The story of a man, pretty much of a fuck off, with some vague aspirations toward writing. But the gods were kind of curious as to what he might come up with. Since he couldn't seem to concentrate something had to be arranged.
With regard to his fucking off, the bad news was he had a stroke. With regard to his writing, the stroke was the good news. Now there was almost nothing else he could do except write. Plus (and this was the good part) he acquired a couple of achingly beautiful, infinitely patient nurses to help him. And they got it done! He wrote a great book, and about a week after publication he died.
Schnabel (means "beak" in German; "Halt dein Schnabel" means "Shut up") also got it done. Maybe the best movie ever about being a writer. As for the best movie about being a schmuck, that would be "Prehistoric Women" (1950.)
-- Mitch Sisskind
Mitch Sisskind's collection of stories,Visitations, came out in 1985. He edited The Stud Duck and has worked on such literary magazines as Columbia Review and Living Hand. He is also the author of numerous poems, including the one-line poem ("Dance on, you pigs! I will never get used to it") that appeared under fourteen different titles in Janet Benderman. He lives in Los Angeles.
-- DL
