By RICHARD JOHN STAPLETON
The protagonist of the novel Dr. Rout Logger an organizational analyst, consultant, and developer spent considerable time and energy in the book ensuring that his forty randomly-selected participants in his process, paid five thousand dollars a month to participate, had an equal democratic opportunity to freely, fairly, and frankly tell the truth as s/he saw it to the whole group about what s/he really felt, thought, and recommended regarding psychological, social, economic, political, military, and religious problems s/he thought were relevant around Spaceship Earth. Logger’s biggest problem conducting the six monthly six-hour discussions on the first Saturday of the month in randomly-selected cities in the US was convincing group members that it was OK to honestly tell the truth as they saw it to the whole group if randomly selected as the democratic “Leader of the Moment” by the Truther rooster (who raucously crowed when spun, letting the group members know it was time to wake up and get to work), caused by the members of this group having been conditioned in prior-experienced groups and organizations to think telling the truth as you honestly saw it about relevant existential problems around Spaceship Earth to others in groups was anti-social or risky. The story ends with Rout recommending a new computer-based TV zoom system for managing Spaceship Earth states of affairs involving thousands of democracy chapters established around Spaceship Earth to eradicate the power of fascist dictators and increase the chances of Earthian humans not being rendered extinct as a species by global warming and climate change (GWCC) or militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP).
Linked below is a Kirkus review, not as informing about the book as it might have been, but educational, showing what a relatively unbiased reader/professional paid reviewer thought about the book.
On the other hand, the reviewer insinuates I misled about the book being a novel, saying it is only “nominally” a novel, saying my forty characters were not real characters, saying after I introduced them playing Rout Logger, the protagonist of the novel, I proceeded to “lecture” for 350 pages pretending to be them under a “thin veneer” telling you everything that is wrong with the world.
The book is primarily about the imagined dialectical dialogical arguments my characters engaged in after one of them was selected as the Leader of the Moment randomly selected by the Truther Rooster to answer three existential questions: what is the problem? what are the alteernatives? what do you recommend.
As the author I did my best to include all ego states inventing the responses of those selected by the Truther Rooster and the responses of those who chose of their own pseudo free will what to say in the arguments that ensued.
As in any novel I attempted to imagine and write based on my experience (as a case method management professor, adult educator, and organizational consultant) what I thought respondents would say based on their their socio-economic backgrounds, using Parent, Adult, and Child ego state transactions. By no means did I lecture for 350 pages from a Parent ego state in Parent-Child transactions what I thought was wrong with the world. Most of the dialogue in the novel involved Adult ego state transactions in dialectical arguments among the characters.
I did do my best to truthfully tell readers what I thought was wrong with Spaceship Earth and what to do about it in a metaphorical sense; but I did not lecture to them about it as if I were a teacher or professor in a traditional classroom using a Parent ego state in Parent-Child transactions.
The reviewer said that I “amazingly” told readers of the book in the Preface that if they did not understand transactional analysis words such as Parent, Adult, and Child ego states that they should look them up in the Internet.
I repeat that suggestion here: The genius of TA, invented by Eric Berne, MD in the 1960s, is that it provides a new easy to learn language comprising a few ordinary words, symbols, and diagrams that enables ordinary Earthian humans to better comprehend psychological and social states of affairs in which they are enmeshed.
The major purpose of As the Rooster Crows was to metaphorically demonstrate how I’m OK—You’re OK Adult-Adult Game-Free Dialectical Case-Based Learning processes can increase Earthian human OKness. Such a learning process is the anti-thesis of most I’m OK—You’re Not OK Parent-Child lecture learning processes.
The reviewer did not seriously read the book or s/he failed to comprehend what it was all about.
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