The pleasure WAS mine
A brief footnote to the discussion Moses Cone's Tim Rice and I led of Tommy Hays' "The Pleasure Was Mine" Wednesday morning at the Greensboro Historical Museum:
The session was thoughtful and spirited. Among audience members were people who have experienced the challenges of Alzheimer's firsthand in their families, including one man who recently lost his wife.
Some of the points we considered:
1. I saw this not as a book about Alzheimer's. but about relationships. As I read it, this book was a love story ... between husband and wife, father and son, and grandfather and grandson.
2. Everyone seemed to agree that the scenes including the African American character of Nate in the book made some gentle but memorable observations about the main character, Prate Marshbank's, racial prejudices. We also agreed that those prejudices were rooted in ignorance, not malice.
3. I had trouble with too many coincidences in the book. Some characters' paths conveniently crossed too many times to be convincing.
4. The scenes in the nursing home especially resonated with Tim, who filled in as interim director of a nursing facility during his time at Cone. He said he knew firsthand some of the challenges depicted in the book.
5. We could not agree on whether the protagonist's doctor made the right call in encouraging him to have, um, relations with his Alzheimer's-stricken spouse. Some of us thought it was sound advice. Others wondered if it was, in a sense, taking advantage of her. Would it have been better for him to have begun dating other women? And when is the right time to do that?
Comments (12)
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Allen, if a woman being in her right mind was a pre-conditon for making love, the species would have died out a long time ago.
Speaking to the Pleasure Being Yours; any chance we will see any meaningful editorial comment on the 19K Christmas bonuses the black G-Boro policemen are getting this year?
Posted on November 13, 2008 2:05 PM
Guess not, huh?
Posted on November 13, 2008 4:07 PM
Then what about a feature?
Posted on November 13, 2008 4:24 PM
Strike out on that too. Geez.
How about at least after Tuesday's council mtg.?
Allen, it seems the only way to get your attention anymore is to write a book or something.
I've been kind of toying. What the hey.
Okay, this bright young man goes to college. He's a student activist, journalist, involved etc. He's going to change the world, allright. He goes to work at this newspaper. He does well. but as time goes on he gets a little tired. He gets tired of all the b.s.. the same old, same old, race problems etc. It evolves that thirty years later he finds himself doing fluff pieces, like about books, movies and stuff, kind of like "E" Channel material and pretty much gives over any hard issues to a local weekly. Meanwhile his town comes under control of a bunch of extortionists. He wants to expose them but he finds resistance, mainly unspoken, from interests that run the newspaper. He comes to find out that these same interests are trying to sell real estate to the very same extortionists.
Anyway, this is kind of rough and like I said it is fiction. A novel.
Does kind of sound cliche. Oh, well. Maybe I'll keep trying.
Posted on November 14, 2008 9:12 AM
Allen, I guess I wasn't clear. I was kind of hinting around. Can't come up with an ending. Any thoughts or suggestions? Any help at all? We could collaborate... if you want. Help! Anybody?
Posted on November 14, 2008 11:12 AM
Sorry, Savage. I was preoccupied with some work stuff.
On the police issue, we discussed it Wednesday and probably will do an editorial at some point.
Posted on November 14, 2008 12:27 PM
Sounds good. Like they say; timing is everything
Posted on November 14, 2008 1:46 PM
Ah, the old excessive path-crossing trick. (rolls eyes)
Posted on November 14, 2008 2:30 PM
What do you think about my prospective novel above Brian?
Too hackneyed, like Alheimer's etc?
Posted on November 14, 2008 2:35 PM
Savage, frankly, it needs work. You need to flesh out the protagonist by giving him some defining features that make him more believable and more complex. Have him sport, for example, the world's coolest afro during his student radical days, but then also give him a subtle streak of nerdom (make him a trekkie, for example).
And then, I'd introduce a plot twist: through the tireless efforts of several ill-tempered, right-win curmudgeons who contribute to his blog, the protagonist comes to see the light. He realizes that his youthful idealism has been compromised by his association with big media. He recognizes that the salvation of America lies with a new and regenerated Republican party. He sells all his worldly possessions, regrows the afro, acquires some dorky intellectual glasses, and takes to the streets as a kind of Shaft/George Will hybrid (here, the cool/nerd symbolism from earlier reappears). This culminates in a tightly contested campaign as Sarah Palin's VP candidate in 2012.
Posted on November 14, 2008 5:05 PM
Brian, I think we could run with this big time. Who do you see in the movie version? Samuel L. or Cheadle?
Posted on November 15, 2008 2:01 AM
Cheadle.
Posted on November 16, 2008 10:57 PM