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The Art of Prison by Grey Foss
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Why I wrote it...
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Prison is one of the toughest experiences anybody can face. The media have their take on it in the news and in films. Everybody has his or her own idea about 'prison' and 'cons'. Researchers have researched it, reporters have exposed it as too hard or too lenient. I went through it and I worked hard to make prison work for me. I wrote this book for prisoners, their families and friends, those who work with prisoners, and for anybody who wants an inside view of the Inside struggles that are the real drama and the real work of being imprisoned.
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Prison and the "Self"
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There are many paths through prison, but few that will lead you where you need to go. But amidst all the self-destructivness there is the self-constructive path. It is the path that leads you to the Voyage toward Self-Mastery. It is the path that you take if you are willing to take command of the Vessel that is you, make repairs, train the crew, train your own Self in the skills and discipline of being In Command, and then take your Vessel out to sea on the Mission that will provide the way toward real success as a human being.
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My Writing Links
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The Art of Prison, an author's description
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Utilizing a concept similar to Sun-Tzu’s "The Art of War", and drawing upon the insights of Psychology, Philosophy, Literature, Sociology, comparative Religion, and Military History, "The Art of Prison" is a highly-focused introduction to the art of self-mastery. While it specifically discusses the challenges of mastering the Self in the prison setting the book quickly delves into levels of human experience so fundamental that it becomes a worthwhile resource for anyone who seeks to develop a larger capacity for self-mastery.
The book casts its reader as the captain of a vessel who is responsible for familiarizing him- or her-self with the ship, repairing it, sailing it, and taking it on voyages and missions. This is a self-conception rarely utilized these days, and as a way of approaching the particular challenges facing prisoners it is unique in the modern repertoire. And in using the concept of the Vessel’s ‘Master’, the book casts itself not as a study or even a discussion, but as an owner’s manual, a user’s manual of the human Self. And what "The Art of Prison" offers is not an assortment of band-aid tricks or inspirational one-liners. Instead it offers a tightly focused but deep and comprehensive ‘crash-course’ in the most basic and the most fundamental tasks of mastering the reader’s Self. And the ‘course’ is offered not condescendingly, but in a collegial tone, captain to captain’, so to speak.
Through its frequent references to the challenge facing a hypothetical naval commander whose ship has been damaged at Pearl Harbor and who is suddenly confronted with the stern and urgent demand to achieve major levels of mastery quickly, the book speaks to prisoners, but also to any human being who is suddenly confronted with a crisis of opportunity and who senses the call to conduct life more responsibly than ever before. And as if recognizing this relevance to the challenge of living in the world since September 11th, "The Art of Prison" includes a final chapter that distills the wisdom of the self-mastered "Prisoner" for anyone who has been moved by those events toward a desire for a richer, more ‘mastered’ experience of being and living. In offering prisoners a ‘crash course in command’ this book offers any reader a chance to own the ‘owner’s manual’ we humans famously don’t come equipped with.
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