What begins, must end. But seldom does either happen as we expect.
Broken Story
I consider My Hawaii to be a Broken Story. A broken story can take several forms. It can have:
An Inconsistent Plot
Unappealing Characters
A Trite Locale
Horrible Writing
Terrible Grammar
And/Or A General Failure to Please
In my opinion, none of these apply to My Hawaii. Rather, My Hawaii has a much more insurmountable fault:
It's Never Been Written (not completely, not yet)
Cliff Hanger in Memorial (???? to 2009, maybe? Who knows?)
The man who was Cliff Hanger (or at least, the man who wrote as Cliff Hanger) is dead.
Now, I
suppose I could be wrong in my assumptions and rather than purchasing
the manuscript at an estate sale wherein Cliff's personal effects were
being liquidated, the man who died may have simply come into possession
of Cliff's writings, much like I have (or perhaps -- and I have come to
believe far more likely as time goes by and I've mused on
the issue further -- I was at Cliff's son's or grandson's estate
sale). Or, since I did
not buy every last possible item at said estate sale (and
rather only purchused one small satchel containing a
few dozen typed pages and a few half filled notebooks), it is
entirely possible
that someone else at the sale walked away with the greater part of
Cliff's work (or the inheritors or someone else simply kept his
work, never offering it for sale in the first place). The truth
is, one can never tell. And we may never know. But it is
certainly possible that someone else may be in possession of other
parts (and/or the greater part) of Cliff Hanger's work including
(possibly) his diary, journal, and maybe (if we are lucky) even a few
official dispatches and correspondence.
Ghost Writing
Anyhow, I like My Hawaii (what
there is of it). I find it easy to fall into, to escape into the
story, locale, and friendship to be found there. And I'd like to
see the work completed. So, I've thought about Ghost Writing
the thing. I mean, in all honesty, I already do
a fair bit of ghost writing by way of editing on these little 'finds'
of mine. And the
distinction between editing, ghostwriting, doing a rewrite, and
starting completely from scratch can be a bit blurry
at times. Though, let's face it, even I can tell the difference
between a complete rewrite and adding a few bits of punctuation here
and there.
Whatever
the case, long story short, I've thought about Ghost Writing My
Hawaii (might still do that at some point in the future). And I
have reason to believe someone else (perhaps Cliff's son or grandson...
or some complete stranger) has already tried. Of course, this is
just my opinion, but soon enough (in the pages that follow or when I
get around to posting), you be able to see for yourself that
although they were able to continue the story (perhaps even true to
form), they weren't able reproduce
Cliff's unique 'voice' in a compelling manner. And in the
end, I doubt whether I could do any better.
Or
to put it
a bit more eloquently, the muse that guided Cliff Hanger's hand hasn't
favored anyone else yet (not that I know of, anyway). And
although someday it might, when it does, I seriously question whether
that someone will me.
Now, I know not everyone believes
in Muses. But I do. I believe a work of art is a collaboraton
between an artist and another -- call it a Muse. And until that
muse strikes, there is precious little the artist can do, other than being ready,
willing, and able. Some might call this 'showing up' (at the
typewriter, etc). But I've 'shown up' enough in search
of that muse for My Hawaii to know that it's just not going to happen for me.
And
no (and I know many of you will not believe me when I say this, but
it's true and) none of the following is mine. Crumpled balls of
paper is all I have managed to achieve. Seriously, if I ever
manage to write anything as brilliant as the first few chapters of My Hawaii that Cliff was able to put to paper prior to his passing (I do love those P's), you can bet I would (and will) want to take full and complete credit for that achievement. Who wouldn't?
Which is all a long winded way of saying, I'm going to leave the story broken (for now, at least) and present to
you unaltered (a few grammatically, spelling, and organization details
excepted) the work which Cliff Hanger was working on when he died (or as I've said, so I believe).
You have already seen a fair bit of this in the precceeding web
pages. All that promotional material was his (or at least, came with the satchel). And then,
when I am done posting what I have at hand, well, who knows?
Perhaps the muse will strike and I will finally be able to write in Cliff's stead and as he intended
Perhaps someone who reads these posts will be in possession of the other parts of his work
Or perhaps there are others who simply know of Lihi'i first hand (or as passed down through legend) and would be happy to share
In
truth, I suppose the possibilities are endless. That is the
beauty of life. And in the spirit of Lihi'i, all are welcome to share.
But
all that is not now, but in the future. For now, let me share
some of what Cliff had to say about the place that is Lihi'i and which
he called My Hawaii.