In a previous post, I illustrated how the word spark \u201dmoiling\u201d led to word work that in turn led to a dream with words that rhymed with moiling but were not \u201creal\u201d words. I then showed how I sometimes work with a dream in using the dream itself as a \u201cspark\u201d to enter into fictive space and see what would be presented there. That led to a Lewis Carroll-like piece entitled, \u201cGoiling.\u201d When Paco responded with a continuation called, \u201cMr. Differently Has A Class to Teach,\u201d I was not surprised because we have been engaged in a number of projects using alternative authorial narrative. <\/p>\n
In the spirit of this alternating, I responded with a piece entitled, \u201cDifferently Phones Lockhart,\u201d and Paco, in turn, sends me \u201cLockhart Phones Bertie.\u201d Now this will likely be the last post on this back and forth. Whether it becomes another serious project (in spite of its whimsical character), I do not know. We never really \u201cdecided\u201d in the usual sense to carry on these narratives, but simply responded back and forth until they grew into quite sizeable stories.<\/p>\n
I hope these pieces will give you a sense of both the serious nature of what we are up to as well as the fun we are having. When being scribe to what presents itself in fictive space, it is not so much \u201cour\u201d narratives that emerge, but the narratives of something \u201cother\u201d responding to the warmth of our attention. This perhaps gives one an understanding of why the fictive content can weave into itself various realities.<\/p>\n
Your comments are always welcome, wither on the blog itself or via email.<\/p>\n
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Differently Phones Lockhart (RL)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cLockhart here. Who\u2019s calling?\u201d<\/p>\n The old Scot sat himself in his black office chair, leaned back and set his feet atop the old cedarwood desk.<\/p>\n \u201cAh, Differently, good to hear ye me good man. But how is it your a callin? I don\u2019t recall putting phone lines in Nonamesville.What\u2019s that you say? Things arrive of there own accord? But Differntly, wha\u2019 about authorial control and all that jazz? <\/p>\n Lockhart, took his feet off the desk and leaned forward in his chair, rubbin\u2019 at his beard, something he did when he was thinkin\u2019 hard. <\/p>\n \u201cChalk? You need chalk? Yes, I know teachers use chalk when they teach. You think I’m a dimwit? What happened to the chalk? Pretty sure there was plenty. Blackboyd? Who the bloody moon stone is Blackboyd? No, that wasn\u2019t me. That\u2019s not an idea I would have, or even want to have, even after nippin\u2019 some old Macallans.\u201d<\/p>\n Lockhart stood up, reached across his desk and picked up a scratch pad. There was still some room after all the morning\u2019s doodling.<\/p>\n \u201cDifferently, I think I know what\u2019s happened. Hang up and answer the phone when it rings. By the by, what\u2019s your number there? What do you mean you don\u2019t care much for numbers? They won\u2019t behave? Ok, forget the phone. There\u2019s other ways to deal with this.\u201d<\/p>\n Lockhart dialed a number.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lockhart Phones Bertie (PM)<\/strong><\/p>\n Buzzz. Buzzzz. Buzzzzzz.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, dammit, answer the phone, will ye?\u201d Lockhart was about to extend this line of invective when suddenly the connection was made and a hoarse female voice, approximating an old gray mare with bronchitis, spoke on the other end:<\/p>\n \u201cWho the hell is it, botherin\u2019 me at this ungodly hour?\u201d<\/p>\n Lockhart, stunned, had no ready quip with which to reply. The phone line lay flaccid, bereft of vibratory energy, filled with nothing but \u201cdead air.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, fuck off then, if yer gonna be like that about it,\u201d shouted Bertie\u2014or rasped, rather\u2014into the receiver, and was about to slam the device down in its old fashioned cradle when Lockhart recognized the raspy old voice.<\/p>\n \u201cBertie? Is that you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean is it me? \u2018Course it\u2019s me. Who else can I be? Wait a minute. Is that you, Lockhart?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Bertie, it\u2019s me, Lockhart, your old author, if, that is, you remember.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRemember? How the hell could I forget? You burned down my store, you bugger!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Bertie, but I didn\u2019t really do that. It had to be the nefarious agents of certain big shots in Rome. The Vatican, to be precise.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you can be as precise as you want, Lockhart, but I still say it\u2019s a crock a shit yer deliverin\u2019 to this old lady. And after I brung ya the proofs, all the way to Seattle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I admit, Bertie, you\u2019re right about that. And I apologize about the fire. But, you know, authorial authority and all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve heard it all, Lockhart. But now that you\u2019ve got me all riled up, why the hell did you call in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to reach Differently. Do you know his number?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNumber? He don\u2019t do numbers. Says they \u2018don\u2019t behave.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cYes, he told me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean you talked to him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, just call him back then.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m afraid that\u2019s easier said than done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut what about all your \u2018authorial authority\u2019 bull shit? Can\u2019t you just dial 911 and tell \u2018em you need to talk to Mr. Differently ASAP?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUh, Bertie . . . \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I see. It don\u2019t work that way where Differently lives, right? He lives in La-La Land.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomething like that. But, yes, you\u2019re correct, Bertie.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you\u2019re a hell of an author, you are, Mister Lockhart. But maybe I can help you out anyway\u2014though I don\u2019t know why I should.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean you have an idea, Bertie?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course I got an idea. I got lots of ideas, all the time. Here it is: Just call Anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSure. What the hell\u2019s the difference, anyway? You\u2019re bound to get Differently sooner or later.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s actually a good idea, Bertie. I\u2019ll just start dialing Anyone, and sooner or later I\u2019ll reach Differently. But there\u2019s one more thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah? Now what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDifferently needs some chalk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh boy. What did I get messed up in? Just tell him to go down to the dime store and buy a box of chalk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUh, Bertie, they don\u2019t have dime stores any more, especially where Differently is concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJesus, Joseph and Mary, Lockhart. Are you sure you\u2019re writin\u2019 this crap, or is it writin\u2019 you?\u201d<\/p>\n Bertie was losing patience and began tapping on the cradle with her fingernail.<\/p>\n There was a long silence, apart from the tapping.<\/p>\n \u201cLockhart? Still there?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou want the truth, Bertie?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCourse I want the truth!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m here\u2014or there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, then it don\u2019t make any difference, does it?\u201d <\/p>\n And with that Bertie hung up on Lockhart, who quickly poured himself another shot of Macallan and took his cat\u2019s cradle string out of his desk drawer, weaving it through his fingers, in hopes of calming his nerves before dialing Anyone.<\/p>\n [Bertie is a main character is Russ\u2019 novel–not in alternating form–entitled, Dreams: The Final Heresy.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a previous post, I illustrated how the word spark \u201dmoiling\u201d led to word work that in turn led to a dream with words that rhymed with moiling but were not \u201creal\u201d words. I then showed how I sometimes work with a dream in using the dream itself as a \u201cspark\u201d to enter into fictive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-soon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}