Elizabeth Warren

The title of Elizabeth Warren's new book is, "A Fighting Chance."

The title of Hillary Clinton's new book is, "Hard Choices."

The difference in the choice of titles tells me all I need to know about the differences in the women who wrote the books, how each might be different from the other, and who I might prefer should I have to choose one instead of the other.

"That's astute," says my friend JP, admiringly, after I share this observation with him.

JP has just switched medications, being re-diagnosed from schizophrenia, which he suffered from for thirty years, to bi-polarity, which he suffers from now, but happily most all the time thanks to the new medication.

I say that I can't understand who would buy a book by either woman, a book that is essentially a propaganda. I prefer Elizabeth Warren to Hilary Clinton, but I wouldn't buy either book, much less read it, as the information contained in each has already been disseminated.

JP says his mother, Alice, 90, a lover of literature, is reading Elizabeth Warren's book but not Hilary Clinton's. It gives her something to do, he says.

"What makes great literature is that it's timeless," JP says. He says he learned that from his lit professor at UC Santa Barbara who taught a class devoted to staged classics--"Hamlet," "Long Days Journey into the Night," Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf..."

"You read all that in one semester?" I say.

"And Brecht," JP says.

JP thinks "Monsieur Ambivalence," the book by Thomas Fuller that my press, IF SF, published, is a classic.

"When I read "Monsieur Ambivalence" I can feel myself slow down," says JP. "I just read a few pages at a time and every time I do I actually feel better than I did when I first started reading. Monsieur is timeless, a book that will be read in the future as things speed up and speed up to even greater degrees."

"That's high praise," I say. "I'll make sure to tell Thomas Fuller."

JP asks if Thomas Fuller is working on a new book and I say, "yes."

"Do you know what it's about," JP asks.

"It's about the classical world, that's all I know," I say.

We then talk a little about American politics.

"Unless there's a compelling candidate or issue, I've announced my retirement from politics," I say. "The last time I was gung-ho for a candidate was when I marched for Eugene McCarthy."

"Eugene McCarthy voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980," JP says, with the little low-register laugh he uses when he knows he's right but wishes he wasn't.

"No way," I say.

JP's correct--McCarthy did vote for Reagan in 1980.

JP remembers his parents, good liberals in a otherwise conservative community, holding a fundraiser at their house in Palos Verdes in the late 1960's for Eugene McCarthy. Only three people showed up.