Wildcat

Karen Breyer, the heroine of Partners

My first novel was written 30 years ago, first screenplay 40 years ago, first 16mm film almost 50 years ago. I wrote an original stage play in grade school, performed by the entire 5th grade class. Nonfiction books and paid professional writing attracted more readers, but my lifelong purpose was fiction. It took a long time to get good at it. I speak of it today to emphasize the depth of commitment that creative writing requires. It cannot depend on the good opinion and good offices of others, if your aim is signature work. There are many who believe what I write is disgusting and annoying. What they cannot say is that it echoes another novelist or plows a popular patch of turf. I paid a heavy price to write about life on life's terms. My heroes and heroines are clever and white, disinterested in the general welfare, minority rights, or democracy. They care about themselves.

That's the proper concern of self-respecting individuals in a free society. I recognize that life in America today is unfree and destined to be progressively less autonomous, if you follow the rules. My fictional people don't obey the law. They do whatever is necessary to evade it, which is fairly easy. Government is an illusion, unless you voluntarily obey like sheep. Liberty consists of thinking of and for yourself, without consulting the neighbors.

The first of our Founding Fathers, James Otis, argued that an act of legislation against natural equity was void. He was attacked and beaten senseless by tax collectors, igniting rebellion to colonial governors who enjoyed popular support. Rebels like Otis were called traitors.

Among all the stories told today, none are more dramatic or compelling than white wildcats in selfish pursuit of liberty, the unconquerable thirst for individualism, a natural right. The character of Karen Breyer, a fake name that she adopted to escape an oppressive family who dissed her ambition to be a writer, epitomizes the theme of rebellion.

https://youtu.be/HRGX2FiHOS0