Subtitle: Pseudo-Review of Loaded by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Metaphorically worst-writing (or is it analogically) I often use the idear of a thread, as in, a thread runs through it to explain something. I can also worst-say it thus: Without this thread the whole quilt will wilt. For worst-moi and the emotions I wield for my beloved & missed #Americant , the thread up to now that holds the whole $hit$how together hasn’t been so much the violence but instead… The Stupid. Indeed. THE LAND OF FREE TO BE STUPID. My beloved & missed #Americant is a quilt of stupid. As in: stupid thread runs through it. But on that note I digress.
Just finished reading the book Loaded by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. It’s a terrible book, don’t you know. Wait. I don’t mean terrible as in a terrible written book. No. In fact. It’s a totally well written book. When I say it’s terrible, what I mean is, it’s a terrible (terribly) printed paperback. For indeed, dear worst-reader, this is the third physical book in the last five books I’ve read (or so) that is real, aka physical book. Does this mean I’m steering more and more away from e-books of yore–which at one point I thought I would never yield? Not sure yet. The next book I read I plan to read on a screen. But which screen? Nomatter.
We were worst-discussing a thread runs through it, right? And poorly printed cheap paperbacks. Well get this. There is one thread that goes through the entire history that is the quilt of my beloved & missed united mistakes of #Americant –and this little poorly produced book addresses that thread brilliantly. Which means, we can tolerate a bit of poor/cheap printing. Or? Anywho.
Can you guess what the thread is I’m referring to here, dear worst-reader? Here’s a hint (spoiler alert): guns. Ok. Maybe it’s not a hint. Nomatter.
The author of Loaded manages, within around two hundred pages of a really cheap printed paperback–the latter third of those pages printed as though Gutenberg were on a heeling ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean–to locate that single thread of quilt-history and thereby lead the reader onward and onward and onward to some hard truth about #Americant . The only thing that’s missing is the other thread of the grand #Americant quilt according to expat worstwriter: STUPID. But let’s not get too far off worst-subject. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz ain’t worst-writer!
I’ve always been a skeptic when it comes to the idear that #Americant was built on slavery. I mean, obviously, slave labour is part of the founding of the grand greed $hit$how. But the realty is, that part of history was perpetrated by Europeans–not Americans. At least not Americans as we/the world knows them since, say, the 1950s–which is what I consider to be the America the world knows today. Indeed. And so. It was the Dutch, the Belgians and of course the British that gave the world mass exploitative labour that enabled the building of… new & improved Egyptian Pharaohs. Even those numb-nut colonists, aka George Washington & Co. (new Pharaoh #1) were more European than what would eventually become gun totting hamburger slobs all on the verge of killing not just his/her neighbour but the whole $hit$how of slobs. In other worst-words, don’t you know, #Americant wasn’t built on hard work, ingenuity, industry, etc. No. It is a place of exploitation, sexual repression (which is a conduit to further exploitation and violence) and the propagation of ignorance in order to have a system of wealth creation for the few and far between, i.e. the new & improved Pharaohs. Because of its shear size and economic magnitude, though, it’s easy to avoid facing the reality of what a $hit$how things have become. And so the European slave makers became #Americant . THE LAND OF FREE TO BE STUPID.
Although Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz would have you believe it was all about guns, there is something she misses in her story. But that’s neither here nor there. For worst-writer would only counter her with this idear: No, Madame Dunbar-Ortiz, it was not built on guns (violence) but instead on STUPID. Then again, Madame, you might be right if you focused on the only way to control STUPID is with the proliferation of guns in order that STUPID may cull itself.
But. Once again. I’m probably off subject.
This is a great book for anyone wanting some word-ammunition on how to combat a gun-nut when faced at a bar, a turkey shoot or family Thanksgiving dinner. It is not a book that will you help survive a mass shooting, though. It’s also a great read if you want to follow a single thread that has run through the entirety of #Americant history–but forgetting a few other threads. It is not a book that will help anyone figure out how to change things–which can only be done if/when someone addresses all the STUPID.
Good luck suckers.
Rant on.
-T
worstwriter 