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sneak peak at “A Map of Eden”
Published by bryan | Filed under book news, journal entries
March 28th
I’m working on the Adam Bybee story. The book will be called “A Map of Eden” and here’s an excerpt I wrote today. The book will be out next year, but here’s a couple paragraphs from chapter three:
Genocide used to make me hungry. Years ago a friend who spent two years in Rwanda brought back pictures of bodies piled against the walls of a cathedral. Tutsi’s had used cathedrals for refuge from the Hutu’s but thousands were slaughtered in the sanctuaries where they sought safety. I heard a story about a little girl who was knocked unconscious by a machete blow. She woke up atop a pile of her dead family, her own blood flowing into the hair of her brothers. She stayed quiet for two days, often holding her breath as her family’s murderers, or people from the community, rummaged through the bodies looking for jewelry.
Within ten minutes of seeing images, from my friend’s own camera, I’d emotionally forgotten them. I’m quite quick at forgetting these things. It’s not that I’m stupid, it’s the opposite. There is a process I’ve mastered that allows me to see images of genocide and eat a hamburger within thirty minutes. I start by embracing the idea of individual responsibility, combining that idea with a personal hatred of victim mentality, then projecting my circumstances and history on others so that there are no legitimate victims at all (differentiating between true and false victims would take too much time, and the system is not clean). In other words, if those people were to have gotten jobs, they and their children would be alive today. If people vote for evil dictators, or choose to live in an anarchist system, then they have to reap what they have sown.
Because one has to avoid the principles of reality to believe these things, I’d eat within a half hour or hour because a sugar rush is how I’d learned to check out. That is why genocide used to make me hungry. When the images came back from Kosovo, I ate an entire package of Reeses Peanut-butter cups. The individually wrapped kind you give to children at Halloween.
(The chapter goes on to talk about Adam’s hijacking of the giant screen at Turner Field during a Braves game.)
Don
March 29th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Seriously, dude, you got me intrigued, intrigued, intrigued. The title of the book, you brief mentions of Adam in other sources, and now this. I am sure I will be the first in the world to purchase MoE (figured I would go with the abreviation–it is inevitable in this cyberworld).
Good luck with the writing. Keep us posted!
March 29th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
I created a mural of photograghs from the book In Times of War and Peace. People’s reactions to it are interesting, but mostly a disguested “Why?” With follow up questions of, “why would you want to look at such depressing images?” continuing to answer their own question with “doesn’t it just make you sad?” - I explain that whats worse is that all of these photos have been taken since 1976, which means that all of this has been going down my entire life, but remain only pictures, not memories and that mostly it reminds me that while I might have been born a jerk, being a jerkface is my choice.
I’m excited for the exposure your work will bring.
March 29th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
thanks letting people into your heart on the subject Don.
It’s so horrible to hear of all the pain and suffering. Many times i just end up feeling helpless myself and mostly apathetic…what are my options? And every time i think “hey i should go down to the mission and serve lunch on Saturdays” i wonder….am i really doing that to really serve others and God….or am i just doing my duty…which totally sucks…..anyway….let us know when you figure it out…
By the way….ditto on the Reese’s…they never make it into those Trick-or-Treat bags…..the kids always get the Tootsie Rolls…..
March 29th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
thanks letting people into your heart on the subject Don.
It’s so horrible to hear of all the pain and suffering. Many times i just end up feeling helpless myself and mostly apathetic…what are my options? And every time i think “hey i should go down to the mission and serve lunch on Saturdays” i wonder….am i really doing that to really serve others and God….or am i just doing my duty…which totally sucks…..anyway….let us know when you figure it out…
By the way….ditto on the Reese’s…they never make it into those Trick-or-Treat bags…..the kids always get the Tootsie Rolls…..
March 30th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
[...] home fighting contact archives rss Thursday, March 30th, 2006 :: 3:31 PM “I start by embracing the idea of individual responsibility, combining that idea with a personal hatred of victim mentality, then projecting my circumstances and history on others so that there are no legitimate victims at all…” (>>) [...]