While I'm at it slagging off authors I used to respect, Derrick Jensen, friend of L.Keith's, co-author of the Deep Green Resistance book which talked big about bringing down global civilisation with eco-terrorist guerilla tactics if necessary and used anti-colonial struggles as models for inspiration (I don't recall them looking at Arab examples, funnily enough), fresh from saying f* all about the genocide of our times and the heroic resistance against it, has decided that now would be a perfect time to talk about Boko Haram and what the Evil Muslims did to girls & women in N.Africa. Funny that.

*****

https://derrickjensen.substack.com/p/a-few-things-097

So I’m running into more issues with the screenplay. Nothing out of the ordinary. Those of you who’ve been with the reading club a long time know that’s part of writing a piece. The first issue is that I need to introduce another half dozen girls. I know how I’ll do it, which I’ll tell you another time. I’ll tell you the reason, here. I have I think 8 or 9 girls so far, but there are going to be caught after escape, girls killed, girls who convert to Islam, girls who become pregnant, and some girls who get away. That’s more than 8 or 9.

I’ve always thought one of the great things about being in the reading club would be that the characters are still alive. When I read a book, the characters may be alive to me, but their path is predetermined, because the book is done and published. Old Yeller always gets killed. When I read Harry Potter, I knew someone important had to die, but I didn’t know who, which doesn’t alter the fact that the result could not change since the book was done.

In this screenplay, I honestly don’t know yet whether Amaka will survive, or whether kikelomo will survive. I’ll find out when the story tells me. So when you read it, she as a character is alive, with a path still undetermined.

Another problem I’m running into is that the reality is so horrible that I can’t keep piling on the unrelenting horribleness without people thinking I’m making a propaganda piece. They’ll think I’m making up especially horrible speeches or atrocities to happen to them. I’m not. I’m using literal speeches that were literally said by those who were literally in charge of Boko Haram. And so far what I’ve had them to do the girls is nothing compared to what is real. To have women slowly cut off the heads of hog-tied men, women, and children, taking twenty minutes and going from the back instead of the front so as to not cut into the jugular or carotid and kill them. And have everyone else have to watch. I’m going to be accused of exaggerating, but I’m lowballing it.