I Wonder if Binx Ever Saw This One?

Comments

1. Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OPL says

   September 27, 2011 at 11:09 pm

   Here’s a shot in the dark:

   Binx says, ‘Not to be on to something is to be in despair’. Maybe detective stories are especially effective distractions from despair because, by design, they invite the reader to join the detective in being ‘on to something’. You can puzzle over the tidy mystery of whodunnit, if you’d rather not face the (insoluble?) mystery of a summer afternoon.

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   • Matthew Lickona says

     September 28, 2011 at 6:59 am

     That’s very good, but the reference actually refers to a certain dwindling in the ranks of those on their way to the to the To-Do in the Bayou.

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     • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OPL says

       September 28, 2011 at 6:45 pm

       I was a little worried this might be a grim hint you were planning to turn the Walker Percy conference into an Agatha Christie scenario, your fellow attendees turning up one-by-one in grisly yet clever Percy-inspired tableaux, until at last you were unmasked (by Cubeland Mystic, snooping undercover?) and hauled away ranting about being ‘the last gentleman’.

       Glad I was wrong about that!

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       • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OPL says

         September 28, 2011 at 7:03 pm

         Although actually, the photo and even the text of your subsequent post seem to confirm my earlier worries a little too well….

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         • Matthew Lickona says

           September 28, 2011 at 8:02 pm

           Angelico,
           Perhaps we can come to an understanding. What exactly is it that you want?
           TLG

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           • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OPL says

             September 28, 2011 at 8:28 pm

             Any of the following:

             1) A sense of closure re the triolet poetry contest; AND/OR

             2) To believe; AND/OR

             3) The next three (3) issues of ‘Alphonse’.

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             • Matthew Lickona says

               September 28, 2011 at 8:57 pm

               1) is possible
               2) may be possible, though I doubt I can be much help
               3) is hilarious and a little bit heartbreaking

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             • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OPL says

               September 28, 2011 at 11:06 pm

               TLG,

               For what it’s worth, I’m dead serious about wanting more ‘Alphonse’. One of the big reasons I started darkening the Korrektiv comboxes was to let you (singular, Lickona) know that you do have an audience — someone who disagreed every single time you announced at Godsbody that ‘your work was done’ and it was time to quit.

               Partly, this is Christian charity talking (‘Buck up that mopey brother!’); partly, it’s a sort of disinterested belief that the world should have more good writing in it, and that since you (Lickona) can contribute to that project, I should encourage you to do so.

               But another major motive is that — simply, selfishly, and specifically — I want to know how ‘Alphonse’ ends. What becomes of all those characters, when they finally collide? What does the story say (in whatever way art ‘says’ things)? And how do you and the artist tell the story, on a technical level? What choices do you make as storytellers?

               I don’t like the thought that ‘Alphonse’, or any of the other projects you’ve bothered to preview, may go unfinished. And I really don’t like the thought that you might think no one outside your personal acquaintances has that thought, when I in fact do have that thought. So now you know what I think, for what it’s worth: Please, Mr Lickona, keep writing.

               Peace out,
               Angelico

               P.S. If you get a chance, please check your ‘Alphonse’ PayPal donation button; when clicked, it doesn’t seem to lead to anyone’s merchant account, so a prospective patron wouldn’t know where to send the donation.

               Reply
2. Matthew Lickona says

   September 29, 2011 at 6:48 am

   That’s awfully decent of you, Angelico. Lord knows I tried to market/fundraise on Alphonse’s behalf so that I could pay my writer and letterer to finish illustrating what I had written. But I don’t think a lot of folks shared your interest. I’ll check the button, and I’ll try to keep writing.

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   • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OPL says

     September 29, 2011 at 7:39 am

     Sure — there’s money, and there’s the Muse, as well. Reckon a writer can’t really argue against either of them on a given project. But — again, for whatever it’s worth — I will keep reading what/when you write.

     And I do hope the ‘Alphonse’ scripts, at least, see the light of day eventually, even if they’re relegated to an appendix of the Opera Omnia.

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     • lickona says

       September 29, 2011 at 12:01 pm

       Button fixed, they tell me. The Opera Omnia? That idea actually got tossed around once.

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       • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OPL says

         September 29, 2011 at 9:15 pm

         The button’s working. Will see if I can scam some friends, and maybe myself, into gradually dripping a few more drops in the bucket.

         As for the Opera Omnia — better that the idea get tossed around than tossed out. You never know if there might be a viable, vengeful fetus in the bathwater (until he comes crawling back, gripping a knife in his gums).

         Reply