By James Moore
Today is the 5th anniversary of Texas to the World, as poorly a named Substack as I might have conceived. I write about much more than Texas, but didn’t think that my topics would drift so far from the lone star, and now it’s a bit too late to rebrand. To celebrate this modest milestone, I decided to offer up a few examples of my work in hopes they might intrigue more readers to join up. The three below were quite popular for a writer in resident obscurity and had thousands of views and shares. Neophytes to TTTW can take them as a proof of performance and exhibition of standards. I also hope they’ll just enjoy the work, and, of course, subscribe.
A Port in History’s Storm
Perhaps nowhere on this planet has there ever been a greater demonstration of hubris than off the coast of the Island of Newfoundland, and its two greatest examples are the Titanic and the Titan submersible. The works of man are often brought asunder by nature and poor judgment, and Newfoundland has been frequent witness. I’ve long been fascinated by my mother’s homeland, where she came of age before leaving for America. The place its residents frequently refer to as “The Rock” has seemed to have more than its share of tragedy.
My grandfather, who I never met, survived history’s deadliest battle at the Somme in World War I, but was taken from his family by a simple slip of a knife. His great grandson, my cousin, was lost to the sea by a rogue wave come ashore on a sunny August day of 1986, and just last year another of his great grandsons was a victim of a tragic accident. He had become a cultural folk star for his music, which had inspired the sound track for the wildly successful “Come From Away” on Broadway and beyond.
I have been even more fascinated by the Titan Submersible sadness than that of the Titanic. Oceangate’s CEO, Stockton Rush, might have reconsidered his adventuresome nature had he more closely studied Newfoundland and the toll the sea consistently demands, and gets. There have been times it has felt like it was an island at the center of the world. The history of the place has been as triumphal as it has tragic because it has been elemental to great human achievements like trans-Atlantic flight and radio communications but also at the center of the humanity’s two great wars. I’ve never visited Newfoundland without feeling both the hope and the suffering of the people who call it home. The piece I wrote about it after the Titan went down was a meager attempt to make sense of it all and try to acquire some context. You can read it here.
Looking for Mr. Brautigan
My love of motorcycles and writing have driven me on adventures both wonderful and foolish. One of the first was with my boyhood friend, Butch, home from Vietnam and “lookin’ for his fun.” I just wanted to travel, and write, and read great books in epic locales. Our first cross-country trip turned into a solo ride for me and a fanciful attempt to find and meet Richard Brautigan, a poet and novelist of the late 60s and 70s who lived and created in the relative obscurity of Big Sur, California. This is the story of me leaving Butch behind in LA to ride off seeking a literary hero, or two.
On Writing and Being
People who write consistently as part of their lives tend to do so because they must. Not writing is not an option. I can remember trying to put stories down with my #2 pencil on a Big Chief pad, and being afraid they might be read, the wrong compulsion even for an elementary school scribe. I don’t think I’ve ever awakened to a day where I did not contemplate what I was writing that day or what subject I might take on the next day or next week or next year.
There are, of course, good, talented, and even great writers, and that latter category is rarefied air, especially in the age of the internet when writing has become commodified. Anyone can put up a Substack like this one and crank out “content” and “anyone” often does. Sifting through the literary and linguistic debris of the web is no simple task, which is why it might take exceptional skill to rise beyond being more than digital keyboard bards. That’s what Cormac McCarthy did with his singular focus on his work. He seems, like V.S. Naipaul and E. Hemingway to have never made a dollar that did not originate from his prose, a level of courage and discipline that will recommend him to history. I think there is immortality in his books, and his determination to live just by Writing and Being.
This article was originally published on Texas to the world.
James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.
He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).
His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.
Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”
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Oh ….. So other people have this strange compulsion to write opinions and descriptions and dreams of a better future. Funny I explained those tendencies to myself as being the result of chronic addictive terminal bibliomania, the continuing compulsion to read ideas and experience the after-glow of creating my own possible futures from them.
There is some succour in the knowledge that in TACO Trumpery’s MAGA-mania America there survives at least one educated person prepared to raise their ideas into the general public discussion and ”defend” their ideals. TTTW is one very enjoyable example. Thank you, James!
I think I have noted previously that I enjoy your work James, being a bit of a fan of Kerouac, though I find your writing less challenging (to read) than his. As a retired journalist I have this compulsion to put my opinions out there and have even put a couple into book form with mixed success. I like reading about those whose career paths echo mine though in markedly different ways.keep up the good work.