On December 10, 2019, I tweeted "My novel Leave Society is a threat to everyone including me" but now after two more drafts I think it's more of a gentle, calm suggestion or idea.
The protagonist of the novel, Li, views leaving society as "a relative thing." He has lived in NYC since 2001 and in midtown Manhattan since 2011, and has been immersed in pessimistic, neurotic, nature-ignoring cultures and subcultures for decades, and so he feels that "almost any change would qualify."
In my novel, leaving society is mostly viewed as a mental and chemical and cultural thing. One can leave society to varying degrees by changing what one reads, for example. By replacing—to any degree—newspapers with nonfiction books that reference outside the mainstream, one is leaving society.
My novel defines "society" as "dominator society"—the thing almost everyone seems to have been embedded in for around 6,000 years. The other end of the continuum of social organization from "dominator" is "partnership." Riane Eisler invented these terms in The Chalice and the Blade (1987).
Do you have an opinion on consuming only "vegan"?
ReplyDeleteI used to be vegan. I answered your question to someone else here:
Deletehttps://leavesociety.blogspot.com/2020/08/leave-society-third-draft.html?showComment=1598988514577#c6576112659087876589
I often fantasize about leaving society in a geographic sense, but still feel an obligation to remain present and participate within society at large by watching the news, going to work, etc. Do you have any thoughts about letting go of that responsibility as in varying degrees one might leave society?
ReplyDeleteI feel the kind of leaving society that I'm talking about with my novel is a taking on of more responsibility, not a letting go of responsibility. It's like leaving a cult, the cult of dominator culture, to provide perspective to people still in the cult and to support people and ideas outside the cult.
Deleteif it's possible for the people that have left society to create a new type of society for "people that have left society," then did they leave society in the first place
ReplyDeleteYes, in my view.
DeleteHave you read any Pynchon, if not why not
ReplyDeleteI read The Crying of Lot 49 when I was around 21.
DeleteCool
DeleteI have been making videos about leaving society sortov. I got your patron page then saw you are not posting there. I enjoyed trip. have you read victor schauberger or lautremonts moldoror? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMwm2AQUGx6n5c6cbfplaog
ReplyDeleteI haven't read those people, no. Thank you for the link and for reading Trip.
DeleteI can't wait for this book. I've read everything of yours. Your stuff always triggers ideas for my own writing and entertains me simultaneously. This concept of leaving society is always relevant but especially so right now. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteDo you still have plans to move to a more rural area, closer to nature? At one point you mentioned Hawaii. I think it is important for writers to consider leaving cities.
ReplyDeleteI moved out of NYC in 2018, to various places in rural New Jersey and upstate New York, and I've lived in Hawaii since January.
DeleteYour last poem is great . I feel there is a bit more depth or matter
ReplyDeleteYeah so asking the Q question : what were you relapsing from ? "Lapse at 11 day"
DeleteThanks for reading my poem.
DeleteI was lapsing from being positive and productive.
DeleteThanks
DeleteI like your train of thought. Leaving society in a Robinson Crusoe manner is a very difficult thing to do. But your definition of leaving society is much easier to do. Almost anyone can leave society in your sense. And maybe everyone will leave society eventually. And then no one will have to destroy society because it will be empty of people. But do you think society will continue existing even if it's empty of people?
ReplyDeleteYes, my definition of leaving society is for everyone. I think if everyone leaves society, there will be other societies, some of which some people may want to leave again.
DeleteIt's turtles all the way down and societies all the way out
DeleteDo you think Christianity itself is conducive to producing a dominator society?
ReplyDeleteI think the other religions that feature Yahweh are inherently dominator, since Yahweh is so sexist, but that Christianity could produce a partnership society, since it's based on Jesus' teachings, but Jesus gets ignored, it seems.
DeleteRiane Eisler wrote, "Almost two thousand years ago on the shores of Lake Galilee a gentle and compassionate young Jew called Jesus denounced the ruling classes of his time — not just the rich and powerful but even the religious authorities — for exploiting and oppressing the people of Palestine. He preached universal love and taught that the meek, humble,
and weak would some day inherit the earth. Beyond this, in both his words and actions he often rejected the subservient and separate position that his culture assigned women. Freely associating with women, which was itself a form of heresy in his time, Jesus proclaimed the spiritual equality of all.
Not surprisingly, according to the Bible, the authorities of his time considered Jesus a dangerous revolutionary whose radical ideas had to be silenced at all cost. How truly radical these ideas were from the perspective of an androcratic system in which the ranking of men over women is the model for all human rankings is succinctly expressed in Galatians 3:28. For here we read that for those who follow the gospel of Jesus, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ."
Some Christian theologians, such as Leonard Swidler, have asserted that Jesus was a feminist, because even from the official or "sacred" texts it is clear that he rejected the rigid segregation and subordination of women of his time. 1 But feminism has as its primary aim the liberation of women. So to call Jesus a feminist would not be historically accurate. It would seem more accurate to say that Jesus' teachings embody a gylanic view of human relations."
How is your cannabis usage these days? Do you still wait five hours after waking up before consuming cannabis?
ReplyDeleteIt's good. Yes. I've still been eating cannabis after around 5 hours awake each day. Haven't smoked all year.
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