Railing Against the Machine

They say there is nothing new under the sun. Everything that has been will be again, no matter the weary dreams of men. The thoughts and theories of a Utopic society where all is fair and right in the world are lost in the common threads of the web of life.

In Episode Two of James Joyce’s historic novel, Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus proclaims, “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake!” There are many theories as to the meaning of Joyce’s choice of words within the context of the novel, one of them being Stephan Dedalus’ desire to overcome his own less than stellar childhood. Not so ironically, after reading the biography of James Joyce, himself, it is glaringly apparent that Ulysses is a veiled biography of Joyce’s own emotional world, since boyhood.

Joyce didn’t grow up in your average household. His father was nowhere near father of the year, and his mother, well in Joyce’s eyes his mother was weak and in need of protection, as well as an overwhelming amount of love and adoration. Thus, throughout the iconic Ulysses, Joyce smatters the contents with attributes of amor matris.

The entire work of Ulysses is a diatribe of Joyce’s view of the world in which he lived as a child, and the one in which he lived as an adult; in some cases nothing more than an exercise in stream of consciousness. In my humble opinion, it is Joyce making sense of the world in the only way he knew how – through the art of writing – giving order to the chaos.

Which brings all things full circle. There are none of us who have had the ideal childhood. By way of misfortune, or by way of fortune, all of our pasts are flawed, marred, and scarred. Whether we grew up in lavish homes or in mud huts, we all began this journey in the same conglomeration of star dust as human beings – impractical and imperfect.

We go about our lives, growing into the expectations of the environment in which we are immersed. Most people never question, or at least outwardly question, the outcome of their lives. You grow up in poverty, you die in poverty. You grow up wealthy, you die wealthy. And in either case the world keeps turning.

And then, there are those who rail against the machine; like James Joyce. Of all the things in the world he did not want to be the most was to be like his own father. He knew, since the time he was about ten years old, that the likelihood of that happening was pretty high. His father was cynical, and critical at best, when it came to Joyce’s obsession with writing, and learning. In those days, you rose no higher in society than your father’s position. If you did, you fought like hell to get there, with no regrets and no apologies.

Joyce was, by no means, a heralded author in his day. In fact, he was more popular in Great Britain and Europe than he ever was in his home country of the United States. American society was, to his chagrin, much like the man he knew as his father – cynical and critical, but Joyce never gave up, he didn’t quit. He kept on writing and traveling abroad, because that was where he found the meager bits of joy that existed in his life.

Sometimes we have to go deeper than the story that we are reading, and delve into the life of the author in order to understand the true depths of the premise. Sometimes, first impressions are not the ones intended, and we cannot judge a person by the chapter of their life we walked in on. We aren’t perfect, not a single one of us.

Ulysses was written in eighteen separate, yet connected, episodes, covering the entire life of a man we simply knew as James Joyce. He was, at times, impractical in his methods, improbable in his theories, and imperfect in his life. But at the same time, James Joyce was iconic in writing one of the most remembered works of modernist literature. James Joyce a.k.a. Stephan Dedalus overcame his childhood by simply being who he was – with no regrets and no apologies.

In literature we learn to live, to love, and to conquer.

Butterfly Phoenix Receives the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I was honored when my good friend and fellow author, Linda Lee Greene, informed me she was nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger award! I was so blessed! Her novel, Guardians and Other Angels is available in eBook format and print on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Here are seven things about me that will help define who I am, and what I do best.

Seven things about me....

I was born in Boynton Beach, Florida, and moved to my mother's home state of North Dakota when I was a toddler. I was born a blue baby in the late 1960s, and this is where my story is somewhat interesting. My first doctor was a man who had narrowly escaped Cuba before the Bay of Pigs. He just happened to be in Miami and had specialized in a relatively experimental surgery in cardiology for infants.

I am the mother of three beautiful grown daughters, and grandma to two very special grandchildren.

I love culture and world history. Growing up on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota immersed in two story-telling cultures, Irish and Native American (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara), gave me the ability to appreciate and accept people for who they are.

I'm supposed to talk about an achievement in my life. However, I view my life itself as an achievement. I could have, and in all likelihood should have, died at birth, but I didn't. I grew up in a time of extreme conflict, fear, and violence and survived - not unscathed, but survived nonetheless. I endured eight years in a loveless relationship as the significant other of a man whose life became consumed by drug abuse and alcoholism. I championed a home to the best of my ability as a single-mother in a relatively conservative state. I graduated college twice while providing for my three daughters. I have overcome many obstacles and challenges in my life, and that is an achievement that cannot be dwarfed by any award or accolade I could ever receive.

I am currently working on "The Chrysalis Series", a fantasy trilogy set in the times of the Gael - although not a historical fiction series. The first book, "The Butterfly Fields," is near ready for release. However, I don't have a set date. The story follows two sisters, Elsie and Annalicia McCormick, as they both find their way through the wilderness of life in the hopes of finding the freedom, safety, and sanity they enjoyed in their youth.

I have my favorite organizations, and as many of my long-time readers know, those organizations are the ones who champion for the unwanted, uncared for, and unloved of the world. Diva Connection is one of those organizations, because they not only champion for women, they empower women of all ages and all walks of life to champion for others. The Jeremiah Program, because they help young single mothers build sustainable successful lives. And my national organization is GEMS, who advocate for and assist young women who are victims of sex and human trafficking. I have been a mentor mother for the Young Mothers Network of Cass and Clay Counties since 2009.

I am not currently serving on any boards or committees. I am a member of the American Legion Auxiliary - Arthur Solie Post, Parshall, North Dakota. I am a member of the International Association of Administrative Professionals. I served as a parent volunteer, and later as the Secretary of the Executive Bethel Council of Bethel 32, Moorhead, Minnesota, of the International Order of Jobs Daughters.

I would like to take this opportunity to nominate some of my friends who are bloggers that I feel have made a positive impact on my life. I hope that you will go visit their blogs and leave a comment. In alphabetical order, they are:

Arlene O'Neil - Although she is not a blogger, she's still very inspiring, so buy her book Broken Spokes, you won't regret it.

Sarah L. Wallace at Cross Roads of Humanity

Wendy and Charles Seifken at Seifken Publications

Monday Musings: Writing with Purpose

Charles Dickens

One of my favorite authors is Charles Dickens. In his life outside of writing, he was a man of deep thought and contemplation. He placed much value on the comprehension of the current events in which he lived.

Although most remembered today for A Christmas Carol, or Oliver Twist, Dickens wrote a much more indepth novel, that many scholars today view as the veiled autobiography of the author, David Copperfield.

Dickens's stories were written with purpose. He used his own life experiences as fodder for story settings, character relationships, and plot development. He had a phenomenal, nearly photographic, memory of people and places that had passed through his life. This is considered a rare trait among authors.

Every story Dickens ever wrote had a purpose. He was one of the few authors of his time who did not fear the retributions of the gentry, or powers that be, in making his point. He was lauded by authors such as Orwell, Tolstoy, and Chesterton for his ability to present realism. The underlying themes of his works were the very events directly effecting the people of the time. His favorites seemed to be: greed and the deplorable treatment of the impoverished in London. It was this realism that captured the hearts and minds of his readers, and caused authors, such as Henry James and Virginia Woolf, to all but despise him as an author, and a man. They considered his works to be melodramatic, overly sentimental, and most assuredly implausible.

Dickens was not what would be considered a well-educated man of the time. He was forced to drop out of school to help the family rectify the financial woes in which they found themselves. Like David Copperfield, Dickens was forced to work long hours in a blacking warehouse. His father, mother and eleven brothers and sisters were taken to a debtor's prison.

One benefit of life Dickens possessed was the ability to read and write. He was an avid reader from a young age, which gave him an expansive vocabulary; something every author must possess. Although his life was a struggle from the beginning, Dickens identified and used his strengths to improve his situation.

Today, two hundred years after his birth, Dickens  is still one of the most beloved, and read, of the English authors. The reasons are as many as the readers who love his works. Scholars believe the reason is Charles Dickens wrote with purpose; a purpose that elevated the ideals of humanity, which still live on today in the hearts and minds of readers world-wide. His novels present life as it is, as it should be, or could be; but most importantly shine as a beacon of hope in the darkest days of our history.

It is my belief that the most successful writers, in any genre, are those who write with a purpose. Every word, sentence, and paragraph carefully crafted to convey some meaning, or thought provoking idea. Writing with purpose takes courage, time, patience, and most assuredly practice.

Are you writing with purpose?