Our poor people

When Eva Kokopeli, our May visiting writer, was here less than a week there was a mournful conversation in Cyberpunk's kitchen. "I think we want them to make it, but just barely. I don't know. It took me a month to kill him. Even though I knew it had to happen."

We were talking about our characters, the ones we hurt. We try to kill them, to drive them insane, to give them just a little more than they can handle every time, until they either become gods or crumble into nothing. One question is, how sick do we have to be to toy with (imaginary(?)) people this way?

Last Tuesday Eva got on stage at Fleeting Pages and read a story about just that. The story of a character who's author could not kill or drive him mad no matter how she tried. Instead the character began to drive the author insane. He drew her from he invulnerability, compelled her into her own story, where she was converted to a mortal form, subject to his opinion, and scorn.

Perhaps Eva's story was so satisfying to me is because as I writer I often feel guilty. We were not bred to be gods, and when we wrong each other we have a (sometimes small) desire to be held accountable. The more we love the people we hurt, the more we wish they would hurt us back. Like a cheating husband, who secretly wishes his wife would beat him or cut him in his sleep.

And of course, what's really weird is that in the end these characters are part of our own. We invest our identities into them and then torture them, find out what ways we might break ourselves, and finally feel guilty. We're guilty for hurting ourselves? Is that the logical conclusion to this?

I don't think so....

Hm.

Something to think about, until (if (?)) Eva's full story is available to the public.

-dan (what's up with these parentheses (?))

Fleeting Pages for the win!

In case you haven't heard, Pittsburgh has been fortunate enough to have with us this month Fleeting Pages, a pop-up indie bookstore which has for the month taken the place of the old Borders Books in East Liberty. It has been a very exciting project, not just because it's been selling many small press books and zines but also because the literary people of Pittsburgh have stepped up to create lots of interesting events to utilize this otherwise abandoned space.

There have been many readings as well as workshops, meet-ups, and even a speed dating event. Our awesome visiting writer Eva has been volunteering there quite a bit. On Tuesday, May 31, we're hosting our two-year anniversary with a reading there. Residents past and present will be taking stage and wowing you with readings, storytelling, and at least one stand-up comedy routine. Maybe one of us will tattoo another one of us--- we haven't figured out the details yet.

It starts at 7 pm and is free to the public. If you like, show up an hour or so early and enjoy the Writers' Happy Hour being organized by some other writers in Pittsburgh. Also if you like, stay late and enjoy a poetry slam event organized by still more writers in Pittsburgh. Holy cow! That's a lot of enjoyment!