Some Things Cannot Be Replaced

Quote of the Day: Thursday 30 May 2013: If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers. Joseph Wood Krutch

Humanism

Quote of the Day: Wednesday 29 May 2013: To me, a feminist belongs in the same category as a humanist or an advocate for human rights. I don't see why someone who's a feminist should be thought of differently. Suzanne Vega

C.S. Lewis

Quote of the Day: Tuesday 28 May 2013: Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C. S. Lewis

Everything Is to Every Thing

Quote of the Day: Memorial Day Monday 27 May 2013: When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. John Muir

John Muir

Quote of the Day: Sunday 26 May 2013: God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. John Muir

The Humanist

Quote of the Day: Saturday 25 May 2013: A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve the great cause of this progress, should be called not a humanist, but a humanitarian, and his creed may be designated as humanitarianism. Irving Babbitt

Margaret Meads

Quote of the Day: Friday 24 May 2013: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Celia Lisset Alvarez

Celia Lisset Alvarez holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Miami and teaches writing at St. Thomas University. Her debut collection of poetry, Shapeshifting (Spire Press, 2006), was the recipient of the 2005 Spire Press Poetry Award. A second collection, The Stones (Finishing Line Press, 2006) followed that same year. Other work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals, including the Iodine Poetry Journal, Fifth Wednesday Journal, and Prairie Schooner, and in the recent anthologies Not a Muse (Haven Books, 2009), and Eating Her Wedding Dress: A Collection of Clothing Poems (Ragged Sky Press, 2009). Recently, her poem “Wonder Woman Goes through Menopause” was the winner of the 2008 HereThere Poetry Contest. Born in Madrid of Cuban parents en route to the United States, she grew up in Miami, where she lives with her husband, Cuban-American literary scholar and fellow poet Rafael Miguel Montes. On 24 May 2013, Celia interviewed me about Every Boy Should Have a Man (EBSHAM). The following posts, arranged in reverse order, are a transcript of that interview. Visit Celia at Writing With Celia: http://writingwithcelia.blogspot.com/

The Earth Ethics Institute

Celia Alvarez: In the acknowledgments, you credit the Earth Ethics Institute at Miami Dade College, “whose class in the swamps inspired this book.” Could you tell us more about that class and how it inspired you?

Nice? Nice?

Answer: At the college where I teach, we instructors take classes from time to time for such things as maintenance of rank, promotion, and most importantly to stay current in our field. As you know, in our country things change rapidly. One wouldn’t want the teacher to know less than the student. In my conservative field, English, the only rapid change we see is in the area of technology, and I had taken most of the techy courses that were out there at the time. So I got to thinking that I might do something different this go round. There was a course called something like “biodiversity and sustainability.” Ah, I was a schoolboy in liberal, blue-state Massachusetts in the late sixties during the ecology phase, the country’s original “green” phase. Ah, my eyes were already misting over with nostalgia. Ah, the good old days in Boston. Ah, my longhaired, love bead, tie-dye, perhaps high, hippie teachers. Ah, their optimism. Studying nature in a classroom? That would be nice. Nice? Nice? Are you kidding! How, oh how, did I miss the words “total immersion?” Just great. Nature would be my classroom. So here I was in the Everglades up to my knees in mossy water, on my guard for alligators, snakes, and other creeping things. All these dangerous animals. And then it hit me. Man is an animal too. And dangerous. It wasn’t an original thought, and to be honest I had had it before. But never with such power and such light. In this ecosystem, the alligator is the top predator, but man is the topmost predator of all. Man can take the alligator and turn it into a purse, an amusement in a zoo, an exotic meal. Now what if there were some intelligent species of creature above man on the food chain? I remembered as a child in Boston coming home from the pond with a gift for my mother that I withdrew from my pocket dead. Tadpoles. And I wondered what species of boy could go down to the pond, pick up a handful of humans and at home withdraw them from his pocket dead. What species of boy could bring one of us home on a makeshift leash only to hear his mother say, “Get that stinky creature out of this house! It’s mangy and full of disease.” And what species of boy would pout and say in protest, “But mom, every boy should have a man?” And that was it. As the wildly flying birds sang above my head, I envisioned the novel from beginning to end, the many issues I could explore, the biblical sound of it, the title, everything. I had to get it down on paper before I ruined it by over thinking. When class was over, I sped home.

Celia

Celia Alvarez: The plight of mans—kept as pets but eaten as meat as well—echoes the ethical sophistry of our own society, in which we treat pets as family members and yet eat other animals without a second thought. One of the last facets of the Oafs before their destruction is that they become almost exclusively carnivores: “ . . . for oafs in those latter days had become monstrous indeed. They had resorted to a diet almost exclusively of meat (chicken, goat, hog, hoss, bovin, beo, dog, cat, rat, and man-meat whenever they could get it).” Do these allegories reflect your own personal philosophy? Is EBSHAM a vegan manifesto?

Vegan Moi?

Answer: Vegan manifesto. Me? I’m not sure. Maybe my mind wandered in that direction. Yes, lately I have been thinking about my diet. I tend to believe that it is more animalistic to eat meat that . . . “animalistic” is not the word I want . . . I think that if we devolve to a more primitive state we might tend to eat more meat. Look carefully at the list as I wrote it, the order of the animals. The list begins with animals that usually are eaten for food, then it goes beyond the usual, taking in dangerous beasts as well as vermin and those we consider pets. Finally, it ends out of desperation with cannibalism. Vegan manifesto. Me? I’m not sure. The mans in the novel are herbivores and they do inherit the earth, I guess. I still eat meat, though not as much as I used to, and when I do, I think about the animal that gave its life for my meal. Does that count? At some point I am certain that I will give up eating meat entirely, though mostly for my health and not so much for any other reason.

Celia

Celia Alvarez: EBSHAM strikes me as a profoundly religious book, rocketing from a kind of biblical pantheism to a condemnation of the role of religion in justifying war and violence. This is a book with a mission, and I don’t want to oversimplify by calling it environmentalist, globalist, or humanist. Could you comment on what you’re hoping readers will be moved to consider by this book?

Learn From the Oafs

Answer: First of all, I'm hoping that my readers will enjoy the ride. The sugar in the medicine. The dancing and the clapping at the prayer meeting. In fact, I hope the message doesn't overwhelm. I want them to feel emotion as they're reading. A connection with the characters. I want them to read it the way children listen to a fairy tale. The awe, the magnificence, the magic--that's what I want them to be engaged by. Maybe they'll stop and think about what it means later on, but when they're reading I want them to be scared of the wolf, amused by the foolish decisions of the two little pigs who did not build their houses out of bricks, and nod their heads knowingly when the house of straw is blown away by a huff and a puff. We adults know what it means. Haste makes waste. Quick work is not the best work. Hard work pays off in the end. We've heard our parents tell us this before. Just not in a story. And a story, first and foremost, must be a story. So here we have a boy who wants a pet. When he gets the pet, he wants to show him off. When he shows him off, the real owner shows up and just like that, the pet is gone. Like those kids sitting on mats around their teacher, we nod our heads knowingly. That's what happens when you show off. Of course, this pet is a man . . . That must mean something. Hmmmmm. We are adults. We know what it means. Be kind to your planet, mans. Be kind to your animals, mans. Be kind to each other, mans. Learn from the oafs, mans, or you'll end up just as extinct as they are despite your sacred texts, ancient wisdom, good intentions, whatever. The earth is forgiving and resilient, but it can only take so much. We've been told this before. Just not in a story. Ah heck, we've been told this many, many times before in a story. It's my hope that this time we'll listen. Those Boston hippies back in the day made me quite the optimist.

For Lack of a Better Term

Celia Alvarez: For lack of a better term, I’m calling EBSHAM an “epic fable,” which to me best describes your tone, the straightforward neo-biblical language and musical passages that mimic oral narratives. Did this approach come to you from the novel’s inception, or was it a conscious decision you made later? I’m curious about how difficult it was to sustain it without slipping into the everyday speech of, say, All or Nothing.

Compared to the 10 Commandments

Answer: Yes, it's a fable, and hopefully people will take it as an important one. From its very inception, as you put it, the novel was that way. I wanted it to sound the way it came to me in the swamp. It's a very simple message, really. A very simple story. I think the problem these days is that many important messages and concepts are written in language that is so complex as to be misunderstood or deliberately misinterpreted. In Richard Attenborough's epic film, Gandhi, there is a scene after the violence of Muslim/Hindu riot, when a guilt-ridden Hindu comes to the mahatma, falls to his knees, and fervently pleads something like, "O, Great soul, help me. I'm going to hell. I've killed a child!" And Gandhi responds in a gentle voice something like, "There is a way out of hell. Go into the streets where there are many children whose parents have been killed in this violence. Find a boy who is the age of the one you killed. Take him into your home and raise him as your own." When the kneeling Hindu murderer nods his agreement and begins to rise, Gandhi stops him with a stern admonishment. "But, it must be a Muslim child! And you must raise him as a Muslim!" There is power in simplicity. If we lived by those simple words, there would be no more war. Go back and look at the "Ten Commandments." Simple words. People understood them. People knew what they had to do to be good; people knew what they had to do to be bad. Compare the Commandments to the many chapters devoted to the hundreds of laws and corollaries and addenda to the laws of Moses in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Their number and complexity make our tax code look like a nursery rhyme. Now compare them to the simple parables of Jesus. I'm not preaching. I'm just saying. Like I said before, I knew immediately how the book would sound. Furthermore, I was prepared for this sound by my upbringing in the holiness church of my childhood. I often joke that I'm bilingual as are most of us who grew up in the black church. I speak English and King James Bible. The real difficulty (wink, wink) was in keeping the everyday speech in All or Nothing and especially Jesus Boy from slipping into the King James. Bible stories, fairy tales, parables, fables, and this novel all contain important lessons told in simple language. They follow the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Sex, Religion, Gambling

Celia Alvarez: You write about sex, religion, gambling. You write short stories, poetry, novels. You write realism, erotica, and now—what to call EBSHAM? Speculative fiction? Do you ever worry that readers will be bewildered by your choices, or, perhaps, that editors and critics will not follow you on such a winding road?

This Is Nadine's Lover

Answer: Thus far, one may argue, that I have been writing so as not to be accused of self-caricature. At the same time I've been kicking myself for my inability or my reluctance to write sequels. During my erotica phase, after I had written my first short piece "Nadine's Husband" for Brown Sugar (Plume Penguin), I was called on to write a second and said I could not. I had exhausted all of the erotic content in my heart. I always write from the heart. But my editor waved a good chunk of money at me, and suddenly I felt my erotic heart pumping in my chest. When I finished the story, my editor read it and said, "Where is Nadine? Where is Pam? These are not the same characters." Groan. So I went back to the computer to accomplish a task that seemed to me boring and unpleasant, if not downright impossible. To revisit the scene of the crime after the crime has been solved. Where was the joy in that? Where was the inspiration? It seemed like too much work. It seemed too much like work. But money is money. Beat on, my starving artist's heart. O, the things we do for money. What I gave her next was met with the same complaint. "Where is Nadine? Where is Pam?" This time I had an answer: "This is Nadine's lover's wife. She suspects that he is cheating with Nadine, and so she sleeps with her best male friend who has been in love with her since childhood. The best friend she sleeps with is also the best friend of her husband, Nadine's lover. In other words, the lover is sleeping with his best friend's wife. In other, other words, the lover, the wife he is sleeping with, and the husband who is sleeping with Nadine were all best friends as children, get it?" She got it even if you don't, and more importantly, my heart was pumping for these new characters and this fresh scenario. Nadine be damned. "Nadine's Husband part 2" would proceed without you. She did, however, show up in parts 3 and 4. With all that money being waved around, one can only delay the inevitable for so long. But it taught me something about myself and about my writing process in general. For me, writing is effortless when I write from inspiration. When I write for work, I write well, but it is, in fact, work. And I don't necessarily find it pleasurable. Work writing resides in the head, from which it I can be pulled when needed . . . Because of practice, because of my academic training perhaps, I am able to do this efficiently. Inspired writing resides in the heart, out of which it copiously flows once the heart is tapped. I think that with this story, I may have found a key that may tap my heart at will. I'm not promising sequels, or anything like that, but I'm not ruling them out either. There are quite a few more issues that can be explored in that magical realm above the firmament.

A Very Compact Book

In just under 200 pages, Every Boy Should Have a Man presents an eye-opening and beautifully rendered post-apocalyptic parable. In a world occupied by oafs (immense, giant-like creatures), the main character is simply known as "the boy," and as the title suggests, he wants a "man" to keep as his very own. His family is poor, however, and buying and keeping a man is expensive, so his first man is one he finds wandering in the brambles — and who is soon reclaimed by a wealthy oaf. His father presents him with a second man, a "female man," who is feisty and gets into some trouble — resulting in a third man, a "baby female man." As the boy learns about love and loss, the reader takes a roller-coaster ride through issues of gender, race, environment, poverty, religion, war ... you know, just the small stuff of life. (Kirsten Akens, from Colorado Springs Independent)

Prepare Yourself for a World of Oafs

Prepare yourself for a world in which boy "oafs" keep "mans" as pets, a world in which a lucky male or female man is allowed to actually live in the same house as their oaf owner, and in which unlucky mans are often consumed as part of a normal, everyday meal. Now you are ready for Preston Allen's Every Boy Should Have a Man. Adult oafs normally stand something over thirteen feet tall and even their children are soon taller than man-pets. Every oaf-year is the equivalent of four man-years so, over the course of a lifetime, an oaf is likely to have several mans as pets. Get the picture? Strangely, some mans can talk and some can play singing musical instruments. "Talking mans" and "musical mans,” however, are very valuable and are generally owned by only the very wealthy. The poor have to be content with ordinary, less talented, mans and their pets have to hope that they are not stolen to become part of someone’s dinner. Every Boy Should Have a Man is largely the story of two oaf boys, one wealthy and one poor, and the female man they share over the years. Their world is not a happy one. It is a world dominated by a small wealthy class that sometimes wages literal war against the poorer, desperate majority of the population. And, unfortunately for the domesticated man population, neither army is reluctant to use mans as cannon fodder. This little book (191 pages) is one that will, most obviously, make readers think about our relationship to our own pets, particularly dogs, but it also addresses numerous other issues. It is a well considered fable that touches on things like war, religious conflict, racism, global warming, and what it means to be "civilized" – all of it cloaked within a rousing adventure tale that fits comfortably into the fantasy genre. Bottom Line: Every Boy Should Have a Man is one of those books I still find myself thinking about several days after I finished reading it. I have even brought it up in conversation with friends whom I know are nonreaders because it is just so pertinent to today's world. The book is a little heavy-handed at times, particularly on the global warming issue, but it deserves a wide audience. Preston Allen has a winner. (Sam Sattler, from Library Thing)

Top Ten (plus 20 or so) Sci-Fi Movies

Q: What are your favorite science fiction movies?



A: Beware. Some of these are going to be cheesy. In no particular order, they are--oh, let's get the obvious big ones out of the way first--

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

"E.T"

"Planet of the Apes"

"Godzilla (1954)"

"2001: A Space Odyssey"

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

"the Star Wars trilogies "4,5,6" and "!, 2 3,"

"Aliens"

"Alien"

"Avatar."



Now that that's out of the way, we have

"Starship Troopers"

"Independence Day"

"District 9"

"Jurassic Park 1 and 2"

"Back to the Future"

"A Clockwork Orange"

"Terminator 2 and 1"

"The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)"

"The Matrix"

"War of the Worlds (1953)"

"War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise)"

"The Island (2005)"

"Predator 2"

"Galaxy Quest"

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

"Being John Malkovich"

"A.I."

"THX 1138"

"Cloverfield"

"The Truman Show"

Thanks,

Preston

Top 9 Sci-Fi Writers

Q: Who are your favorite science fiction writers? In the classical era. Do you have a list?-----------------A: Actually I do: 1) Ray Bradbury. 2) Isaac Asimov. 3) Harlan Ellison. 4) George Orwell. 5)Philip K. Dick. 6) H.G. Wells. 7) Robert A. Heinlein. 8) Ursula K. Le Guin. 9) Arthur C. Clarke. Not necessarily in that order, except for the first two, Bradbury and Asimov. Thanks-----Preston

A World Not So Different

A young boy in a world not so different than our own, has one dream and one hope - to have a man, as companion, friend, and pet. "Oafs" run this world, and "mans," as they are called, either run wild as hunters or are domesticated, adopted as pets, eaten, or displayed in zoos and circuses. While oafs are larger, and live longer, than mans, they are not, in the end, nearly as different as they pretend.

The first half of the story tells of the boy's man companions, and it seems like the aim is to set up an allegory of how human beings deal with animals, generally, and pets in particular, that also addresses how humans treat other humans. The last half of the book expands its scope, both in terms of the storytelling and in its thematic reach. The story broadens, and begins to hint how the author imagines the world of the story to relate to our own. In this world, the "mans" who were not in charge of civilization were for that very reason closer to nature, adapting themselves to it rather than it to them. The book seems, at first, like science fiction and then fantasy, and ends up feeling like much more grand, akin to folktale but with the significance of myth or scripture.

Thematically, the book naturally provokes thought on themes such as racism, sexism, war, environmental exploitation, and other forms of oppression. I imagine that it would be quite useful for middle and high school teachers who want to get students talking about social issues through literature - but I found it to be a very worthwhile read and think it would make an excellent focus text for a book club. There are a few points in the book where the message gets a bit heavy-handed -- with some justification as, in these moments, the words come from the mouth of a preacher -- but for the most part the thematic considerations naturally grow out of what is in any case a fascinating story. In that sense it resembles classic stories like Animal Farm and The Giver, Parable of the Sower and Planet of the Apes.

It has a distinctive style - one that resembles that of old folk tales - even, sometimes, the style of the Bible - it is an approach that communicates simply a range of subtleties. I enjoyed reading it quite a bit, and I'm still thinking about it several days later. (Nathan Andersen, from Amazon)

Yo Sergio!

In "Every Boy Should Have a Man", Preston L. Allen's prose plants a storyteller in your head, and all you have to do is pull up close to the fire, ignore the rustling in the darkness behind you, and listen as he paints the world from the point of view of the 'other'. And what a view it is. This folk-tale/fantasy/myth/cautionary tale opens doors and windows into parts of your conscience you probably forgot were there. This is the bedtime story you read to your grown children (or they read to you).

What's it about? At once as familiar as that stuffed bear you slept with, and as strange as another planet, this tale cannot/should not be summarized. It must be read. I started it one evening, reading until sleep took over, then finished it the next day, and was left with a growing warmth in my chest - a mixture of contentedness and sadness, reading the Apocrypha that follows the main story for bits and pieces to keep it going.

You must read this book. I know I'll return to it again (and again). I know I will be pushing it into the hands of my reading friends. Read this book.(Sergio, from Amazon)

Yo Chief!

Planet of the Apes vs. P.E.T.A (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals), great book that mirrors our own world and the issues we encounter today with pets and animals in the wild. Only difference is that we are the pets and we are the wild animals. This book makes me reevaulate myself as a pet owner. I'm more aware of the needs of my own pet because I dare to think what if the roles were reversed and some Oaf, as they are named in the book, owned me...Great book downloaded it onto my kindle and have not stopped reading...Preston Allen at his best! (Chief, from Amazon)

Yo Osbaldistone!

In Every Boy Should Have a Man, Preston L. Allen's prose plants a storyteller in your head, and all you have to do is pull up close to the fire, ignore the rustling in the darkness behind you, and listen as he paints the world from the point of view of the 'other'. And what a view it is. This folk-tale/fantasy/myth/cautionary tale opens doors and windows into parts of your conscience you probably forgot were there. This is the bedtime story you read to your grown children (or they read to you). What's it about? At once as familiar as that stuffed bear you slept with, and as strange as another planet, this tale cannot/should not be summarized. It must be read. I started it one evening, reading until sleep took over, then finished it the next day, and was left with a growing warmth in my chest - a mixture of contentedness and sadness, reading the Apocrypha that follows the main story for bits and pieces to keep it going. You must read this book. I know I'll return to it again (and again). I know I will be pushing it into the hands of my reading friends. Read this book. (Osbaldistone, from Librarything)

Sorta Sci-Fi

Every Boy Should Have a Man is a classic in the vein of Voltaire and Swift. A quick read in simple language, this account of a world where giants keep men as pets and for food has many implications on issues ranging from animal rights to racism to environmentalism. There is nothing else quite like this being written right now. This is one of those books that will appeal on many levels to multiple people. Both children and adults could get something out of this. In the first half of the book, I couldn't help thinking my dog would get a kick out of it! What is the relationship between ownership and companionship? Can loyalty be commanded? What is consent and what is bestiality? Some of those latter questions might not have relevance to our world, but then again they might or might in the past or future. I wouldn't strictly define Every Boy Should Have a Man as science fiction, but it definitely fits Darko Suvin's definition, of creating a world where estrangement breeds cognition for the reader. Also, though nominally less thought-provoking, the myths in the appendices should not be skipped. Strongly recommended-to everyone. (Spacestationmir, from Librarything)

Catharine Marie

This was an AMAZING book. I read it in a single day. In some ways, it was as if the author had tied together Gulliver's Travels with Jack and The Beanstalk. It had definite fairytale elements to it, almost a Brothers Grimm version of our world, with "mans" replacing pets. Obviously having echoes of our world, and our history, with slavery, cannibalism, but an absolutely masterful remaking of a fairy tale. There were no wrong notes. (Catherine Marie, from Librarything)

Christina

I'll admit that 4 stars is a bit arbitrary because I really couldn't think of the right rating. I really enjoyed reading this book (at least the first 90%... the last section of the book, I thought, dragged on). This book deals with many harsh themes - sexism, classism, religion, rape - and it deals with many of them very subtly. Allen's use of language was appropriately simple, and I really enjoyed the lack of oaf names until later on. Allen's revealing and unraveling of layers of the plot and relationships was masterful. My problem with the book isn't a critique on the book itself. I read the book alone, and I really feel like it's the kind of book that should be read in a group. It needs to be discussed, and I would really like to do that. (Christina, from Goodreads)

Yo Delphia!

Another excellent first book! In a world where slavery is common there are two major races. The large oafs and the mans, the latter being human pets. A tale of war, race, and religion, this novel parables "hot button" topics with an almost innocent grace. Is this our future or our past? And is there anything we can do to change it? (Delphia, from Goodreads)

Yo Chelsey!

I just found this, from Chelsey on "Goodreads."

Speculative fiction is something that I absolutely love to delve into. This book uses the idea of giants being human masters and humans being simpletons that have overrun their world. It's a wonderfully crafted piece and easy to follow as well as being a book that will keep a reader up past their appointed bed time. _______________

Stay up, then, Chelsey my friend!

Booklist

"Imaginative, versatile, and daring Allen (Jesus Boy, 2010) raids the realms of myth and fairy tales in this topsy-turvy speculative fable. …With canny improvisations on 'Jack and the Beanstalk,' the 'Epic of Gilgamesh,' and Alice in Wonderland, Allen sharpens our perceptions of class divides, racism, enslavement, and abrupt and devastating climate change to create a delectably adventurous, wily, funny, and wise cautionary parable." -- Booklist

The Book Is Out!

Mercy, mercy me! The book is out! I'll be at Books and Books in Miami to do a reading and book signing. The information is as follows: Wednesday 8 May 2013 Books and Books 927 Lincoln Road Miami, Fl