Brian’s Comments (group member since Apr 11, 2013)

Brian’s comments from the Liberation Lit group.

Wayne: Try COLORADO MANDALA.

Please take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqk25v...

Stress is the modern epidemic...but books do soothe, once we get "into" them :)

Yes, when I get time, I want to read this,although it sounds a bit down I want to give it a chance. It is also up for several awards.

It seems like it might fit the Liberation Lit genre?

Always looking over the next rise for the answer? Always hoping some logic to the search would emerge? Always trying to feel good about not feeling good along the way. Always looking for a better answer. Perhaps these are simply the restless qualities of the American mind?

And I agree with you, John. They do seem to permeate American literature from J.Fenimore Copper's The Deer Slayer to Travels With Charlie by Steinbeck.

I do not want this to be all about my work! So, do any of you other authors feel you may have a story in you from this period? I know John indicated above that he might like to try a kind of journal of the period, whom he met and where he went. My friend Ben Sharpton has written a wonderful book called "7 Sanctuaries" which is about a small Florida town in the grips of all that social change. What was your life like then?

Could "The Help" be considered Liberation Lit?

Perfect.One of the ambitions of this string is to compile a reading list of books that do address that era, so that is great, and thank you.

Bob wrote: "Yeah. Gotta get past the BS...hope our memory is as good as the time deserves."

Bob, In the hope that my memory of that time did serve me well, and in a blatant (if somewhat egotistical) attempt to influence your literary taste, I now provide you with a link to the first half chapter of Colorado Mandala: http://www.brianheffron.net/brianheff...

I do this hoping that perhaps your own creative core might be intrigued and stimulated enough to reach back down into your own memory of those distant daze for a tale of that time that might still be rattling around your own brain, or heart, still exact and luscious in its every detail? :)

Please take a look at Bob's post to see what we are trying to establish with the notion of Liberation Lit: http://bobmust.wordpress.com/2013/04/...

Bob, I don't want to repeat myself, but when I was doing research for events at bookstores for Colorado Mandala I always asked if they carried any other contemporary books written about this era. NONE. Drop City was about the only thing people could come up with and that was written ages ago.

There is a absolute desert of literature about the 60'sand 70's. Now is the time for the authors who lived through that period to tell their stories:

How did we get here culturally? Commercial TV has created too many false myths about people back then in vertical striped black and white jeans and paisley shirts! Readers want to know what the actual period of the Social Liberation of the 60's and 70's was trully like...not some "Dragnet" caricature of "hippies" talking funny and saying "Man" every third word.:)))

Well, we were on that same road together, John, as you have pretty much described my youth as well. The one additional book that I loved and sent me off into the world was Dylan Thomas'unfinished novel "Adventures in the Skin Trade".

The reason I bring it up is because it is the story of a young man who wakes up early, before the household, packs a bag to run away, then goes down to the kitchen where he destroys his mother's prized collection of china cups. Then, taking up his pack he exits. Why destroy the cups? Because he knew he would be tempted to return home when things got tough out in the real world...but by destroying her dream, he knew he would never be allowed back in the front door of his former home.

Kerouac and Thomas were my guides to individualization and separation from my family unit.They said there was a big world out there just waiting to be explored...all it took from me was a thumb and a sense of adventure. What happened to that spirit? Is it now in a video game?

Nobody was changed by ON THE ROAD? Ah, come on?

Thank you, Bob. That is a sweet post and sums up my idea very succinctly! Perhaps we've started something here:)

Thanks! I think this change can be directly related to the Liberation era time period and the ideals it gave birth to. The new communication technologies are an example of the tools that this generation created to make this happen. And the rise of the feminine is also another example of things changing towards tolerance.

Bob wrote: "Brian wrote: "Bob wrote: "Brian wrote: "Yes, exactly, Bob. Now that enough time has elapsed, and tolerance of differing views is now a majority position in America (see recent poles), perhaps it is..."

I sure will, Bob. And wish me luck. If you have a moment, a youth magazine in the south decided to publish my Preface to Colorado Mandala and it is here if you might want to take a look...I think it sums up what we mean pretty well: https://sites.google.com/site/emoshun...

Bob wrote: "Brian wrote: "Yes, exactly, Bob. Now that enough time has elapsed, and tolerance of differing views is now a majority position in America (see recent poles), perhaps it is finally time for our arti..."

Bob:

I totally agree with your point of an American "Road" standing in as the symbol of America's forward progress towards its ideals during this era. In fact, the maxim for my new novel, Colorado Mandala actually addresses your point head-on and directly. It is: "finding in motion what was once in place".

This is because I believe that one of the effects of the Liberation Lit period was the fragmenting of the family and that this was facilitated by the ability of the children to actually pick up and leave home at a much earlier age than ever before. They could simply get on the highway and hitchhike away. This freed millions of kids of that time to go and visit places they never would have dreamed of going to in previous generations. From Colorado to San Francisco new places filled up with wandering kids searching for a new way of living that did not involve so much materialism and that would relink with nature and not purely the pursuit of profit. Kerouac's "On The Road" was their guide and the horizon their destination...

Welcome Lydia Elle! We are in accord...I think that there is a genuine need across the American reading public for a re-evaluation of the 60's and 70's in literature: what I am calling Liberation Lit.

This re-evaluation is desperately needed first by the baby boomers who are seeking a final closure for a still open wound in our society loosely called the "generation gap,"and also by many of our young readers who are utterly curious and intrigued to find out just exactly happened back then?!? What was all the fuss about?

Repression of civil rights, the rise of woman's rights and gay rights, and the first protests of the American war/death culture were all born during this period, and only now have come to fruition, (or closer anyway)...so there is a thirst to find out where all these movements began and how...

Yes, exactly, Bob. Now that enough time has elapsed, and tolerance of differing views is now a majority position in America (see recent poles), perhaps it is finally time for our artists to re-examine the liberation period that started the removal of all this oppression in the first place? To go back and reevaluate the validity of the "hippie" movement that brought on this trend towards tolerance; Could Liberation Lit bring on a hippie Renaissance? It seems the kids of today are already very curious about this time.

Lynette: You are so right. The music of the liberation era circled the globe and united an entire generation in song. From the Beatles to the Eagles, the youth of the period all sang the same anthems.