mathiasbfreese.com

I am working on a new work — novella, perhaps, as a follow up to The i Tetralogy. I got the idea from reading blogs on myspace from Holocaust deniers and Holocaust revisionists, much the same thing. What is it to be nineteen and spend a significant amount of time writing about Jews and the Holocaust as if this was the most vital aspect of one’s life; what is it to be nineteen and to put up a raft of “papers” on why the Holocaust never did occur, or if it did, it is greatly exaggerated. So here I am again, imagining, empathizing, sympathizing — without judging, such a mind so that I can become Jupiter Thitch. What a fascination with the Jews, and why not! I am ten pages into this first person account and I feel the same feelings I had when I was describing Gunther’s inner mental states in the tetralogy, that Nazi beast. I know one of my better strengths as a writer is not so much how I throw out word hash, or phrase sling, but my capacity to enter a nether world and to stay there, east of Eden. Someone recently asked me why I go there, why I go to places where angels fear to tread. I answered, “It is my job as a writer; it is my craft. You run a lodge and know all about doing so. I live imaginatively among the refuse, the pariah, for I wish to know.”  I am toying with the idea to put up Jupiter Thitch on myspace, with all the details of his life, et al, and with his blogs and to see and  learn what it does to readers. I feel I am very close to Thitch’s madness and schizoid existence as I go on to understand what makes him live, and what flavors are in his bile. Comments, reader?

     Writing as a Means of Self-Expression: Being Creative

     Conducted at Santa Rita Lodge in beautiful Madera Canyon, this intensive workshop focuses on developing creativity through self-clarification and awareness. Not geared to grammar or syntax, the workshop is an effort to work on the creative act with novelist and psychotherapist, Mathias B. Freese. It is his belief that he cannot teach you anything other than to elicit in you the idea that you can learn from your self. Demonstrating strategies to unlock the inner writer, short-story construction, poetry, journal-keeping, as well as the self-disclosing essay will be explored. Using a workshop format, participants will share works in progress with the group for opinions, suggestions, and encouragement. Sources for publication will be supplied.