Extradition

“Having dressed the sunlight in bloodied robes I embrace the night as the time to discover the source of the sun.”
- from an unpublished poem by Chris Mansel

It is in the psyche of anyone who creates to want someone to give you their opinion, to look at it or to read it whether they hate it or not. To do so can lead to obstructions that the creator of this media had yet to imagine otherwise he or she wouldn’t have shown it to anyone in the first place. I am one of those creators and I am speaking to others.
Whether consciously or unconsciously we will, as artists tend to rely on the fact that other artists are the same as we are, think the way we do and are the same kind of people and have the same customs or experiences we have. These events of thinking are so regional it seems that half the country could drop into the sea and the other half would have no idea.
I began a few years ago trying to get a larger audience for my work and I committed one of those crimes for which a lack of comprehension or slow deduced, while trusting in the better angels if they so exist I asked the question that is either answered or explained back. From there I begin to give my opinion on the work of others and being open minded and tired of the clichés I have read for years and also tired of seeing what others have gone through I decided to tell the truth on advice given to me by someone I hold dearly as a friend. This was good sound advice and much like the previous situation I found myself betraying someone, or the act perceived in this way, without any action on my part outside of honesty and good intentions. But now looking back I think my opinion and not that of the author was best.
Growing up in the south I have a definite perception of right and wrong and a customary manner in politeness and a sense of doing all I can for others and expecting that of others but alas this in the world of literary matters is sadly, naïve. I have done and will continue to do everything I can for someone whose work I admire and someone who deserves the act or effort who may or may not consider his or herself in this manner. It is not who you know and whose hand you can grease, it is not you blurb me and I’ll blurb you, it cannot be an outsider is prey and we do not feel like chasing the kill just opening another wound to make it easier for others to finish off the kill, no, it is following a certain civility of lack of a more offensive term.

- Chris Mansel