The Soho Press Book Of 80s Short Fiction
This content was published September 16, 2022. … The Soho Press Book of 80s Short Fiction turned up in the Dekalb Library system, and has provided some cheap thrills. One negative review catalogs a few of the charms. “Beware. Raw, graphic sexual content. I had intended this as a reading group choice. It was a pre-order so I had no forewarning or list of titles (“Sodomy” would have given me pause). Cover listed Raymond Carver, Mary Gaitskill, Amy Hempel, Jamaica Kincaid.”
Weird Fucks Lynne Tillman is the first story. A young lady has an eventful summer. She takes up with a married man, whose wife dries her hair in the oven. Is this what happened to Sylvia Plath?
So Much Water So Close To Home Raymond Carver was a delight. I had listened to several of Mr. Carver’s stories read on youtube, but never read the text. SMWCTH is a tasteful story. Just-plain-folks go camping, and see too much.
Sodomy Gary Indiana jerks us off back into a New York state of mind. A man is talking about two of his late seventies boyfriends. One is a terrific fuck, but not much else. The other is a confused, off-and-on emotional connection. Mr. Indiana talks about 1978 as being “before the war.”
The Angel Patrick McGrath is the story of Harry Talboys, an eccentric old man who estivated in lower Manhattan. The old man lived his days in a gin fueled haze, while telling tales of his former glory. Eventually, the young man who wrote the story couldn’t take anymore of the old geezer.
River Of Names Dorothy Allison is tough to read. It’s about a lifestyle that I am blessedly unfamiliar with. A hyper productive South Carolina family gets through life, sometimes. RON opens up with one of the sisters taking a pail of soiled rags out to the fire. This scene involves the sense of smell.
Secretary Mary Gaitskill “A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.” This is where the tales get funky. There is a connection to a movie and the description of the movie sounds different from the story … there’s no mental hospital discharge in the story. The young lady seems to be just a helpless young lady, who lives with her helpful parents. She gets a job in a law firm. The lawyer turns out to be a terrible person, who likes to beat her. She has a curious relationship with the whole thing … it’s a disturbing tale.
Wrong Dennis Cooper If Secretary wasn’t fucked up enough, the next story is by Dennis Cooper. Some guy lives in lower Manhattan during the seventies, and goes around killing people. Until he gets killed himself, and then goes on a deceased person monolog.
Debbie’s Barium Swallow Laurie Weeks makes william burroughs look like dick, jane, and sally. “There’s a guy named Benny lymphoma tracking … God or whatever Satan daddy lifts my skirt like he does at the slightest whim … what words can Debbie use for this secret procedure … she crawls and shakes with fever in the toxic dirt crawling one knee before the other … bitching from 34th Street to 35th a node shaped lip traveling from … your job in the … Hospital’s authoritative smoothing fekade.” Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library “Trust Company of Georgia processing facility” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
The Solomon Goodwin House
The Soloman Goodwin house was built in 1831, and was the oldest building in Dekalb when it was dismantled in 2016. “In what was once Creek Indian land, the area’s first white settler was Harris Goodwin, a South Carolinian who homesteaded a tract on both sides of what is now Peachtree Road in the early 1830s. Harris Goodwin later brought his father, Soloman, to the area.”
“The Solomon Goodwin House, located at 3931 Peachtree Road, is about .5 miles east of the Atlanta city limits. The house, which dates back to 1831, was the oldest building still standing in DeKalb County, and was the oldest building “Inside the Perimeter.” The home was once part of a 600-acre farm. … Last fall, the home was dismantled and relocated to an undisclosed location nearby. Sources say the plan is to rebuild the home in the area but a permanent new site for the home has reportedly not yet been finalized.” This was in 2016.
“In the old days there was a long trough on the Peachtree Road side of the dwelling which was kept full of water from the nearby well so that all wayfarers could refresh their livestock. … Afterward, the travelers, in the leisurely fashion of the day, would sit for a while upon the wide porch and discuss politics, crops, and the weather with their host.”
“I’m very sad to see it go,” said Albert Martin, whose family has owned the house for more than seven generations. “But there was no remediation on taxes, no resources to preserve it. We couldn’t get any tax breaks and there was no way to rent it.” … Martin said the only way to save the house is to carefully dismantle it, particularly the log cabin section of the home, and store the logs so it can be reproduced and relocated to another location, hopefully in Brookhaven. However, where that will be is still unknown.” This was in 2010.
The house was dismantled in 2016, and moved to an unknown location. This is all my research has found out. As far as I can see, the house is sitting in a warehouse “somewhere.” It would take major bucks to relocate it, and I don’t see anybody willing to make it happen.
When the house was dismantled, the graves were moved down the road to Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. They are not being maintained in this location. Here is the monument to Emily Goodwin, the wife of Harris Goodwin.
Gustin E. Goodwin, born October 27, 1834, was the eldest of Emily Goodwin’s ten children. “Commissioned an officer in Company K, Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment on September 26, 1861. Promoted to Full 1st Lieutenant on July 26, 1862. Wounded at 2d Manassas, Virginia, August 28, 1862. Died of wounds September 7, 1862.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture September 1940. The Colson family, the children just back from school. Tobacco farmers near Suffield, Connecticut”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
The Gift Of Cultural Appropriation
This content was published August 5, 2015. … There is a tasteful video on the innertubes today, WTF is Cultural Appropriation. This is not about WTF Podcast. Hopefully Marc Maron will not wear his hair in dreadlocks. The video shows a black man, jumping around in front of the camera, sharing his ideas about cultural appropriation.
Perhaps we should summarize what @the1janitor.bsky.social has to say. He does not give a shit what people do with their hair. (Does he gift wrap the shit when he does give it?) T1J is not concerned over whether Iggy Azalea sings rap songs. Most culture today is a mix of influences, and T1J is cool with that. This chill does not extend to a pro football team in Hyattsville MD, whose nickname rhymes with munchkins. T1J, aka Kevin Peterson, does not think that is appropriate.
T1J wears dreadlocks. Many Amerikans see this hairstyle as connected to the Rastafarians in Jamaica. T1J is not a rasta, but is not accused of any appropriative wrongdoing by wearing his hair in dreadlocks. It seems the reason for this acceptance is his African American origin.
This is similar to the situation with BHO. The half white POTUS was raised by white people in Hawaii and Indonesia. And yet, because he has dark skin, BHO is unquestioningly accepted as a black man. The POTUS uses the style of black culture that he learned as an adult. When a white fool shoots up a black church, BHO goes to a funeral, sings “Amazing Grace,” and is praised.
Many of these cultural and racial debates are very shallow. Judgements are made on outside appearances, rather than the real person under the skin. The dream of people “not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” has turned into a nightmare of petty wrangling over white privilege and cultural appropriation.
So much for content. What caught my eye was the background. There is a Crimson Tide poster on the wall, behind the speaker, that seemed familiar. I have seen T1J before, in a video titled Why I Disagree With Morgan Freeman. T1J says we need to talk about racism, then talk some more, and then talk more after that. The word listen is not used as often.
The University of Alabama football team poster is an ironic touch. NCAA football teams are highly exploitative of young people. The young men who play work long hours for their education. Many of the football players are rushed through school, taking easy classes so they will be eligible to play. Many of these young men will suffer crippling injuries playing a contact sport. Meanwhile, these football programs are hugely profitable for the institution.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Toni Frissell took the top two pictures. “Photograph of several Tuskegee airmen attending a briefing in Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945. … Photograph shows several Tuskegee airmen attending a briefing. First row: 1. Hiram E. Mann, Cleveland, OH, Class 44-F; 2. Unidentified; 3. Newman C. Golden, Cincinnati, OH, 44-G; 4. Bertram W. Wilson, Jr., Brooklyn, NY, 44-E; 5. Samuel W. Watts, Jr., New York, NY, 44-E. Second row: 6. Armour G. McDemoe, Martinsville, VA, 43-A; 7. Howard C. Gamble, Charles Town, WV, 43-K; 8. Harr;y T. Steward, Jr. Corona, NY, 44-F; 9. Earle R. Lane, Wickliffe, OH, 44-D; 10. Wyrain T. Shell, Brooklyn, NY, 44-F?; 11. Harold M. Morris, Seattle, WA, 44-D; 12. John E. Edwards, Steubenville, OH, 44-C; 13. John H. Porter, Cleveland, OH, 44-C; 14. James H. Fischer?, Stoughton, MA44-G; 15. Wyrain T. Shell, Brooklyn, NY, 44-F?; Third row: 16. William E. “Porky” Rice?, Swarthmore, PA, 44-G; 17. Tony Weaver?; 18. Charles L. White?, St. Louis, MO, 44-C; 19. George Arnold Lynch, Valley Stream, NY, 44-F; 20. Samuel L. Washington, Cleveland, OH, 44-F; 21. Calvin J. Spann, Rutherford, NJ, 44-G; 22. Frank N. Wright, Elmsford, NY, 44-F. At Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945. (Source: Tuskegee Airmen 332nd Fighter Group pilots.)” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
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