Oates Lincoln

I said with the 1st biography, you just open it up and you're right there in Lincoln's head. Oates did not realize what he had written. When he realized what he had written, this basic concept, the Myths is his attempt to do it on purpose, so it's even more intense, so you gotta be careful when you open it up - it's like 3 or 4 essays - be sitting down with seatbelts, cuz it's gem. There is nothing better ... Make sure you have 2, 3 hours locked away that you can be like ~guuuhuughuuuh~ like that, after you open it up. All right, if I never see you again, I'll know you opened da book.

This is the followup. The 1st one he did as a biography. Then he saw the effect it had on people because people were basically saying, "How come we never read about this in another biography?" All the other biographies were there, and all the facts were there, but it was the way he wrote it. That's what I'm trying to get at: his technique of getting at the text, and other people quote text, but the way he weaved those texts into his purpose is how it comes out, ok? I can open a Donald and see segments. I can open up Wilson's book and see, you know, actual stuff, but that's not it. They are a contrast, they simply went to the moon, they are objectivists, they're keeping it at a distance so that here is exhibit A, here is exhibit B, there is exhibit C, we can assume b-b-blah-b-b-blah, ok, so great. The man handled the stuff, that's Objective Donald Purpose, ok? But that's not Oates. When you're there, you're gonna be going up and down, your stomach will be wheezy with reading Oates, ok? Especially the LAST DAY, the 14th. That day is INCREDIBLE in Oates' book, ok? Insane.

These are the most precious things we have. He put loving care in it, knowing it's basically what was left out of Malice. That's the thing that knocked me out, I said, "He wrote another book on Lincoln? What did he leave out!!!" ... When he wrote the Myths it was as if we said we don't need more books on Lincoln, and then Donald's book came out. He wrote two more biographies, then Wilson's books! I can't believe these guys are still writing, but why do they write, because in their heads, even though their books come out like a Donald book, exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C, in their heads are the Oates, so once you sense the Oates that will tell you how to approach a true Lincoln expert, to give you an idea of where they are, because that life is going through their heads from beginning to end 24 hours a day. There's no way that you can get up and just do a little bit of Lincoln one day and, let's say, scuba diving the next, ok? ... There are no happy Lincoln scholars. These are all serious men.

I've talked to Oates and Donald on the phone. They were both interviewed for their books for the Diane Rehm Show. I got to talk to them on the essential issue, hello? Habeas Corpus: How do you explain Lincoln doing this? Ok? And Chief Justice Taney. And I always bring up the fact that Taney freed his slaves and that always blows Diane's mind, and everybody's going, "What?! The man who wrote the Dred Scott Decision freed his slaves? When he inherited them?" Yes. Before Dred Scott, so, Dred Scott is not what you think, hello, wake up and smell the coffee.