A dark psychedelic flashback:
'Why Are We in Texas?'
http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/books-gary-chason-glenn-jones-novel-is.html
By Gary Chason
November 15, 2010
[Why Are We in Texas? A novella by Glenn Jones (Lulu.com, 2010);
Softcover; 93 pp.; $14. Also available as an electronic download for $3.99.]
Glenn Jones' epic yarn, Why Are We in Texas?, is not so much a
nostalgic stroll down memory lane as it is an LSD flashback. Drawing
on over 60 years of Austin counterculture, it starts on that fateful
day in 1966, when Charles Whitman rained hot lead down upon the
campus, and ends a (disturbingly) few years in the future at that
same, uber-symbolic building: the University of Texas Tower.
In a flash-forward prologue, Texas actually secedes from the United
States, setting off a war that pits well-armed Tea Party types,
bikers, the National Guard, Aggies, cowboys, gay revelers, liberals,
soldiers from Fort Hood, and assorted others in a wild free-for-all
of blood and guts. The "big-haired Governor," the secessionist
leader, avoids harm by cross-dressing and escaping on a motorcycle.
Jones' vision of the future is beyond dystopian; it reads like a bad
acid trip. (You probably had at least one of those. I know I did.)
Between the beginning and end, the story revolves around Lon, a
familiar enough denizen of the Austin underground, who, at the
outset, is an underachieving UT student who spends more time
discussing esoterica -- and paranoid fantasies -- in the Chuck Wagon
at the Texas Union than he does on his classwork. The naturalism of
the social scene, and indeed most of the novel, is in jarring
contrast to the opening and closing sequences, which sometimes don't
seem to be part of the same story.
I was reminded of Billy Lee Brammer's The Gay Place and Hunter
Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in equal measures. It is
clear that Jones, a former contributor to The Rag, The Rag Blog's
print media predecessor, didn't get any of his story ideas from books
at the library; he obviously lived it from the inside, ate it up and
swallowed it whole.
We are immersed in hippie culture, with all the drugs, booze, free
sex, and radical politics that we could ever want. It feels authentic
because it is authentic, as anyone who lived in Austin during those
decades can attest. The iconic locations are all there: The
Plantation, Les Amis, Vulcan Gas Company, Armadillo World
Headquarters. And Lon's residence is a spot-on depiction of the
Ghetto, that legendary bastion of counterculture at its most awesome.
The main characters are recognizable, resembling people we all knew,
or maybe still know. If you look closely enough, you may see yourself
in there somewhere. We encounter rock stars Janis Joplin and Roky
Erickson, filmmaker Eagle Pennell, writers Bud Shrake and Billy Lee
Brammer, in a mix that somehow summarizes the whole shebang, that
attempts (with considerable success) to put the entire Austin
experience down on paper. If you can remember the Sixties and
Seventies, it has been suggested that you didn't really live them.
This book will help you fill in the gaps in your memory.
It is so Austin-centric, however, that I wonder if readers who live
elsewhere will get it. There's a lot to be said, I suppose, for being
time/place specific. It's a staple of good storytelling. And for
those potential readers who have never lived in Austin, I offer my
sincere condolences. This book will serve as a primer.
Our hero and his many friends grow up, get married and divorced,
screw around on each other, drink too much, smoke too much, party too
much, get real jobs, and do all the things that make life happy and
miserable simultaneously. Time passes; shit happens. Lon wants to
write but never seems to get it together, and he is sometimes hard to
like, especially when he's slamming his wife through the sheetrock in
a drunken rage.
In the epilogue, which matches the prologue in tone and paranoia,
Lon's dark side seems to win out. Regarding a stolen nuclear bomb
brought up the Colorado River by boat from the Gulf of Mexico and
buried on a farm, suspension of disbelief is a big stretch, but let's
give Jones the benefit of the doubt. After all, this is a paranoid
fantasy, like many spun out over endless cups of coffee at the Chuck Wagon.
Which makes me wonder: Is that really what it's been about?
In all, Why Are We In Texas? is a fast, fun read, especially for
those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of the culture Jones
so accurately depicts. I'm just hoping for a happier ending in real life.
--
[Gary Chason is an Austin-based independent filmmaker, actor,
screenwriter, playwright, and stage director. His article, "Sexual
Freedom League: The Naked Truth" was the cover story in the second
issue of The Rag, August 17, 1966.]
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