Here We Go Again

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Re-reading PLACE CALLED ESTHERVILLE by Erskine Caldwell. I like to blitz books and re-read them.

Caldwell writes well, kinda reminds me of Raymond Chandler. But he exaggerates his case to absurdity. Like this: Two black teens move to town after their momma dies. They are attractive and all the white people hit on them. The brother is killed after a husband finds him in bed with the wife, the sister has the bankers baby. Okay, such outcomes are common, but how they get to those outcomes is odd.

The sister protests to the banker that she's a good girl and will quit if he fucks her, he fucks her and she quits. But not before. And for 9 months no one notices her changing form; wayyyy down the road the sister works for another family and the wife is curious why the sister quit the banker. The birth is a big surprise to everyone. The brother, likewise, proclaims his decency then ends up in the sack with most of the white women, young and old. On one occasion 4 white teens strip him naked to castrate him, and are discovered by a passerby who demands to know WHATS GOIN ON HERE! The whites swear NUTHIN, and the black says, WE JES TALKIN. The passerby never notices that the kid is naked, out on the road, in winter.

The incidents Caldwell illustrated were common, for sure, but didn't come packaged like a Swiss army knife.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

If you think about it story telling came about for the purpose of instruction, as few humans ever accept a simple command to do anything. Instruction and enlightenment has great appeal, especially with regards to sex. Most people are lost at sea with the mating ritual.

 

[lovecraft68]

Most people are lost at sea with the mating ritual.

And they're usually the ones who think they're something.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

And they're usually the ones who think they're something.

The secret to women is patience, and be ready to roll when she comes around.

 

[lovecraft68]

The secret to women is patience, and be ready to roll when she comes around.

The secret to sex that is really no secret just something most men cannot grasp is this....

"You get what you give"

If you want your woman to be your little porn star in bed, then you best be theirs. Most guys want their women to act like sluts in bed, but don't want to do more than go through the motions.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Finished reading my first REX STOUT-Nero Wolfe novel. Reminds me of MURDER SHE WROTE.

Almost done writing a long trailer trash incest story. Its all stroke. Inspired by a character named Vernice in PLACE CALLED ESTHERVILLE by Erskine Caldwell. Vernice is an alcoholic blonde whose husband divorced her for screwing too many cable tv guys. So she lures a black kid to her house, fills him up with rum & cokes, and gets him to promise he wont spill the beans.

In mine Mom seduces Sonny and gets him to drive her to the state prison so she can have a conjugal visit with Dad...just in case. Sonnys wife is outta town visiting her Maw, and Sonny is fixin Mom's plumbing.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Started writing a new story ONE MAN'S TRASH. Trailer park tale. Mama is paroled from prison and takes the bus to live with her daughter at a Bay City trailer park. But daughter ran off with a carny for wherever, and Mama is at the mercy of the daughters jilted husband. He's a 5 finger discount auto mechanic, and works outta his van....mostly at night.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Added some carny stuff to the new story, ONE MAN'S TRASH. All carnival operators are different but some quarter their people in semi-trailers divided into sleeping compartments with single beds, closets, and storage for clothes. Theyre about 6x8 in area with one access door. The entry steps are recessed like on a city bus. Anyway the carny is told to lose the woman, he gives her a mickey, and leaves her on a bench at a rest stop out in West Kansas.

I usta have women come to the office to dump their kids so they could go off with a carnival worker. We're not talking handsome men: scrawny, dirty, few teeth, uncut hair. The gals were hot for them.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Hatched an erotic horror story idea last night, then plotted it.

Nerds enroll at a small liberal arts college fulla bored rich kids with no brains or ambitions.

Ordered a collection of Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason books. And a trailer trash novel from long ago. But trailer parks were different 60 years ago.

Checked out current rents for trailer parks, and they aren't bad: $450-$600 per month. Less than the rents back around 2000. Four-fifty gets you a one bedroom, one bath trailer; six hundred gets a 2 bedroom pad. And they don't look like dumps. Locally, our most liberal county commissioner owns a toxic waste dump trailer park.


Trashed the ONE MANS TRASH story for a better tale. Same title, different story. Anthropology PhD candidate moves to the trailer park to research street walkers and prostitution. Has encounters and collisions with the park owner, undercover hookers, pimps, and the girls.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Finished reading FAREWELL, MY LOVELY by Raymond Chandler. The end surprised me. I read plenty of mysteries, and Chandler is the best. This is reputed to be his best, and it is almost literature. But modern readers would trash it for the racism.

A very large black ex-con comes to Los Angeles searching for his white lover he hasn't seen in 8 years. Philip Marlowe is sucked into the drama from the first paragraph. The plot reminds me of a Bach fugue, and plays out perfectly. I say 'fugue' because the book is a blend of 3 short stories Chandler wrote.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

ONE MANS TRASH is moving along tho I delete as much as I write, and change the basic story every time I look at it.

Setting: Urban trailer park.

Characters:

Jack, a PhD student doing field work to study street walkers, dancers, lingerie models, and webcam performers.

Ruby, Jacks land-lady, and the wife of his PhD advisor, Wendell. Politician.

Wendell, Ruby's husband

Todd, Ruby and Wendell's 18 year old son.

Ruby wants Jack to murder Wendell and Todd as they are political liabilities.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

ONE MANS TRASH is moving along. Wanted to make one of the characters a hare-lip but its too hard to transcribe hare-lip to coherent dialog. Its too close to slave vernacular. So I punted and said she was from Ohio.

Read some interesting bio material about Raymond Chandler. Modern scholars obsess with racism, homophobia, and treat a close relationship with Ma as a mental disorder. But from where I sit caution around unstable females doesn't translate to closet-queen, especially not when you're fucking the young girls at work.

I recall one of my clinical supervisors. She usta summons me, close her door, and find some excuse to lift her dress above her waist to adjust her half slip. I bet I saw her ass more often than her toilet did. Very unstable, though. Alcoholic by her own confession.

TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell came in the mail today.

Oh my! LAUREL wouldn't let TOBACCO ROAD near LIT. Lov is married to a preteen named Pearl who wont talk to him, look at him, or sleep with him. Lov talked to Pearls daddy, and he told Lov that Pearls momma was the same way till after the 17th baby was born, NOW SHE WONT SHUT UP.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OMG Lov Bensey got raped by his wife's sister. Ellie May Lester is 18 and has a hare-lip and cant get a man. So her ma and grandma help her tackle Lov and beat him with brooms while Ellie May has her way with him. People on the road stopped to watch them do it in the yard.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Now preacher Sister Bessie wants to marry 16 year old Dude Lester. She says Dude is a natural to become a preacher with her guidance.

What a strange novel. The writing is 20 years before PLACE CALLED ESTHERVILLE, and simple. I'm surprised Max Perkins bought it for Scribners. TOBACCO ROAD is coarse and farce compared to James Agee's masterpiece (same subject: white trash) LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Spent the evening studying, frame by frame, a fuck flick of an older female and younger guy together. I turn the sound off and make notes. It took them 17 minutes to do it, btw. At the end of it she was flushed, and that's something you don't see much of in porno vids. The other thing I do is determine her vital stats, is her ass stuffed into size 14 or size 16 pants, do her breasts require Medium, Large, or Xtra Large shirts? A 190 pound women come in sundry shapes.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Stopped driving this weekend, and put my bike by the curb with a FREE sign on it.

I cant see.

On the other hand ugly women went wherever my sight went. I sort them by smell now.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

TOBACCO ROAD.
Dude Lester and Sister Bessie, the preacher, agree to marry if she buys Dude a new car. Dude is 16, Bessie is 39 and has no nose, just two holes in her face. Bessie prayed about it and the Lord told her to marry Dude Lester.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

TOBACCO ROAD.

Preacher Sister Bessie Rice marries Dude Lester after she buys a new '32 Ford for Dude to drive. As the newly weds are under the quilts Dude's family are in the room wanting to use the new car. Dude starts wrecking the car by driving it into and over everything. Sister Bessie accidentally becomes a prostitute and likes the work.

Enough! Its too silly.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

THE HIGH WINDOW by Raymond Chandler

I've read most of the noir writers, and Chandler remains their king; Chester Himes is a close 2nd.

THE HIGH WINDOW is standard Chandler fare, Philip Marlowe is the show. He's alcoholic and doesn't give a damn. He's racist and doesn't give a damn. He's in awe of no one. THE HIGH WINDOW is full of the usual goons and gorillas and fops and ball-breaking rich folks. The rich girls are always whores, the rich boys are always ambivalent about which team they play for. THE HIGH WINDOW is a tale of how enough money buys immunity from justice. Three murders, the killers go free.

Critics call Chandler a scene writer; Chandler pleads GUILTY as charged. He said that action is important but readers secretly yearn for great scenes and characters.

I ordered LITTLE SISTER, to complete my Chandler collection.

Time to move on to Erle Stanley Gardner and Perry Mason.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Read THE LADY IN THE LAKE by Raymond Chandler. Two blondes vanish from a small town at the same time. They lived next door to each other on a lake. One left a suicide note, the other sent a telegram revealing her elopement with a lover. Then a body rises from the lake, a blonde body so decayed id is impossible. Then Philip Marlowe discovers a broken ankle bracelet hidden in a powdered sugar canister in the home of one of the women, but the bracelet belonged to a 3rd blonde female who also disappeared. Oh my! Is there a serial killer loose in Walnut Grove?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Still fucking with ONE MANS TRASH, my latest trailer park adventure. The present version must be the 6th evolution of the plot: A young guy named Jack wins the LOTTO and gets to work creating a brothel. That is, he buys an ancient surplus school on the poor side of town, adjacent to the interstate.

The 3rd floor and its library are a saloon and brothel. The 1st floor is a community center, the 2nd floor is office space and clerical support for fledgling entrepreneurs.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

LITTLE SISTER by Raymond Chandler arrived today. So did 4 Perry Mason novels. And a Walter Mosley book, A RED DEATH.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The FAWC scores surprise me and don't surprise me.

If it were possible to eliminate friends, family, alts, and trolls from voting the scores are prolly accurate, but scores are so skewed at LIT that every story scores better or worse than it really is. People don't learn to write better at LIT they learn to score better.

I'LL GET HATE MAIL FOR THIS.
http://www.americanliterature.com/author/stephen-crane/short-story/a-dark-brown-dog

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

NIGGER JEFF by Theodore Dreiser

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks10/1000671h.html

A story of a hanging and a mothers grief.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Read a few articles, written by females, about how to write believable females.

Uh, no.

Females aren't males with a different set of pronouns, and this is the conventional wisdom of youth with few experiences. 600 million years of evolution always kicks fashion's ass.