Miserable Epiphany

Writer's Block

by Vitasta Raina

Reviewed by Aaron DeWeese

Vitasta Raina's "Writer's Block" was quite a pleasurable experience in prose. I wonder if by some hyper-miraculous working, Ms. Raina has been bestowed a portion of Henry Miller's acerbic virtue. I find the thought highly stimulating.

I juxtapose Raina's Chalet with every sprawling metropolis I know of. I thought back to the American civil unrest portrayed in Robert Anton Wilson's "Illuminatus Trilogy". I see the plans for Chalet manifesting within my own city, Asheville. In the warm season, we see a large migration of parasites, returning from the south, and on public access TV, we see the planners planning the removal of the parasitical herds from the streets. Infestation and extraction are a perpetuality, as is growth for the sake of growth.

Humanity's natural state is dystopic, thus, the dystopian, in my opinion, is a writer's most powerful and most natural tool. As with Raina's character Roma, the poet is often perceived as the cynic. I wouldn't call that a false perception, but I would say that I enjoy well done and justified cynicism.

David Brin has written a piece on why Orwell's "1984" didn't happen (I'll read it one day soon). Orwell said it did happen, in 1948 -- he was not a futurist, nor was his novel speculative. I too believe that Raina's "Writer's Block" is relative to yesterday, today and tomorrow. I really did not expect much from "Writer's Block" (being somewhat cynical), but I received much, and am proud to place Vitasta Raina's novella on my shelves alongside its ideological brothers and sisters. I've actually found myself quoting Raina to friends, which tells me, I truly did enjoy her work, and found much food there for thought.

I love Raina's term "Refined Indignet" -- those who "remain on the fringes of Chalet's sociology." What a fresh voice from the wilderness! I see Ms. Raina as I do the Old Testament's prophets -- those on the fringe, avoiding societal polarization, warning of the destruction to which our path leads us, not because they are doomsday preachers, but because they are witness to the very decay that is ruinous.

I was most thrilled to find within "Writer's Block" Philip K. Dick's works mentioned, along with Robert A. Heinlein (not to forget Thoreau)! I too find it an exquisite synchronicity that Bob Dylan is referenced, his 70th birthday having recently past.