New Years' Resolution

Location: Florence, Italy 

Listening: Black Sheep, by Martin Sexton

 

Back in Florence. Returning to Richmond after my second extended absence of 2008 felt like showing up late to a party that had never really ended. Things immediately fell back into place.

Every writer has a tumultuous relationship with his hometown and mine is no different. For me, this is a relationship characterized by an almost reflexive veneration of the continuities of the place--running down Monument Avenue where Jackson, Stuart, Lee stand still to remind passers by of Richmond's confederate past, attending evensong at St. Stephen's Church at the top of Grove Avenue, having drinks with old friends at Philip's Continental Lounge, playing music at old haunts, and of course the experience of Christmas and all of its traditions with my family. 

In all of the writings in this blog I've been unapologetically candid and emotionally blunt. This will not change in 2009. That being said, I once again take license to be sentimental in my reflections. Christmas break this year was for me a powerful reminder of how blessed and fortunate I am. In Richmond I leave a life characterized by an overwhelming sense of belonging and community, full of friends and family that I've loved all of my life. Because it is home, Richmond to me is the most comfortable and natural place in the world. The past there welcomed me and over break I welcomed it. 

But back to that idea about a writer having a tumultuous relationship with his home. Much of of what William Faulkner wrote was inspired by the need to deal with home--his obligation as an author to represent the social, political, economic, and moral conditions present in the Post-Bellum South with respect to verisimilitude and towards the people and places about whom and where he was writing. Faulkner's fiction (his invented truths) are far more true than any journalistic or observational account of his subject could ever be. As I Lay Dying (1930) and The Unvanquished (1938) are set in the fictitious  "Yoknapatawhpha" County, a device Faulkner employed in many of his novels that allowed him to engage his subject (Post-Bellum South) more critically while still remaining respectful to his native region. Through his fiction, Faulkner was able to represent The South as it actually was, and in so doing hint at what led to its fall and what might bring about its resurrection. 

Inspired by Faulkner's method and by my 28 days back home in Richmond, Va, I now reveal to you my New Years' resolution for 2009--to begin writing a novel inspired by my experience growing up in Richmond. There are so many people and places that are fodder for fantastic fiction--many ideas that have been floating around in my head drawn from my experiences at St. Christopher's (Tom Wolfe, writer, went to St. Christopher's) as a student, in smoky bars as a musician, at St. Stephen's Church as a gopher, as a bum down at the River during summers, and at home with my family, the center of it all. 

Ironically, I've spent the majority of my life thus far defining myself in opposition to the standards and conventional norms of Richmond, Va. Those of you know who know me well are aware that this is certainly true politically, as Richmond, Va is one of the most conservative cities on the east coast, if not America. I'd be better suited for somewhere like Burlington, Vermont or somewhere out west with the hippies and long haired freaks. But the fortunate result of this misplacement is that I've gained the privileged perspective of an almost objective observer, wandering at the periphery of the culture, taking notes all along with the intention of representing it in bound format at some point in the future. Well, 2009, here I go. 

I think I already know to whom it will be dedicated.... 

P.S. Yes, it is true that I am a graduate student in a foreign country studying political science. But the more I'm here, the more I believe that it's for some other purpose completely unrelated to the European Union, Democratic theory or any of that esoteric crap. I'm beginning to think that it's giving the the distance and time away from home that I need to begin writing. 

Stay Tuned.

P.S.S. If you have not yet done so, DO watch the Martin Sexton video I've put a link to up above. Martin Sexton is America's best kept secret--an AMAZING performer. 

"I believe that man will not merely endure. He will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance."

 

--William Faulkner