Blogs

 

 It Still Could Be

  

Chris Hables Gray

 

2012

 

*** 

 

The Narrative Arc

 

Prologue: Goodbye Simone

 

Chapter 1 -- Santa Cruz, Alta California

 

Chapter 2 -- Sing Goddess...

 

Chapter 3 -- The City on the Hill

 

Chapter 4 -- May Day

 

Chapter 5 -- Cosmos and Chaos

 

Chapter 6 -- The Way of the Sainted Cross

 

Chapter 7 -- Disguised as Lust  

 

Chapter 8 -- The Philosopher on Trial

 

Chapter 9 -- Space Command

 

Chapter 10 -- Slave Names

 

Chapter 11 -- Somebody Dies

 

Chapter 12 -- To Be of Use

 

Chapter 13 -- The Face of the Hero

 

 

The Outsider

 

                                                               by Alexander Shevek

 

1. The View from Outside

 

2. Why I Am a Revolutionary

 

3. Why I am an Anarchist and a Feminist

 

4. Who Should Rule the University of California?

 

5. Imperial America

 

6. Strong Democracy and Cyborg Citizenship

 

7. Taking Evolution Seriously

 

8. 911 Ten Years After

 

9. FEAR: Who Would Jesus Bomb?

 

10. Predicting the Future

 

11.  Uncyborgable

 

12.  A dying man asks, ‘What do you know about death?’

 

 ***

 

Dramitis Persona

 

Kelly O'Flarherty--  Computer tech. Former poet.  50. Lanky. Black Irish (blue eyes, dark hair, swarthy). Wrote It Could Be Magic in 1980s under the nom de plume "Crystal". Was a political activist in the Non-Violent Direct Action affinity group milieu of the West Coast but for the last ten years has been working, playing (frisbee, surfing) and raising his son. He is a member of the liberal environmentalist group Coast Watch.

 

Maria Cecilia de Fronteras-- Asst. Prof. of Cultural Studies, UCSC.  Californiana. 5' 5"", thick black hair, long legs, a bit of a belly. 46. Indian: Ohlone, Costanoan, Mixta (Aztec). Also Catalan, Basque, Extremaduran. Grew up in Calexico. 

 

Simone Nugget--  A radical lawyer. Kelly's lover in the '80s. Tall. Chestnut hair. Green eyes. Slender. Beautiful. Dead.

 

Abe O'Flarherty-- Kelly's 19-year-old son. Pierced punkie. A lacrosse player/filmmaker. Very mellow. An “old soul” his friends say. Accomplished bodysurfer. Santa Cruz High Senior.

 

Kirsten Moonglow-- Kelly's estranged "turkey-baster" daughter. 23. Organizer at UCSC. Acts like she invented activism...and lesbianism.

 

Calliope-- Organic gardener. Lover of Kelly. A "sex" nerd. Jewish. Dark hair, white skin, round. Eco-activist.

 

Nancy Bishop-- Abe's mother, an animal rights activist now in Columbia at a peace village. Small, slender, wiry, powerful, depressed. 

 

Alexander Shevek--  In his 70s. History of Consciousness Professor, UCSC.  World authority on the history and philosophy of music. "Black Russian", father a South African ANC comrade of Jewish and Cape Colored ancestry, mother Russian KGB.  Gay. Author of the Outsider columns.

 

Elena Minh-- Flemenco Dancer, 22.

 

Alphonso-- Columbian guide.

 

Little Tiger II-- A cat.