from Paterson, New Jersey that wanted a Sports Illustrated model.

Let's face it, those are the people that become great, the ones that fight against all odds. The ones that go for the brass ring, despite everybody telling them is no possible. I never felt like Oscar was a fighter. Do you really expect me to believe that Oscar Wao never got any cooch at Rutgers? This is America, and that is an American University(or college) and any nerd can get draws in college. Community college is a different animal, but college, going out of town!?
Please!

What The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells me is that if you're a fat, nerdy kid you can forget about it, because you will die for some hoochie in a third world country trying to get punanni before you find someone that loves you for who you are....


But try telling that to Bill Gates, and Roman Polanski, and Malcolm X, and Bob Dylan, and Rivers Cuomo, and Henry Miller, and Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsburg, and Willam Burroughs, and Frank Zappa, and Conan O'brien, and The Revenge of the Nerds cast, and Raymond Carver, and Frank Miller, and Alan Moore, and Steve Ditko and every nerd that loves his life, and his journey to self.........try telling them that Junot Diaz.

I would love you even if you had been a guy like in a.....

Is the title of the next story I'm submiting to glimmer train.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]