Follow-up to Dopplegangers
Tuesday November 9th, 1999 @ 8:40 PM
Filed under: Everything, Tales Told Well
The day following every Carlzharptalk article, I check to see how many readers drop off the list. Since each mailing goes to many new people, some always drop off when it doesn’t meet their expectations. I was sad to see that I lost a few because of Doppelgangers. I had second thoughts about sending out something that heavy, but figured most readers wouldn’t mind a little food for thought. I received a few parting shots via e-mail. I thought you might be interested in some other people’s perspectives on my writing. It is not my policy to ever mention a reader’s name as I choose to be very respectful and sensitive to anyone who does me the honor of taking time out of their lives to read my offerings.
#1 Carl, send me something that matters…
#2 If I have to use a dictionary to read something on e-mail, I’m outta here…
#3 Are there really people who understand what the hell you’re writing about?
#4 Carl, when are you going to send us something funny again?
#5 …you’re a fuckin’ basket case, dude…
#6 This is a newsletter? Where’s the news?
#7 Stick to singing, man, a writer you are not.
#8 If I wanted to read a novel, I’d join a book club…
While most return comments on Doppelgangers were positive, I feel compelled to explain a couple of things that seem to come up as common questions week to week.
*****
On vocabulary:
I don’t write to the level of the intellectual bottom feeders. If the troglodytes of the earth dictated my choice of subject matter and vocabulary usage, I’d be no better than a barker at a strip club. I value words as precision tools that allow me to paint a vision exactly as I want it conveyed. We wouldn’t ask a mechanic to fix an engine with a crescent wrench and a screwdriver. If a particular bolt calls for a 5/16 wrench, I would expect him to use it.
Personally, when I read, I love to look up words with which I am unfamiliar. I find my understanding of the story is far more comprehensive than to just guess what they mean from the context. Words are the tools of thought. They allow the mind to go places inaccessible to the verbally handicapped. Shakespeare used over 27,000 words in his writings. The English language can be spoken and understood with as little as 500 words. Should we have told Shakespeare to write so the 500-word guy wouldn’t have to look up his five hundred and first word? One powerful verb or noun will do the work of several adjectives and conjunctions and make the read flow much smoother.
Here is an actual sentence I heard just last week: “Goddamn dude! You’re fuckin’ lookin’ like, fuck, I don’t know man–baaaaad, ya know what I’m sayin’–shit!” Interpreted: You look good.
*******
On subjects:
I try to be unique in my articles. Who needs another piece on who Stevie Ray Vaughn’s influences were? I not only want readers who respect me as a writer, but who I respect as a reader. How can I respect a reader who wants chocolate on every morsel of brain food?
I advertise this letter as “getting deep inside the head of a traveling blues man.” People who want newsletters about blues society picnics and the annual hog roast fund raiser, can find such publications in every town across the country. I have traveled to dozens of countries; played music on the coast of the Red Sea; walked the streets of old Jerusalem with my bandmates; jammed in Turkey with esoteric musicians; sneaked past Kurdish terrorists to climb the ancient walls of their capital; performed for the Italian families of Lampedusa–a miniscule island in the meditterean; been to all continents but Asia, and opened myself to adventure everywhere I’ve ever been. Why would I want to write about Bubba’s award for perfect attendance at last years blues society meetings?
I try to stay on subjects relating to our band and the music scene, and I try not to offend anyone unnecessarily, but I believe some people want to be offended and search hard for an excuse.
*******
Concerning Doppelgangers, one man wrote me this question, not in criticism, but in partial jest and sincere inquiring. “Does Alice Cooper count as a doppelganger?”
I would like to answer it to cover a lot of questions that arose out of “Doppelgangers”. Yes, he would. Anyone who intentionally cultivates his personality to leave the herd and bucks the tide to do it, would count under my definition. Adolph Hitler would count as a doppelganger who demonstrated the evil extremes of man’s potential. For good or for bad, the doppelgangers separate humankind from the cattle chewing cud and the cornstalks bending whichever way the wind blows. When I say “don’t slay the doppelgangers,” I’m not saying the evil ones shouldn’t die, I’m saying empower the desire in others to grow past the mundane.
The antonym for doppelganger in my view is couch potato. It is my hope that the readership would desire to live a life of challenge, exhilaration, and personal growth, and if they couldn’t, at least not desire to spend the rest of their lives sitting on a couch watching TV and hoping that when they died they’d go to that “Big Screen in the Sky.” If they are couch potatoes, I hope for them that they still read Carlzharptalk and exhilarate vicariously. And–if they can’t even do that, at the very least–don’t slay the doppelganger.
I am happy to announce that as of this week, one person in every million in North America, now subscribes to Carlzharptalk. If you’ve always wanted to be that one in a million, now you are. I absolutely love writing the harptalk and getting new readers all the time, and I deeply appreciate your feedback, which has been overwhelming positive. Perhaps an occasional heavy article will serve as a winnowing process to eliminate those who would slay the doppelganger.
Carl
P.S. I’ll try to make the next one funny.
Posted by Carl