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I've visited the forum less in recent weeks, in part because I've been sucked into various stories, notably the one at http://arentboynamed.wordpress.com. This is a truth-based story of thrown-away boys surviving on Sunset Blvd in the late '60s, written by a man who lived that life; it is a story of love and family in the spirit of Just Hit Send and written with similar uncanny insight and brilliant metaphor. Hadn't seen it mentioned here, and thought y'all might like to take a look. Also, it has accumulated an interesting set of groupies who comment, often wisely, in the blog format.
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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I read the first chapter and it really held my interest. Amazing how the author gets you to feel what the boy was feeling. The author seems to be a very interesting sort of person, claiming that he suffers from bouts of synesthesia, which sometimes makes it impossible for him to write. Synesthesia is when your senses get mixed up and you can like hear colors and see music and stuff. I've read that a lot of great art has elements of synesthesia in it. I wonder if that is what makes this writers stuff so unique. Interesting that the author relates that a lawyer for some movie producer called him about the story, but he wouldn't talk to him because he was afraid that his story would be sanitized for public consumption. Obviously, the guy needs to tell it and tell it like it was. And it seems like it is going to be pretty sad.
Reading about the boy on the bus reminded me of a similar boy that that I saw many years ago. It was the day after Christmas. He was a lad of 12 or 13. He sat alone on a Greyhound Bus holding a single Christmas present. He would not put it down. I sat down and talked with him for a couple hundred miles. He was returning to some kind of boarding institution after having spent Christmas with his dad. I recall him telling how his dad joked around with him by putting cold beer cans on the back of his neck and stuff. He wanted to talk to his dad, but that was before cell phones and he didn't have any money for the pay phone. I paid for his call. You could hear his dad shouting at him over the phone even in the noisy terminal. I asked him what his dad said and he related that he was told to get back on the bus and go to where he was going. I sorta got the idea that he wanted to go back and be with his dad. I got off at my destination and he continued on to who knows what. But I have seldom seen anything so sad as the little boy all alone on the bus, clutching his single Christmas present on the very day after Christmas. Obviously his parents couldn't be rid of him soon enough.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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There are a lot of soul-battered kids out there. Wonder how he turned out.
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ray2x
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 430
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I read through half the first chapter. I needed to break.
Early in my career, I worked in West Hollywood and had some opportunity to witness how street children survived. There was a sense of "family" as they often talked about how a person was doing and how maybe they could help out a down and out newbie homeless teen. And they were always sharing huge bags of french fries with one another. I talked with a few of the guys and they seemed to be on the level about their situations. Some of them were leery about letting too much information pass between me and them, fearing I was an undercover police, as one youngster confided. I took that as a warning to stay not too close but at least to be seen every so often.
Raymundo
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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I just finished the fourth chapter. I am nonplussed by the evocative power of this story. It shows me just how powerful a story can be, and what it can teach one about life. Damn, I wish I could make a story like this. But maybe it's something you would have had to have experienced(how do you like that stacked verb structure?)
Chapter 4 leads me to consider feeling unloved and unwanted and how that can make one sensitive of the need for love in others. The horrible unloved feelings give birth to a super beautiful insight and ability to empathize with others.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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I was getting a smoothie {a drink -- get your mind out of the gutter!) yesterday and a young guy behind the counter seemed quite frustrated and angry with the job or his co-workers and wasn't hiding it well. In times past, I would have been annoyed with him and expecting him to be gone next time I go there. I think that reading A Rent-Boy Named and re-reading Grasshopper's stories recently is responsible for a change in my thinking, because my reaction yesterday was to ponder whether the young man has lacked good role models and to hope that someone takes him under wing.
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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"Smoothie"... yeah. That reminded me of a one line joke that was popular when I was an adolescent. It involved the names of quick food establishments of the time. Do you remember "Burger King took Dairy Queen out behind Red Barn and gave her a Hardee."?
Anyway, I read about how James upbraided himself for the type of thoughts that he was having about Squeegy, when he was mothering him in Chapter 7. I recognized the same sort of thought in myself recently. On vacation, my son challenged me to climb Baltimore's Washington Monument. It was designed by the same guy who designed the obelisk Washington Monument in DC, but it is much smaller and narrower and has no elevator. After the first 200 stairs or so I had become sweaty hot and removed my shirt. We got to a point where the stairway was so narrow that there was no way that someone could get past you without squeezing up against your body. Sure enough, I heard the dreaded steps of someone bouncing down the stairs. My dread turned to something else when a very good looking young man excused himself while squeezing past me. I think you might know what kind of feeling I perceived that to be. The rest of the way to the top, I silently upbraided myself for being a lecherous dirty old man. Heaven help me.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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When you get to my age, Macky, you just enjoy it!
Love,
Anthony
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I saw this post and decided to take a glance at this story. That was a mistake because a glance turned into ten chapters. And then I felt compelled to leave a comment saying how the subject matter and this man's writing style had completely captivated me. Lol... Brit read the comment and emailed asking if that were me. Yeppers, Brit, it certainly was. Well, that was back at chapter ten and I'm presently on seventy five.
Now I did manage to force myself to mow the lawn, but that was the only constructive thing I've done on my two days off from work. The rest of it has been totally engrossed in "A Rent-Boy Named...". Thank you Brit, for pointing it out. The rest of you, don't start reading it unless you have some time on your hands because it's one of those stories you can't put down.
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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Paul,
I started reading it the day Brit mentioned it and I'm about to start chapter 10. The story makes me think and consider, so it goes slow for me. I'm really into the social interactions and how the boys treat each other, and how it runs the gamut from love to disdain. I can't even begin to guess where the tale is heading. But I feel good about the authors comments about how similar kids that he experienced this life with, have gone on to be very successful people. The human spirit..eh?
The coming of age thread here has the URL for movielad. I saw that there was a documentary film in there about street kids in Seattle. It will be interesting to see the similarities between that documentary and this story.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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