Urth Net
Bluesberry Jam -- Libertarian fable?
Aldo, a young folk musician, wanders in a permanent traffic jam. Aldo meets an older singer who inspires him, and he creates a new song of revolution.
* The story Ain't You 'Most Done?
<http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.AintYouMostDone>
is a companion piece, showing the same events from the perspective
of Tim Benson.
* The people in this alternate America are horrifyingly passive --
they sit and wait for the government to feed them. They have been
trapped here for years in the ultimate welfare state. Wolfe takes
a libertarian stand against this.
* They are in sharp contrast to Benson, a man from contemporary
America. He's a self-made man, an entrepreneur, an embodiment of
the American Dream (and a dreamer literally). In his busy life he
chafes at seconds of traffic delay. He is present because of a
dying boon granted by Morpheus, to dream as long as may be. His
dream to be a folk singer will be granted, and the ultimate goal
of an artist is for his music to be heard by those who need it,
and change their lives.
* The songs Tim Benson plays, unknown to him, will inspire revolution.
o My Gentle Harp
<http://www.kalliope.org/digt.pl?longdid=moore2000082974>
Thomas Moore wrote these words to Londonderry Air, which is
also famously used for the song "Danny Boy." It was inspired
by the arrest, imprisonment, and death of two of his
friends, who participated in the rebellion of the United
Irishmen.
o "Shenendo'" says "Away, I'm bound away..." which strikes
home to this passive people who have lost the freedom of
movement we take for granted. They are virtually imprisoned
by what should be a means of transportation.
o The Minstrel Boy
<http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiMINSTBOY;ttMINSTBOY.html>
is also by Thomas Moore and also inspired by the Irish war
for independence.
o Finally, he sings Aldo's song, "In all this jam there's none
like Ma'am..." not plaintively as Aldo sang it, but full of
pity and rage.
* Aldo heard these songs and had his instrument tuned by Benson. He
has received some of Benson's American fighting spirit.
* This is similar to the inspiration from the past that Ben Free
brings to his lodgers, and the vision of the frontiersman that
appears to the man in Viewpoint
<http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.Viewpoint> as
he commits his first act of violence against his confiscatory
government.