Not King’s Cabbage, neitherNot King’s Cabbage, neither
“If you ever fight, then you must win it. That’s all that counts. All the rest is cabbage.” — Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and Into the Trees
Author: Tetman Callis
PlacesPlaces
Albuquerque, 1986 by Tetman Callis
And don’t you ever forget itAnd don’t you ever forget it
“All a man need ever do is obey.” — Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and Into the Trees
PlacesPlaces
South Broadway, 1990s, by Tetman Callis
You can bet on thatYou can bet on that
“No horse named Morbid ever won a race.” — Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and Into the Trees
ThingsThings
Albuquerque, 1992 by Tetman Callis
Why we’re all really republicansWhy we’re all really republicans
“Democracy is something America has never really practiced. Because the Founding Fathers hated two things: monarchy and democracy. They wanted a republic, a replica of the Roman or Venetian republics. They didn’t even like the etymology of the word ‘democracy.’” – Gore Vidal (quoted by Lila Azam Zanganeh in “The End of Gore Vidal”)
ThingsThings
Mantis on Cedar at Sunset, 1986 by Tetman Callis
Good God, GoreGood God, Gore
“Maybe there is no good God. But there is definitely a devil, and his predominant passion is the religion of those Protestant fundamentalists. I believe my country is beginning to resemble a theocracy. Using television, the evangelists raise appalling amounts of money which they then invest in the election of mentally disabled obscurantists.” – Gore Vidal (quoted by Lila Azam Zanganeh in “The End of Gore Vidal”)
PlacesPlaces
High Street Interior, sometime in the late 1990s, by Tetman Callis
Are there not many fascists in your country?Are there not many fascists in your country?
The three were at the table now and the others sat close by except Pablo, who sat by himself in front of a bowl of the wine. It was the same stew as the night before and Robert Jordan ate it hungrily.
“In your country there are mountains? With that name [Montana] surely there are mountains,” Primitivo asked politely to make conversation. He was embarrassed at the drunkenness of Pablo.
“Many mountains and very high.”
“And are there good pastures?”
“Excellent; high pasture in the summer in forests controlled by the government. Then in the fall the cattle are brought down to the lower ranges.”
“Is the land there owned by the peasants?”
“Most land is owned by those who farm it. Originally the land was owned by the state and by living on it and declaring the intention of improving it, a man could obtain title to a hundred and fifty hectares.”
“Tell me how this is done,” Agustín asked. “That is an agrarian reform which means something.”
Robert Jordan explained the process of homesteading. He had never thought of it before as an agrarian reform.
“That is magnificent,” Primitivo said. “Then you have a communism in your country?”
“No. That is done under the Republic.”
“For me,” Agustín said, “everything can be done under the Republic. I see no need for other form of government.”
“Do you have no big proprietors?” Andrés asked.
“Many.”
“Then there must be abuses.”
“Certainly. There are many abuses.”
“But you will do away with them?”
“We try to more and more. But there are many abuses still.”
“But there are not great estates that must be broken up?”
“Yes. But there are those who believe that taxes will break them up.”
“How?”
Robert Jordan, wiping out the stew bowl with bread, explained how the income tax and inheritance tax worked. “But the big estates remain. Also there are taxes on the land,” he said.
“But surely the big proprietors and the rich will make a revolution against such taxes. Such taxes appear to me to be revolutionary. They will revolt against the government when they see that they are threatened, exactly as the fascists have done here,” Primitivo said.
“It is possible.”
“Then you will have to fight in your country as we fight here.”
“Yes, we will have to fight.”
“But are there not many fascists in your country?”
“There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes.”
“But you cannot destroy them until they rebel?”
“No,” Robert Jordan said. “We cannot destroy them. But we can educate the people so that they will fear fascism and recognize it as it appears and combat it.”
— Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
PeoplePeople
Halloween, Albuquerque, 1995 by Tetman Callis
Helps in other endeavors, tooHelps in other endeavors, too
“In combat there must be discipline. For many things are not as they appear.” — Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
PeoplePeople
Halloween 1994 (from The Owen Project by Tetman Callis)
Otherwise, it couldn’t care lessOtherwise, it couldn’t care less
“No animal has more liberty than the cat; but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist.” — Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
(special free bonus track)(special free bonus track)
ThingsThings
Automobile Exhaust Stain on Sidewalk, 1986 by Tetman Callis
Front and centerFront and center
“Every damned thing is your own fault if you’re any good.” – Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
PlacesPlaces
Kleine Deutschland #6, 2003 by Tetman Callis
The exquisite odor of solitudeThe exquisite odor of solitude
“If you serve time for society, democracy, and the other things quite young, and declining any further enlistment make yourself responsible only to yourself, you exchange the pleasant, comfortable stench of comrades for something you can never feel in any other way than by yourself.” – Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
Road RaveRoad Rave
“Road Rave” was published three months ago by Fox Chase Review. You can read it there at http://www.foxchasereview.org/12AW/TetmanCallis.html, or you can glance slightly to your right on your screen and see that I have added it to the “Previously Published Stories” sidebar here. Discerning readers may note that it is not placed in alphabetical order among the other stories. That is likely to change, but not today.
The plight of bookish folkThe plight of bookish folk
“We have been there in the books and out of the books—and where we go, if we are any good, there you can go as we have been. A country, finally, erodes and the dust blows away, the people all die and none of them were of any importance permanently, except those who practised the arts, and these now wish to cease their work because it is too lonely, too hard to do, and is not fashionable. People do not want to do it any more because they will be out of fashion and the lice who crawl on literature will not praise them. Also it is very hard to do. So what?” – Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
ThingsThings
Beans, Albuquerque, 1995 by Tetman Callis
The difficult yearsThe difficult years
“At a certain age the men writers change into Old Mother Hubbard. The women writers become Joan of Arc without the fighting. They become leaders. It doesn’t matter who they lead. If they do not have followers they invent them. It is useless for those selected as followers to protest. They are accused of disloyalty. Oh, hell. There are too many things that happen to them. That is one thing. The others try to save their souls with what they write. That is an easy way out. Others are ruined by the first money, the first praise, the first attack, the first time they find they cannot write, or the first time they cannot do anything else, or they get frightened and join organizations that do their thinking for them. Or they do nor know what they want.” – Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
ThingsThings
Gun Store Window, Albuquerque, 1992 by Tetman Callis
Filling the troughFilling the trough
“It is only by hazard that a writer makes money although good books always make money eventually. Then our writers when they have made some money increase their standard of living and they are caught. They have to write to keep up their establishments, their wives, and so on, and they write slop. It is slop not on purpose but because it is hurried. Because they write when there is nothing to say or no water in the well. Because they are ambitious. Then, once they have betrayed themselves, they justify it and you get more slop. Or else they read the critics. If they believe the critics when they say they are great then they must believe them when they say they are rotten and they lose confidence.” – Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
PeoplePeople
Albuquerque Police Officer Arresting Two Men, 9 of 9, 1999 by Tetman Callis
Fearful scribes angling for academic postsFearful scribes angling for academic posts
“Writers should work alone. They should see each other only after their work is done, and not too often then. Otherwise they become like writers in New York. All angleworms in a bottle, trying to derive knowledge and nourishment from their own contact and from the bottle. Sometimes the bottle is shaped art, sometimes economics, sometimes economic-religion. But once they are in the bottle they stay there. They are lonesome outside of the bottle. They do not want to be lonesome. They are afraid to be alone in their beliefs.” – Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
PeoplePeople
Albuquerque Police Officer Arresting Two Men, 8 of 9, 1999 by Tetman Callis
Getting out of your own wayGetting out of your own way
“The way to paint is as long as there is you and colors and canvas, and to write as long as you can live and there is pencil and paper and ink or any machine to do it with, or anything you care to write about, and you feel a fool, and you are a fool, to do it any other way.” – Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa