But maybe YCSIOYA should be YCSISOYA.

🙂

Hi, David, thanks so much for your comments. I agree — it would be great to have a chat. Yes, we must recognize each other — see each other as authentic — and we are already interdependent whether we like it or not. Apathy I think comes from a sense of powerlessness, but we can communicate, and that’s the beginning of power. I’m glad you liked my posts. All the best, Keith

I’m not sure where to start. Maybe with utopia …

I was part of a research group 22 years ago that produced a document on a “conceptual framework for well-being” for the Ontario government. Like your utopia, we posed well-being as an ideal of values that all human beings are striving for.

The framework is made of up of 6 concepts or conditions. The two most fundamental are self-determination as the first, and mutual recognition and interdependence as the second.

That research process and document was a watershed for me. Particularly in my world view, and also for my work. For the ten years or so following the well-being work, I was actively promoting and pursuing this ideal. With limited success, even among my peers in the applied social policy research field.

For the last ten or so years, my belief in goal- and values-oriented change has been severely challenged. Two huge obstacles. One, lack of general interest – apathy even – in dialogue and debate on ideal futures — however practical and meaningful that dialogue may be seen to be. And two, that the status quo conversation is being steered and is now completely limited to promotion and discussion of only one of those well-being fundamentals – self-determination.

Of course, unbridled capitalism and democracy are incompatible …

Enough about all that. I really enjoyed your Part 1 & 2 on the power of girls. I like how you are open to, and embrace new music, and connect with your daughter’s tastes and interests at the same time.

As I said, I wish you were close by so we could get together for a chat.

All the best!

Beautiful book, thank you.

Hey, Reid, thanks for writing to me. I really appreciate it when people take the time to do that. I’m glad that you and your wife liked Gloria and especially glad that it’s an inspiration for you.

I agree–New Orleans would be a great setting for a novel. Advice? Getting an agent can be harder than getting published. As to the writing–persistence pays off. Let your story carry you. Good luck.

I bought a copy of “Gloria” when it was new, at a Brentano’s store in Memphis. I got through college on Michener and James Clavell. Somewhere along the line, I really branched out!

My wife, whom I can hardly get to read anything–she falls asleep too early at night to read very much–also loved it.

I am presently finishing a novel set in my hometown of New Orleans. It is a “coming of age” story about high school sweethearts who are separated, but come back together decades later. I believe New Orleans is an excellent setting for a novel, but has not been used very much.

The girl in the novel–their high school years are in the 1970s–makes plans to attend several “formals” which include shopping trips with her mother for her formal attire. I have referred back to “Gloria” several times for inspiration. I want the scenes to which I’m referring to be irreverent, but also informed and authentic. They won’t be anywhere near as intricately developed as yours.

I have prior experience in journalism. Most of my working life has been in business, however–I was in corporate marketing at Fedex for several years. I do not have an agent at this time. I am attempting to approach the task of gaining representation from the point of view of achieving commercial success in the modern digital world of literature–and marketing!

If you have any words of advice, I’d love to hear from you. But I did want to say that “Gloria” was a pure joy, and that the book is now, several years later, lending me some creative support.

Regards,

Reid Corcoran, Jr.
(P.S. — a game my wife and I always play with a book: “Who would play him/her in the movie?” A– Uncle Billy Dougherty = Jack Thompson.)