Hannah in Harper’s
Here’a a big FYI: the excerpt from Hannah’s novel-in-progress, Sick Soldier at Your Door, which was published in the Winter ’09 issue of Gulf Coast, has been picked up by the “Readings” section of Harper’s. It’s reprinted in the current issue, the one with the Vonnegut short story and the large roundtable with contributions from–among many others–Ben Marcus and Zadie Smith. I guess those are all pretty good reasons to pick the issue up. Actually, Harper’s is one of those magazines you’re better off subscribing to than buying on stands. It’s under 20 bucks for a year subscription, compared to something like 7 bucks per issue if you buy them one at a time. Basically, if you feel like you might want to buy a Harper’s twice in a given year, you’re better off just subscribing, and letting it come right to you.
What if we give it away?
Shya Scanlon has decided to give away his second novel, Forecast. Go here to read it online or to download it.
It’s been a few years since I originally read Forecast, but I remember enjoying it quite a bit, and have a line about “the easier eases” of something stuck in my head. There are lots of lyrical moments like that in the book: places where a single root word is explored in a couple of ways.
Just searched the document. Here it is.
Like so many people around them who, from Jen and Marshal’s perspective, had let things go so far astray, had simply let things go, they accused themselves of a fundamental acquiescence of spirit, a surrender in the face of life’s Great Challenges, one of which, they’d say, was the challenge to spread about evenly the precious resources that let them live, that allowed for the easier eases of everyday life.
Forecast could be called science fiction. The world has developed a way of turning emotions into power. The television talks to you. There’s a weatherman. A woman named Helen. Someone made a movie out of it, too. Or a movie out of part of it. The trailer used to be online, and the guy who was in Seattle’s late night sketch comedy show Almost Live was in it. (That guy, Pat Cashman, is in Taco Time ads now. Kevin Seal, one of the first MTV VJs was in a Taco Time ad a while back, too.)
Huh. Sorry about that. Apparently, this HTMLGiant update on Shya Scanlon’s book is being brought to you by Taco Time.
“Taco Time—time to eat fresh.”
Gary Indiana, Rudy Wurlitzer and YOU!
On May 28, worlds will collide as Gary Indiana and Rudy Wurlitzer converge on 192 Books in Chelsea, just south of my office. Two Dollar Radio has just put out Indiana’s The Shanghai Gesture, and is about to rerelease Wurlitzer’s Nog—a fevered dream which threatens to split our world in twain, if ever there was one (to paraphrase Scruffy). Now, I have not yet read either of these, but I have read books by these gentlemen (I use the term loosely. HEYOOOO!) before. Wurlitzer’s The Drop Edge of Yonder, which Two Dollar Radio put out last year, was rad. BMX rad, even (fist pound for the 1980s). And Indiana is a baaaddd man (to paraphrase Ali [or is it Mr. T?]). The upshot is, I suppose, that this will be a strange and surprising event the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Tunguska incident (nod to Pynchon).
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May 20th, 2009 / 7:59 am
May 20th, 2009 / 7:59 am
Pudding Pops!
This is a speech worthy of Father Mapple, given at a college by television actor Bill Cosby in Percival Everett’s new novel, I Am Not Sidney Poitier—one of the funniest books I have read in quite a while. I’ll never sell Pudding Pops for the white man. Check this book out. It’s genius.
You men think I’m going to take it easy on you. You think because you’re in college and sitting here in khakis and loafers that I’m all right with you. You think that because you’re not bopping your heads to rap music while sitting here that I’m going to embrace you. You’re wrong. You’re all pathetic. You’re pathetic until you’re not pathetic, until you do something strong and good and not until you do that. You think because you probably won’t be clad in an orange jumpsuit for stealing a piece of pound cake that I feel all warm and fuzzy about you. I sell Pudding Pops for the white man. I don’t know why I’m saying that, but I am. I make myself sick, but the white man is not to blame. He didn’t put the gun in the hands of the black kid down in juvenile hall. No, his missing father put it there. Pound cake. I’m on television. Black girls have babies by three or four fathers and why? Pudding Pops! That’s what I’m saying. Some of you are probably wondering how I can stand up here, call me high and mighty, talking about how I can stand here when I’m being sued for having babies with a woman other than my wife. Well, hell, I can afford to have babies. Pudding Pops! If you don’t know who your children’s friends are, then you’re not doing your job…I kissed a Japanese woman on screen in nineteen sixty-six and managed not to have a baby with her. I want to thank you for having me here today, and I want you to know that I will be more than happy to sign copies of my book, Fatherhood, which is on sale just outside at an attractive discount. Believe me, you need to read it. Thank you.
Something I should’ve read a long time ago but didn’t because I was probably playing video games or sleeping: Animal Farm by George Orwell
It’s like Milo & Otis meets The Hunt for Red October! As I read about Napoleon and Mollie and all the rest of the barnyard communards, I begin to wonder: This isn’t really just about talking animals, is it? It’s, like, a metaphor or something, right? Touché, Mr. Orwell.
The Circle is Now Unbroken
You knew this day would come. As anyone who has ever watched a serial TV drama knows, epic feuds are always bound to reverse into epic loves, because the same engine–passion–is what drives them both and draws the players inexorably to one another. Shall we recap for the latecomers?
Literary Doppelgangers: Brett Easton Ellis and Benicio Del Toro
Ryan Bradley tipped us off to this latest doppelganger. According to Dark Horizons, Benicio Del Toro might play Brett Easton Ellis in a movie adaptation of Lunar Park.
Is this a case of true literary doppelgangerism? Or is it just, like, movie news?
I don’t know. Brett, what do you think?
I think he’s interested just because he’s rarely offered Anglo parts. I think that’s one of the reasons it was very exciting [to him].
Amelia Gray !!! FC2 !!!
Mad congrats to the firestorm known as Amelia Gray, who has just been announced as the winner of 2008 FC2 Ronald Sukenik / American Book Review contest:
Lidia Yuknavitch, our final judge chose Amelia Gray’s manuscript titled Museum of the Weird as this year’s winner. A complex and piercing collection, as poetic as it is poignant, Museum of the Weird features twenty four short stories that collectively expose both the hilarity and heartbreak of life in the twenty first century. Congratulations again, to our winner, Amelia Gray!
Like T.I. said: what you know about dat?
Mega congratulations to Amelia. I am super excited for her. I hope it includes two of my favorites, There Will Be Sense from DIAGRAM, and ‘Diary of the Blockage’ from Caketrain.
If you have not already picked up her first collection AM/PM from Featherproof/Paper Egg, now’s the time, kid.
DANIEL BAILEY’S “DRUNK SONNETS” TO BE MADE PHYSICAL
magic helicopter press will be releasing daniel bailey’s “drunk sonnets” sometime in the fall. i don’t think i have ever read anything by daniel bailey that didn’t cause me to at least go, “dear lord” with my fingertips to my slightly open mouth. here’s a good example of some o dat bailey crunk ass shit. i’m not sure if this post contains any potentially good comment-thread arguing-points, but i have faith in each and every one of you!
elimae reading in New York, update
Here’s the latest on the elimae reading in New York. The one hosted by Shya Scanlon. Here’s the lineup.
Lincoln Michel, Rozalia Jovanovic, Kimberly King Parsons, James Yeh, Justin Taylor, Nicolle Elizabeth, Tao Lin*, Nick Antosca, Todd Zuniga, Dennis DiClaudio, John Madera, Timmy Waldron, Forrest Roth, Terese Svoboda, Barry Graham, Dawn Raffel, Sasha Graybosch, Eric Nusbaum and more.
It will be at the KGB Bar, May 26, 7pm – 9pm. Everyone will read for 3 minutes.
UPDATE:
James Yeh got left out, and has been added. Sorry, James. Here’s an extra James Yeh link.
Also, would anyone in New York like to appear as me? Volunteer in the comment section.
* Sorry. No link here. This person apparently has no web presence. Maybe he should start a blog or something.