tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post2850911601917785785..comments2024-03-28T07:13:10.797+00:00Comments on TONE DEAF: Post Nam 1Roderick Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-73018571906411392932017-11-20T07:32:33.953+00:002017-11-20T07:32:33.953+00:00RW (zS): Perhaps things have changed since I drank...RW (zS): Perhaps things have changed since I drank beer in the USA. As far as memory serves there were two quite distinct Budweiser beers: one was the real thing, brewed in Czecho, quite rare, quite expensive, which came only in long-neck bottles. The other brewed by Anheuser Busch of the USA (which through a licensing deal could only be called Bud) came as a draft beer, or in cans, and was indistinguishable from other nationally distributed beers like Pabst and Schlitz. This is still the case in the UK.<br /><br />For the sake of the story I wasn't concerned with beer quality at the Vets bar. The two men were simply drinking draft beer, whatever came up. Later Dill found himself at home drinking Hoppin' Frog, a craft beer, possibly because Amy had local Ohio knowledge. And, as the narrative says, she insisted it be drunk in glasses. Thus Dill's previous way of life is changing.<br /><br />The key to the period (of the story) is that the Vietnam war is still continuing although I don't think I made this entirely clear. Dill and Boone have merely finished their "tour" there and are out of the Army. The war ended in 1975 so the story takes place anytime in the late sixties or early seventies, roughly the time I lived in the USA.<br /><br />I probably confused the issue by referring (unnecessarily) to my desire to write authentic dialogue. "Gimme a Bud." is an authentic spoken order in a US bar which I have heard many times; I didn't use it in the story and it is in no sense a testimonial by me of Bud beer. I brought it up only because of its verbal authenticity.<br /><br />The first para of your most recent comment summarises my reasons for wanting to write this story. The Vietnam War may have been a "wrong" war, disavowed by the peace protestors, but that didn't make any difference to those who fought in it. You could still get killed in a wrong war, and you could still behave heroically in it. Soldiers who fought there expected to be treated honourably when they returned, instead they were frequently and unfairly associated with the cack-handed politicians who deserved the general contempt.<br /><br />However as I admit (rather slyly) the emphasis in the story shifts slightly away from a male perspective to a female one, something I hardly seem able to control.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-30065338577376915802017-11-19T20:57:32.469+00:002017-11-19T20:57:32.469+00:00What you knew about Dill when you had him standing...What you knew about Dill when you had him standing on the street corner rings so true. My father was unprepared for "life" when the Air Force spit him out. He did not handle himself well, and he was not the recipient of any sort of assistance from the Armed Forces. <br /><br />The only reason I mentioned the beer choice was that it spun me out of the 70s, and now I wonder if I did mis-read the time period ... is Dill in the 1970s in this piece? (I admit to not knowing enough about 'merican whiskey to comment on the Wild Turkey.) The choice of beer is key because it carries with it connotations ... Bud is still foreign ... Stroh's, Schlitz, etc. are good old 'merican brews (even though, as you and I know, the German immigrants brought these recipes to U.S. shores for comfort and succor).Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-75155293463879871082017-11-19T07:56:30.704+00:002017-11-19T07:56:30.704+00:00RW (zS): The most important thing about writing fi...RW (zS): The most important thing about writing fiction is not parsable sentences, crackling dialogue, impenetrable plots, elliptical allusions, unassailable detail, improbable situations, satanical characters, etc, etc. It is simply to be read.<br /><br />Because when this happens the story passes out of the author's control and takes on a new life inside the noggins of those who are doing the reading. It becomes a new story to which the author - that remote, snobby, omnipotent, self-regarding figure - must react. In a sense he must re-write the story to fit the chemical experience of being read.<br /><br />I only knew two things about Dill when I had him standing on the street corner reflecting on the fact that he'd been canned. That he was an unsophisticate and that surviving the war had reduced him to a length of gristle disinclined to trust the future.<br /><br />The beer he drinks in the Vets' bar is unnamed. That's because he's revelling in drinking expensive Wild Turkey and, thus, getting smashed. Many US men are capable of saying: "Nah, I'm not drinking, gimme a Bud." Dill is "drinking" and for him that means "liquor". During the course of the story Amy proves to be a civilising influence and that's why he finds himself not only drinking a craft beer but out of a glass.<br /><br />All of which is total bollocks. That's my story. I must now face up to your story. He could easily be drinking any of the beers you list, though in attempting to grab hold of the rhythms of everyday speech I love the monosyllabic potential of "Bud" (if not the beer). And I must now explore the possibilities of Dill being a beer drinker and see whether it adds to the story. I am, as I say, re-writing the story.<br /><br />Thanks for the other comments. Mrs Golinski exists, a US widow with that name, though older than Amy. Names are hugely important in US fiction since they often hint at roots, one of which you've picked up on. I like that. It's not surprising that a Vietnam vet should like quiet (though what I truly enjoyed was the idiom that allowed me to put it so compactly - "liked quiet") although he could - through the exigencies of the story - have equally become addicted to noise.<br /><br />Ennough, enough. I'm running off at the mouth.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-75039254911440052017-11-19T01:31:59.627+00:002017-11-19T01:31:59.627+00:00Naming her Mrs Golinski was right on. It's boy...Naming her Mrs Golinski was right on. It's boys of immigrant families who have to join the service to get out (like my father). And it's the immigrant mothers who have to come to terms with that knock on the door (like my mother). <br /><br />The line in part 1 that spoke to me is:<br />"They sat in silence and it really wasn’t so bad. Made him realise he liked quiet."<br /><br />Hoppin’ Frog beer is a craft beer from the 90's (from the Akron area) ... Dill would most likely be drinking Schlitz, Blatz, Hudepohl, Miller, or Stroh's.Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.com