Not Simply Bad

About the Book

You don't know bad until you know JB. And you won't begin to understand JB until you consider the genre. He was and they are anomalies and anachronisms: warped types out of dark times. JB and guys like him are ghoulish in their perversion. They're flagrant in their violence, cabalistic in their psychopathic nature, and, dangerous in their psychological indifference. OK, it's fiction, but there's a lot of truth to it. So, it's the truth; it's just not the whole truth. So, is this a tale or a study? Is it opinion or research? And, will any of those questions matter when considering the elements and essence of the issues? –Maybe . . . We may know something about what contributes to virulent antisocial behavior but we don't know enough about it to forestall it. Maybe we will. Maybe not. But what do we do about it in the meantime? That's the burning question. Because they're perverse, we might justly call them miscreants or brutes or degenerates. Those terms are almost euphemistic, though, when applied to the diabolic guys referred to here. They're not just barbaric; they're deadly. –So they're not just real bad. The designation for these guys is one we reserve for the worst kind of criminal there is … a somebody not simply bad/but sinister. These are guys who commit uncommonly vile acts, some too gross to describe. And sadistic is too good a word to characterize the worst of their crimes, iniquitous too mild, obscene too vague. That's your bête noire: vulgar, vicious, villainous and virulent in the end, to the end— an end noxious/toxic/lethal. You can't feel sorry for this guy or his genre. But they like it when you do. Your mercy on top of their madness makes their day. They glory in the novelty and incomprehensibility of it. Because they see the beautiful irony in it— After your review of this abstract: Maybe you'll think I've been too harsh. Maybe you'll think I've been too blunt. Maybe you'll think I've been too vindictive. Maybe you'll think I've got issues. Maybe this, maybe that. And, maybe you'll just be thinking about reading this harrying treatise. If so . . . Get ready for the ride. It'll be bumpy. So hang on

About the Author

Chicago. That was the starting place. You can take a guy out of the city, but you can't take the city out of a guy. So some of the city is invested in some of his writing. Writing. He has done much of his writing for professional journals. But fiction has always been an interest to him; the time to devote to it was not always available in past years. Now it is. Years ago, Rogers Park was the jumping off place. From there, you can send a guy to Adrian College in Michigan. Adrian College was a different kind of place, but a good place to begin life studies. The University of Michigan was a good place for graduate study. U-M provided advanced degrees. The Ph.D. led to a career in academia, where a guy can earn money doing things he likes and can do well. Still, a guy has to earn enough money to support a growing family. A wife and progeny deserve all that he can give them. But more than money, a guy must give them all the love and affection he can, because they give back everything he could possibly give them. Being a professor in graduate education at Eastern Michigan University was a good place to do good things that had personal and social meaning. Having meaning means something! Still, what means the most is Family, and at the center of the Family is Madelon, who is not only the head of the Family but the heart of it as well. Additionally, always there prominently, core members, a daughter and four sons, who are loving, resourceful and giving, their wonderful spouses, and 12 delightful, promising, and affectionate grandchildren. –Some guys have it all.