PR IS: NSFW
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Latin Lessons from Metal Magazines: A New Series
Esoteric is a pretty profound band. Their very name suggests complexity. So when you’re already butt deep in their fantastically crushing, cerebral world of atmospheric funeral doom and you’re hit with a tongue-tripping track like “Ignotum Per Ignatius”, it’s only natural to to wonder what the hell it means. Inquiring minds will be pleased to know that, according to our findings (via the Merriam Webster Dictionary), “Ignotum Per Ignatius” is a Latin phrase defined as ‘(explaining) the unknown by means of the more unknown.’ Now you know. Sort of.
Winners of Sam Pink’s Book! And Everyone Who Entered Was Awesome!
And the winners are……………..Kendra Grant Malone, Brandi Wells, and Rob. We hope Rob is the same Rob who entered twice. Honestly? I wish Barry could send each and every one of you who entered a Sam Pink book because you are all great. Thank you Htmlgiant readers! We love you. Winners- send your address to peterrutt@live.com to get your copy of I AM GOING TO CLONE MYSELF THEN KILL THE CLONE AND EAT IT by Sam Pink.
Jean Rhys Contest
There was mention of Jean Rhys in a comment recently here at htmlgiant and it made me think of her. When I was a wee lass, like 19 to 24 or so, I was obsessed with Jean Rhys (and other stuff). I read all of her novels, (that didn’t take very long), all of her short stories, even wierd fragments, her unfinished autobiography, and then I did two sort of wierd things: read a biography of her (well, maybe that is not so wierd) and painted a painting of her from the picture of the cover of the biography, Jean Rhys: Life and Work by Carole Angier.
After that biography, I did not read another biography for maybe ten years. The experience was THAT disturbing. In fact, I vowed never to read a biography of any of my heros again. I have since relaxed that rule- I have mellowed with age, like many do–but man, what a defining moment. I was so horrified with Jean Rhys and so heartbroken at what she was really like as a human being. I felt-robbed. Now, as I’ve gotten older and more realistic as to how weak and troubled most human beings are, I feel less disturbed by Rhys. Still disturbed, but less so. To give you an idea of what I am talking about, here is an excerpt from Jean Rhys: Life and Work: READ MORE >
Where are you, Jereme? I Miss you.
Where are you Jereme? I miss you. That’s all.
Fabiana Semprebom: Think Borges’ lady was as hot as Canas’?
Writing is nothing more than a guided dream.
Borges said that. I would say that Fabiana is a dream. I go now to watch her boyfriend play tennis, or at least some of her other compatriots. Happy Boobs Friday, people.
Controversy at Helix!!!!! And the Invention of Transcriptase!
I'm singing "Controversy" right now in my kitchen.
Win Sam Pink’s book, I AM GOING TO CLONE MYSELF THEN KILL THE CLONE AND EAT IT!!!!
Htmlgiant and Paper Hero Press are sponsoring a contest to win Sam Pink’s I AM GOING TO CLONE MYSELF THEN KILL THE CLONE AND EAT IT!!!!!!! We are giving away THREE COPIES to the best entries! Here is the contest, people: Give us your best description of a fight that made you physically ill in 50 words or less. Enter in the comments section,(you can enter more than once and you can make shit up). Barry Graham, the publisher of Paper Hero Press, Sam Pink himself, and yours truly are the judges. Barf vomit blood and tears people. We love you.
Sam contemplates death, bones, violence and blood often in his book. That said, here’s a quote from the book that isn’t like that:
When You Are Happy Do A Handstand
When you are happy do a handstand and step into the sky. Go knee-deep. And push your feet through the depths. Start thinking about where the bottom is and what it feels like and if you’re not too stupid or scared to touch it.
(Full disclosure: I offered to cuddle naked with Sam Pink at the AWP in Chicago a week or so ago (even though I wasn’t there), but he declined. Then, it turned out it wasn’t Sam Pink. It was Mary Gaitskill.I was wicked drunk.)
“The Lover” by Damon Galgut, from The Paris Review (Winter 2008)
Damon Galgut
(Full disclosure: Once, I was at a party and got really drunk and offered to have intimate relations with Damon. He turned me down. Then, it turned out that he was not Damon Galgut, but Sam Pink. Go figure.)
I love the long short story. I like short ones, too, but I think the length of 7000 words and up may be my favorite length. “The Lover” by Damon Galgut in the Paris Review is 38 pages long. My guess is that it is approximately 10,ooo words. Galgut is the South African author of The Good Doctor, (very Graham Greenish, but with a flatter style) an accolade garnering novel I enjoyed so much I went onto Alibris and looked up his earlier work, work hard to find here at the time. I couldn’t get through a very harsh and violent book, Small Circle of Beings (I’m a pussy) and still have not picked up The Quarry, but I have enjoyed coming across his short stories in journals, (especially one that was in Zoetrope a few years ago.) “The Lover ” is classic Galgut, channelling a post-modern distance more Handke than DFW. His narrator, “Damon”, switches from primarily third person narration, to moments of first person narration. Galgut’s switching back and forth felt random to me at first, but with patience, a pattern and reason emerge. READ MORE >
“Everybody is pink.” An Excerpt from The Journals of John Cheever
God bless Blake for putting up with the likes of me. He truly celebrates diversity of tastes and temperments with letting me be a contributor. I love Cheever. I might love his journals as much as his short fiction. (I like his novels a bit less). Here’s an excerpt, a random one, from near the end of his life, when the world starts changing so fast on us, it dizzies us. I often think about aging and dying and how chaos and destruction eventually win our bodies whole. (Thanks Mom and Dad.) This excerpt is one of many strange and heartbreaking sections from his journals that show his delight in language and confusion as to what our time here actually means: READ MORE >