So, a little disclaimer here about the Occupy Movement before getting into Jacob Russell’s writing in “Songs of Occupation.” Maybe it’s the realist in me. Maybe it’s the political centrist in me or my apathy for politics in general, but I don’t get the Occupy Movement. I don’t understand it, don’t believe in it, endorse or even think the thing worthwhile. To me it’s no better than any other political movement or party, and a power struggle like anything political is.
What I care about is good food. I care about good writing and I care about good health, happiness, spirit.
All this being said, I find it ironic the title of Jacob Russell’s manuscript, Songs of Occupation. There is the Occupation Movement, and then there is the occupation, the job, the employment. What this manuscript is about is a political power struggle and rise. What this manuscript is not about is an occupation.
Here is where the realist in me thrives. I would have much rather have seen Russell’s myriad of life experiences and jobs, his transits to New York or Philadelphia or anywhere in the country, described in likewise multiple perspectives and jobs, in observations.
Don’t get me wrong, but parts of me “get” Occupy Wall St. I get the frustration and I get the necessity out of the need, the have not to the haves. But like any organized group, the Occupation Movement sees no better goal than the progression of it’s own power and rights like a union or religious group. The older I get the less hurt or insulted I feel when people don’t understand my lack of belief in activism. I just don’t do it. I just don’t groupthink. And the saddest thing, with all do respect to Russell and anyone reading, is not that people are being activists but the much more scary fact that writing, especially in America, tends increasingly to be sold out to anything considered liberal or radical. This is delivered right to my inbox. This is sent to me through a few Poets & Writers rss feeds. But this, I guess, can also be the beauty and purity of literature, to communicate, to be used, to be discarded and forgotten like any debate in this country will fall to the wayside a hundred years from now.
And yet still come back to us.
Good writing is timeless, is Leaves of Grass to me and Jacob Russell most definitely has a talent. His lines are like broken thoughts. What I wonder most is not the knowledge between those lines, but the wisdom. I see no real application of that, like I said before, to life experience without that groupthink, without that tide of enthusiasm and empowerment awashing so many people in our country in a blanket of anonymity.
I wish Jacob the best in placing this manuscript. Had he decided to wait until the summer open, it would have been interesting to see what the poetry judge would have decided about this work. I’m not personally familiar to any of his other work though, but most definitely give him my thanks in allowing me the best platform or opportunity to discuss my beliefs in the blog.
Thank you, Jacob.
