Dan Marshall

Robert Peate

The Lightcap

Robert Peate's fifth collection of short stories, written from July to September 2018, contains the following works: NonfictionOppressing the PrivilegedFictionThe DeathsIncreasingly Incoherent Departures from the NormA Great StoryMasterma

Increasingly Incoherent Departures from the Norm

Though Robert Peate had written poetry since 1978 and included poems in previous books, he released his first collection of all poetry on January 13, 2019, after a once-in-a-lifetime session of writing that resulted in twenty poems written the day before.The title of Narcissist was prompted by Jay Sizemore (who had released a collection entitled Misogynist) calling Robert a narcissist. The content of the book is a poetic history of Robert's life, persons and events, written so the reader might judge his life and him without having to take Jay's word for it. Robert felt that the appropriately narcissistic thing to do.

Poems

Narcissist

“I think we need to be beholden to each other.” The second strike is on. This sequel/rebuttal to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged tells the astounding story of what happened in society after John Galt's declaration of independence. As America suffers capitalism run amok, journalist Evelyn Riley uncovers a mystery that takes her on a quest from slave-wage New York to the burned-out ruins of Detroit and beyond. The return of John Galt will cause repercussions for America and the World. John Galt's strike of business leaders opposed to the overbearing leftist Thompson Administration resulted in a pendulum swing rightward. The Administration was defeated in the next elections by Richard “Rick” West, a fierce opponent of organized labor. He began to end regulations, social programs, and the taxes to pay for them, despite the outcry of those whose lives depended on them. Death, disease, and crime increased dramatically. The survivors slave away at two or three jobs a day without unions, safety standards, weekends, or a minimum wage. Evelyn Riley was one of the last to obtain a decent job before the changes hit. A political liberal, she abhors what has been done to America by West and his successor, David Lang. She supported Lang's opponent, Laurence Sterling, in the most recent election. Sterling, a liberal, vowed to restore America's labor laws and standards, progressive taxation, and the social programs for which America had been known the World over. Elected over the intense opposition of Lang's supporters, Sterling will take office in a matter of weeks. One day in January 2029, mere days before the Sterling inauguration, Evelyn's boss shares a rumor from a friend in the Government: both productivity and absenteeism at General Motors, one of the two remaining car companies in Detroit, have increased in recent months. Intrigued and asked to investigate, Evelyn embarks on the adventure of a lifetime. Little does she know that John Galt is planning his return to fight Sterling, or that this time labor is not going to stand idly by. A new generation of labor leaders is preparing an action and a prescription of its own. The many who discovered Robert Peate's The Recovery to be one of the most original and challenging stories in years will find in Sisyphus Shrugged an equally original and uncompromising view of how to govern the physical world presented with the same storytelling power. Of this work, Robert says, “It is my goal, with this work, to provide not only a sequel but a rebuttal, to show Rand's limits and flaws for the betterment of society. In contrast to John Galt, I live for Humanity, and I ask Humanity to live for me (and for everyone else). I say the World owes everyone a living. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not share my morality.” Join Evelyn Riley as she learns that with change comes danger. For more information, please visit sisyphusshruggedbook.com.

Sisyphus Shrugged

From 2015 to 2020 Robert Peate substitute-taught in Portland-area schools. This is that story.

Robert Peate

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