FOMITE

In Vietnam, there's a unique literary form that includes prose, poetry, and theater. It's their version of haibun, and it makes all the sense in the word, if you think about it. If you cook-up the colonial French novelist influence with the Chinese poetic influence, and throw in traditional Vietnamese folktales that were always performed and improvised, you get quite a dish. And the whole thing is thematically integrated — under one umbrella, sutured together.

Conversations with the Underground is under that influence, with some improvisations, too. Maybe it's a Vietnamese-like haibun from Vermont. Haybun?

About the Author

At one time or another, J.C. Ellefson has made his living as a hired hand, a blacksmith, and a fiddler in an old-timey band. He has taught at Shanghai International Studies University, the Universidade Dos Acores, and he has had poetry and short fiction published in magazines throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Japan. At this time, Jim teaches writing and literature at Champlain College.