EXCERPT: from Ellen Kennedy’s Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs (#1)
Florida
i had a dream last night about your parents and you
in your house in florida
your parents were dancing in the garage
and your mom was singing
and then the radio stopped for no reason
and she screamed ‘no’
and then walked away
your dad was pissed
then you went into your room and your computer had this program that you could make animations with
and you made like 5 videos of your dad
changing from a happy dad
to a pissed dad
then i woke up
your parents were dancing so hard
Longtime readers know that I’m a big fan of Ellen’s. They may even remember that my very first HTMLGiant post was a picture I took of her. Ellen Kennedy’s official book launch is Saturday April 25. I’ll be counting down by posting a daily excerpt from Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs from now until Saturday. I’ll try to post stuff that’s not already available on the web somewhere, but I’m mostly going to just go with my favorites. To keep you busy until tomorrow, here are some links to Ellen Kennedy stuff around the web:
Buy Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs from Muumuu House.
Ellen Kennedy’s blog.
“A Pale White Hamster Yawns in Bed” by Ellen Kennedy at Muumuu House
Ellen Kennedy Week at Noah Cicero’s blog: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (with video).
Tags: Ellen Kennedy, muumuu house, Tao Lin
That poem does not try to do too much and accomplishes it.
That poem does not try to do too much and accomplishes it.
that was one of the few pieces i felt was really strong in that book
that was one of the few pieces i felt was really strong in that book
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. Thank you.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. Thank you.
Thank you — I’m really proud of this.
Thank you — I’m really proud of this.
yes
well
i liked it at least
yes
well
i liked it at least
I predict this will appeal to everyone who reads HTML Giant without regularly getting annoyed.
I predict this will appeal to everyone who reads HTML Giant without regularly getting annoyed.
i don’t think i’ve ever been annoyed reading HTML Giant… maybe i’m not taking it seriously enough.
i don’t think i’ve ever been annoyed reading HTML Giant… maybe i’m not taking it seriously enough.
i would be interested to hear a justin post about why he likes ellen’s work but not other writers with similar ‘influences’
that’s not shittalk, i really am curious
i would be interested to hear a justin post about why he likes ellen’s work but not other writers with similar ‘influences’
that’s not shittalk, i really am curious
also available at the Wayward Councile in Gainesville, FL.
also available at the Wayward Councile in Gainesville, FL.
Blake- there’s an answer to that question, but it’s probably not going to come out until much later this year.
Blake- there’s an answer to that question, but it’s probably not going to come out until much later this year.
I would like to hear anyone deal with the question of whether Muumuu House, which I assume is basically Tao Lin, is actually doing Kennedy a favor by publishing her work when she is so young and unformed — as anyone her age would be.
She seems like a lovely, sweet girl — and from what I’ve read about mental hospitals (I am not sure if Ellen was or is a patient in one or if this is part of what seems like a little Internet publicity machine from a “scene” of which blog is a part (Ryan, you don’t get annoyed here because you are “Ryan,” an insider, one of the names everyone knows — Ryan, Jereme, Justin, Blake, etc. I don’t know if you care to have the perspective of an outsider, but all I’ll say about that is that obviously there are far more people outside of your scene than it.)
To put it in the nicest way I can, it is not always in a writer’s best interest to publish at an early age, just as it’s not always in an actor’s best interest to have a regular role in a hit sitcom when she’s in her teens.
Again, this blog is very male — I’ve said before, that to an outsider, a woman, it has the air of being in a frat house and so one reason I come here is to actually “spy” a little on literary boys of a certain type and hear things I haven’t heard in a creative writing classroom or at poetry readings or in the magazines I read.
I suppose most of you have literary ambitions. Lots of people do. That’s why there are so many MFA programs. I’m sure Kennedy (and I’m giving her the respect here of calling her by her last name, the way I would any published poet after the first reference) does, too.
Very few MFA students end up publishing much at all. Trends in literature come and go. I am pretty sure that if you guys are to become successful writers (“success” admittedly is a a weird concept), at 40, you’ll probably be embarrassed by some (many?) of your posts and comments here. This blog will probably be removed by then, though perhaps someone can see it.
In any case, it’s not always to a writer’s beneft to be associated with one particular group, especially when that group is generational. (What sounds charming from someone at 22 sounds insipid coming from a 50-year-old.) I give Tao Lin credit for achieving success by sending his stuff out to Ploughshares, Pindeldyboz, Mississippi Review, etc., places where no one knew who he was. Lin could be assured that by being accepted (his work, I mean) by strangers who have no vested interest in the success of someone submitting tot hem, he had written work of interest to “outsiders.” (This “scene” didn’t exist then; Lin was unknown; hence everyone was an “outsider” then, if I’m not being too unclear.)
I think Kennedy might have been better served to see how her work fared with people for whom her name didn’t have any associations (for all I know, it could be a pseudonym; I hope, for the writer’s sake, that it is.)
She is, after all, only 20, and she’s got a very long life and maybe a long career ahead of her.
I would like to hear anyone deal with the question of whether Muumuu House, which I assume is basically Tao Lin, is actually doing Kennedy a favor by publishing her work when she is so young and unformed — as anyone her age would be.
She seems like a lovely, sweet girl — and from what I’ve read about mental hospitals (I am not sure if Ellen was or is a patient in one or if this is part of what seems like a little Internet publicity machine from a “scene” of which blog is a part (Ryan, you don’t get annoyed here because you are “Ryan,” an insider, one of the names everyone knows — Ryan, Jereme, Justin, Blake, etc. I don’t know if you care to have the perspective of an outsider, but all I’ll say about that is that obviously there are far more people outside of your scene than it.)
To put it in the nicest way I can, it is not always in a writer’s best interest to publish at an early age, just as it’s not always in an actor’s best interest to have a regular role in a hit sitcom when she’s in her teens.
Again, this blog is very male — I’ve said before, that to an outsider, a woman, it has the air of being in a frat house and so one reason I come here is to actually “spy” a little on literary boys of a certain type and hear things I haven’t heard in a creative writing classroom or at poetry readings or in the magazines I read.
I suppose most of you have literary ambitions. Lots of people do. That’s why there are so many MFA programs. I’m sure Kennedy (and I’m giving her the respect here of calling her by her last name, the way I would any published poet after the first reference) does, too.
Very few MFA students end up publishing much at all. Trends in literature come and go. I am pretty sure that if you guys are to become successful writers (“success” admittedly is a a weird concept), at 40, you’ll probably be embarrassed by some (many?) of your posts and comments here. This blog will probably be removed by then, though perhaps someone can see it.
In any case, it’s not always to a writer’s beneft to be associated with one particular group, especially when that group is generational. (What sounds charming from someone at 22 sounds insipid coming from a 50-year-old.) I give Tao Lin credit for achieving success by sending his stuff out to Ploughshares, Pindeldyboz, Mississippi Review, etc., places where no one knew who he was. Lin could be assured that by being accepted (his work, I mean) by strangers who have no vested interest in the success of someone submitting tot hem, he had written work of interest to “outsiders.” (This “scene” didn’t exist then; Lin was unknown; hence everyone was an “outsider” then, if I’m not being too unclear.)
I think Kennedy might have been better served to see how her work fared with people for whom her name didn’t have any associations (for all I know, it could be a pseudonym; I hope, for the writer’s sake, that it is.)
She is, after all, only 20, and she’s got a very long life and maybe a long career ahead of her.
i just typed a whole thought provoking paragraph.
like my heart was in that shit. but i press post, and i didn’t type in my mail. and it took me to this all white page. told me to go back and fix it. i go back, and my paragraph is gone. What the shit?
anyway, the paragraph boiled down to this:
you can be 50 and haven’t lived as much as a 15 year old. its all relative. just because you make it to 20 doesnt mean your live to see 20 and 10 seconds. Or even 21. With my health problems I may not live to see 25 and I’m 24. All I require of those who’s creative output I consume is that they care, at some point, about that which they create, during or after, or whatever. So let’s just wait 40 years, see who’s still standing, what fads are here to stay (rap’s still a fad, allegedly), and then we can talk.
Okay mon ami (said like Gambit from X-Men)
i just typed a whole thought provoking paragraph.
like my heart was in that shit. but i press post, and i didn’t type in my mail. and it took me to this all white page. told me to go back and fix it. i go back, and my paragraph is gone. What the shit?
anyway, the paragraph boiled down to this:
you can be 50 and haven’t lived as much as a 15 year old. its all relative. just because you make it to 20 doesnt mean your live to see 20 and 10 seconds. Or even 21. With my health problems I may not live to see 25 and I’m 24. All I require of those who’s creative output I consume is that they care, at some point, about that which they create, during or after, or whatever. So let’s just wait 40 years, see who’s still standing, what fads are here to stay (rap’s still a fad, allegedly), and then we can talk.
Okay mon ami (said like Gambit from X-Men)
OK, so she’s the next Mattie J. T. Stepanek, whose work reminds me of most of the Muumuu House authors. He was very young and very popular, too.
OK, so she’s the next Mattie J. T. Stepanek, whose work reminds me of most of the Muumuu House authors. He was very young and very popular, too.
Oh, and if you’re 50 you have lived 35 more years than a 15yo.
I’m sorry you’re so bad at math.
Maybe talk to your mom or dad. They can explain this to you.
Oh, and if you’re 50 you have lived 35 more years than a 15yo.
I’m sorry you’re so bad at math.
Maybe talk to your mom or dad. They can explain this to you.
Where’s the fire, HyoJung? Let’s keep it civil civil, compadre!
Where’s the fire, HyoJung? Let’s keep it civil civil, compadre!
just pointing out some obvious assumptions in HyoJung’s post: poetry is intended to impart wisdom; publishing is a favor, rather than a desire to have people read something; publishing outside of a ‘scene’ makes one an actual writer; there is a difference between a publishing world/community & a scene; one should be embarrassed of their youth; success occurs at 40; literary ambition means wanting success.
just pointing out some obvious assumptions in HyoJung’s post: poetry is intended to impart wisdom; publishing is a favor, rather than a desire to have people read something; publishing outside of a ‘scene’ makes one an actual writer; there is a difference between a publishing world/community & a scene; one should be embarrassed of their youth; success occurs at 40; literary ambition means wanting success.
“Ryan, you don’t get annoyed here because you are “Ryan,” an insider, one of the names everyone knows — Ryan, Jereme, Justin, Blake, etc. I don’t know if you care to have the perspective of an outsider, but all I’ll say about that is that obviously there are far more people outside of your scene than it.”
HJ, i think it’s nice that you think i’m an insider here. i have never thought so. maybe you have me mistaken with the other ryans who post here? while i do post here semi-often i am not what i would consider to be a part of “core” group here. nor do i think it would be a negative thing if i were, i just don’t happen to think that’s currently the case. the reason i don’t feel annoyed here is because i appreciate the fact that there’s a place for people to talk about the many aspects of writing and reading. at times when topics go places that others find annoying, i shrug. it’s just opinions. there’s no reason to let them annoy me. maybe if i had one of those conversations in person i might, but it’s the internet, and i have enough stress in my life.
i’m not entirely sure what your core issue here is. i’ve wondered some of the same things about muumuu house, but ultimately that’s tao’s decision, since it’s his press. do i think kennedy’s poetry shows some promise? yes. do i think that getting a bit older is what will help her? not necessarily. she’s young and she got published. sweet. i wanted to love her book, but it didn’t do it for me. a lot of people are loving it. to me that’s no different than the experience of just about any other book. people are going to love it, people are not going to love it.
anyway, i’ve always felt somewhat outside this scene. i’ve come to it a lot later than the others, and i talk to very few of the people involved… i post here because it’s an open forum and i get the chance to talk with other people who are interested in similar things.
“Ryan, you don’t get annoyed here because you are “Ryan,” an insider, one of the names everyone knows — Ryan, Jereme, Justin, Blake, etc. I don’t know if you care to have the perspective of an outsider, but all I’ll say about that is that obviously there are far more people outside of your scene than it.”
HJ, i think it’s nice that you think i’m an insider here. i have never thought so. maybe you have me mistaken with the other ryans who post here? while i do post here semi-often i am not what i would consider to be a part of “core” group here. nor do i think it would be a negative thing if i were, i just don’t happen to think that’s currently the case. the reason i don’t feel annoyed here is because i appreciate the fact that there’s a place for people to talk about the many aspects of writing and reading. at times when topics go places that others find annoying, i shrug. it’s just opinions. there’s no reason to let them annoy me. maybe if i had one of those conversations in person i might, but it’s the internet, and i have enough stress in my life.
i’m not entirely sure what your core issue here is. i’ve wondered some of the same things about muumuu house, but ultimately that’s tao’s decision, since it’s his press. do i think kennedy’s poetry shows some promise? yes. do i think that getting a bit older is what will help her? not necessarily. she’s young and she got published. sweet. i wanted to love her book, but it didn’t do it for me. a lot of people are loving it. to me that’s no different than the experience of just about any other book. people are going to love it, people are not going to love it.
anyway, i’ve always felt somewhat outside this scene. i’ve come to it a lot later than the others, and i talk to very few of the people involved… i post here because it’s an open forum and i get the chance to talk with other people who are interested in similar things.
hmm, now i’m curious
hmm, now i’m curious
come back when you can present an original thought
come back when you can present an original thought
OK, sorry, I did confuse you with another Ryan. It’s more common than my name.
I really don’t think I said anything uncivil. I assume some people who think a mild, fairly cheerful and good-natured put-down is uncivil ought to steam at comments where people are called “fags” by teenage writers.
I think the person who characterized my comments misunderstood me.
Cyril Connolly listed early success as one of “the enemies of promise” in his work on the subject. Is it always? No. There’s Leonardo Di Caprio and then there’s Kirk Cameron, who in his time got more fan mail than any other actor in Hollywood.
I recall reading a Village Voice article on the perils of being published young by Ned Vizzini, a writer I admire.
For a time in the 1980s, Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis and Tama Janowitz were the hottest writers in NYC & LA and probably the country. Each of them is still writing, but as they got older, they had to reinvent themselves, and I think it’s inarguable that none of them are as central to American literary culture as people once thought they were.
If you think a 15yo boy knows more than his 50yo father, well, I can say he doesn’t know some things. The father may be able to remember what it was like to be a 15yo boy, but the boy cannot really imagine what it’s like to be his father’s age.
That’s not to say that 15yo boys know more about some things. But are we really all equal in our critical thinking facilities? Is a 15yo boy’s opinion of Dickens’ “Bleak House” better than James Wood’s? Can it ever be? Try teach 10th grade English, and you’ll see that while certain kids are mature and bright and energetic, they’re also childish…because they’re kids. For the most part, they haven’t been kicked around by life the way almost everyone is by, say, age 30.
To me, a lot of this stuff getting published is juvenilia. The barriers to entry have come down, so a 17yo girl can publish just as easily, if not more easily, than Toni Morrison.
Is maturity overrated? Perhaps. But perhaps immaturity — callow and jejune and silly behavior — is also overrated.
Try an experiment: If you have parents, teachers and friends over 40, give them a Muumuu House book or webpage. I’d be interested to know what older people think.
By the way, I was thinking about the phrase “shit-talking,” popularized by Lin, which he uses to identify everything from totally uncivil discourse by people who irrationally hate him to sincere negative criticism supported by examples and logic.
Isn’t “shit-talking” one of those dead metaphors, figurative language phrases, cliches that we’re supposed to avoid?
By calling every critique “shit talking” or “uncivil” discourse, you can insulate yourself from any negative criticism.
I think it’s unfortunate that mainstream reviewers will ignore little books like Ellen Kennedy’s and hundreds of others — because it leaves all the “criticism” to the author’s friends and allies.
Your critics can teach you a lot more than your friends can.
OK, sorry, I did confuse you with another Ryan. It’s more common than my name.
I really don’t think I said anything uncivil. I assume some people who think a mild, fairly cheerful and good-natured put-down is uncivil ought to steam at comments where people are called “fags” by teenage writers.
I think the person who characterized my comments misunderstood me.
Cyril Connolly listed early success as one of “the enemies of promise” in his work on the subject. Is it always? No. There’s Leonardo Di Caprio and then there’s Kirk Cameron, who in his time got more fan mail than any other actor in Hollywood.
I recall reading a Village Voice article on the perils of being published young by Ned Vizzini, a writer I admire.
For a time in the 1980s, Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis and Tama Janowitz were the hottest writers in NYC & LA and probably the country. Each of them is still writing, but as they got older, they had to reinvent themselves, and I think it’s inarguable that none of them are as central to American literary culture as people once thought they were.
If you think a 15yo boy knows more than his 50yo father, well, I can say he doesn’t know some things. The father may be able to remember what it was like to be a 15yo boy, but the boy cannot really imagine what it’s like to be his father’s age.
That’s not to say that 15yo boys know more about some things. But are we really all equal in our critical thinking facilities? Is a 15yo boy’s opinion of Dickens’ “Bleak House” better than James Wood’s? Can it ever be? Try teach 10th grade English, and you’ll see that while certain kids are mature and bright and energetic, they’re also childish…because they’re kids. For the most part, they haven’t been kicked around by life the way almost everyone is by, say, age 30.
To me, a lot of this stuff getting published is juvenilia. The barriers to entry have come down, so a 17yo girl can publish just as easily, if not more easily, than Toni Morrison.
Is maturity overrated? Perhaps. But perhaps immaturity — callow and jejune and silly behavior — is also overrated.
Try an experiment: If you have parents, teachers and friends over 40, give them a Muumuu House book or webpage. I’d be interested to know what older people think.
By the way, I was thinking about the phrase “shit-talking,” popularized by Lin, which he uses to identify everything from totally uncivil discourse by people who irrationally hate him to sincere negative criticism supported by examples and logic.
Isn’t “shit-talking” one of those dead metaphors, figurative language phrases, cliches that we’re supposed to avoid?
By calling every critique “shit talking” or “uncivil” discourse, you can insulate yourself from any negative criticism.
I think it’s unfortunate that mainstream reviewers will ignore little books like Ellen Kennedy’s and hundreds of others — because it leaves all the “criticism” to the author’s friends and allies.
Your critics can teach you a lot more than your friends can.
i agree with a lot of what you said. but i don’t think anyone’s saying kennedy’s poetry is universal. i have no doubt a lot of people won’t like it. maybe that comes down more in terms of demographics, maybe not. i’m 25 and i didn’t really get into the book. my favorite writers and influences don’t include anyone in this so-called scene, yet there are writers in this “scene” whose writing i enjoy. again, i think this is common to have likes and dislikes within a segment of something. generally i would say i’m a fan of beat literature, yet there’s plenty of it that i don’t go in for. and i don’t think anyone is arguing that “a 15yo boy knows more than his 50yo father” they have different realities, inhabit different universes.
i don’t know why i’m posting about this…
i agree with a lot of what you said. but i don’t think anyone’s saying kennedy’s poetry is universal. i have no doubt a lot of people won’t like it. maybe that comes down more in terms of demographics, maybe not. i’m 25 and i didn’t really get into the book. my favorite writers and influences don’t include anyone in this so-called scene, yet there are writers in this “scene” whose writing i enjoy. again, i think this is common to have likes and dislikes within a segment of something. generally i would say i’m a fan of beat literature, yet there’s plenty of it that i don’t go in for. and i don’t think anyone is arguing that “a 15yo boy knows more than his 50yo father” they have different realities, inhabit different universes.
i don’t know why i’m posting about this…
I gotta say this. I must.
And I truly hope you’re around to read this HJ, I really am.
I know some pretty immature 40 year olds. I was in a poetry group with one. See, I was homeless at the time (this is the entire length of 2008 and part of 2009) and it was a three-man group. We were doing pretty good in southern california, the Long Beach area. He thought like you — I know a lot about a lot. For whatever reason. I don’t care because I know I don’t know everything. He felt that because I was 23 (I just turned 24), this means I must fit into some kind of social mold of what an African-American 23 year old should write about, think and generally act. He then would never take my suggestions about anything, I couldn’t edit his work, I couldn’t really know about filmmaking although I studied it, and just happened to know a lot about it because when I want to know something, I seek out information and sponge it right up. He would take digs at me, disrespecting me intensely at every corner because of his insecurities and immaturities, while I, the younger and supposedly less mature and less ‘lived’, just sat there and understood the entire situation. I didn’t retaliate. I tried to take it for the better of the group, I even tried ego stroking, which I never do. Even to family. Shows how much I wanted this to work.
See, I’ve been writing since 3rd grade, because of how much I moved around, state to state, how much I went through abuse, how many people I loved that died, and how many I loved that let me down in huge ways. Early on, I had to learn about life kicking you down. I had to learn how to live without parents because my mother had to leave me and my sister with my sister’s grandmother, so my mom could go find work to support us. This happened twice. I understood why she had to go, even then. I didn’t cry. I was sad, but I didn’t cry. I didn’t feel like she abandoned me. Now, I was about 5 years old then. I think younger. I was a wee toddler. And for a toddler to understand that, and not hold it against his mother — telling me that young children cannot understand life at a young age like someone who’s older?
Please. Gimmie a break. My example of the guy in my poetry group represents the two extremes of exactly what I am talking about. And I’m not such an asshead that I think I am a special case. If I felt it/thought it/understood it, then I know SOMEONE, somewhere, also felt the same way, or is the same way.
I hope you read this… because I am not attacking you. This is a really important topic to me, the one you brought up. Because I’ve been fighting this my whole life. My age — I think like I have the 50 or 60 years behind my back, but I look like I’m 24. Because I am 24. And I also think like a 24 year old. Doesn’t mean I must act like one. Because, like I said, you have 50 year olds that act like 24 year olds.
It is really relative. And everyone doesn’t fit into nice little restraints and constraints. Ya dig?
I gotta say this. I must.
And I truly hope you’re around to read this HJ, I really am.
I know some pretty immature 40 year olds. I was in a poetry group with one. See, I was homeless at the time (this is the entire length of 2008 and part of 2009) and it was a three-man group. We were doing pretty good in southern california, the Long Beach area. He thought like you — I know a lot about a lot. For whatever reason. I don’t care because I know I don’t know everything. He felt that because I was 23 (I just turned 24), this means I must fit into some kind of social mold of what an African-American 23 year old should write about, think and generally act. He then would never take my suggestions about anything, I couldn’t edit his work, I couldn’t really know about filmmaking although I studied it, and just happened to know a lot about it because when I want to know something, I seek out information and sponge it right up. He would take digs at me, disrespecting me intensely at every corner because of his insecurities and immaturities, while I, the younger and supposedly less mature and less ‘lived’, just sat there and understood the entire situation. I didn’t retaliate. I tried to take it for the better of the group, I even tried ego stroking, which I never do. Even to family. Shows how much I wanted this to work.
See, I’ve been writing since 3rd grade, because of how much I moved around, state to state, how much I went through abuse, how many people I loved that died, and how many I loved that let me down in huge ways. Early on, I had to learn about life kicking you down. I had to learn how to live without parents because my mother had to leave me and my sister with my sister’s grandmother, so my mom could go find work to support us. This happened twice. I understood why she had to go, even then. I didn’t cry. I was sad, but I didn’t cry. I didn’t feel like she abandoned me. Now, I was about 5 years old then. I think younger. I was a wee toddler. And for a toddler to understand that, and not hold it against his mother — telling me that young children cannot understand life at a young age like someone who’s older?
Please. Gimmie a break. My example of the guy in my poetry group represents the two extremes of exactly what I am talking about. And I’m not such an asshead that I think I am a special case. If I felt it/thought it/understood it, then I know SOMEONE, somewhere, also felt the same way, or is the same way.
I hope you read this… because I am not attacking you. This is a really important topic to me, the one you brought up. Because I’ve been fighting this my whole life. My age — I think like I have the 50 or 60 years behind my back, but I look like I’m 24. Because I am 24. And I also think like a 24 year old. Doesn’t mean I must act like one. Because, like I said, you have 50 year olds that act like 24 year olds.
It is really relative. And everyone doesn’t fit into nice little restraints and constraints. Ya dig?
He thought like you — I know a lot about a lot.
I think I know a little about a little. Thanks for your response. RIght now I’ve got to do something I probably DO know more about than you do: I gotta breast-feed my 3-week-old.
See, I DO like some boys.
He thought like you — I know a lot about a lot.
I think I know a little about a little. Thanks for your response. RIght now I’ve got to do something I probably DO know more about than you do: I gotta breast-feed my 3-week-old.
See, I DO like some boys.
And I thought I knew more at 17 than I do now at 33.
If I thought I knew so much, I wouldn’t read this blog or comment here. I’m trying to learn.
How many 33yo moms you think read this blog anyway? I’m sure my peers would think I’m wasting my time….but I’m on maternity leave so I can do what I please…or what pleases the little guy.
And I thought I knew more at 17 than I do now at 33.
If I thought I knew so much, I wouldn’t read this blog or comment here. I’m trying to learn.
How many 33yo moms you think read this blog anyway? I’m sure my peers would think I’m wasting my time….but I’m on maternity leave so I can do what I please…or what pleases the little guy.
that line reads wrong. I was referring to myself.
I know a lot about a lot, even that it seems like a lot, its really a little about a little, in the universal sense.
Its a paradox is what I was going for.
Is your 3 week old named Michael? because that would be cool…
that line reads wrong. I was referring to myself.
I know a lot about a lot, even that it seems like a lot, its really a little about a little, in the universal sense.
Its a paradox is what I was going for.
Is your 3 week old named Michael? because that would be cool…
man, it seems like yesterday my nearly ten-month old was just a few weeks old. you’re making me all nostalgic now.
man, it seems like yesterday my nearly ten-month old was just a few weeks old. you’re making me all nostalgic now.
I think i characterized your previous statement well, as your over-40 experiment shows. It was presumptious of me to assume your assumptions, but so it goes.
I don’t disagree with all the assumptions, only some of them.
I think part of the discussion here is just people having different assumptions about what things like success & literary ambition mean.
Which is pretty much the same as having different taste in what it means to be a writer.
Which leads to longwinded posts & comments about nothing.
Like this one.
I think i characterized your previous statement well, as your over-40 experiment shows. It was presumptious of me to assume your assumptions, but so it goes.
I don’t disagree with all the assumptions, only some of them.
I think part of the discussion here is just people having different assumptions about what things like success & literary ambition mean.
Which is pretty much the same as having different taste in what it means to be a writer.
Which leads to longwinded posts & comments about nothing.
Like this one.
i am inside my apartment right now.
i am inside my apartment right now.
also, what you actually said was this:
‘clean up your frat house, boys. I know you expect black women to do it for you but it ain’t 1955 Ohio anymore.’
which i thought was pretty funny.
also, what you actually said was this:
‘clean up your frat house, boys. I know you expect black women to do it for you but it ain’t 1955 Ohio anymore.’
which i thought was pretty funny.
I think Ellen was far more influential on Tao than people think.
I think Ellen was far more influential on Tao than people think.
damn
damn
But andrew it seems like the dominant attitude of the “scene” as HJ describes it is that there are no real expectations or assumptions of what it means to be a writer.
I mean, having read some of this stuff you get the feeling that people are just laying down bricks randomly and then stepping back and saying “yeah, this is good, this is really good” without considering it at all.
I’ve written like that and it’s lazy, unfulfilling, and in the end you aren’t really saying anything. It’s confusing. But I feel like the “scene” thinks that they’re doing something new by being lazy– and maybe with the exception of tao lin, they aren’t. I think what HJ is saying is correct.
The attitude is if you’ve got a keyboard and a computer you can write pretty much whatever you want without thinking about it and it’s instantly art… and I don’t know if that’s really an attitude you can hold for your entire life, or one that will sustain you for your entire life. I don’t know. I like a lot of the things that tao lin is doing with muumuu house, just not the work they actually put out. That could be just a taste thing. But I can’t shake the feeling that it isn’t.
It feels weird reading tao lin say things like he feels BSG’s book is going to be huge and well-considered ten years into the future when they seem to present this front that suggests that’s not what they’re in it for at all… I don’t know. It’s entitlement. It’s just immaturity I guess. That takes us back to the beginning.
But andrew it seems like the dominant attitude of the “scene” as HJ describes it is that there are no real expectations or assumptions of what it means to be a writer.
I mean, having read some of this stuff you get the feeling that people are just laying down bricks randomly and then stepping back and saying “yeah, this is good, this is really good” without considering it at all.
I’ve written like that and it’s lazy, unfulfilling, and in the end you aren’t really saying anything. It’s confusing. But I feel like the “scene” thinks that they’re doing something new by being lazy– and maybe with the exception of tao lin, they aren’t. I think what HJ is saying is correct.
The attitude is if you’ve got a keyboard and a computer you can write pretty much whatever you want without thinking about it and it’s instantly art… and I don’t know if that’s really an attitude you can hold for your entire life, or one that will sustain you for your entire life. I don’t know. I like a lot of the things that tao lin is doing with muumuu house, just not the work they actually put out. That could be just a taste thing. But I can’t shake the feeling that it isn’t.
It feels weird reading tao lin say things like he feels BSG’s book is going to be huge and well-considered ten years into the future when they seem to present this front that suggests that’s not what they’re in it for at all… I don’t know. It’s entitlement. It’s just immaturity I guess. That takes us back to the beginning.
dig
dig
Whatever happened to that kid? She seems to have disappeared. Or maybe I just decided today that I was curious where she is now.