The Short Answer with Ron Austin
June 2020
Writer Ron Austin answers our “Short Answer” series where we ask writers, thinkers, artists, and creative makers of all styles what they make, what makes them, and what they want to remake.
More so than remake, I deconstruct and rebuild.
What do you make?
Ron Austin: I make survival strategies. I make telephone wire sizzle. I make harmonics. I make ribcage split. I make onyx vibrate. I make lung ornate. I make precious metal love me. I make rubies blood. I make epic ballads. I make pop songs. I make eulogies. I make living bricks. I make epilogue’s epilogue. I make pyramids. I make tongue eternal. I make astral corporeal. I make escape. I make ancestral sincere. I make feast from bone. I make garden bling. I make distortion contort. I make surreal backbend. I make static sing. I make survival strategies. I make platinum love me. I make hearts bombastic. I make brains bombastic. I make words bramble. I make spine rattle. I make words rasp. I make words nectar. I make diamond spill. I make gold standard love me. I make survival strategies.
What makes you?
RA: I live, breathe, and create by the belief in a world where humanistic empathy and communication could take center stage, overtake telephone games, and conversation and storytelling could solve social problems.
What would you remake?
RA: More so than remake, I deconstruct and rebuild. I deconstruct crowns and rebuild them into dirt that works and dreams sweat. I deconstruct crows and rebuild them into ebony feathered capes that drape the backs of uncommon thinkers. I deconstruct quick-fried misconceptions and rebuild them into flank bones for slow cookers. I deconstruct rhinoceros tusk and rebuild it into brighter beacon. I deconstruct weary eyes and rebuild them into sharper lenses. I deconstruct given conditions and praise the gear, the grind, the mechanics of consequence. I rebuild my hand, my reach, and remake what fits my grasp.
