Sleeping Dogs

An old adage warns us to let sleeping dogs lie. Best to keep the beast quiet rather than arose it to raise alarm or do harm, goes the logic. Tossing caution to the wind, however, one is lead to disregard the old wives' wisdom and inquire about the possible publication of the second slim volume of scabrous calumny from Mr Rapier on the fictional residents of the fair and up-standing community of Ovoid, Illinois.

The public was apprised of the imminent release of the aforementioned slander entitled 'Ovoid Diaspora' and gritting one's teeth in preparation for further obloquy, defamation, derogation and cynical misrepresentation of our beloved and cherished home - the hallmark of Mr Rapier's previous attempt at authorship - one waits for the second boot to fall, as it were.  One must admit, a morbid curiosity has begun to seep into this editor's consciousness.

Perhaps the reading public and the peaceful town of Ovoid will be spared the perverse, delusional scribblings of Mr Rapier's acid pen.

One can hope.

An Ovoid Sequel? Say it ain't so!

 Say it ain't so.
Talk has begun to percolate like yesterday morning's coffee that there is a second volume of distorted mis-truths forthcoming about our beloved hamlet, Ovoid, Illinois. One shudders at the thought of more of the reputed author's turgid prose, left-field analogies and brittle and obtuse lexicon.

One must steel oneself in the modern technological age when the wholesale access to cyber-space provides the triumph of mediocrity. In prior times, publishing houses great and small were the only means (short of a mimeograph machine) by which one could present his writings to the world. Battalions of editors stood rank on rank to assure that something more than sophomoric drivel was published and distributed to the general public.

The good old days...

Presently, contrary-wise, we are inundated with dross; the chaff and stem and seed casings which were previously winnowed from the select harvest of written work by serious authors. We, the general public,consequently are subject to a flood of tripe; weak, hackney themes and specious, supercilious sentence-mongering  The classic narrative is moribund. Its corpse bloats, engorged with putrid prose.

One can be assured that the second volume of the 'Ovoid Saga' (which we are told is tumescently entitled 'Ovoid, Diaspora') is of a similar mish-mash muddle of colloquialism, high-blown directionless musings, over-stretched analogies, self-agrandizing monologs, recondite verbiage and shame-faced dis-information to that which we encountered in the first loathsome volume.

This writer looks forward to giving it a miss.

'Ovoid, Illinois': Anti-establishment Balderdash

Let us over-look, for the time being, the myriad inaccuracies of Ovoid life foisted upon an unsuspecting public by the author of 'Ovoid, Illinois'. Let us, instead, appraise the over-all tenor of the book.

One cannot but be struck by the thought that this is an immodestly inveiled inveiglement against authority and authority figures. It reeks of anti-establishmentarianism from the first word to the last.This flimsy narrative extolls anarchy and the dissolution of society time and again by relating incidents of revolution against civic, religious, educational and familial leaders. The dark anti-heroes of the story, Cheryl-Jean, Duncan, Daedelus, Mylo, Gene  and their cohorts all rebel unconscionably against their betters.

Cheryl-Jean defies her loving, doting parents; even defying the very laws of nature with self-delusion.
Duncan refutes the decision of the school administrators.
Daedelus challenges every aspect of modern life, even the most fundamental.
Mylo blasphemes against Jesus and the teachings of Christianity.
Gene plans on nothing less than a megalomaniac take-over of society at large.

As these characters rabble rouse and spout their ill-conceived personal pseudo-philosophies, the others populating this thin screed to social disorder, are swept up in emotionally charged rhetoric of unbridled, unrestrained self-determinism.

Taken as a whole, this is nothing less than invocation to anarchy. Community leaders are reviled at every step. Public institutions are condemned as archaic. Long-standing conventions of social order are flouted and brushed aside as worthless. Patriotism is denigrated. Adherence to social mores is disdained. Respect for private property is undermined. The very fabric of society is rent and sundered to suit the whims of adolescent egos.

Clearly, what comes disguised as a nostalgic tale of simpler, more innocent days gone by is, in truth, a manifesto of anarchy and social dissolution written between the lines of banal prose.

There ought to be a law.