[Prev|Next|Index] Thu, Feb 22, 1996 Julian Milenbach

Freedom

     By Julian Milenbach

     I write what I describe as very short surreal stories. Bizarre
     things tend to happen in my stories, occurrences that are
     probably outside of the norm of most of our usual realities. In
     one of them naked men, with their heads placed just above the
     ankle rather than on top of their necks, congregate around a pool
     and have a party. In another, new meaning is given to the phrase
     "DeliCATessen." In one that I’m sure Pat Buchannan and others
     would surely find indecent if not obscene, Jesus Christ is
     revealed as a time traveler from the future who violates the laws
     of his society in order to visit humans two millennia ago and try
     to save us from ourselves. In the story, Christ is exposed as an
     outlaw and a failure and ultimately is put to death for his
     crimes against human society. A few of my stories would probably
     be described as pornographic though I tend to be private about
     these and not share them with many people. I take great pleasure
     in these stories. I don’t write them to offend anyone though I’m
     sure that some people would find some of them offensive. I have a
     job that is very quantitative and analytical and working on my
     fiction helps me to feel creative.

     It has been incredible to watch the explosion of the internet and
     the web over the last couple of years. The pace of change is
     amazing and attempting to understand what it all means and how it
     will impact our lives is an ongoing process. One wonderful
     implication of course is the ability for almost anyone to become
     a self publisher. I intend to set up a page and publish my
     stories over the web. I’m waiting until I feel that my current
     collection, "Visions of Reality" is complete before I do so. I
     hope that people will read my stories and tell me what they like
     and dislike about them. I hope that my stories will make people
     think about their realities and their values. On the second page
     of the collection, I wrote, "There are many realities in the
     universe. The secret of life is to understand a few in addition
     to your own." I hope that someone will e-mail me and say, "Wow, I
     write stories like these too and I never knew that anyone else
     did." And I hope that I’ll be able to read that persons slightly
     bizarre, potentially indecent, and perhaps obscene-to-some
     stories on his or her home page. Today, it’s indecency that’s
     illegal on the net. Tomorrow, will it be the political,
     sociological, or religious ideas in my stories that are illegal?

     To me, the internet and the web are about communication. They’re
     a new way of making connections, finding information, making
     friends, being exposed to ideas that might be different from your
     own and might even be scary. This is our freedom. We must fight
     for it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     [Twenty-Four Hours of Democracy]