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Show To break such bonds merely to become so is sad. The second is a question of motive. Knowing little about what brought Bass and Ehrlich to Montana and Wyoming makes it difficult to trust their proclamations about what they've found. After all, in autobiography, it's the biography that's important, and For Moab autobiography is probably the most accurate term for what Bass and Ehrlich are writing. They may explore their connection to their new place, true; but until they've explored their connection to the reader, their new place will seem surface and exuberant. I wouldn't trust a teenager from Kansas, for example, to give me an accurate portrayal of New York City (though he could give me an accurate portrayal of his experiences there). Which isn't to say that I'd trust a New Yorker more; I simply want to know who is telling me what. In short, a story about coming into a place is incomplete without an understanding of City Council Primary Election: October 5. General Election: November 2. the place from which the author came. Writers such as Bass and Ehrlich are, after all, deliberately trying to make statements about how to live a better life, a life that is rooted in an otherwise uprooted society. By failing to explore the fact that they've chosen to uproot themselves in order to take such a deliberate step (is the good life not possible in Texas and California?) is simply to pose; the result is like walking in on a yelling man and being unable to determine what set off his temper. We don't know how often Americans move. Demographics is a vague science, a guessing game at best. But we do know, for example, the longevity of a mailing list, the type of list that is bought by junk-mailers and non-profit groups and credit card companies. If you were to buy a fresh list today, of, say, one thousand households, you would do well to send out your flyer sooner than later. For, on average, within six months, twenty-five percent of those households will have changed address. They'll be gone. Where will they have gone? Across town? Across the country? On a societal scale, there is no way of telling--federal tax returns are one of the few trails a demographer could follow, but these are kept private. Gertrude Stein once said of America: “Imagine an empty space, filled with movement.” What she meant was this simple fact, this fact which has frustrated and marveled American demographers since the turn of the century: we are the most mobile society in the history of the world. Walt Whitman, that most incipient of all poets, wrote: “Oh public road, you express me better than I can express myself.” He wrote the line as a sort of rhapsody, but in a certain manner the line pertains to Bass and Ehrlich. They fail to express the road which has brought them to their locale, and, in doing so, fail to express themselves. failure, their literature fails to meet its commitment. A writer has an obligation to tell the whole story. VOTE RANDY DAY “Bringing Common Sense to City Government." Through this Explication of every detail isn't necessary, and omission of some detail is not a crime. When a writer flees sprawl of America for the hinterlands of the West, however, he or she owes a pastoral. Beyond the pleasant fields and forests are the whizzing cars America, and I don't believe that Ehrlich and Bass don't hear them. When FOR PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT the churn and us more than of the rest of they do admit to hearing them, and confess that they themselves have just gotten off that road, then I'll believe that they'll have finally arrived. The December/ January Issue of Matthew Gross lives and works in Moab. CONTRIBUTIONS TO ‘POINT-BLANK’ The Zephyr is accepting short essays (750-1000 words) about any issue that may be of interest to its readers. Those chosen are at the random whim of the publisher. Payment is in the form of a complimeniary 5 year subscription and our heartfelt thanks. Submissions should be on a disk for WP 5.1 DOS or Correl WP 8. You may also email them to zephyr@lasal.net TEx’s RIVERWAYS The Canyon Country Zephyr will be on newsstands November 19th. HONEST OZZIL'S 691 N. 500 West 259-5101 3-D RIVER VISIONS, INC. P.O. Box 67 = Moab, UT 84532 1 SES Nope. This is Moab. Thanksgiving It's the end of the season. It's been a good one. Turkey??? Thanks for your support. But now we're tired. SSS So bugger off. CANOE OUTFITTING SHUTTLE SERVICE JETBOAT TOURS You can stick a fork _init...it's DONE. |