The latest <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/magazine/02serial-t.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink “>installment</a> of The Girl in the Green Raincoat is up at the New York Times site, and I realize it has an unusual bit of serendipity going for it. In it, Tess’s father, a longtime muldoon (to use the Baltimore vernacular for a political foot soldier) makes a startling confession: He went almost forty years without voting. This is a shocking revelation to Tess — almost as shocking as the fact that he first met her mother when she was someone else’s date. He points out that Maryland didn’t really need his vote in the presidential election.
And, it’s true, because of the Electoral College system, a lot of us would be justified to stay at home Tuesday. But don’t, okay? I voted absentee, in anticipation of canvassing, and I am going up to Pennsylvania, where I volunteered on Election Day 2004.
By the way, I didn’t plan to have “Green Raincoat” function as a get-out-the-vote public service announcement. Last spring, when the Times editor and I first began batting around ideas, she suggested I consider a political subplot, but I couldn’t see it.
My politics are pretty transparent, although I seldom talk about them. That’s a consequence of my own upbringing by a man who covered politics for most of his journalism career. My father considers his vote, even his party affiliation, a private affair. Lately, I’ve been surprised to discover that I have some friends who are voting for the Other Guy, but so it goes.
Meanwhile, an aside about the New York Times: The copy editors there have pulled my fat out of the fire so many times that I can’t begin to thank them.
I just finished reading Hardly Knew Her. Which story was my favorite? They were all good, but Arm and the Woman was particularly twisted. What a wicked , wicked story. I wish I could write like that. Keep it up.
Of course, we all need to vote…for whatever reason that gets you riled up enough to do it. For instance, I can not vote for the side where the VP candidate can’t give an honest answer and come up with the name of ONE NEWSPAPER that she reads on a regular basis! Or a news magazine. Or a cable television news show. Or a news blog. If there were ONLY this clip of Sarah Palin with Katie Couric, it would be enough to make my decision. (This is much more that reassures me that my Democratic Party affliation is the right one for me.)
If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. So go and cast your vote, too.
(Laura, I am loving the Times serial. It cracks me up, however, each time the Times direct links to something you mention in the story. There are some really odd things that their system picks up on!)
If you click the WEB link (here or in my previous post), you will be brought to the clip of Gov. Palin being asked what newspapers she reads. (All!)
I am really enjoying the serial and wondering about the writing process–did you plan out each segment? write it all then chop it up? some combination? I love that it’s meted out week by week for me. Earlier today I caught up on two missed sections, and now I’m going to hurry up & read the new one, but it’s so lovely for me to not have over-eagerly consumed the entire thing in 2-3 days, the way I do with your novels.
My absentee ballot is waiting for me. I am so excited to vote for *my* candidates this year–even though I always vote & I’m rarely “undecided” about candidates–that I’m sort of waiting & savoring the activity.
Yes, the election is not over until the fat lady sings. Don’t listen to “early voting outcomes” I believe that every vote does count and more than anything, this election is slated to be one for the history books as far as voter turn out. And really, who doesn’t want to be a part of history?
VOTE!
I can’t imagine not voting. How can anyone care so little about the future of the country? It’s wonderful to think that this time, after the longest and most painful eight years in my memory, the better man might actually win — but only if all his supporters make it to the polls. If you don’t bother to vote, you have no right to complain about the outcome.
I’m looking forward to Tuesday. I never vote early or by mail in ballot, I love going to the polls on election day. I had my mind made up long before the conventions, but it was reinforced by a certain VP pick. Anyone who even asks about banning books or removing them from Library shelves scares the crap out of me!
I won’t be in town on Tuesday, so I went to the Licking County Board of Elections (Ohio) today and stood in line for almost 2 hours inorder to exercise my franchise. Election day is definitely the better day to cast your ballot as they are ready for you.
I think most politicians are liars and cheats, I lived in DC for 30 years and don’t believe politicians merit my attention and I think the American public has shown extreme stupidity in the last 2 general elections, but I still vote because that is what we as citizens and taxpayers have to do to live in a free society.
So two hours standing in line this morning playing Tiger Woods golf on my cell phone was a good thing, I guess.
At least I was able to consistently birdie the tough 2nd hole at Pebble Beach.
Thank you for giving up your day and going to Pennsylvania. I have friends in Balto. who are also doing that and they tell me that it is needed.
Meanwhile, here in Colorado it feels like both candidates have been here enough to claim state residency. Being from Maryland in the days when it was the primary election that mattered, living in a contested state is quite an experience! But at least we can vote by mail whether or not we are gong to be away the day of the election. I “voted’ last Sunday morning, from the comfort of my living room, coffee cup in hand. (It’s the West-you need to be sitting and have coffee to work through all the ballot issues.)
I just came home from phonebanking for Obama in Arlington, Va. I live in Montgomery County, MD so my help is not needed(beyond my vote) for his win. I am working in Loudoun County, Va on election day. I worked the Philly suburbs in 2004.
Now that we have had FIOS for a whole month and get lots of TV- after not having cable for 14 years- I saw David Simon on Steven Colbert. They were both quite funny.
You know, for whatever reason, I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait more than 30 minutes to vote. This year, I didn’t have to wait at all, just walked into the board of elections and filled out my absentee ballot request. So I am really impressed by anyone who waits patiently for two hours.
As for the questions about how the serial was written. I had the option of filing week-to-week, as some previous writers had, but that was too much of a high-wire act for me. My plots always require some refinement over several drafts. More importantly, there are small touchstones that I like to foreshadow. One example: I’ve dropped at least one reference to Tess’s use of an old black-and-white composition book. This harkens back to the very first page of the very first Tess book, but also will come up again later in the serial.
To me, the real challenge was having each chapter pay off, which means each chapter has to have a story-within-the-story. So Tess’s father tells Tess the real story of her parents’ courtship, or (next week) we see Whitney Talbot at work, and get a sense of why she’s restless. There are many more personal stories to come.
I voted absentee for the first time and I gotta say, though I’m happy to throw my weight behind my guy in a (now former) battleground state, voting absentee did not give me the same patriotic hard on as voting in person. I love all the small ceromonies involved with voting-the senior citizens manning the polls dressed in red, white & blue,how it’s been done differently in every place I’ve lived. With absentee I got none of that, not even a “I Voted Today!” sticker.
Thanks, Laura, for the shout-out out to the copy desks. You’ll be happy to know that we get copies of the Sunday magazine in the newsroom on Wednesdays, so sometimes I cheat and read the next chapter well before the weekend. Tess feels like family to me now. I’ve been following her life for over a decade now. I love the serial because I can’t finish it in a couple of days, like your books. It gives me something to look forward to. So make it last as long as you can. Thanks!
I too voted absentee and will probably do that always. Too many ways for votes to be “lost” or challenged these days. Can’t trust the process anymore. I did miss getting the sticker, though.
Linda,
If it makes you feel any better, there were no stickers given out in my town in Connecticut this morning. Darn! I was looking forward to displaying the sticker proudly all day long. Corny sounding or not, voting is an honor. Everyone eligible must do it!!!!
–Marjorie
I often don’t vote because of a Tweedledee-Tweedledum kind of feeling but not this time. I walked to the polling place along 8th Ave. where people were watching tvs in bars and cheering and screaming as each state fell to Obama. I was very glad to vote in this, a historic vote. My father who took our family to hear Dr. King in 1963 and who marched in the Civil Rights Movement, would have been so happy. It means so much to millions of people. People crying, yelling, clapping, honking horns all over the place. Now, maybe, perhaps some changes in store.
“Now, maybe, perhaps some changes in store.”
Exactly; a pitch-perfect summation. We’re not talking about a miraculous, humongous, unbelievable fantasia of kaleidoscopic non-stop change;
but instead, a sincere desire (and an altogether reasonable expectation) of perhaps some changes. Maybe a genuinely more humble foreign policy, a more realistic approach to fiscal policy, and serious run at a sustainable ‘green’ component to a coherent national energy policy.
Really, a president who actually shows up for work and does the job at hand would be a very, very pleasant change!
Just read this weekend’s chapter in the NYT Magazine, can’t get enough of it. Wish it went on for years.
It’s interesting having a few pages a week; it’s like savoring tea and a few good chocolate chip cookies, rather than a whole bag of them. But it leads to the craving for more.