Source of Lit - Unsaid - Bear Kirkpatrick

Bear Kirkpatrick - The Sun's Other Measure

If I'm not mistaken, this is part of a larger work, correct?  I know I've read other work by  Bear in previous issues of Unsaid and I seem to recall Increase Darrow.

"Increase Darrow open his eyes and tell me how our forbears cross the oceans by storm.  How they come upon these shores at night and how gale winds dash their frail barks upon the black rocks.  He tell me our forbears snarl in blankets and nighties and ropes, they fight over chests of silver and books."

Kirkpatrick has a pretty unique style, especially with his subject/verb combinations.  Thing is, once you get over the initial confusion or frustration or surprise, the reading smooths out pretty quickly and you're caught in this tale.  And the fact that Increase Darrow is only capable of telling the story to the narrator by blinking his eyes - that just makes it all the more fascinating and adds an urgency to the reading.  It was as if I didn't read it fast enough, Increase Darrow's eyes would tire and I wouldn't get to the end.

Seeing that Kirkpatrick can be found in issues 1, 2, and 4 of Unsaid, it seems safe to say you're a pretty big fan.  What is it that Bear does that draws you in?

David:

Let me say that Kirkpatrick's THE HARVESTER excites me more than perhaps any other work in progress that has made its way to my table. He has been composing this novel for over a decade, and anything from it is always welcomed by Unsaid.

Kirkpatrick's pages are as good an example as any to demonstrate what I seek for Unsaid. They may be the best example. Kirkpatrick never strays from the page. He has an extreme amount of authority. He knows his subject matter inside-out. He is enthusiastically and inexhaustibly curious, and this is the skeleton key to the rooms of his artistry. He cares equally for the story and the language that conveys the story. And you are right, after the initial surprise of his syntax and diction, it is impossible not to become immersed in this world of an orchard that he has created. 

It's the language itself that creates this world, and the language that Kirkpatrick has created is a kind of rural American dialect that cannot be traced to any specific region of the country. The story takes place in Maine, but it is my belief--with a few lingual exceptions indigenous to New England--that echoes of the voices we encounter in Kirkpatrick's world can be found in any rural community in America. It sounds Southern and not Southern. It rings at times of factory talk from the Rust Belt, as well as fisheries and logging camps from the Pacific Northwest. It's the unheard voice of an America within America. 

If there is a book that truly deserves the attention of the reading public, it is THE HARVESTER. Kirkpatrick told me a year or so ago that he was nearing its completion. A few months ago I received a message from him saying the book is nowhere near finished. Either way, his work needs to be heard, and that's why his pages appear so frequently in Unsaid.

Comments

[Brian Kubarycz]

This guy is the raw corn, wet and waxy maize just shucked. Now is the beginning of Bear's season, of his year.