I’m pleased to announce the publication of Presidents for Life, a new digital chapbook, which is now available for free download exclusively to my newsletter subscribers.
What happens when you put into the same room a CNN journalist, a Vice President of the United States, Africa’s newest President for Life, and an escaped Caribbean poet who has been sentenced to death by torture? To find out, I wrote this play ten years ago, part of a two-volume mock epic called The Adventures of Ibn Opcit. I’m grateful to Tom Wolfe and Billy Collins for their praise.
“John Barr’s Adventures of Ibn Opcit is a wonderful surprise. It’s that rarest, rarest, rarest of phenomena, an enjoyable book of contemporary poetry. He’s on to something marvelous. The potential of his new approach is limitless.”
— Tom Wolfe
Satire is humor fueled by anger — at human folly generally, and in this case at career politicians. For inspiration I turned to Mark Twain:
- It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
- I think I can say, and say with pride, that we have some legislatures that bring higher prices than any in the world.
- Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
If there is a more suitable target for satire, especially with election season upon us, I can’t think what it is. This play takes no sides and plays no favorites. Its target is rather Big Power Politics and how it is played. What are we to make of those who seek high office and a place in history? Are they exemplars, our better angels? Do their principles and promises inspire us, or do they offer soggy platitudes delivered with pseudo rage? Must politics always be the greasy handmaiden of statesmanship?
Once again, you can subscribe to my free newsletter to download the book. If you do read it, I’d be most grateful to receive your feedback.