Digital Potlatch

What is a potlatch?

The name comes from an old northwest Native American tradition* whereby great honor and cultural status accrued to those who gave the most away at large feasts or celebrations called potlatches. The host might actually impoverish himself by giving away everything he owned. Deeming such generosity to be dangerous to the state, the Canadian government even outlawed the practice for a time, for reasons I’ll leave more informed sources to explain (or try to). In any event, what the potlatch symbolizes for me as a non-Native is spiritual energy and the lightness of soul that comes from giving one’s “possessions” away.

As it happens [ahem], this is also the perfect solution to an issue that’s been pressuring me for some time: what to do with all my past work?

I’ve been writing for years, mostly online in the form of weekly columns or blog posts. Some of those make up an unreleased ebook. There’s also a large collection of newspaper columns, of which more later, and I also have a book. I was paid for some of this, the print columns and the online work (before the dot-com bust), and the book, BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico, is for sale at Booklocker.com, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. The rest — the bulk of it, really — is like a life of writerly performance art: published once and then forgotten, poof! But some of that is fantastic writing, and I’m bringing it all back to give it away here at FarrFeed in a digital potlatch.

Whenever you see this icon, it means you’re reading another potlatch gift, a piece of my life’s work. I’m republishing serially, one chapter and column at a time, and I have no idea how long it’s going to take. Years, probably! Most sources won’t appear in strict chronological order, since I seem to be choosing the best parts first. The one exception to this are the chapters from my BUFFALO LIGHTS book, which I’ll post in sequence. Along the way, I do hope to bundle more essays and columns into books, which you’ll no doubt have the opportunity to buy if you don’t want to wait for the full free versions to appear on FarrFeed.

Digital Potlatch Sources

Here’s what you’ll get, eventually:

• Almost every chapter from my book, BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico. These include color photos not available in the print version.

• GRACK! Web columns about life in New Mexico, originally published at Applelinks.com and JHFarr.com.

• Farr Site Web columns about Macs, culture, and general weirdness, originally published at Applelinks.com.

• WebFaust Web columns, ostensibly about computer culture (Macs), originally published at MacAddict.com.

• Print columns written for Horse Fly, an alternative monthly news and cultural info publication here in Taos.

• Previously-distributed chapters from the unfinished YELLOWHAMMER FARM: An Autobiographical Trip from the ’60s to the Ozarks (Sex, drugs, and rock & roll, no kidding. Adults only, need to finesse this somehow.)

Just look for the icon and dig in!

* Yes, there are still potlatches in Native culture, and in these matters, Google is your friend.