Joseph's profile

Writing is always an experiment, a testing of possibilities. A word, sentence, paragraph finds itself to the page/computer screen and asks, What do I mean, Where am I going? The questions they ask can’t be answered—words are that polysemantic, multivalent. The next word/sentence comes along, looking for a solution, but only asks those questions again. You are left with a story, or an essay, a poem—somehow complete, if you’re lucky—but it still asks, What do I mean?
 
All of this at least for me. I understand that for others the answer comes with the writing, that these others choose carefully the word that comes next, as an answer. How thrilling that must be! That sense of surety.
 
I write stories—usually very short, sometimes as small as a dozen words—and I put them on paper/the computer screen, or on the wall. My project MicroFiction RowHouse consisted of ~45 stories installed on the walls, ceilings, bath towels, and cabinets of my home. Together they made a story about a family who might once have lived in my home. The stories asked, Who are they? What did they do and feel? Where did they go? No answers, just questions.
 
I stuff my stories into even tighter containers. With Newer Comics, a word or two, maybe 5, rest uncomfortably against an image or two. Often the image of an artist—a painting or collage or…—taken from the internet/art history. This uncomfortable juxtaposition makes some kind of story, might wonder about an artist’s aesthetic, history, desire. My words rest against the artist, the artist against the words, a question.
 
I’m being obtuse. Sorry, I can’t often find another way. But: I write flash fiction, microfiction, fiction to wonder about the world and its inhabitants. Who are we and what are our possibilities? What is the shining field of light in which we walk? I know, the world is darkness too, but I’m predisposed to the light, even if that light is bathed in darkness. What are our possibilities?
 
Thank you for your time.

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