He's Got to be Keating Me

        On June 2, 2018, I wrote to Jerome Keating Ph. D  when I noticed he liked a poem I posted on Facebook. Jerome is an elderly teacher living in Taiwan since 1988. 

“Hi Jerome. We met and you autographed Mapping of Taiwan at the International Book Expo in Taipei. Thank you for liking my poem. Be well,” I wrote.

         “I remember that,” he replied. “Hope that you also liked the Map book and how  economies often lead to coveted geographies." 

       “I do like the whole jist of your project. I have some questions. You don't refer to Mr. Seldon's Map of China. Why?”

        “Not sure which map you are referring to?” he replied.

       The author [Timothy Brook] rediscovered a map brought to Oxford library in the 17th century, I said. The map shows that China was the first to know about, trade through, and map the South China Sea. Being an apologist for U.S. hegemonic Asian policy and a detractor of Chinese sea rights in building up navel outposts there, perhaps Dr. Keating was playing dumb. "I think that book must have been published too late for you to reference in yours,” I said leaving him a way out.

          Instead of admitting he wasn’t aware of the book or map, or worse, denying and covering up what the map told the world, he must have Googled it, thought fast and came back with an educated response.

          “Yes on a couple of counts. 1) The book came out after my book was first published and 2) the map is a composite and it is unsure who put it together and when &. 3) while it definitely talks of trade routes etc. my book focuses more on how Taiwan got on the map; so though I was aware of it by the time the bi-lingual version came out; there was not enough there to specifically relate to my focus. That said, the map does show the awareness and importance of trade in the early 17th century.”

          “But you will refer to it in the second edition, won't you?” I chided. “The map doesn't look composite.”

          “The map seems to be as I say a composite, where someone who was into trade, put together a couple of existing maps.” He was bullish now. I scanned and sent him a copy of the map to see for himself that it was not a composite and did, indeed, include Taiwan on its radar. 

         On July 1, 2018, I was bored and texted Keating Ph.D. while sitting up the river. “What are the politics looking like in Taichung?” he had texted me once. I threw back to the question  about Taipei. 

“I have a piece that will be in the Taipei Times this week--it says Ko-P is going down,” he replied.

“I don't read any English news from Taiwan. I look to socialist and worker union perspectives on the topic," I wrote.

“I don't read Chinese," he replied, "but I belong to many groups. I listen to friends whose opinions I trust, and I constantly look at the difference between what politicians say and do. That said, Ko-p's biggest disadvantage here is that he has no party and has depended more on swing vote. Will send the op-ed when it is out.”  Keating Ph. D probably supports the DPP and the U.S. CIA for not liking  Mayor Ko going to Shanghai to show friendship and make peace for Taiwan; something he abhors. Mayor Ko's "swing vote" implies he is a KMT supporter. 
“An aside, when I was in the US, I had one friend who if he told me he liked a movie, I figured I would not like it, and another friend who said if he liked it, I figured I would too.”

“My op-ed would never be printed by any English newspaper in Taiwan,” I simply replied. 

“You need to see my book on Paradigms,” he replied like a salesman.

“Thank you. And you can read my writings at www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com. All gratuities go to Kiva,” I shot back.

He didn’t know about Kiva so I sent him a link to the site that forwards investment loans to poor people around the world.

“Suggested donation $2.00 a story or article, $10 a book,” I said.
He replied with two gratuitous thumbs-up and sent me the link to his book instead. It had become a stand-off over his book and mine.

Then I laid it on the line: “If I buy Paradigms will you donate to the cause of my choice, Kiva, for example?”

“I have to examine Kiva more; I seldom donate to causes unless I have been involved in them and know the people; too often burned,” he responded trying to weasel out.

“Suit yourself. You already owe me one for buying Taiwan Maps at a premium price LOL.” I wasn’t really laughing out loud; I felt offended. He winked back like it was an inside joke but I still wasn’t laughing.

So he was saying I should buy a book he wrote but he doesn't have to look at my website or donate a penny to read mine because he doesn’t trust a cause I would donate the profit to? That’s some paradigm!

I wrote this piece in “Readings and Ridings” blog about J. Keating Ph. D.'s certainty and disregard for my experience and knowledge because I disagree with his American government viewpoint. It doesn’t impress me the title he attaches to his name. But Jerome is my elder and a great writer; I do respect him, but he was condescending; I deserve more respect than that. I have, after all, been teaching longer than he has, here and New York City, written as much, and have more teaching experience including college teaching experience; two years in Taiwan from '84-86, but I’m not in competition with him for pretension. I had lived in Taiwan a full ten years before he came onto the scene, and I can speak and read Mandarin, a skill he admits not acquiring despite his Taiwanese spouse and longevity here. 
 Chinese detractors have the sway in the English media, Facebook groups, and academics in Taiwan, except for the old stalwart China Times. Expats seeking the truth about Taiwan and China must be on their guard. Few here will give you the right direction.

Donald Hall's and My Obituary

     
Donald Hall's NY Times Obituary

"Donald Hall, a Poet Laureate of the Rural Life, is dead at 89,” said the New York Times. I wouldn’t have realized it if my friend hadn’t sent me an obituary about the guitarist made famous to him and me in Blues Brothers, Matt Murphy. I guess I was, like Hall, influenced by Auden, unknowingly. A death of a poet is the opportunity to read the work you missed while he was being recognized by critics that took him seriously. As a non-compromiser, I will never have that chance to be commercially heard, but you can read my poems anyway, for free; I don't need a New York Times obituary. I could imagine my obituary, though not printed anywhere but here in my journal:

          Mr. Temple was an applicant for no awards and received no recognition outside of a few jealous-less peers and Facebook poetry fans, though he was a participant in the 32 World Congress of Poets; a vanity gathering in Tainan in 2016. His unwillingness to compromise or hobnob with bourgeois sorts left him peacefully in his pursuits and self-entertainment, fancying himself a blues singer. For the record, Mr. Temple wrote four unpublished novels, a children's book, The Castle on Waterview Street, a pet 'autobiography', The Cats Journey to Taiwan, and hundreds of articles on politics and teaching English to speakers of other languages, as well as life as an expat in Taiwan. He was the creator and editor of Wobbly City for the NYC IWW and wrote many of its bylines under assumed names. His forty-thousand views on Trip Adviser put him in the top 3% of Taiwan writers about restaurant and scenic spots. His photo blog articles, shared on Facebook, were collected in two volumes, Forgotten People of Taiwan and Taiwan Blog Transmissions A prolific poet, he wrote hundreds of verse and self-published a chapbook in the late 1970’s (Temple End) and in 2015 (Han River; Poems of Taichung), and 2018 (Unnatural Beauty) with time in between spent for earning a living and raising a family of four. He is survived by a daughter from his wife of 27 years, and two daughters and a son from a previous marriage. 
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
 Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

Taipei Writers' Group's New Publication

4-12-18 

I see that Taipei Writers Group published another anthology of the participating writers’ short stories, that the book was reviewed in the Taipei Times and has 650 views on-line. The stories are tame, non-political, and designed to offend no one; I haven’t read them but I know from the reviewer and a few stores from a previous collection of theirs. Their collections sell better than mine; they pay to promote them and they have a following of pretentious, urbane彬彬有禮 bin1bin1you1li1  Taipei expat comrades. Their stories are about the same locale and its inhabitants as mine. The Taipei Times review puts them in their minuscule place in literature and would not even bothered with reviewing my collection Forgotten People of Taiwan or even the new collection of non-fiction articles I am preparing to publish, Taiwan Blog Transmissions. I wouldn’t bother asking them to review it; I regret asking Camphor Press to even consider publishing mine; I am not a commercial writer and will not modify my ideals to become one. My writing will always remain obscure no matter how good it is.

      It is up to me to edit, proofread, publish, and promote my writings; no one will do it for me without paying the price. I have the free Amazon Direct Publishing service, the same one TWG uses, and I can do it on my own. What hung me up from doing it already is not-knowing how to format the cover photo for Amazon’s requirement. That being said, there are plenty of errors that I must proofread and edit before publishing

Seeds of "Red Room Auditions"

3-25-18 

     I wrote the first two pages of my fourth novel yesterday; a murder mystery, tentatively titled Red Room Murders. I have some trepidation about doing it though. Murder is a negative energy that one doesn't want to create from thin air. Writing a murder mystery must be some cathartic undertaking to remove negative energy. What I was thinking of doing, killing ex-pats that have obstructed my goals in Taiwan, is not a good idea. In fact, my life is better because I have gotten past them to have a nice life with no stress from competition. Why would I want to stick my fingers down my throat and vomit them up? I have already shitted them out; from Deadend Street to Dufus Davis, all flushed down the toilet. But a part of me wants to base a novel on a serial killing of a conspiracy of CIA operatives tying English dialogue in Taiwan to the United States, obstructing independence and re-unification. Maybe I should make the narrator the murderer instead of the detective sent to find him.

     Part of my idea is to use some short stories I've already completed, and modify them to kick-start the novel the same way I used “Tuane Gorgonsen” and “The Camping Trip” to kick-start A Western Metempsychosis. Deadend Street can be the test case for this murderer; an inconsequential foreigner who I can practiced my character's murder technique on. It could sound like Catcher in the Rye with the protagonist trying to save Taiwanese from bad influences. A serial killing from a first person point of view; let's see if the detectives can find him. 

      Nikki French, a husband-wife team, have written dozens of murder mysteries together, one of them is called The Red Room but there is no title Red Room Murders. I base my title on the venue in Taipei, sponsored by a beauty salon that has of its goals making Taiwan palatable for western emigration. The protagonist realizes that his dream of a Chinese-influenced Taiwan is in jeopardy as the United States continues to stuff the island with homesteaders to dilute its Chinese character. I can base the protagonist on G, the neurotic Taiwanese 32-year-old whose goal is immigrating to The United States to better his material prospects. He is privy to the deep secret goal of CIA Americanization of Taiwan, even the avocation of making it a 51^st State. He turns against his dream of having an American wife when he is spurned by American women again and again.

      I know people that are perfect vehicles for a sociopath who can kill and maim. In the end, when they find him, to put the blame on the one who inadvertently motivated him to do so, even send him to prison on sedition charges fighting extradition to the United States as the Chinese try to liberate him. My character can be the innocent victim who tells the story blindly in the first person; the reader will know the twist in the plot when the police come after him and the CIA thinks he's a spy because the victims have all been undercover operatives. They’ll think he's working for the Chinese but it's just mistaken identity and coincidence that the schmucks that obstruct the retired teacher happen to be American spies. But the killer is the nerdy neurotic Taiwanese.

There are a couple of plots that I am considering and Robert  has another: Brooklyn born, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Russian and Yiddish speaker and martial arts trained in the deadly art of Tai Chi Chuan and a special FBI agent, Asher Katz, is ordered to Taiwan by Special Counsel Mueller to investigate Joshua Bolton’s attempt to provoke the USA into war with China, so that Putin’s Russia can pick up the pieces and control Eurasia if not the world. When Katz’s contact with the Russian speaking émigré community, Rabbi Horowitz is assassinated at his side at the Shr Lin night market, he has to go deep undercover. He first contacts his old Kung fu teacher and a Keelung fisher smuggler he knows from the old days. Asher Katz must now turn into assassin to kill Bolton’s man in Taiwan whose soon to provoke the incident that will throw the world in a new holocaust. Just an idea. Be the good guy who offs the bad guy. When I wrote the novel about Vietnam and the guys girl friend getting raped, same problem. Too evil, but that’s what war is. Evil and it’s murder too. Keep me posted.

     I think I will still be the detective sent from San Francisco, “the good guy who offs the bad guy,” as Yenney says, with G and the retired teacher as antagonists.

3-31-18

     While up the river, I wrote two more pages towards chapter one of Red Room Auditions. I borrowed a few paragraphs from "Hung Well's Arcade" describing Chung-Shan North Road in 1978  to add background . While the novel is a murder mystery, I want to use the tactics of Tony Hillerman, using Navajo and Hopi traditions, in exposing the undercurrent of culture of Taiwan. For example, Chapter 2 is tentatively titled "444" meaning the fourth murder on April 4th or some other connection to the superstition of like sounding ‘sze’ for 'die' as well. I will go back and rethink the title of chapter one to reflect the superstitions from China and convoluted loans from infatuation with America that pollute the Taiwanese minds and create monsters like G. I want to show how America and China fucked Taiwan up. Only Japan comes out smelling like a cherry blossom. 

4-1-18

   Also while up the river, I wrote two more pages towards chapter one of Red Room Auditions. I borrowed a few paragraphs from my "Hung Well's Arcade" describing Chung-Shan North Road in 1978 to add color. While the novel is a murder mystery, I want to use for  Taiwan the tactics of Tony Hillerman who, using Navajo and Hopi traditions, exposes the undercurrent of culture. For example, Chapter 2 is tentatively titled "444" meaning the fourth murder on April 4th or some other connection to the superstition of like sounding ‘sze’ for 'die' as well. I will go back and rethink the title of chapter one to reflect the superstitions from China and convoluted loans from infatuation with America that pollute the Taiwanese minds and create monsters. 
4-5-18

     I'm sort of floating with Red Room Auditions though I added another page I wrote a few days ago. I am playing with the idea of multiple narrators and even un-narrated internet dialogue. I use different tenses; present when Nate Fisher is narrating, and past when Martin Freiger is narrating. I plan to add short stories, journal, and articles about Deadend Street, Michael Turd, Dufus Davis, and other expats Martin complains about to Darrow. I can even have Darrow tell what Martin told him in reported speech; post confessionals since he is the murderer convicted and imprisoned at the end. The tie in to Red Room is that all the victims and murderer have been to the venue to participate. 

4-6-18

     I am collecting data for Red Room Auditions and adding them to the broad manuscript to modify and associate into a plot. I've settled on the murder of six expats based on schmucks I've run across in Taiwan. I may change the setting period to modern times from 2000. That would make Nate Fisher 60+ years old if his first contact with Taiwan was as a soldier stationed here in 1978. In that case he would be called out of retirement from the SFPD to solve one more case overseas. I'm also thinking of bringing Nate in after the second murder instead of the third and having the third soon after he gets on the scene; three more before books climax. I added a cool cover picture to the manuscript of velvet red theater curtains dripping blood. I want the Red Room to act as a grotesque cabaret of not-so-talented expat entertainers, singers, comedians, magicians, and poets; each murder following a show the murderer attends or performs at; "For my next trick, Dufus Davis will have vapes shoved down his throat and up his ass." Stuff like that.  Darrow will do Martin's requested bidding as if to win his admiration and to take revenge on Americans for spurning him. 

      I spent a good three hours working on the mystery novel modifying previously written material to get a “head start” on the text. I have twenty pages in chapters one and two seemingly done and another twenty pages of journal and blog material I think I can use in the manuscript I also have pages of text messaging between Darrow and me that I want to modify and incorporate into the novel; the plot being a neurotic Taiwanese youngster that takes it on his own to avenge his older American Facebook friend. I also copied a few news articles about the Taiwanese 18-year-old who was found with an arsenal at the Pennsylvania parochial school his well-intentioned parents dumped him in. This background could be Darrow’s past, part of his resentment and indicative of his state of mind. I also copied the two blog entries about Red Room. I sent the title page, index and first two chapters in a PDF to Robert  just now to see what he thinks. 

4-9-18 

     In Red Room Auditions, I use three different points of view and tenses; Nate Fisher's (present), Martin Freiger’s [*-first mention of Martin’s new last name] (past), and Darrow Kuo's (future). The text dialog between Darrow and Martin varies in tenses. I'm taking Robert's advice to make Nate more hard-boiled in his last hurrah. I'm giving him an estranged girlfriend with daughter in Taiwan and  The surprise in the plot is that while Nate, Malcolm, and Tim think they have their man, Darrow Kuo[*first mention Darrow’s new last name], but he is just a crackpot, a cover for  Chinese killing CIA spooks in Taiwan? It turns out all the victims have secret dossiers. Nate is not made privy to because of confidentiality. The CIA hopes to lead him to Darrow to close the case and hide the victims’ true identities. Meanwhile, Limit Hong and Corny Donovan are in on the secret to keep American influence in Taiwan stifling unification and independence. I will add a meeting with Limit and the “Sunflower” sideshow later in the novel.

Submitted and Rejected by Camphor Press

 3-13-18 

      Camphor Press has seven samples of my creative writing. I sent three after texting someone asking if I could, and was asked to send a few more. Camphor Press is the Taipei-U.K. based publisher that put out The Lord of Taiwan, the new novel about Koxinga, the book yesterday I contacted the author and publisher to inquire about getting. I didn’t know about them before yesterday. Since their focus is East Asian literature, I am on the right track. 

3-14-18 

      Each of those writings I thoroughly enjoyed writing and tweaking, though it behooves me to say I must tweak them some more. For example, the excerpt from Life’s Progressive Movement, “Welcome to Free China,” refers to the same woman Emerson saw on the street outside the youth hostel as Jeanette and Amy, in one paragraph. The recounting of the thinly veiled autobiographical incident, though some would say changes with time, is as close to the truth as a CTTV could produce because of the hindsight called ‘personal journal’ and repeating the story dozens of times to dozens of people over forty years.

      Each of those writings kept me entertained in the cleanest way with no repercussion, as this writing I now commit to pixel has, having awoken at 1am due to excessive sleep and a mosquito in the bedroom. Instead of panicking or taking drugs, or even reading to make me sleepy, writing in the wee hours clears my mind without wasting my time; not wasting time because I enjoy doing it. Though Tanuki meows and scratches at the study room window, I can ignore him and not let him detract from my writing just as a mosquito doesn’t ruin a night’s sleep but affords me an opportunity to have solitude. The trick I must perform now is to not eat during these interludes so that I can lose weight.

     Publishing or not publishing my creative writing doesn’t change the equation, even if others place a monetary value on it. When I read over what I have written, it pays me back because I realize the thousands of stories it took to get me here; I have such depth that exists whether it is appreciated with money or views on Facebook shares. All that a company publishing my work means to me is that I don’t have to pay to publish it myself. 

3-14-18

     John sent me a bad news e-mail from Camphor Press rejecting publication of my creative writing. He explained what he thought my writing deficits were but none was as critical as my political leanings (“quirkiness”) that would make my work un-sellable, according to their editorial parameters. I wrote back thanking him for looking but understood their stance. He looked into my two self-published works and their lack of following as part of their decision; that is unfair since I didn’t promote them or even pay extra for Amazon Kindle distribution that he used for an excuse. He did, however, like “Return of the Ami Native” the best of the seven samples I sent. A writer gets dozens of rejection letter before one acceptance and I am no different. I had no sales campaign and only sent a text message to Camphor press on a whim. It would have been nice if they liked my work but I feel no disappointment that they didn’t. An anarchist publisher would appreciate my asides better. I have to send my works to an open-minded publishing house if I seriously want to get published.

About "The Most Fun..without a BJ or Weed"

1-24-18 1:14am Wed. (5)

      My blog post about my trip to Oslob, “The Most Fun You Can Have without a BJ or Weed,” is so incendiary (and true) that Malcolm and most other readers are stunned by it; not only its risqué undertone but also its writing about an enviable holiday shied away from. I shared it on Bored Panda internationally in addition to Taichung Journal locally to Facebook groups and in e-mails to friends and family not using social media. Malcolm saw it early yesterday morning but didn’t comment after I texted some questions about details and reminded him I wouldn’t share it until he approved since it refers to him often. I take his no response as a ‘yes.’ Even Simone didn’t respond out of a haughty disgust not unlike Suzanne who was sent and won’t respond, I guarantee you. My writing often gets right to the soft white underbelly of life; see how the CIA guru wannabes in Taiwan responded to my articles about Hobo Happiness and Indigenous in Taichung Park; they were too arrogant to be speechless and tried to insult my writing because they knew it was what they’re not capable of. With this piece, I give little people like these an excuse not to like me. Arlen and Jim Drieu liked it as did Joshua Dent from the Kaohsiung Writing Workshop, probably the only one there who will admit it’s well written. I will send Mary and Tripadvisor a G rated version.
      I told Leona about the blog during lunch saying that I asked Simone if she wanted to read the R or G rated version; she chose the R. Leona asked what the R was and I told her the title. “Don’t worry,” I said, “I didn’t get a blowjob.” But she didn’t get the message either; that I wanted a blowjob from her before I actually go and get one.