End of The Week, Desultory Feelings, Submissions, Rights, Jumping Jive

 Await and functioning for over 4 hours and nothing much, other than consistently crashing Firefox.

Last night, the back hurt – again, still – and I might be able to use that as an excuse for my grumpiness. I deleted items that I might otherwise have written about there. I just didn't care. Therefore, who else would care? Why should you care about what I find interesting?

It was not so much depression raring its head again. No, that feels very much under control. My PO visited Thursday, asked about my mental health. His usual question (among his usual questions), that makes me think you should've been around in 2009 and asking that question. So long as I am writing, so long as I take my Zoloft, so long as I am going to counseling, I am well. That he expects me to tell him my mental health is bad is silly. I kept it from people who obviously cared about me, why should I tell this lump who has only a cursory interest in me? He will know if I lose control again when they find me hanging. Quite a useless creature in general, he is too depressing a sight in himself to be any help if my mental health were to regress. Where he does help is amuse me with his presumptions and lack of utility.

He showed up at work. Just before leaving, he asked if I had any questions or concerns or anything he could a second time. When I asked if he wanted to help wash dishes, he said no. Not that I needed his help, but I am getting an urge to find out if there is anything going on behind his lugubrious face.

I talked to CC Wednesday night. I tried calling KH, but he is in a busy season. E would have been too generous with her sympathy. T2 never answers my calls. While working on “120 MPH Down a Blind Alley” I had this sensation of general dread, the feeling of someone stepping on my grave. She helped a little. Only a little though, the feeling continued. The PO wants to know if I'm having relations with anyone – I keep saying I go to work, and I go home – which is meant to say when do I have time? With all these questions, I feel a disbelief in how I am living. That is, he expects me to prowling the highways and byways. When I called KH about the PO's visit, we talked about this. It is just that the PO doesn't ask why not. As I told KH, I haven't the heart for it; too many dead exes, and I just cannot put my heart into any more losses. I came home to wind up business and die. Whatever peace I thought I could find with a woman seems unneeded now. Love, passion, what you want to call it, feels like too much energy to expend on a hopeless cause.

And this morning has not seen any great energy out of me. A trip to McClure's for caffeine around 7. I want to go to the Farmer's market and downtown, but I am beginning to feel like I have not enough time. I should have had more energy last night, been more prompt this morning. I have groceries enough to last me through to Tuesday, I went to Payless yesterday. I do not want to spend any more money.

Again, this does not feel like depression. More just a feeling of tiredness. Maybe a hot shower would prompt me to do more. 

I did look over possible places for my stories. Which I organized for next month. Organization makes me feel better, seems necessary for action and at the same time seems a less than-optimal use of time. Call it a bore. Why did I set them off? Well, because I want to submit the new stories, the ones writing in the past week or two, and I have put aside residing them for a week. That discipline I will keep to.

I did manage submitting “The Dilemma of Basketball.” To which I did some editing. I got rid of two long sentences. That went to Heimat Review.

Passager got “Their Bright Future.”

That was after two chicken burritos and a shower. I am about 60-40 towards going downtown in an hour. I started the poaching liquid for the salmon I bought yesterday. That can be left running while I am out.

I have smoked too many cigarettes.

I decided to submit “The Dilemma of Basketball” to The Common. They want stories about place. Well, it is that in a way.

This afternoon, I decided to submit “Their Bright Future” also to:

1. AGNI
2. The Paris Review (Which, because I got in a hurry, screwed up the submission. I cannot say I expected to really impress The Paris Review.)
3. Ninth Letter
4. Passages North 
5. The Iowa Review 
6. The Gettysburg Review 
7. Halfway Down the Stairs 
8. Zone 3

It is 3:34 PM. I did not go downtown. I have not left the room, except to go to the porch. I decided the market would be closed by the time I got there, so no need to go. I really cannot think of anywhere I want to go now. On the other hand, I do think I should do something.  The salmon is poaching. After dinner. My eyes are getting tired of this computer screen. No calls made, none received. It is a beautiful, quiet day.

The Year of the Self by Cortez is from The Brooklyn Rail. Yes, KH, Cortez has an MFA, and she writes in the first-person, but there is a humor to it that escapes navel-gazing. 

Also from The Brooklyn Rail, Art Law & Art and the Law: A Dialogue Across Disciplines by Yayoi Shionoiri raised my curiosity.

 When I am asked to define art law, I am often at a loss. As a specialist area in legal practice, art law reflects an amalgamation of subject matters that encompass transactions across the art world, including commercial contracts, intellectual property, import and export controls, real property, data privacy, and tax, as well as niche areas, including artist resale royalties, consignments, and rules related to online sales. Art law thus establishes the frameworks and structures by which the art world operates across the globe—the scaffolding for a community with its own unique practices and behaviors.

Beyond such technical domains, however, there lies an expanse of art law that often appears antithetical to rigid structures and strict definitions. Those who are honored to call ourselves art lawyers have the incredible opportunity to be adjacent to creation—the spark of originality that reminds us why we are human. For many of us, this is the reason why we toil in our legal practice. Working with artists has helped us to realize, time and time again, that something unnecessary to survival can elevate life.

If I had known about this, I might have tried to get into it. Sounds more interesting than what took 22 years of my life. 

What Brooklyn Rail does is provide insight into this type of practice across the world:

 In seeking to bring together contributions from across the world, we recognize at the outset that art law differs by jurisdiction, reflecting divergent conceptions of both art and law. These distinctions perhaps help us better understand that norms and legal rules are socially constructed—the law is not a monolith—and we seek to embrace this legal diversity across the Critics Page. Ryan Su provides insight into the state of art law in Singapore, a region that has developed “uniquely and differently from that of the West” in terms of its political climate and cultural policy landscape. These differences are extended by artist collective Alchemyverse, who share their experience of working in the Atacama region of Chile, learning how the local community is guided by rules of nature while seeking to honor those rules as visitors. Alana Kushnir informs us about Australian Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, examining how these Indigenous concepts might help to expand legal definitions of intellectual property.

In the United States, we continue to see legal precedent and public policy interact with art—in ways that have reshaped both legal and artistic practice. Melissa Passman discusses how the intricacies of nonprofit entity formation are becoming parameters for exploration, rather than inflexible obstacles, to individuals and entities that are attempting to effect progressive change. In looking to law to empower artists, Sarah Conley Odenkirk argues that contractual restrictions on the resale of artwork, including resale royalties, allow artists to retain control of artwork as it is used as a form of intergenerational wealth transfer. Reminding us that public art is integral to how a community is defined or galvanized, Megan Noh contemplates a recently settled dispute about public art in New York City, recognizing that legal protections for site-specific works could be better strengthened to support the artists who create these defining artworks.

BoomerLit has a new issue. I submitted “Their Bright Future”

Well, ate my salmon and did a little piddling online. I think I will now walk down to McClure's. I have drank four liters of Diet Coke. I might be a little over-caffeinated.

Down to McClure's for Luckys, the sun is shining and it is warm. I get in my day's exercise by walking over to Kohl's. I am going to church tomorrow and I want new shoes. No shoes on sale at Kohl's, no way I am paying $50 or more for tennis shoes (yes, I know they are not tennis shoes, but I refuse to fall in line with marketers and their ilk). Instead, I got a new pair of pants. It is official, I have lost weight. Not enough, but some. I may also look less homeless the next time I see my sister. Still, needing shoes, I went down to Shoe Carnival. I haven't spent this much on me since I got my last pair of work pants. Spent way more than I like.

I have also become more convinced than ever that bubble heads are working as cashiers today. The cashier at Kohl's could not give me accurate directions to the fitting room, and had no idea what I meant by a men's room. It may also be that I am a bit of a curmudgeon.

I cannot remember if I mentioned submitting “The Kids Are Not All Right” to Flying Island Literary Journal.

Old jazz is something I like, my mom brought us up on swing jazz, so I had to read Ted Gioia's Could Any Other Jazz Trumpeter Match Up with Louis Armstrong in the 1930s?

Along these lines – start jumping:

I wonder what Indiana's Supreme Court will do anything like what's in Using State Constitutional Protections to Improve Life Behind Bars:

Five state constitutions guarantee that “no person arrested or confined in jail shall be treated with unnecessary rigor”: Oregon, Utah, Indiana, Tennessee, and Wyoming.

Courts in Oregon and Utah have the most developed case law interpreting their “unnecessary rigor” provisions. They agree on three crucial points. Most importantly, they concur that the clauses offer more protection than comparable federal provisions. They also agree that despite the specific mention of “jail,” the clauses protect people pre- and post-conviction. Finally, they agree that the clauses govern conditions of confinement as opposed to proportionality of sentences.

***

Take last month’s decision in Oregon, Lawson v. Cain. There, a 62-year-old incarcerated man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease alleged that his prison did not take adequate measures to protect him from Covid-19. Specifically, he maintained that the prison’s inconsistent enforcement of masking requirements subjected him and other medically vulnerable people to “unnecessary rigor” by creating “an unjustifiable risk of a serious health hazard.”

The court agreed. Its ruling reiterated that plaintiffs suing under the clause need only show that they have been subjected to “unnecessarily harmful or dangerous treatment,” not that the defendant acted intentionally or was “deliberately indifferent” to the potential for serious harm. In other words, the inquiry is “purely objective.”

***

Utah courts have similarly interpreted their state’s identical provision more broadly than federal protections. In Dexter v. Bosko, the Utah Supreme Court held that officials treated a man in their custody with unnecessary rigor when their refusal to fasten his seatbelt during transport caused him to become paralyzed in a subsequent car crash. The court indicated that the provision prohibited treatment that the Eighth Amendment would permit. For example, while requiring strict silence during given hours may not be cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment, it “may impose unnecessary rigor.”

Indiana's Supreme Court's lack of interest in our state Bill of Rights makes an appearance:

 Aside from two cases rejecting arguments that delaying executions constitutes unnecessary rigor, Indiana’s supreme court has not considered the meaning of the clause in almost 25 years. The last time it did, it declared that the clause “is not a catch-all provision applicable to every adverse condition accompanying confinement. Rather, it serves to prohibit extreme instances of mistreatment and abuse.” In other words, Indiana’s unnecessary rigor clause has, in practice, only barred treatment that would likely also violate the Eighth Amendment.

There is some reason for optimism, however tempered. In 1860, the Indiana Supreme Court noted that solitary confinement would constitute unnecessary rigor, writing that “humanity indeed forbids, as unnecessary rigor, that his confinement should be absolutely solitary, or that all his natural and civil rights should be temporarily annihilated.” Given that no federal court has declared solitary confinement categorically unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution, this statement would seem to extend Indiana’s clause beyond its federal counterpart. But Indiana courts have shown little appetite to broaden protections any further over the last 163 years.

Never be optimistic about the Indiana Supreme Court, they put down D.C. Stephenson and made like Rip Van Winkle.

If you want to know a little more about state constitutions (without having to read much) try : Scholarship Roundup: Giving State Law Its Due. 

Well, I am done with online stuff. I have been at this on and off for over 12 hours. However, I do have items saved in Clipper that I will put in here before I sign off for the night.

Poor Things review – Emma Stone has a sexual adventure in Yorgos Lanthimos’s virtuoso comic epic. My PO likes making presumptions and I bet he would do it again if he saw this title, except he'd be wrong, again.

That cooing note of kindness and pity in the title is misleading – in fact, there is pure vivisectional ruthlessness in this toweringly bizarre epic. Poor Things is a steampunk-retrofuturist Victorian freakout and macabre black-comic horror, adapted by screenwriter Tony McNamara from the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray and directed by the absurdist virtuoso Yorgos Lanthimos. Lanthimos shows us an extraordinary, artificial, contorted world, partly shot in monochrome, sometimes bulging out at us through a fish-eye lens, elsewhere lit from within in richly saturated tones, like an engraved colour plate.

In this paragraph two words got me to read the whole review, and those words are: Alasdair Gray. I had thought the title sounded familiar, but it was still a surprise to see it is based on Gray's novel. Sounds like they may have lived up to the novel.

ACLU sues over new Indiana law making licenses, ID cards available only to Ukrainian immigrants 

While checking possible venues for submitting my stuff I found this story, The City That Never Freezes. The Phoebe Journal wanted something shorter than what I had on hand, but I did not mind the time spent reading this story.

CLMP's August 2023 Roundup of Member Magazines

I assume Conservative groups draw up a plan to dismantle the U.S. government and replace it with Trump's vision is stale by now, only it should not be:

Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies the separation of powers and was not part of the Heritage project, said there's a certain amount of “fantasizing” about the president's capabilities.

“Some of these visions, they do start to just bleed into some kind of authoritarian fantasies where the president won the election, so he’s in charge, so everyone has to do what he says — and that’s just not the system of the government we live under,” he said.

I do understand what these people want unless it is a dictatorship. How is that conservative?

Equality without compromise is one I did not get to finish, and I plan to do so. If Americans do stand for equality for all, then give this a read. It opens up all kinds of thinking we need to do.

We Need Free Theater for All was also not finished. Considering the culture we have now – the one where we kiss the ring of entertainment nabobs – you should give this a read.

For the writers and would-be writers who might stumble in here: Jhumpa Lahiri Returns to Barnard as a Professor.

How important to the craft of writing is reading?

Reading is everything. Reading is the soil from which the writing springs, a soil that must be cultivated and enriched and revered throughout one's life. I was a reader before I was a writer, and I know that reading will continue to engage and inspire me if the writing were to ebb. Most of my energy as a teacher of writing is focused on how to read a text, how to engage with it and absorb it, and how to appreciate it from a writer's point of view.

I must have some fun, too: Mysterious Slayings & Crimes Of The Victorian Era  

Margaret Glaspy is a singer I heard while in prison, but not here. She has a new album: Echo the Diamond. I suggest you check her out.

I think what I interested me in this review was “Violence is never heroic”. Again, I think this is not a male perspective – unless you've experienced violence. I think Hemingway would have had a different viewpoint if he had been on the Italian Front as a soldier instead of an ambulance driver. From The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright review – the female gaze:

Art as an illusion, love as a trap, the stranglehold of family ties: these are themes that Enright has already made her own. They are not just reprised here but honed to an essential honesty. Line for line, no one is more skilled than Enright at unfolding an unsettling scene. She is particularly good at depicting female rage. In a brutal passage, Carmel attacks Nell for having broken a kitchen light. Nell has done this deliberately, by throwing oranges at the bulb:

    So Carmel reached into the bowl and threw one after another orange at Nell’s legs, and that seemed to work, after which they were gone and Carmel threw the empty bowl which bounced off Nell’s back and hit the floor, smashing there, so that Nell was stepping and dancing in the shards, which certainly did not bother her mother, who had been through a lot worse, a hell of a lot worse, than a stupid broken bowl.

    “You think that’s bad?” she said. “You think that’s bad?”

In Enright’s novels violence is never heroic, though it’s often clarifying. Again and again, the real action is between women. As adults, Carmel and her sister Imelda act out the antagonism bred by years of fighting for their parents’ love by slamming each other around their childhood home: “A little hugff of air came out of Imelda as she hit the wall and Carmel shifted into a brighter place … It was as though her skull were filled with light.” The Wren, The Wren is ruthless, raw stuff, both less calculated and more illuminating than anything Phil McDaragh could have written.

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright is published by Jonathan Cape (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

I was thinking about CC on my way to Kohl's. She said I had enough to worry about. While walking, I realized I had only three worries in my current life:

1.  Whether the story I am working on is worthy to see the light of day.
2. Whether the journal I am submitting a story to is a correct venue.
3. Whether I have any talent for writing fiction.

If the PO could understand that he might understand the kind of problem I am.

 

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