Saturday, June 27, 2009

RICHIE - CHAPTER TEN (Twitter Novel / Keitai Shosetsu)


on the way back to fairview i
dont talk much mostly cuz
im pissed that he was being
such a dick again

and idk if hes got something

on his mind or what but
richie doesnt talk at all and
the only time either of us says
anything

is when i make the point that

regret isnt like msg at all
because msg doesnt magnify
flavors by contrast but by a
chemical reaction

and he replies -dee dee yr

just smart enough to be
hopelessly annoying and no
smarter- and im just
–whatever man

-you know im right- and

silence again and it doesnt lift
until we get back to fairview
and we coordinate how to get
the truck back

to the physical plant without

attracting any attention and
then after we drop it off we
just walk back to the dorm
and

go in separately to avoid

suspicion theres not a lot
after that and the week goes
by pretty uneventfully again
except for isaacs class

where were reading this book

called –lord of the flies- and
theres this part where the kid
simon dies because they think
hes the beast

and isaacs is talking about

how the light and the
movement of the body by the
water is indicative of the
reincarnation theme

and i can see richie getting

increasingly bunged up as
isaacs keeps talking about
reincarnation and eventually
richie goes into this thing

about how the word

reincarnation shouldnt be
used because it doesnt
indicate theres any choice in
the process

and isaacs immediately

stiffens and says –okay
richie maybe resurrection
might be a better term to use
due to the christ imagery-

but richie keeps going -but in

the elsa barker book- and
isaacs cuts him off -we are
not talking about elsa barker
in this class-

and he raises his eyebrows

like a signal almost but richie
starts again and isaacs beats
him to the punch -we are not
talking about

-elsa barker in this class we

are talking about william
golding- and richie stops
sighs and slumps back in his
chair

and doesnt say anything for

like the whole rest of class i
write down -elsa barker- in
my notebook so i can look
her up later

but basically forget to so

anyway i keep my eyes open
for when crisis staff intervene
and im getting better at
figuring out

what theyre doing while

theyre doing it and its weird
but it does seem like theres
patterns there if you listen
hard enough

and this thing starts

happening for awhile where i
start listening to everything
almost like it was what crisis
staff were saying

like movies and tv shows and

commercials especially and it
starts weirding me out like on
this one night when i got a
couple of

bong hits off those other guys

in the common room
watching tv and it brought
me to the point where i was
almost freaking out

so i left and went to talk to

richie but after a couple
minutes he asked me if i was
high and i said yeah and he
said

-im not gonna talk to you

when yr high because im
gonna have to repeat myself
every two minutes cuz yr not
gonna be able

-to keep up- and im like
–whatever- and i go to look

up stuff on nlp on the internet
but pretty soon i forget what i
was doing

and just start trolling for porn

instead but the next day i
think about it a little bit and
notice that ive never seen
richie

drink or smoke weed or

anything and i think its funny
that i didnt notice before cuz
he seems like the coolest guy
i know

but it seems pretty geeklike

to me that he doesnt party at
all but he could be straight
edge although those dudes
can get on yr nerves

pretty fucking quick i had

this friend back home for
awhile who was straight and
he was pretty intense
especially

if we were at a party or

something so anyway i talk
to richie the next day at lunch
and hes all like -i dont give a
shit

-if you drink or smoke weed

or whatever but it gets really
boring for me really quick
because i dont and its hard
enough for me

-to keep you on my

wavelength when yr straight-
and i notice yet again that
even when hes being friendly
to me hes still kind of dickish

-anyway adolescence -is-

drugs sunshine its the
biggest bestest high that there
is dont forget that- and he
gives me this silly grin

but anyway we get into it

about the soft controls and
richies all like -okay lets
start from the beginning why
did they create

-fairview- and im like - idk

cuz theres all these fucked up
kids and they need a place to
put them- and hes like

-yeah sure but why wouldnt

they just put them in
lockdown with like tons of
rules and shock training and
shit like that-

i go -idk too expensive-

and richie says -naw fairviews
way more expensive to keep
going those places are all
like bare walls

-and barracks and shit- and i

dont wanna keep guessing so
i go - idk richie why dont
you tell me- and he shifts
into

monologue mode -fairview

was created cuz the old
lockdown system didnt take
into account the
unquenchable appetite for
teenage rebellion-

he raises a finger -hence

salinas- i flash back to the
walls of his dorm room -if
you press on kids long
enough and hard enough

-theyre gonna flip out and get

some guns or whatever and
rip shit up- and i ask him
-so wait the salinas shooting

was why they started
fairview-

richie nods -basically im not

sure that fairview was the
first to use the krol
methodology but its
definitely the most

-successful- and im all
-whoa okay who the fuck is

krol now- and richie smiles
-stanislaw krol was this guy
from back in the 60s/early
70s

-who did all this theorizing

about cults and manson and
shit and he coined the phrase
soft controls and basically
explained the framework

-by which you can control

whole groups of people to do
what you want them to by
making them think theyre as
free

-or freer than everybody else-
hes starting to get really

pumped up like on fire how
he was in the cafeteria or in
isaacs room that one day

-he basically identified how

rebellion could be built into
the package- richie grins
shakes his head in admiration
-the guy was a genius really-
pauses

-but the fairview model was

pretty much created by krol-
and im confused cuz richie
seems so into this guy -so
krol wanted a bunch of
fairviews

-to spring up- and hes like
-no no not at all krol would

be horrified if he knew what
they were doing with his
work-

and now im reeling even

worse than before -i dont get
it then why doesnt he stop
them from using his work-
and richie giggles

-krol died penniless and

disgraced in 1982 he could
only stop them if he came
back from the dead- and he
gets this weird

faraway look for a second
-but anyway krol was

defining what he thought was
the disease not the cure- and
then the weird buzz

comes out of the mounted

speakers that signals the end
of lunch and doesnt let up
until everybody leaves so
richie gets up and goes

-dont bother looking krol up

on the interwebs dee dee if
you can even find his
writings they edited the living
shit out of them- but

im like -so where can i find

the original texts- and he
stops in his tracks and turns
back to me -why dee dee i
think i might be

-falling in love with you- and

i get super creeped-out for a
second and it shows and he
just laughs and laughs and
turns away

-you wont be able to find the

original texts dee dee they
took what they wanted from
krol then erased him from the
world-


10 comments:

Maxine said...

Oh, Jason, I am loving this twitter novel. Seriously. LOVING IT! I blog for an Australian literary mag site (as well as blogging on slamup) overland.org.au. Check it out. I would love to talk about you writing a twitter novel in a post on the site & include links to your blog. Any chance you could send me a bio & few paragraphs on why you are writing this novel plus URLs to the first few chapters (if you are interested of course).....maxinebclarke@hotmail.com

Cocoyea said...

Another great installment. Thanks.

Jason Gusmann said...

hey maxine - of course i am interested, and of course i will send you the info. is there something in the water in australia that makes everybody there incredibly supportive and sweet? my next vacation, im goin!

hey cocoyea - thank you, and thank you for reading every week. yr contributions and continued support is noted, and noted well.

Paul said...

Yes, come here. We have plenty beer. And I think the thing with Maxine would be brilliant. Your twitter novel is the best thing on twitter.

Jason Gusmann said...

thanks, paul - if i ever make it over, beers are on ME.

Mariana Soffer said...

It is a very good, and long poem. I like how you play with the word and the letters. I was wondering if you are an obsessive corrector of your texts, because if it is like that I guess you take ages to end a long poem like this one. I am asking cause I kind of am.

Tracey said...

I can't wait to see what happens next...you have a certain way of drawing the story satisfyingly onwards and yet leaving me still wanting more and more again...

You are a master of internal and external dialogue and the whole menacing undertone which comes to the surface from time to time just works so amazingly well.

Jason Gusmann said...

hey mariana - oddly enough, usually i am an obsessive corrector of the texts i work with (like parts of "Gun Crazy"), but with this "Richie" novel (which i still need a permanent title for) im not doing a lot of correcting at all - it seems to be flowing out of me in this seemingly endless stream. you'll know when the stream runs out!

hey tracey - i am so glad that menacing undertone is coming through! thank you for putting my mind at rest -

Anonymous said...

Wow. You know, something you said struck a cord, the part about soft controls and getting people to think that they're free when they really are being controlled. Don't you think society is kind of like that now? I want to say America but I don't just mean America either you know its the world at large.

I'm rambling so I will get to the point. What I like about the style of these pieces (the style that is taking form in my head anyway) is that the writing is fluid and suits my short attention span and yet you hit on mega deep issues like reincarnation and social malaise galore but in such a smooth way. I can see that writing is a natural calling so keep writing and thx for sharing your work with us.

Cheers

Jason Gusmann said...

hey percy p. - you are obviously reading very closely and yr perceptions points are dead on, especially about america (the world as a whole). thank you for taking so much time with my work - much appreciated.