The Tyke You'v All Ben Waitn 4

A Simmering Kettle of Rage

Simmering or Simpering? “Ted Bundy” was Good, Too

Like Shooting Fish in Barrel

This go-round was Logan vs. Logan. But Kerri made me laugh coffee out of my nose because it does look like a tiny Gina Gershon.¹

Logan the Lobotomizer: “It should’ve been you.”

Kerri Rickard: ““It’s amazing what paint and a surgeon can do.”²

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Jack was my son too….”

Rebecka DavisJohnson: “Allegedly.”³

Colton Adrian: “Fully Trained.”

Frank Restaneo III: “To Daddy, I forgive you for leaving.”

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Not a child.”

MRKooper: “He was coerced.”

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Angry like his father.”⁴

Mia Maeve: “You should close this book.”

Heidi Foy: “We fixed him.”

Dan: “Please Find Him.”⁵

Bryan Wiler: “Dead by now.”

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Check the boys hands.”

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Ted Bundy”

Tim Gruver: “Ain’t mine.”⁶

ME: “What the actual fuck, Todd.”⁷

All So Good, but the Winner Is…

Logan the Lobotomizer: “Angry like his father.”

This strikes me as the summation line a writer puts after a passage of physical description — going on-the-body to unpack the boy’s posture, his stiff arms, the way his back doesn’t touch the back of the chair. All of these the writer hopes will communicate “ticking bomb,” but just in case the slowest reader misses the boat… the writer tacks on “Angry like his father.” Then — boom — the child does read as angry.

Good job Logan. You can risk your address and inscription details in the Comments below. I’ll delete them the moment I see them. Or, send them via The Cult. May this be a joyous start to your new year.

Mark All he Sqaures with a Bicycl

It’s easier to observe A.I. as it affects an art other than writing fiction. Check out this video for a little about how “story” determines art. For a deeper dive, read Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word. Wolfe explains how art went from realistic, figurative paintings that told a story, to stories that explain abstractions — from the literal to the intuitive to the literal to the intuitive — once photography came into its own.

Perhaps A.I. makes the prompter like a film director or fashion photographer who just has to bark, “Give me rage! Make it bigger, bigger rage!” While the A.I., like an actor or model tries to unpack what “rage” looks like. Whatever the case, asking A.I. to unpack the secret trauma you’ve buried in your fiction… does that still benefit you, the writer? Whatever, I enjoyed the video.

1. At the 1:20 mark.

2. Wah!!? A full-fledged ‘Showgirls’ reference? Where did that come from?

3. Why do I like this so much?

4. To be honest, the kid’s expression looks like that of a dry drunk. Big anger and resentments.

5. You write that on the back and hide the photo in a book, and you could change the course of some stranger’s life!

6. This two-word novel makes Hemingway look like a blabbermouth chatty Kathy.

7. This sentence goes off like a tiny bomb.