There
are few times when a writer engages an audience with total, emotional
involvement that surpasses any previous experience any of us has ever
had. That came Wednesday night when an autobiography focused on an
infantry patrol deep in the jungles of Vietnam during the height of
the bloody, entangled conflict. Split-second life and death
decisions, so flippantly tossed around in the world of fiction, are a
reality here. The decision to kill or be killed is incredibly
difficult to transcribe, to put on paper, then to read aloud to a
group of fellow writers who have no experience with the reality
required to comment or critique that writing, not in the least the
decision itself. It really isn't a decision, it is a crucible of life
and warfare. It is training, it is a gut-wrenching need to live. This
isn't fiction. This is real life, and impossible to create with such
personal turmoil and wrenching soul searching without having lived
through it. The crucible of that autobiography is so intense, so
personal, that to convey it in writing is be cathartic for the
writer, and therapeutic for us all at the same time. We were
privileged Wednesday night to Bart Stamper's reading of “Point
Blank.” This is not fiction; it is a revelation of the human
spirit, and to have been part of that reading was an emotional
experience we all felt and understood. Bart's writing lifted us all
to a different time and place. We were with him on that patrol.
Thank
you Bart Stamper.
George
George
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