Bill Adam’s Book, “Miles” (With Shan’t” (Shall not) by Tom Sheehan

After much madness here, poor vision, medical visits, bulb switching and light removal/replacements, securing the slanted rays of sun over my shoulder allowing those uses to spill across “Miles‘” pages, and a mind that neither attends reading for long stretches as it used to nor retains what it once was capable of, I have finally finished the reading of a fascinating book. “Mile’s” captivated me, the characters, the language, the new arc of a different story, another story and drama between people, but an arc having the same beginning and the same ending as many other arcs of my reading … life, lives, loves on the very planet, and resounding in daily sight.

This came after a series of chemotherapy that at the finish tossed me into bed for 14 hours of sleep and two vivid dreams of lights flashing in my head like lightning without the thunder, star-burst, showering lights, ambulance and firefighter lights and you name the colors of silent screams.

It was a new adventure of after-reading for me, new territory, but the same reaching for love, acceptance, fulfillment; the arc taking me to a route I’ve never traveled before. It completed its fascinating adventure in one night.

The last chapter is an announcement and a demand that “shan’t” came back, sharing the author’s revelations, though abrupt in place, needing to be refilled, restarted, re-appear at the start of a new arc of travel which is old stuff all over again, the same good old stuff that never lets us be like I wait on it.

I am not a really smart dog in the pile of piles, I cannot reach some levels in my thinking or have command over what fills me, so, I feel short in all undertakings, including this one; but the story stays with me. Or it’s a single entry of a character saying “shant” where or when he means “shall not.” And without failing to do so.

FYI: Is Shan’t still a word? One dictionary says it is still used in colloquial British English. In North America, Australia and New Zealand it is rarely used, and may not be understood. In North America, it may also be considered formal or pompous, or used to parody British English speakers.

I went back and counted the author’s use of the word ten times, 10 times as though he wanted to work to the death a cute but unpunctuated word (at best), so his ass could be kissed as being his own man. My irritation mounted, full range, tough it meant little to me, really, it shan’t be used.

I brought it up to a friend, a good reader, a writer with some credit on his own, who replied, “Who the hell cares? He can’t get a ticket for saying shan’t even if punctuated.

So, I used it, punctuated in a small magazine article. The editor said “I got more mail for this than ever came my way, some of it in curses, some saying they’ll never read the magazine again as long as they lived; shortly, it shut down, gonezo! I never saw it again

Think I should tell the author about it? Let him stew a while about it on his own time. Would that serve him, right? Or would he tell me to mind my little petty problems; It was all my own speed!

Tom Sheehan

Image – Pixabay.com – shelf of old books