Prologue to A Blog Cut Into Slices-The Creation of Cillian Knight
Welcome!
Q: What is A Blog Cut Into Slices?
A: Shane Wright’s confession of love, jail, literary obsession, and survival in a small fisherman’s town.
The day was July 20th 2023 when my parole was terminated. One single charge: Manslaughter.
Everything you read in The Last Slice, as well as here, is 100% my own wording, with the exception being assistance from A.I. used for spelling and frequent punctuation corrections. No matter how much writing I do, I still make a dyslexic amount of errors. It’s a mild case, but it makes editing take twice as long.
Since arriving back to Newport 11/11/23 I rolled with the goal to live the lifestyle I’d romanticized my entire adult life, based on the musings from the book Tropic of Cancer By Henry Miller. We are separated by exactly 100 years and 85 days. And what I’ve done, is traded his penniless writers experience in Paris 1930s, for my penniless writers experience in Newport 2020s. (I know, I still have a lot to study and learn about literature to even get close to his level., but he was an editor in the early 1900s so…)
There are wild connections from The Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon, to Sylvia Beach (the person), who ran Shakespeare and Company in Paris starting in 1920s — the famous bookstore that was the gathering spot for expatriate writers, artists, and poets like Joyce, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald.
I want to be a digital Sylvia Beach Shanespair & Company, and I want to gather artists in every form.
Those who are also hungry for modern-day stories brewed with meat & substance.
Real, hearty stew that’s been a simmerin for years.
This dish isn’t merely ready for tasting; it’s ready to be devoured.
Which begs the question: did you bring your appetite?
I’ll tell you this not a master poet, nor am I a polished writer. My real apprenticeship began in a cell, with nothing but a dictionary and an inquisitive mind. It was there, within dense concrete walls, and even denser stoned minds, that I found myself like Perseus.
Imprisoned first, then forced to cut through stone with imagination. What I really learned, was survival can be a matter of reflection, and that some monsters must be cut down into words before they can be faced.”
Perseus with the head of the Medusa, 1545/54. Bronze, Florence, Italy
Perseus was imprisoned .
Perseus faced monsters — the most famous being Medusa.
Perseus carried a reflective shield — he never looked at Medusa head-on, but through reflection.
The tone I’ve adopted pairs naturally with telling a jailhouse story through prison poetry. And I’m sure that, over time, as I write these daily blog posts and unfold my Henry Miller Reincarnated story, Cillian Knight and I will discover a more mature new voice. Another idea, ready to take on a life of its own.
Here’s an outline of what’s to come:
Tales of adventure on the coast, writing a book, writing poetry, building this website, spending months on GIANT projects that did not pan out, living in the car, working as the last night auditor of The Sylvia Beach Hotel at the same time serving tables at a bistro, becoming one with the community, one with the ocean, one with myself.
I don’t know how to word this so it can be universally understood, love is a different language to everyone. I had strong relationships with a few girlfriends over the span of a relatively short time. My incessant need to move on, and keep flowing, was indicant of staying true to the free spirit narrative.
I made many selfish decisions and to every person I offended with my selfishness, I apologize truthfully. I’m not ashamed to say that I constantly strive to balance selfishness with caring for yourself. It is a never ending roller coaster of guilt and empowerment.
I’m not saying this is right or Wright, but when you treat your existence like a story, your life becomes the story.
Typing out an outline could never do justice to the story — or the stories — that are about to unfold. Rest assured, I won’t be offering you mere squiggly lines and syllables on a page. I’ll be bringing this tale to life with photographs, with video, with moments that add an entire new dimension to story telling.
I’m not telling the story of being on parole because it’s not the time.
My life is a living, breathing story just begging to be told. Once I got off parole, that little phone in my pocket did not have service for over a year. That’s another reason why I think this whole thing is so darn entertaining: it’s not just my written word describing these experiences, but the ability to tune out all the distractions a cell phone provides.
I’m not saying that cell phones are bad by any means! I just get to claim the chance to really immerse myself into a world of my work, without distractions.
So without further ado, let us start this journey down the rabbit hole together.
“Psssst! Hey it’s Cillian Knight here! Shane’s at work right now, so it’s a perfect time for me to tell you we’ve been working tirelessly on finishing A Man Cut Into Slices completely! If you are interested in assisting finically to get the book into print, website fees, and feeding two and a half starving artists every month, he’s got a pretty clever way for you to do such a warm gesture. There’s even a pretty sweet treat that is more than just good feels! So head over to https://buymeacoffee.com/shanewright to support a youngish man teeming with potential!”
