Tim Barrus

The real struggle at the New York Times is not financial. The real struggle is to remain relevant. Yet the publication continues down its world-weary path like a wounded animal. It is not concerned with content. It's selling names. NYT comment moderation is a gimmick. It was created by marketing. Of course, book publishing does the same exact thing. You are being pitched with the columnists names to sell the paper. You are being pitched books in the same way. It's about the writer's name. Not the content. I have gotten RAVE reviews from them. It's a totally meaningless experience. I have done writer tours. Always in bookstores. I am becoming close to a guy group (we do not want women because they are so timid) where we are discussing demonstration tactics. Like dumping corpses on federal steps. Put death in their face.

I have spies. We have all signed Non-disclosure Agreements that would be a barricade to forcing us to disclose who we are and what we stand for.

We stand for free speech. We oppose censorship. We are very angry about the Chinese refusing to produce AIDS meds. What does that mean. It means we are going to die. The American public loathes us. As if. I fucking care. We are going to fight back.

We will not die quickly. We still have some time to look at what real resistance is. The New York Times refuses to cover the issues of China and HIV meds. A hundred dollars a pill will kill us, too. The deviant will execute us at every available opportunity. We firmly believe that. He's coming for you whether you can see it or not. Americans love blindness. We will not bend the knee. Look around you. Buying groceries is one of the most powerful experiences you will ever have. Be prepared to be shocked. 

I am a communist. The business community has always been disingenuous, crooked as a barrel of fishhooks. AI is helping business make more money. I just came home from the grocery store. Two bags. Milk. Bread. Soap. Eggs. No meat. $350.00. I was so glad to get my kids out of this country. Where is AI for me. Just as sick people and poor people and people who cannot afford suits, or shoes, have the rug pulled out from beneath them. The deviant's wife does not buy groceries. We are the ones who are being punished. The deviant is punishing us. So is AI. The deviant stole the last election. Where is AI on stolen elections. We are the poor and every last one of us is reeling. We do not vote because what is the point. AI will come for us anyway just like authority always does. The hatred we feel for authority is almost unimaginable.

The deviant doesn't have to shoot us standing at the bottom of the ditch. He is starving us. It's easier. This publication has no clue as to what it means to be impoverished. This colors everything it publishes. AI is a gig NYT will not discuss at any level although they employ it. Poverty is not an issue to AI. AI doesn't know what poverty is. It doesn't regurgitate paradigms to help the poor. A rich guy's toy. And so are we. So what does this publication do. It focuses hard on AI and etiquette. This is the problem. Not the solution. AI has no answers for the world-shaking problems of etiquette. Imperial fealty means the deviant is the new AI.

I am a communist. "Timely artistic response." What does that exactly mean. Theatre bounces off Pop Culture, and Pop Culture bounces off (I am not going to say theatre) iconic moments. Writing hits the same stuff: Catharsis, solidarity, pushback, hope, outrage. How about insurrection. I am currently reading all the Greek plays: "Oedipus Rex." It is not an incest play. Incest is Big Accouterment. It is provocative.

I channeled Oedipus and published My Brother, My lover. Clutch your pearls and weep. How could I. Get over it. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Molière) satirized the king to his face. That almost never happens. It is my job to lie. All theatre is a lie. People ask: Why did you lie. Some books write themselves. Politics makes good theatre. Politics, too, is accouterment. Getting a play produced is almost impossible. In New York, theatre folks are all around you. They know how to push a play toward process.

Before I was a writer, I was an actor. "Le Médecin malgré lui" (1666). I did it in high heels. I have written plays where the entire audience walked out. Those have a sweet spot, too. "Company" takes aim at relationships and the monotone of American life. Free fall is a good thing. I recommend it. In both theatre and book publishing, the corporation owns the rights. They always, always, try and get you to tone it down. It is what they do. Product placement is a pornography. Theatre and books are both performances. Blanche Dubois and desire will never be a footnote.