the awaiting of awaiting by Michael Templeton

“‘awaiting’ is part of a larger project that grows out of a number of interests. I have become especially interested in the ways digital capitalism is creating an artificial imaginary space that has taken on more power than the material lives we lead with our flesh and blood. The image of myself, generated by the legal realm, both civil and criminal, medical histories, both physical and psychological, and economic status, along with social media are all working to create another person who has more validity in the world than the person who is made of flesh. My credit rating, background, educational status, social media optimization all have more force than my actual being. And these digital mechanisms can and do destroy people. In the case of the novella, I wanted to explore one person who seems to have been disposed of in life by the systems of value and validation generated in the digital world. He did something; we don’t know what, and it doesn’t really matter what. This transgression has left him utterly invalidated in the world. He simply wanders and waits. That is all that is left to him. And if you think this is implausible, look around you on any city bus. You will see them. They are living breathing people, and they will never talk about it because there is no point. They have learned, and my character, Leos, has learned, that there is no escape from this.”

— Michael Templeton, writer of The Chief of Birds and Impossible To Believe

Advance Praise

Michael takes you by the hand, leading through a compelling landscape only to push us off the cliff. His prose follows the fall. Witty, brilliant and sophisticated, this book understands something we don't about life and living. Nuts.

— Merlin Flower, Writer of Nothing Escapes

A roaring engine of immediately prosaic ideas and philosophies. Circuitous and deftly true to the current moment. A text that shows in full drab a life which few may believe they have lived—yet the awaiting of awaiting is a tale as universal and encompassing that any human being would ever see it fit to be.

— Alden Nagel, Editor for Nut Hole Publishing, writer of FAG SYMPHONY