COVER -> MY GLASS HOUSE
It should not be surprising, therefore, that for the second time this year The World's Magazine is doing an edition that focuses on food issues. I actually had not planned it this way, but a certain synchronicity set in again. (We are ruled by kismet at this Web magazine.) I already had in queue RAKESH AGRAWAL's piece explaining the reprehensible nature of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) moves to expand the definition of "intellectual property" to include life-forms. I had no idea when Rakesh submitted his piece that I would be hearing from DR. PAUL KAIL, from Prague, in the Czech Republic, on factory farming of animals for food.
Both pieces are well worth your attention and serious consideration.
Also this week, we welcome another new contributor, DAVID ANSEL, who now lives in Austin, Texas. ("What?" you're thinking, "Another Texican?" I can't explain it.) His debut feature on transportation in South Africa, and how it informs the social experience, is a true gem.
Each of these features continue in our tradition of bringing you international news from ground-level.
AND, once again, as we have done in the past, we are taking part in the Web White & Blue project --- another means of bringing US election information to you. We're strong proponents of an informed citizenry, so we can't do any less. Drop by there when you have a chance, and expect us to keep you informed on the cyberspace debate about the USA election as that unfolds.
Finally, as those of you who check our "Coming Attractions" page know, G21 is engaging in a joint-venture with the MediaChannel to set a new standard for how international conflicts should be covered and to analyse why both mainsteam and alternative media have not been up to the task.
This new project, which you'll see launched in the autumn, springs directly from our on-going coverage of the conflict in Chechnya. Much as we stood alone in bringing voices from the Kosovo conflict last year, this year we devoted ourselves to coverage of another under-reported war.
Now we mean to engage international journalists, media critics, international relief organizations, and citizens of the countries involved in our dialogue. You expect this kind of thing from us, right?
Transparent Walls
My e-mail correspondent from my high school days complained that reading this column was like reading a novel "with pages torn out..." I found that an interesting and poignant comment. She was "getting" what many people have missed about this Glass House and this Web project in general.
What I discovered early on was that most people have a lack of imagination about the potential for creativity here on the World Wide Web. I set as a goal for myself to create a new kind of narrative. Something beyond the novel, where the "real" could be re-defined in an opaque manner.
Yes, the pages are "torn out" of the narrative because, in my view, the Web allows us to live in "Billy Pilgrim Time" (from Kurt Vonnegut's wonderful Slaughterhouse Five.)
Here on the Web, I can present you with all incidents happening *simultaneously,* rather than linearly, because that is how you can apprehend them, taking each incident and juggling it in your mind into some chronological space ---- even though you don't receive it that way necessarily --- and creating a fabric of experience all your own.
Even my real-life experiences can be juggled, put together in the way they best work for you and your impression of who I am/was and how I live/lived. How marvelous!
It would, thus, defeat the purpose of this experiment of mine if I succumbed to the temptation to go back to the old (linear) narrative form. Slice and dice. Put me in this country or that at any time you like. Take each of my relationships and give them the chronology or sequence you like! That's part of the fun!
For Pam
Here is one you won't have to slice or dice:You lamented in your last e-mail to me that you felt I did not completely explain why it is that the high school reunion is not my cup of tea. Unlike the other parts of this "novel with pages torn out..." this time I will do a direct and chronologically linear follow-up.
Besides the personal slights which I felt I had to endure during those years, the trauma of running away from home, and the weird "marginal" person status (as the sociologists put it) which being a Black kid in a majority White school at a difficult time in our country's past, there is a great element of fear involved in my decision.
It has amazed me, you see, that you and others have e-mailed me to say that you *still* have writing of mine from when I was a teen-ager. I DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY OF THAT STUFF!
Once I went off to college, I began a regular ritual of burning most of my old writing so that it would not encumber me as I moved on to the new. (The Internet has changed all that, of course. I get e-mails from people reminding me of things I said five years ago. It's weird!)
But the old writing is not where the fear comes from. Where the fear comes from is that many of you talk about *who you thought I was* and the impact "he" had in your lives... Frankly, at the time, I had no idea who you believed I was. But I'm now certain you had no idea of how afraid I was.
I worked extremely hard to be "acceptable" --- like most adolescents. But I was also working extremely hard on that project I can now call "The Writer."
There were definite conflicts between these two goals, because "The Writer" usually wanted to me to say more than would have been politic under the circumstances. The kid wanted to just make it through high school.
Well, the kid grew up, travelled around the world, got married and divorced, and the Writer endured. I just don't think he's the person --- I'm the person --- most of you would expect to meet at a high school re-union. I'm very certain he's not the person, reclusive, eccentric, obsessed, that I'd like you to see.... Sometimes, it's better to leave the old memory as your legacy than shatter it with the current jaded dog.
Here, on the Web (my natural environment,) each of you can personally find more of me (in Billy Pilgrim Time) than you would ever find seeing me face-to-face (f2f, as we say.) And perhaps one of you will find the key to the riddle I cannot unravel myself. That is far more than my personal embodiment could ever offer.
And, yeah, okay, I'll try to make my autobio below read less like an obit.
THINGS THAT BOTHER ME THIS WEEK
1. Lately, ignoring the first calls of my best advisor, me.2. Cash Flow.
3. Getting used to my new glasses. I can't use them online, because that's where my eyes work best. Trying to adjust has not panned out. (I'll admit they seem to work okay off-line, though.)
4. Cutting cords.
Thanks for coming back this week.
"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod
ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services.
Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He is also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviews technology issues weekly. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000.
He lives in Baltimore, MD, at the moment (though it seems to most people he *actually* lives on the Web,) edits the writing of people from four continents for The World's Magazine, and wonders who The Last Woman will be in his "spare time."
Our Editor does listen!