Episode 2218: KAYLA BLAZE: A TALE OF THE NEW SOUTHWEST - OR, THE WILL TO RESIST by Mark Gooding - a podcast by Ric Bratton

KAYLA BLAZE: A TALE OF THE NEW SOUTHWEST - OR, THE WILL TO RESIST by Mark GoodingIn the era of woke and cancel culture this novel may seem anachronistic, but there was a time not that long ago when Americans valued freedom very highly. Foremost among the rights we cherished was the right to express ourselves freely, even when—in fact, especially when—our ideas or their expression might offend somebody else.Kayla Blaze goes where, in contemporary American society, it is no longer safe to go, mocking the hypocrisy in American higher education today and the education establishment’s pretense of fostering “free inquiry.” In truth, now more than then it seeks to stifle free inquiry and direct students’ minds into safe, politically correct channels.The novel wraps a story of censorship inside the story of a lurid campus love affair, juxtaposing libertarianism and libertinism, liberty and libido. It contains a couple of scenes depicting graphic sex, a fair amount of foul language, and above all an undisguised hatred for all things PC. Snowflakes, beware! This novel is guaranteed to send you scurrying for the nearest safe space.In the era of woke and cancel culture this novel may seem anachronistic, but there was a time not that long ago when Americans valued freedom very highly. Foremost among the rights we cherished was the right to express ourselves freely, even when—in fact, especially when—our ideas or their expression might offend somebody else. Kayla Blaze goes where, in contemporary American society, it is no longer safe to go, mocking the hypocrisy in American higher education today and the education establishment’s pretense of fostering “free inquiry.” In truth, now more than then it seeks to stifle free inquiry and direct students’ minds into safe, politically correct channels.The novel wraps a story of censorship inside the story of a lurid campus love affair, juxtaposing libertarianism and libertinism, liberty and libido. It contains a couple of scenes depicting graphic sex, a fair amount of foul language, and above all an undisguised hatred for all things PC. Snowflakes, beware! This novel is guaranteed to send you scurrying for the nearest safe space.Born into a working-class family in the American Midwest, the author, after barely managing to secure an undergraduate degree from a small Midwestern university, traipsed off to Europe for a while, then briefly returned to the Midwest before migrating to the Valley of the Sun in the American Southwest, where it appears likely he will reside until he expires. He worked at many diff erent jobs before finally returning to school to fetch another degree-and-three-quarters, and thence “respectable” employment (in the eyes of his parents) as a community-college English instructor.He has written several other novels, most with roots in autobiography, and all with roots in sarcasm, irony, and an intense contempt for the totalitarian mindset that presently threatens American freedom. An expert at both marriage and divorce (three of each), he now lives in Mesa, Arizona, with his oldest child and, apparently, any stray animals that happen along and decide to call the place home (at present, it’s a little black cat, and while dogs are preferred, cats are also welcome in this inclusive environment).https://authorspress.com/product/kayla-blaze/http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/sillitagency619.mp3  

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