Critical Book Reviews

The American Dissident
A Literary Journal of Critical Creative Writing
In the Samizdat Tradition of Writing against the Machine
A Forum for Examining the Dark Side of the Academic/Literary Industrial Complex

Concord, Massachusetts

Home of the American Revolution, Thoreau, Emerson, and The American Dissident
The photo on the right is of a Concord town clerk examining The American Dissident flyer for vocabulary, sex, and/or who knows what. Such pre-approved speech is not free speech at all. It is approved speech, which encourages self-censorship. Flyers must be pre-approved prior to being posted at the Town Hall and at the Milldam bulletin board, which used to be a free-speech bulletin board, until the Chamber of Commerce had it replaced with a new lock-and-key one. That seems to summarize the reality of Concord today, despite its well-established dissident history revolutionary patriots and writers Thoreau and Emerson.

Indeed, Concord today is as bourgeois as it gets, which explains my uphill battle trying to get The American Dissident to appear next to other publications in and around town, as well as my posting dissident critique. For example, the Concord Museum, Concord Chamber of Commerce (owner of the Visitor's Center), Concord Festival of Authors, Concord Town Manager, Concord Bookstore, Concord Poetry Center, and Walden Pond State Reservation have all rejected the journal and refused to permit me to post critique. Gross hypocrisy? You bet!

Persistence over more than a decade has resulted in a few positive outcomes. The Concord Free Public Library, Lincoln Public Library, and Gleason Public Library have subscribed. Thoreau Society has finally permitted The American Dissident to be stocked in its Shop at Walden Pond boutique, which it rents from Walden Pond State Reservation authorities. It even allowed the journal to set up a display as part of its exhibit on Civil Disobedience in the Tsongas Gallery. The Concord Free Public Library is permitting me to put up a display of highly dissident watercolors in its Art Gallery for August 2008.

On the other hand, my persistence has not been fruitful with regards over 75 other local libraries,