It’s a beautiful day, I have to shoot a nice fish for birthday dinner!

Funny you mention the book being fiction, of course it is, it is a novel, Alex called it a “story”, I’m sure it was never placed in the history shelves of any bookstore. Carter never claimed it to be autobiographical in the pages of the book and my edition of Little Tree explicitly states, in a brief biography, that Carter’s real name was Asa, Forest being his pseudonym, allowing readers to research who Asa was if they so wish.
I did not know that he had a dark past like that, but I don’t see how that can be relevant to the contents of the actual text we all have access to or how it can even be considered negatively. If the accusations are true, the fact that a man like that, actively involved in such dark horrible things, then left to try and reinvent himself and spread a message of freedom is quite amazing, don’t you think? Do people wish he had continued being a segregationist? How can they punish him for that? If anything, I give him double props for publicly standing against something he was once part of and I hope every other narrow-minded, violent, abusive person on the face of this planet follows his example.
Who cares if his grandparents were Cherokee, Italian or Korean? He wrote a beautifully crafted work of fiction that celebrates the wisdom of those who live in harmony with nature, the innocence and purity of children and the real bonds between people who love one another. It also highlights the importance of understanding others and fighting for freedom. The prose is clever, funny, moving, and its deep message can be enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds, which in my opinion makes the book even more brilliant.
Alex and I talked about the book, not the writer’s youth. And this extensive accusative article says nothing about the story other than there are fictional elements in it (again, all novels have fictional elements) and that it can be considered “a right-wing, government-leave-me-alone book”. I see no elements of right-wing thinking in it at all but it is definitely a government-leave-me-alone book and that is exactly why we recommend it. It urges people to go back to nature, love and understanding and away from the control and power abuse of governments and religious organizations. I’m sure the book was immediately considered dangerous and outrageous by those who always consider freedom, love and nature dangerous and outrageous. They couldn’t deny any of the criticism included in the book so they went after the past of the man who wrote it, their typical defamation scheme of attack. Many have been hunted and silenced this way throughout the centuries, but it is a mechanism that is only powerful when the message is passed around and believed without any further thought or research. It is our responsibility to draw the line and defend those who have the courage to speak up. In relation to this, I’d like to recommend the film “Good night and good luck”. It is an amazing movie with a very interesting message in relation to censorship, courage and justice.
In the end, a work of fiction has a life of its own and is enjoyed, hated, believed in or not despite the writer’s intentions. We were laughing the other day at how Top Gun has become a gay icon, the discussions online were hilarious and I doubt the makers of the film ever thought about that. The film is out there and we are free to feel it in any way we like. Same happens with Little Tree. Sorry again for being so long-winded and vehement but it’s really one of my favorite books and a most relevant one in relation to the message this webpage tries to convey.

Thanks for the link, I wouldn’t have imagined the correlation, wow?

Cheers

NPR had a interesting story about Forrest Carter, turns out he was really Asa Earl Carter. Before he reinvented himself as a Native American he was an Alabama KKK segregationist, and speech writer for George Wallace. After Wallace rejected segregation he disappeared. It was not until recently Forrest Carters real identity was made public. Anyways here is the link to the story. http://www.npr.org/2012/04/20/151037079/the-artful-reinvention-of-klansman-asa-earl-carter Sorry if this taints your view of the book, but the truth is the book is fiction.

Peace.

I also just heard on the net there was a piracy incident in bocus del toro.