"What did I know best that I had not written about and lost? What did I know about truly and care for the most? There was no choice at all."
~Ernest Hemingway~
The Island Chronicles are going out on a limb to discuss the one aspect of this shit show of TRUTH that it probably shouldn't be discussing.................writing styles. I have decided to tackle this always controversial subject due to the plethora of opinions and emotional discharge created by my last post, "Yet Another Wave for RVA". I came to one conclusion after listening to many, many kind critiques, pieces of critical feedback, encouraging words, and all out childlike temper tantrums spawned by my last piece of literary excrement................. The IC makes people really fucking Butt Hurt! I know this is not a profound or scholarly observation on my part. However, in my defense, childlike temper tantrums created over a piece of writing on a computer are not the most mature means of expressing ones thoughts to my straight forward opinion........after all, most of the time I simply write what most people are thinking. In the case of my last post, I know I did exactly that. So my advice to the Butt Hurt Nation of boaters and readers is simple..............get over it! If you don't like it then don't read it. Otherwise, shut the hell up and do something to NOT give me the fuel to call you out. In the meantime, I need to clear a few things up before moving forward, so let's get started..................Welcome back to the Thunderdome bitches. Time for another dose of TRUTH!
~Ernest Hemingway~
I receive a lot of support for what I write and for the life I am living. I am very appreciative of that support. It inspires and drives me, and after reading the messages and emails sent to me by those supporters, I have an immense amount of pride that I was able to touch someones life and inspire them in their own way. But just as importantly, I receive a lot of HATE for what I do, and that is the inspiration that truly fuels my soul. I cannot even begin to count the number of people who have attempted to convince me, bribe me, beg me, corner me, and threaten me to stop writing, shut down The IC, and give up on a pipe dream.............most of these people have been my most valued friends. Recently The Island Chronicles came closer than it ever has to being nothing more than a memory of the past, however, I stood my ground and fought for what I believe in, and at the end of the day it is still here, bluntly slapping all of you in the face while lifting you up at the same time..............and while keeping an eye on the moral fiber of an entire paddling community. Some of the greatest successes in life were at some point met with the most difficult of obstacles. I always remember that fact whenever the burning flame of The IC is threatened by the winds of resentment and negativity.
“Your time is way too valuable to be wasting on people that can't accept who you are.”
~Turcois Ominek~
“Your time is way too valuable to be wasting on people that can't accept who you are.”
~Turcois Ominek~
Not long ago, I created a Table of Contents to The IC in the hopes that I could not only organize my own thoughts, but help readers understand how I viewed what had been written over the course of the past year. The task assisted me immensely in understanding what I had created. Basically, posts were categorized into one of three topics............."The Rounds: 10 Years of Whitewater Dirt Baggin'", "The Weeks: Summer on The Island and Fall in West By God", and last but certainly not least, "The Hater's Club: A Cornucopia of Opinions by Yours Truly". Each category has a very specific purpose for being written, and each one also has a very specific style of writing, a style that varies drastically from the other two.
I purposely created these styles to practice different forms of writing, and each style I have chosen to use is inspired by great writers, authors, poets, and adventurers who are idolized by myself for their natural talent as writers and for their gift of story telling and blunt TRUTH. Most of these literary giants have also had the added fortune of leading truly unique and distinctive lives. Hemingway, Thoreau, Hunter S. Thompson, Tucker Max, Emerson, Krakauer, Whitman, Tolkien, and Kerouac are just a few of the belletristic behemoths who's footsteps I one day long to follow. These men led great lives, and toiled with great obstacles at some point on their path. But most importantly, they never gave up, never threw in the towel, and believed in what they were doing and what they represented down to the very marrow of their bones...........and for the first time in my life, so do I.
“These are the times that try men's souls.”
~Thomas Paine~
Each of the styles I created are uniquely my own, however each is also inspired directly from one specific author and one specific writer who's life experiences gave him the ability to do what he does..........create damn good stories. "The Rounds: 10 Years of Whitewater Dirt Baggin" is the tale of the last decade of my life focused around the rivahs and outdoors, but more importantly, it is the story of my family, of love, and of how I unfortunately ripped us apart in the end. It is a very romanticized writing style, and my inspiration comes from the creative and prismatic writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. I do not read love stories, so the story of Marcelle and I truly is inspired from something strictly within, and it is the most unique aspect of any style of writing I created. Describing WNC is a simple task, because the beauty of nature will inspire any man to link locutions together in symbiotic sentences. Basically, I feel that the WNC wilderness writes itself. Tolkien is at his best when he is describing the imaginary worlds he has created for his readers to envision. Before Tolkiens works were destroyed by the likes of Peter Jackson, each individual reader was given the ability to create a picture in their own minds of what The Shire, Mordor, and Middle Earth looked like. These pictures may have been different in every readers mind, even though they were all reading the exact same passages. The reason for this is simple..............everyone's perception is their own reality. Tolkien was a master at creating that individualized perception and it is one of the many aspects that made him a truly great writer. I make the choice not to include videos or an abhorrent amount of photographs with my posts because it is important for me to give readers the same gift....................the gift to create a picture in their own minds of the beauty I have been so fortunate to witness over the years. I can only hope I succeeded in this endeavor.
“The only freedom you truly have is in your mind, so use it.”
~M.T. Dismuke~
The Island presented me with my first form of inspiration I had ever truly understood during my life. The beauty I witnessed while living out there is something that I don't think I will ever successfully transform into words, but the heart of The Island Chronicles was born while subsisting within that urban jungle of whitewater ecstasy. "The Weeks: Summer on The Island and Fall in West By God" gave me the ability to break away completely and cleanly from a society that I was purposely distancing myself from every day for many years. This distancing was an introverted habit that I carried for a lot longer than anyone ever knew, because I knew it was a dangerous topic to flirt with while living in modern society. Once I did finally break away, it allowed me to re-discover a piece of this world that can exist for anyone if only we allow ourselves to view life in a different way. The true driving force of that experience was The Rivah, considering the fact that I was living smack in the middle of it. Never in my life have a felt more free, more clear headed, and lived more simple..........my only worry is that I will never experience that feeling again. Thoreau and his connection with nature while living at Walden was obviously a driving inspiration for this piece of The IC. Thoreau has a deep connection with the comfort of isolation within the woods, and I profoundly related to this feeling while existing within the depths of The James.
Thoreau also captured the emotions of nature through works like Walden, but the obvious strengths that he is known for are not where my true inspiration is derived from when thinking of him. My favorite piece of work by Thoreau is "Resistance To Civil Government", which I studied in depth while living on The Island last summer. I took away from Thoreau the importance of living free through his chromatic nature writings, but I discovered a much more delineated mindset through his pieces of writing on our system and government. Some people mislabel Thoreau as an anarchist because of his successful criticism of the modern day system, however these maligners are wrong. Thoreau didn't want to see the deconstruction of government.........he wanted to see the improvement of it.
"'That government is best which governs not at all."
~Henry David Thoreau~
I believe in the same interpretation. Our government and our system is NOT, in many ways, a healthy example of how to lead life, and every day more and more conservative mindsets (from both ends of the political spectrum) create more and more rules to force everyday people into living one way, and only one way. Living on The Island proved these social legislators incorrect. While enduring a summer of monsoon like weather patterns I subsisted on a healthier diet, was more physically active and built ten pounds of additional muscle, had a complete connection with nature, and was able to understand Thoreau's approach to a simpler form of living..................but the more TRUTH I discovered out there, the more distanced I became in here. That distance is now what scares me the most about attempting to re-enter society. However, Thoreau truly created a wealth of inspiration within me while I was writing "The Weeks" and living on The Island. My hope is that although the short term has created more struggles, the lessons I learned will truly benefit me in the long term.
“For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.”
~Jean-Paul Sartre~
I purposely created these styles to practice different forms of writing, and each style I have chosen to use is inspired by great writers, authors, poets, and adventurers who are idolized by myself for their natural talent as writers and for their gift of story telling and blunt TRUTH. Most of these literary giants have also had the added fortune of leading truly unique and distinctive lives. Hemingway, Thoreau, Hunter S. Thompson, Tucker Max, Emerson, Krakauer, Whitman, Tolkien, and Kerouac are just a few of the belletristic behemoths who's footsteps I one day long to follow. These men led great lives, and toiled with great obstacles at some point on their path. But most importantly, they never gave up, never threw in the towel, and believed in what they were doing and what they represented down to the very marrow of their bones...........and for the first time in my life, so do I.
“These are the times that try men's souls.”
~Thomas Paine~
Each of the styles I created are uniquely my own, however each is also inspired directly from one specific author and one specific writer who's life experiences gave him the ability to do what he does..........create damn good stories. "The Rounds: 10 Years of Whitewater Dirt Baggin" is the tale of the last decade of my life focused around the rivahs and outdoors, but more importantly, it is the story of my family, of love, and of how I unfortunately ripped us apart in the end. It is a very romanticized writing style, and my inspiration comes from the creative and prismatic writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. I do not read love stories, so the story of Marcelle and I truly is inspired from something strictly within, and it is the most unique aspect of any style of writing I created. Describing WNC is a simple task, because the beauty of nature will inspire any man to link locutions together in symbiotic sentences. Basically, I feel that the WNC wilderness writes itself. Tolkien is at his best when he is describing the imaginary worlds he has created for his readers to envision. Before Tolkiens works were destroyed by the likes of Peter Jackson, each individual reader was given the ability to create a picture in their own minds of what The Shire, Mordor, and Middle Earth looked like. These pictures may have been different in every readers mind, even though they were all reading the exact same passages. The reason for this is simple..............everyone's perception is their own reality. Tolkien was a master at creating that individualized perception and it is one of the many aspects that made him a truly great writer. I make the choice not to include videos or an abhorrent amount of photographs with my posts because it is important for me to give readers the same gift....................the gift to create a picture in their own minds of the beauty I have been so fortunate to witness over the years. I can only hope I succeeded in this endeavor.
“The only freedom you truly have is in your mind, so use it.”
~M.T. Dismuke~
The Island presented me with my first form of inspiration I had ever truly understood during my life. The beauty I witnessed while living out there is something that I don't think I will ever successfully transform into words, but the heart of The Island Chronicles was born while subsisting within that urban jungle of whitewater ecstasy. "The Weeks: Summer on The Island and Fall in West By God" gave me the ability to break away completely and cleanly from a society that I was purposely distancing myself from every day for many years. This distancing was an introverted habit that I carried for a lot longer than anyone ever knew, because I knew it was a dangerous topic to flirt with while living in modern society. Once I did finally break away, it allowed me to re-discover a piece of this world that can exist for anyone if only we allow ourselves to view life in a different way. The true driving force of that experience was The Rivah, considering the fact that I was living smack in the middle of it. Never in my life have a felt more free, more clear headed, and lived more simple..........my only worry is that I will never experience that feeling again. Thoreau and his connection with nature while living at Walden was obviously a driving inspiration for this piece of The IC. Thoreau has a deep connection with the comfort of isolation within the woods, and I profoundly related to this feeling while existing within the depths of The James.
Thoreau also captured the emotions of nature through works like Walden, but the obvious strengths that he is known for are not where my true inspiration is derived from when thinking of him. My favorite piece of work by Thoreau is "Resistance To Civil Government", which I studied in depth while living on The Island last summer. I took away from Thoreau the importance of living free through his chromatic nature writings, but I discovered a much more delineated mindset through his pieces of writing on our system and government. Some people mislabel Thoreau as an anarchist because of his successful criticism of the modern day system, however these maligners are wrong. Thoreau didn't want to see the deconstruction of government.........he wanted to see the improvement of it.
"'That government is best which governs not at all."
~Henry David Thoreau~
I believe in the same interpretation. Our government and our system is NOT, in many ways, a healthy example of how to lead life, and every day more and more conservative mindsets (from both ends of the political spectrum) create more and more rules to force everyday people into living one way, and only one way. Living on The Island proved these social legislators incorrect. While enduring a summer of monsoon like weather patterns I subsisted on a healthier diet, was more physically active and built ten pounds of additional muscle, had a complete connection with nature, and was able to understand Thoreau's approach to a simpler form of living..................but the more TRUTH I discovered out there, the more distanced I became in here. That distance is now what scares me the most about attempting to re-enter society. However, Thoreau truly created a wealth of inspiration within me while I was writing "The Weeks" and living on The Island. My hope is that although the short term has created more struggles, the lessons I learned will truly benefit me in the long term.
“For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.”
~Jean-Paul Sartre~
The third and final piece of The Island Chronicles humble pie is "The Hater's Club". This is the section that inspired this post, because it is the section that evokes the broadest range of emotions from readers, and creates the most turmoil in my own life. Lately I have begun to create a break off style of writing to this section, one that I look forward to ferociously pursuing in the distant future................"The Adventures of the Virginia Dirt Bags."..............these pieces of literary humor are inspired by the life and work of Hunter S. Thompson. I do not feel that Thompson's actual writing style was very exclusive to literature, nor did it define his fame and originality. It was Hunter's life that allowed him to be a great writer, and it was his experiences and travels that inspire me. By no means do I intend to travel around the whitewater world with my lawyer and a suitcase full of mescalin and acid, although it would probably create some seriously interesting stories.............but I do intend to lead a life of adventure, travel, and freedom. If I must remain Dirt Bag poor in order to complete this goal............so be it. Money is only one variable in the complicated equation of life. I enjoy writing these stories, and from the feedback I have received, you enjoy reading them, so I will promise that there is much more to come in the future concerning this subject...........after all, Gauleyfest and the DBP world wide takeover is just around the corner. Know what I mean?
But "The Hater's Club" was originated from much more humble beginnings, and the pieces that I write in this style have a very specific purpose...............to make a point. My literary inspiration for them comes from one distinct author.............Tucker Max. I do not intend to write these pieces so that readers will complete them and state, "wow, that was really good!" If you are taking that away from this obvious form of rant writing, then please seek help immediately. I write in this style because The IC has taught me a great deal about human behaviors throughout this past year, and when the masses react to anything, blunt TRUTH about their behaviors becomes impossible to hide. And the blunt TRUTH here is simple....................if you want to get your point across, be outspoken, be brutal, and take no prisoners in doing so. I am well aware that I come across as enraged, acrimonious, and rancorous..............that's the point. But more importantly, I am aware that as a whole, you have a hard time turning away from it. I am well aware that it produces very negative emotions from you as a reader pretty much all of the time, and that you probably have a very tainted viewpoint of me as a person.............I could care less. These pieces of literary filth are not meant to make me friends. They are meant to make a point.................and they do.
The first post I ever wrote in this style was "The Dumb Ass on the Log". Personally when I finished it and re-read it I found it to be extremely amusing. Perhaps I am more deranged in the head than I thought, and finding humor in it is not a normal reaction, or perhaps I am just not an incredibly Butt Hurt individual..........I don't know. But there were many others who did not find it amusing in the least. People yelled at me, ignored me, threatened me, and literally cried over my words............but they all read it, and they all developed an emotional connection to it. Remember that emotions come in both positive AND negative forms. More importantly, as pissed as many were with what I wrote, very few disagreed. Since then I have expressed many opinions about a multitude of people and subjects in our whitewater world and beyond, and the same reactions have been expressed from every single one of those posts...........anger, animosity, malice, and isolation. I can handle it, and with each and every piece of critical feedback, my skin grows thicker and thicker. My last piece of writing, "Yet Another Wave for RVA", worried many of my closest confidants because they felt that I only wrote in that style when I was depressed or on the verge of emotionally collapsing..............funny thing about that observation is that I wasn't, in any way what-so-ever. I simply knew that a point needed to be made about our community, and I knew what style of literature that point needed to be presented in. The ironic part to that is I observed the amount of traffic immediately after posting the piece, and everyone from Facebook friends to Twitter followers, to the Google Nation, to those weird ass people who love blogs all ate it up like the Gauley eats up beaters. Fact is, the masses of society have a hard time ignoring controversy, and everyone eats up negativity so that they can chew it up and spit it right back out on their own terms. But those pieces of writing evoked emotions in every single one of you, and that my friends is the point of writing...........to evoke emotion.
"The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke."
~Jerzy Kosinski~
I am not trying to change this community, and I don't want to see it suffer. I simply want it to be real, and if there is one pet peeve that will light a fire under my ass, it is watching people play pretend about the aspects of life that I care about. Well, I care about The James, and I truly feel that what our paddling community has become is an embarrassment to the whitewater world. A horrible act was committed within this community, one that is not forgivable or forgettable, and as much as I hate to point it out, it was an act that I warned all of you about long before it happened. I think that people listened when I did make that premonition. But I also believe that the mistake that was made was that most simply wanted to ignore it because it was not a comfortable subject for them...................and now I am seeing those same behaviors again. You are all starting to play pretend again. I heard it at the takeout a few nights back...............a group of well known paddlers admitted to me that they felt The Fat Bastard had paid his debt to society and should be left alone. They admitted that if they were The Fat Bastard they would fight to NOT pay for Coops medical bills as well. And they admitted that six days in jail was a valid sentence for ending another paddlers C-1 career. Those people are dead wrong about what they said, and the only reason I am not calling them out by name here is because I feel it would hurt the community as opposed to helping it. I didn't feel that they were saying these things because they failed to care about Coop or the well being of the community. They were saying them because it was easier for them to play pretend, and hope that the problem would simply go away..............well guess what guys? It won't. Not until you, as well as everyone else takes a stand, makes a choice, and grows a sack. You can't ignore the things that happen in this world, and you can't live in a bubble of false hope and blind ignorance. Eventually it will catch up with you...............trust me on that.
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
~Aldous Huxley~
But "The Hater's Club" was originated from much more humble beginnings, and the pieces that I write in this style have a very specific purpose...............to make a point. My literary inspiration for them comes from one distinct author.............Tucker Max. I do not intend to write these pieces so that readers will complete them and state, "wow, that was really good!" If you are taking that away from this obvious form of rant writing, then please seek help immediately. I write in this style because The IC has taught me a great deal about human behaviors throughout this past year, and when the masses react to anything, blunt TRUTH about their behaviors becomes impossible to hide. And the blunt TRUTH here is simple....................if you want to get your point across, be outspoken, be brutal, and take no prisoners in doing so. I am well aware that I come across as enraged, acrimonious, and rancorous..............that's the point. But more importantly, I am aware that as a whole, you have a hard time turning away from it. I am well aware that it produces very negative emotions from you as a reader pretty much all of the time, and that you probably have a very tainted viewpoint of me as a person.............I could care less. These pieces of literary filth are not meant to make me friends. They are meant to make a point.................and they do.
The first post I ever wrote in this style was "The Dumb Ass on the Log". Personally when I finished it and re-read it I found it to be extremely amusing. Perhaps I am more deranged in the head than I thought, and finding humor in it is not a normal reaction, or perhaps I am just not an incredibly Butt Hurt individual..........I don't know. But there were many others who did not find it amusing in the least. People yelled at me, ignored me, threatened me, and literally cried over my words............but they all read it, and they all developed an emotional connection to it. Remember that emotions come in both positive AND negative forms. More importantly, as pissed as many were with what I wrote, very few disagreed. Since then I have expressed many opinions about a multitude of people and subjects in our whitewater world and beyond, and the same reactions have been expressed from every single one of those posts...........anger, animosity, malice, and isolation. I can handle it, and with each and every piece of critical feedback, my skin grows thicker and thicker. My last piece of writing, "Yet Another Wave for RVA", worried many of my closest confidants because they felt that I only wrote in that style when I was depressed or on the verge of emotionally collapsing..............funny thing about that observation is that I wasn't, in any way what-so-ever. I simply knew that a point needed to be made about our community, and I knew what style of literature that point needed to be presented in. The ironic part to that is I observed the amount of traffic immediately after posting the piece, and everyone from Facebook friends to Twitter followers, to the Google Nation, to those weird ass people who love blogs all ate it up like the Gauley eats up beaters. Fact is, the masses of society have a hard time ignoring controversy, and everyone eats up negativity so that they can chew it up and spit it right back out on their own terms. But those pieces of writing evoked emotions in every single one of you, and that my friends is the point of writing...........to evoke emotion.
"The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke."
~Jerzy Kosinski~
I am not trying to change this community, and I don't want to see it suffer. I simply want it to be real, and if there is one pet peeve that will light a fire under my ass, it is watching people play pretend about the aspects of life that I care about. Well, I care about The James, and I truly feel that what our paddling community has become is an embarrassment to the whitewater world. A horrible act was committed within this community, one that is not forgivable or forgettable, and as much as I hate to point it out, it was an act that I warned all of you about long before it happened. I think that people listened when I did make that premonition. But I also believe that the mistake that was made was that most simply wanted to ignore it because it was not a comfortable subject for them...................and now I am seeing those same behaviors again. You are all starting to play pretend again. I heard it at the takeout a few nights back...............a group of well known paddlers admitted to me that they felt The Fat Bastard had paid his debt to society and should be left alone. They admitted that if they were The Fat Bastard they would fight to NOT pay for Coops medical bills as well. And they admitted that six days in jail was a valid sentence for ending another paddlers C-1 career. Those people are dead wrong about what they said, and the only reason I am not calling them out by name here is because I feel it would hurt the community as opposed to helping it. I didn't feel that they were saying these things because they failed to care about Coop or the well being of the community. They were saying them because it was easier for them to play pretend, and hope that the problem would simply go away..............well guess what guys? It won't. Not until you, as well as everyone else takes a stand, makes a choice, and grows a sack. You can't ignore the things that happen in this world, and you can't live in a bubble of false hope and blind ignorance. Eventually it will catch up with you...............trust me on that.
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
~Aldous Huxley~
This is the first post I have ever written that was not written for myself................it was written for all of you. Hopefully it helps you understand more clearly why it is I write what I write and do what I do. Quality writing is purposely designed to evoke emotions in people when they read it............if it didn't then what the hell would be the point in writing it. Hemingway, Thoreau, Thompson, Max, etc. all understood this, and because of that their names will forever be chiseled in the scrolls of great literature. If you ever read a piece of The Island Chronicles and are offended by what I portray and express, then go read Tucker Max..........he will make you feel better about my literary antagonism. In the future I hope to transition The IC to a plethora of whitewater tales told from the aspect of a happy, content, whitewater Dirt Bag. I don't like calling people out, and I don't like the backlash that it causes. But even more so, I don't like seeing the worst in human behaviors, nor do I enjoy watching those behaviors hurt someone who is having a hard time understanding why people suck.................it was a tough lesson for me to learn. And I will NEVER stand by and watch people play pretend about the world around them. I grew up watching that, and it is an unhealthy, ignorant way to eek through life. We all have the ability to take a stand for the things that matter, and although some will disagree, not taking a stand is sometimes not an option. In the case of The Fat Bastard, failing to take a stand is not only irresponsible, it is just plain wrong.
In the future I hope you enjoy the Dirt Baggin' adventures that will be told, as well as the second half of "The Rounds", because as far as that story is concerned, shit is about to get REAL. Believe it or not, it is the RVA community that controls how often my style of HATE writing, RANT writing, bull shit, or whatever you want to call it is produced and published throughout the community. If you don't like it then simply do the right thing, stand up for what you believe in, and help protect the people who deserve the respect they have earned. If we as a community can simply focus on doing those things, RVA will never again see yet another wave from The Island Chronicles..................it really is that simple.
“We kill all the caterpillars, then complain there are no butterflies.”
~John Marsden~
See ya on the rivah....................searching for those butterflies. PEACE
