Lotusland (i)

from novelist David Joiner and Guernica Editions

Lotusland

A brief stop on the Odyssey home from the war. Hence, expatriate life.

David Joiner

David is the name of a dynasty, like Nguyen which now identifies many families around the world as Vietnamese. Jesus son of Joseph was a David through Mary.

This author bears David as a personal rather than a family name. David as a person means beloved, favorite, as a child. Sweetie pie.

Guernica Editions

At Guernica on April 26, 1937 the Condor Legion dropped high explosive and incendiary on the town and machine-gunned the women and children fleeing through the fields from their home in the war for the Republic of Spain.

Lotusland

The jewel is in the lotus om mani padme hum awareness in perceptions. This novel is a bildung, the growth of the soul in the world.

David Joiner

Jesus the David and his father were carpenters without specification, those who work with lumber already cut by the rougher sawyers.

The joiner, a more specific trade, fits lumber together. At the fancy end we call that cabinetwork. Joiner suggests rather a sturdy artisan for the people, a demiurge, whether journeyman or master. David Joiner’s novel is a piece of work:

not bespoke, nor a luxury item, but square and straight and true. Maybe the first book he published but not likely the first one he wrote. Perhaps the master-piece of a journeyman, showcasing his accomplishment, but not a way to make a living.

Guernica Editions

Over the month of May 1937, Pablo Picasso made in front of an audience at his own home in Paris a painting of the destruction of the town and the murder of its people.

Lotusland

The lotus blossom grows clean from a pond of shit, as does a scholar or a virtuous woman. In Vietnamese language we say water where in English we say land. Beautiful water means America. Lotus water is a pond of shit.

David Joiner

When Mary conceived Jesus their entire house of David had already been diasporic for 600 years, since the conquest by Babylon. Then mother and child fled to Egypt from the slaughter of the innocents at Bethlehem. The legion of that day used swords.

As a fellow American I eyeball the author David Joiner as one of the border peoples who ran ahead of the colonies to the interior of the New World. I guess Scots though David is more often Welsh, both tribes in the diaspora of Christians. David named his focal character Nathan Monroe, a calque on his own, using that personal name from scripture then a Scots family name from the new republic instead of a name from the trades.

Guernica Editions

Antonio D’Alfonso started publishing Guernica Editions the year I graduated from high school, 1978. The imprint now counts more than 500 titles that stress a world of nations. This has remained all my adult life a difficult point of view to express from within the United States. Guernica Editions are in Canada and so far as I know David Joiner is in Japan.

Viet Nam letters have addressed the novel Lotusland by David Joiner 4 times so far: for the second time on August 29. 2022, third on August 31, 2022, and fourth on June 9, 2023.

Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.

The colophon of these Viet Nam letters, directly above, shows the janitor speaking with poet David A. Willson on a Veterans Day.