How Rosa Luxemburg Gets into Adolph Hitler

3-1-17     

I wrote a page for the novel about how Rosa Luxemburg is met by Leon, Gail, Earl, and Peg’s surrogates in a café in Berlin between Nov.8, 1918, when she was released from prison, and Jan. 15, 1919 when she was captured and murdered. Before she dies, she may transmigrate into Otto Runge, a soldier. Before she was shot in the head, she had grabbed hold of the bloody rifle barrel that Otto held. He knocked her to the ground with his rifle butt after Rifle Division of the Cavalry Guards of the Freikorps (Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision) or Commander Captain Waldemar Pabst, with Lieutenant Horst von Pflugk-Harttung  who questioned and tortured her. I have to decide which of the creeps would most likely meet Hitler and shake hands with to jump into after the Beer Hall Putsch in Nov. 9, 1923 when he was put into prison for nine months. One of the three Freikorps, probably Captain Pabst, visits Hitler and transmigrates into him to re-write Mein Kampf, and exits before Hitler commits suicide.  

February 2015

2-11-15

I rode the bike for the first time in a week yesterday after our trip to Cambodia, Taoyuan, and downtown Taichung. I read on, half a chapter, in One Hundred Years of Solitude and stopped; the book is as crazy as Alice in Wonderland. I also wrote a poem, a rare occurrence since I finished Han River Poems. I have pondered the point-of-view and tense in It Won’t Work and have decided to keep it in the third-person past. My fiction writing has all been towards that manuscript; I haven’t expanded Smoke No Fire in a few months but I have decided to keep the two works separate after considering combining them. I still haven’t moved forward on Cats Journey to Taiwan though I did some research for sidebars on cat traveling tips.

      One writing project I promoted was taIWWan blog. I mentioned it in response to a Taiwan News in English, a blog by fellow Taichung ex-pat, Courtney Donovan Smith, posting about the Sunflower fools who were indicted yesterday. I don’t bother commenting on meaningless bourgeois political news; only Taiwan labor news that affects workers here. My article about the “Stinking Fish” in Taiwan politics was about that; the dumb fuck-offs who shot their youthful wads are in deep shit for their naivety. The government will not help workers and a living wage cannot be gotten from the top-down; the dufuses who aren’t interested in organizing themselves into labor unions are wasting their breath and the ex-pat schmuck know-it-alls who write about politics help no one but themselves. I just report labor news here in taIWWan.

2-13-15 

      I copied the paragraph in the last journal entry about the 119 fools in the so-called Sunflower Movement protests, meaningless protests that got nowhere and helped no one except the police who could fine-tune their reactions to the next useless student demonstration. 

      I just added the last paragraph, too, to the taIWWan blog and Facebook post. No one will read it. No one will care. I may as well be jerking myself off.  My actual writings, not only in my head, are as real to anyone as my internal dialogue. Almost no one notices, anyway, even though I want to make a dent in reality. For now, I am entertaining myself. Maybe one day someone will notice and take heed. 

2-15-15

  I asked the I Ching if I should combine Smoke No Fire with It Won't Work and I was advised to stop thinking so much; do nothing but meditate, it said. I wrote three pages in a new thread with the sub-plot of Tony DeFibrillato; that is a new name I'm working on giving his character, thinking of a defibrillator. I want to compare him with Jerry Rubin who left the movement to become a stock broker ultimately being run over by a car on Wall Street. Though Emerson stays true to his revolutionary convictions, his high school friend capitulated to become a police officer and detective. Maybe I should call him Tony DeFibrillato

     The weather has been beautiful the past few days. I am sitting on the patio while writing this. I have resumed riding up the Han River after our return from Cambodia and extra nights in Taoyuan and downtown Taichung. I am bringing one book with me to read again when, for a few weeks, I had started bringing two and even three; my attention was getting dilated. One book is enough to read. 

     There have been over fifty hits on the opinion piece in the few days since I wrote "Sacrificial Sunflower Fools" in taIWWan and posted to English Taiwan News blog. There have even been about seven people who commented including Michael Turton who called my piece "high comedy." Everyone who commented is not ready to volunteer to help organize workers into unions.

      One clown who commented on the piece mistook me for a "Pan Blue" blogger until Turton put him straight. One guy insulted the Wobblies and used fear of violence to condemn labor organizing. Another turkey said unions are good but the Sunflower protesters are, too. Of the fifty plus hits, not more than twenty went back to the "Stinking Kettle of Fish" opinion piece I referred to which named some in the DPP responsible for co-opting the movement. I don't plan to respond to any comments. No one wrote to me directly. Two people liked the post including the author of the blog.

2-19-15

   I wrote a few more pages towards It Won't Work on the Tony thread, to be placed somewhere in the chapter "Burning Photos." In the manuscript, Emerson feels the backlash of Reganism in America and KMT neo-liberalism after martial law is lifted in Taiwan. He also ends his relationship with his abusive wife in 1989, just as I did, but he doesn't meet a "Leona" and he doesn't have children; he has open relationships with sister workers in the IWW and a few more dumb Taiwanese women. I am still thinking of taking parts from Smoke No Fire, the parts about the women Johnny Livewire had relationships with, and put them in It Won't Work. I want to make a "woman sandwich" with the vast no-fun and sexlessness of his married years 1979-1989 in between. I can even throw in the affair with Maureen as an eye-opener when he returns for his Bubby's funeral. Right now, there's not enough sexiness in It Won't Work and it won't work as a popular novel without it. 

     I've been thinking of adding a "Writer's Journal" to the in-progress on-line It Won't Work blog by taking journal entries such as the one above and consolidated them. Readers could get an insider’s look at the creation of a novel and what goes on in the mind of a novelist. Ha-ha! I'm even thinking of charging for the privilege on my website. Ha-ha-ha! I would add a "1" to the blog name and only give access after the buyer pays his fee. Right now, the blogs on It Won't Work and Smoke No Fire are not in the list at the back of Forgotten People of Taiwan and Han River Poems, nor have I promoted my website Readings and Ridings where it is displayed. The charge would be $5-8 or 200-300NT.  

2-21-15 

     My website, Readings and Ridings, is looking good. It is better than having a radio station in my head, though not many more people can see it out there. The fiction, poetry, and blogs I have written are real but, like my imaginary radio station, for my pleasure in the alone of my time; one must write for oneself.  If I had a friend to party with, or if I had a full-time job, my time would be bloated or stolen. 

      There are now nine pages of hand-written text on the 'Tony thread' for It Won't Work that I have to elaborate on and transcribe into the novel. Tony is a perfect example of the person who flakes away from progressive ideals; who gives up and becomes part of the problem. It's his kind, along with the obstructionist do-gooders within the movement that have helped the ruling class kill off progressive ideals (like environmentalism) and workers' power. Emerson Davinsky stays true to lofty goals but keeps his individualism.

      I wrote a few more pages on the “Tony Thread” in It Won’t Work and embellished and transcribed four pages into the manuscript late this afternoon while Leona was out with her Tainan friend.

2-22-15

    I lifted another scene from Smoke No Fire and placed it in It Won't Work; the scene about Johnny (now Emerson) renting an apartment near Brooklyn College. Instead of Johnny travelling to college by bus from Borough Park to rent an apartment, Emerson takes the IRT from his Mom's apartment where they live in Gramercy Park.  Emerson studies at Brooklyn College for the Mandarin classes, I Ching, and t'ai chi lessons of Prof. Wade. He doesn't go to Kingsborough or get involved with music but he "borrows" Johnny Shortwave's girlfriends. I could leave Smoke No Fire intact for now. It keeps its music and drugs. Emerson only smokes some pot and drinks beer; he doesn't get carried away like Johnny. I think I will lift Johnny's high school and early college job at the delicatessen, too, but I have to change the location. He can work at a supermarket in Gramercy Park and transfer to one in Flatbush near Brooklyn College keeping his union membership. He meets a lot of women at the deli counter. In San Francisco he will be an off-the-books part-time house painter and work in the Hole in the Wall hot dog stand before going on welfare, just like Mr. Temple did, but he won't get involved with Cloud House or poetry. With the scenes I could lift, It Won't Work, already 190 pages, can be bolstered to 240 or more, with still more scenes to write. My first novel, when printed, will be well over 300 pages. 

     I can't wait to get to my second novel, my first science fiction historical novel, with time travel back to take care of the conquistadors and imperialists before they cause any damage in the New World, Asia, Middle East, and Africa! I can have a team of Toxic Avengers setting the world right before Armageddon, leaving the indigenous people alone to develop society collectively and respect nature.

2-23-15 

     I crossed the "200 page" threshold in It Won't Work with more borrowings from Smoke No Fire to come in addition to more political shenanigans encroaching on Emerson's endeavors. 

2-24-15

I spent a good four hours editing the It Won’t Work manuscript and updating it on the blog. Only readers who pay $5 on my website (and friends who request it) can read it. As with Smoke No Fire, it’s not even listed in the back of Han River Poems or Forgotten People of Taiwan; only Cats Journey to Taiwan and, ironically, the two published titles themselves, can be read, for free, if one buys the books. I’m not fooling myself; no one will be interested in reading my manuscripts besides me; I even removed the link for free viewing from my website. No one will pay $5 for the privilege of reading my novel under construction, or even when it is completed, but I am having fun setting up the company like it really matters. The infrastructure is there, and functional; $5 will, through Pay Pal, be deposited into out TD Bank account. Ha-ha! When I am ready, I may try to interest a publisher in buying the rights. 

 2-26-15  

        Facebook has spit my taIWWan page back to me after making it a business/organization account a few months ago and severing my ties to the 775 people who liked me. TaIWWan is now linked to my DavidtempleFDR Facebook page where I can access all the likes personally again. I also was asked if I wanted to tie in a website to my Facebook pages and I did add www.readingsandridfings.jimdo.com. I have many Facebook pages, some I never use. Here's the list:

1. johnnyshortwave@hotmail.com

2. davidtempleFDR@hotmail.com

    a. taIWWan

    b. Union Community

    c. Education Emancipation Organization

3. indydaiwan@yahoo.com

     That is 6 Facebook pages I have in addition to 14 blogs and 2 novels under construction! If I didn't have a life outside the seat in front of a computer, I could keep busy all day being a 'forwarder' (as Arlen calls himself) or smart-ass commentator.

2-27-15

The taIWWan posting of three pages from George Kerr's Formosa Betrayed about the incident that started the massacre called 228 has garnished 41 views so far; the 228 holiday is tomorrow. I put it on the blog and on Taiwan News in English Facebook as well as my own Facebook pages. It might yet reach the 56 views for the "Sunflower Fools" post I gave similar boost. 

Publishers Hiring Book Readers to Flag Sensitivity

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-publishers-hiring-book-readers-to-flag-sensitivity-20170215-story.html

Ethics of Metempsychosis and Time-Travel

2-17-17 

      I wrote five more pages towards the chapter “Taking Care of Hitler” in A Western Metempsychosis. In it, the four time-travelers are at a beer hall in Germany (I have to decide what city) and they are speaking (in English or German?) about their plans from within the bodies of their German hosts; their hosts keep their life skills and connections, but the time- travelers have taken over their concerns and motivations and added to their intelligence.

     However. if their acquired trans-migratory intelligence isn’t as developed as their own, their own intelligence trumps their takers'. For example, in the case of Leon transmigrating into Tuane, both men were of the same intelligence; Leon had nothing to add to Tuane but ambition and misogyny. Before Leon entered Tuane, Tuane was a hen-pecked wimp; he turned into a belligerent male chauvinist. But since Leon wasn’t any better in school subjects than Tuane, he had nothing to back up Tuane’s new ambition which is why Tuane had to lie about his religious commitments to the Mormon Elder and fabricate his education credentials to get a dean’s position at the college in Taiwan. His only self-education was reading the daily newspaper. Leon, who also rejected education, couldn’t augment Tuane in that way. Tuane succumbed to his shortcomings, couldn’t keep up the charade, and finally contemplated suicide, or was it Leon within whose ambition was thwarted that drove Tuane back to Craters of the Moon? Tuane on his own wouldn’t even have the guts to take his own life.

It was Leon who wanted out of Tuane, but where was Leon to go? I will have to change the plot by making Leon return to the cave, sip more met fluid, and grab a park ranger who goes to investigate. Leon cannot just pop out of Tuane and materialize from nothing; his body long gone he needs a new body to continue living outside of Tuane. Maybe he can ‘jump’ into a visitor to his cave; I have to decide. I like the premise that the spirit can only exit at the host’s darkest hour, or on the verge of death.

Willpower from without will encourage the four German hosts to ingest the time dust and follow the plan of the time-traveling back to pre-Nazi Germany, guests within their minds, but as in the case of Leon, Earl, Peg, and Gail who entered the Germans in Arizona , the four will have to leave their place and time, never to return. They, too, will go down as missing to their neighbors, family, friends, colleagues, and employers. They can keep up contact with their contemporaries only while living in the same time period, as Leon could contact Earl, when deja-vu inspired him, as when he wrote to learn of his succumbing to cancer from Peg, but in another time before their own time, it would be lunatic to do so as no pre-existing person would recognize him. 

There must be a devastating event for all four German hosts to succumb to if the time-traveling heroes hope to re-migrate when their purpose is completed; those are my rules. The prospect of death or the ‘darkest hour’ is the only way out, unless the hosts willingly become the vehicles, as Tuane was for fifteen years, at the start of the novel. 

The only occurrence of such a 'disaster' would be a public accident where some survive and others not. For example, I could put my characters on the Hindenburg or Titanic, send them back to America, and let history take its course. Just before the fatal moment, the time-travelers would ingest met dust, grab a suitable survivor, and make it out alive to complete their mission. Their hosts could then even survive without them; the shock of thinking they will die is sufficient for proto-transmigration. 

Ethically, I wouldn’t want to ‘kill’ the hosts after they had helped the heroes by unwittingly donating their bodies, leaving their own time periods. If any German character-host has cognitive dissonance, such as through nightmares or sleepless depression, I have to let him or her go.

My plot rules preclude carrying any non-organic material out of its time frame. The ‘time’ and ‘met’ dust passes through, though, because it is organic and bears Leon’s touch, just as his clothes. Paper books could ‘theoretically’ be transported through time, but every millimeter of every page must bear the DNA of the time-traveler; not a likely prospect. Only a page, such as a map, in extreme circumstance, might possibly be transported. These are the rules that I, as writer, must be consistent about.

     Any and all time travel and transmigration is limited to the supply of ‘time’ and ‘met’ dust Leon has synthesized from the pool in Craters of the Moon and taken with him. Though the pools of magic liquid may be there historically, how would a traveler from 1492 travel from Europe to Idaho? Leon’s last reasonable chance to replenish his stock would be when he returns from Europe in the 1920’s; then, at least they could take a steam engine train out West before heading by ship to San Salvador from Miami or Key West. 

‘Body snatching’ transition to mental only

2-16-17

In the sci-fi novel, the transition from the host body to the original corporal being is problematic. Leon enters Tuane and shrivels up on the roadside, but when Tuane returns to the spot of his metempsychosis at Craters of the Moon, whose body does Leon transition into if his original body is defunct? As it is written now, his ‘ghost’ leaves Tuane’s body and materializes in the seat next to Tuane in the pick-up truck. His mind has aged and so has his body fifteen years after initial transmigration; when he returns to his older brother, he looks and feels like his brother’s father. Perhaps I can adapt the ‘body snatching’ transition to mental only since the original body disintegrates upon exiting it; that way, the character still has time to live limited to his/her mental age, no matter what the age of the body entered may be. For example, if 41 year old Leon enters 34 year-old Hitler in 1923, Hitler’s mental age would become 41. This would create a new problem since the spirit (soul) has been called ageless; how could it age? How could it die? If 21 year-old Peg enter 47 year-old Rosa Luxemburg in 1918 does Rosa’s brain become 21 or remain 47? Of course, it is my fantasy novel to do with what I wish, but I at least must be consistent if not scientifically accurate; in matters of the soul, there is no accuracy, anyway. Only the flesh has an observable outcome. The brain is flesh but it is not the brain transmigrating; only the thoughts, knowledge, and sentiments.

      In any event, I am considering having my team of four time-travelers go back to 1918 once they arrive in Germany and influence the chain of events after WW I that resulted in the holocaust. If the spirit of Luxemburg can guide Hitler, not only will the holocaust be averted but Germany will have its socialist revolution inspiring Europe with Russia, make Stalin obsolete, and with China, defeat the fascist tendency of the United States, perhaps even spreading socialism to the American shores and around the world which will have been spared European Colonialism and annihilation of its indigenous by the next jump back in time to neutralize Christopher Columbus. African and Native American culture would flourish and a respect for nature, organic socialism, would prevail by the time Europeans can reach foreign shores. How far back could my time travelers go to protect the Golden Age of Islamic culture from the Genghis Khan’s Hordes and Pope Urban II’s Crusades? Could idolatry become cultural, not religious and monotheism prevail with no need for a first or second coming of Christ?