Author’s Note: I had planned to run a review in this monthly space, but recent events seemed to call for something else. The review is saved for next time, and Happy Thanksgiving!—-Jeff.
Armageddon or Not
by Jeff Baker
I’ve been a political observer for much of my adult life, and actually a performing political satirist (think Mark Russell) for a little of it and so I think I can speak with a little authority on the recent and not entirely unjustified anxiety over the results of the recent election. We don’t know yet what the world will be like in 2017, but I don’t forecast Armageddon, at least, not yet. I don’t believe that all the gains made by the LGBT community will be wiped away, but more importantly, our attitudes will not be shifted, we will not retreat to our closets, as the old slogan goes, “we won’t go back.”
So how should writers react? Write with passion, continue to type the good fight and do not be intimidated. Which brings me to Marcel Ayme…
Marcel Ayme (1902-1967) was a French novelist, children’s writer, playwright, humorist and short-story writer, the latter being what he is best known today. He was in Paris during World War Two, the time of the occupation by the Germans. He wrote on political issues while at the same time writing stories, many of them using Paris of the time as a setting for fantasies like “The Man Who Walked Through Walls” or “Across Paris.”
One of my favorite Ayme stories, “Tickets on Time” incorporates the realities of wartime rationing with a twist; Parisians are issued time cards that determine how long they will exist that month. The vanishings and reappearances lead to amusing and odd complications.
The point is; Ayme’s typewriter did not go silent. Our word processors, pens, typewriters and other writing implements of choice should not either.
Write with passion. Keep on keeping on.
—end—
Jeff Baker writes about writing and reading sci-fi/horror and other sundry matters on the thirteenth of each month. His latest stories appear in Queer Sci-Fi’s “Flight,” and “Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #21.
He lives in Wichita, Kansas with his Significant Other Darryl.
Find him on Facebook at Jeff Baker, Author and on his blog http://authorjeffbaker.com.