Why we publish the books that we do, or, IN YOUR FACE, market, and why YOU should commit a revolutionary act and buy a book that doesn’t kneel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why we publish the books that we do at chiasmus press (CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT).

letter against fear

This is me running away from home for the first time.  I’m three.  I have a small plastic suitcase and a big scary looking doll.  Look at that thing.  My cat “spice” is in the foreground, probably wondering where I’m going.  My sister is in the background, nearly out of the frame, in the most glorious red dress.

I went to the edge of the yard and sat on the curb for about 30 minutes.

The house is near Stinson beach near San Francisco, where I was born.  The yard was filled with fruit trees.  The house was filled with anger.  My sister and I were terrified most of our childhoods.  My father bred fear into the bodies of his daughters.

And yet look at me.  In that moment of the picture, taken by my mother who no doubt thought it looked cute, like mothers do, I knew what to do.  Volition.

There is art in that.

I believe in art the way other people believe in god.  I say that because books and paintings and music and photography gave me an alternate world to inhabit when the one I was born into was a dead zone.  I say it because if you, even inside whatever terror itches your skin, pick up a pen or a paintbrush, a camera or clay or a guitar, you already have what you are afraid to choose.  Volition.  It was already in you.

Just be that—what moves inside you.  It’s already there, waiting:

Hush for the line

Crouched like the touch of dreams in your fingertips

She is coming with a vengeance.

hey tea party morons: suck on a pair.

yeah so GO TEAM to all you tea party whack jobs for your intelligence, wisdom, and honorable behavior (you too, joe mouth wilson).  i just can’t tell you how proud i am of you as americans. i see what you mean now about patriotism and honor.  sorry you had to wait so long for the right president to draw out your true patriotism…care for a holy wafer and white hood?

oh and thanks for not giving the new darwin movie distribution in america….PHEW.  that was a close one. according to gallup, only 39 percent of us believe in evolution.  thanks for looking out for us.

it’s not that i mind your exercising your freedom of speech and right to protest.  nor your theatricality–i’m a big fan of gay pride parades, so why would i criticize you for your flamboyance.  nice outfits and guns, by the way.

it’s more your strange habits of speech and fear of critical thinking–apparently even fear of dictionaries–tendencies that were so magnificently illuminated in the mouths of george bush and sarah palin.

socialist?  a muslim marxist?  a government takeover?  taxation without representation?

have you people given up reading books? do you have any understanding of the american revolution?  of geo political definitions? including liberal capitalism? anyone ever heard of public schools, medicare, social security, or the fucking post office?

yeah.  and this from the huffington post:

The South Carolina Congressman’s campaign website says he is “PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!” But, apparently, not so passionate that he won’t accept the free, top-flight government-run health care he gets as a retired Army National Guard colonel. Wonder if his insurance plan covers getting his hypocrisy removed?

after months of not blogging so that i could finish a book, i’d like to say i’m back.  oh and you can bite me, too.

one last thought:  who you calling illegal immigrant, pilgrim.

love lidia

10 good reasons to reread marx

and #10:  the bush administration. by the way i’ll come to your home and give you a personal blow job if you can id all these fuckwads.

about mothers

i’m not an expert or a scholar on the middle east.

nor do i have any first hand experiences–i’ve never been to gaza, i’ve never been to israel.

i’m not even what i would call well schooled on the concepts of occupation or displacement. though i have read many books on these topics, and find myself haunted.

i am not knowledgeable about the intricacies of geo politics, though i do know that we are generally hoodwinked and bamboozled in this country when it comes to terms like “terrorism” and our role in creating the thing we fight.

and i’ve read quite a bit about violence in all its forms. i’ve written about it. i’ve experienced it. i’ve stood next to it and had to decide whether or not to move.

all i really have is this: i’m a mother. i’m a wife. i’m a writer.

i don’t believe in god, but i do believe in art and love.

so i’d like to send a prayer of art and love out to the people in gaza.

and since all i’m good at is being a mother, a wife, and a writer, all i can offer is a list of authors that make the heart beat faster.  writer who make us slightly less ignorant.

edward said
mahmoud darwish
deborah al najjar
rashid khalid
samah al-shaykh
basima takrouri
randa jarrar
adania shibli
liana badr

a good book with a collection of short stories by palestinian women: “Quissat”

love is a muscle.
l.

3 post obama stories that fucking crack me up (tho one sceeers me)

story #1:  sarah palin’s media extravaganza and future plans. hello world. the word “diva” doesn’t even begin to cover it.  and the word “deluded” isn’t in her vocabulary:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/12/palin-back-in-the-lower-4_n_143415.html

story #2:  the ever wiley sasha baren cohen’s newest flick (dude…if i wasn’t seriously passionately married):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/12/sacha-baron-cohen-hires-p_n_143189.html

story #3:  this one didn’t crack me up, it choked me up.  strange how every now and again straight white guys grow a soul:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/keith-olbermanns-prop-8-s_n_142862.html

oh and a weird admission:

she looks totally hot here. who knew?

welcome to the white house mr. president

uh huh you got that right

http://www.clearspring.com/widgets/4824f65f50c7cc4b?p=49031a7411331235

shut the fuck up, gosh darn it

ok so i have refrained from sucking sarah palin’s brain out through her eye sockets because i don’t particularly feel the need to bash women just to bash them–i’m still puzzled by how many of my liberal friends went after the hillinator, whose intelligence and experience, by the way, is looking gosh darn good in retrospect, and whose balls i have a bit of nostalgia for…and i truly believe satire is a potent form of critique, so i’ll leave that to the experts (tina fey makes me laugh hard enough to wet myself).

but i did write a post explaining why sarah palin’s claim to be feminist was moose poopy.  it was an issue very important to me.  this woman is not a proponent for women, children and minorities, and i could back that assertion up with her voting record and how she lives her life.

i tried really hard to leave things be until the election is over, to the point of giving myself an ulcer.  but the debate the other night and the subsequent moronic assessments out there that she “held her own,” that the debate resulted in a tie, that she did a heck of a job, well, i just can’t let that shit ride.

here are my three arguments for why sarah palin needs to shut the fuck up:

1.  she can’t speak english.  i’m sorry, tina fey not withstanding, it is NOT OK and WAY BEYOND FUNNY into SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS that she can’t make a sentence with this little thing we call GRAMMAR in english. my god. i’ve got developmental writing students who can construct sentences more better than her.  whatever is up with her use of the “and so too” construction is a symptom of the larger mouth to brain bridge that just aint there…she DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT WORDS MEAN OR HOW TO PUT THEM IN A ROW.  when asked about her achilles heel, she listed her strengths.  somebody should have sat her down with TROY so she could get the six pack and pom poms out while brad pitt exemplified to her how an achilles heel is not a strength. jesus christ.  point:  her sentences are not sentences.  which means she can’t speak english.  her linguistic loop de loops are tantamount to putt putt golf.

maureen dowd, who i often don’t like, made good words about this issue at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05dowd.html?hp

2.  her role model is a sith.  in addition to the fact that she hasn’t a wit’s notion what the position of vice president entails, she also seems to think that the power of the position is what’s important about it. as in getting that power.  similarly, she sees her six pack joe’s and flute playin’ bikini wearin’ moose shootin’ hockey moms as the army she will bring to washington.  after all, she’s an outsider.

that part is true. she is an outsider. an outsider to social justice, an outsider to human rights, an outsider to free inquiry and intellectual exploration, an outsider to environmental ethics, an outsider to science, an outsider to foreign policy and geopolitical reality, and oh yeah, an outsider to LANGUAGE.

3.  whose your daddy.  did you SEE that couric re-do where mccain felt the need to sit next to her and answer her questions?  sorry to get all freudian on your asses, but the tag-team of mccain palin is so painfully oedipal it makes my tits hurt.  i’m serious.  when i watch them together everything i’ve ever learned about psycho-social and psycho-sexual architecture REARS ITS HEAD like a giant floating girl baby with a tiny old man sucking on her not yet there titties.  if i watch them together too long i really can vomit. can we say dysfunctional?

so to recap, she’s an unethical empty headed moron in need of a speech therapist, a microchip implant, and a daddy.

and she’s an unbelievably shitty flute player.

love lidia

what’s YOUR husband or parnter done lately?

um, my husband just finished a feature length film.

neener, neener.

and congratufuckinglations, my negro.

xoxo

lidia