I Like It When Thom Jones’s First Person Narrators Break Into Essay in the Middle of a Short Story
Thirteen pages into “The Pugilist at Rest,” which is a twenty-three page story, which has up till now told a Vietnam War story, the first person narrator goes to white space, then returns with this:
“Theogenes was the greatest of gladiators. He was a boxer who served under the patronage of a cruel nobleman, a prince who took great delight in bloody spectacles. Although this was several hundred years before the times of those most enlightened of men Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and well after the Minoans of Crete, it still remains a high point in the history of Western civilization and culture. It was the approximate time of Homer, the greatest poet who ever lived. Then, as now, violence, suffering, and the cheapness of life were the rule.” READ MORE >
Welcome to Monday
Make no mistake: this man is doing nothing.
After a weekend of extreme feats of laziness, I came across this excerpt of a letter from Rilke to Rodin, by way of Geoff Dyer’s engrossing book, Our of Sheer Rage:
“I have often asked myself whether those days on which we are forced to be indolent are not just the ones we pass in profoundest activity? Whether all our doing, when it comes later, is not only the last reverberation of a great movement which takes place in us on those days of inaction…”
Ah! So my idle time wasn’t wasted, but necessary to allow eventual brilliance to percolate. Thanks, Rilke!
Barry Hannah Marathon Reading (Midnight, Dec. 5)
Tonight at Midnight, I’ll be reading Long, Last, Happy in its entirety in an exclusive HTMLGIANT webcast. Thanks to the good people at Grove/Atlantic, we’ll be giving away copies of the book and exclusive Barry Hannah bookmarks and stickers manufactured by Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, Barry’s hometown bookstore. The estimated duration of the webcast will be 15-25 hours. Stop by, have a listen, leave a comment about your favorite Barry Hannah story.
Live updates (what story I’m reading, how to win a free copy of Long, Last, Happy) starting at midnight on Twitter: follow @kyle_minor
P3T3R CHR1ST()PH3R5ON is also gone.
(Turn this WAAAAAY up.)
text and videos by refbatch
that woman female object stopped to exist in 1999, you can see shadow only. the fighter of removed is representing to you its fight. which soon will not be needed as we all will burn. i said i drown in information, like a swimmer, who is exhausting to fight with waves in the lake or ocean-at time when a man drowned on telaviv beach-soon I will not have any dress and any tooth, and you will have to take my talk as it is-without any attributes
beneath the cut: videos, text and images by refbatch.
A moment of thanks and praise
In the spirit of today, what writers, editors, journals, and presses are you most thankful for? Preferably living, but dead works too.
30 Minutes
How long it will take to print your book.
How long it will take to turn your book into toilet paper.
Get Tethered
Black Ocean & Octopus are offering some vicious subscriptions deals to float your boat, and theirs.
from Black Ocean
The 2011 Subscription – $40 (ships 2/2011)
Includes one copy of every title we will release in 2011 plus a free book.
Almost a 20% savings! And as always, free shipping!
Destroyer of Man by Dominic Owen Mallary
Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen
The Girl Without Arms by Brandon Shimoda
Handsome Vol. 3
Term 12
Catch 22 caught on. So did blog. Jabberwocky, kids, jabber-fuckin-wocky. Writers make words. Go right ahead:
1. Term for stealing a simile.
2. Term for writing drunk.
3. Term for moment you know you’ve lost the audience at a reading.
4. Term for author groupie.
5. Term for moment you know you will not finish reading the book in your hand.
6. Term for guilt felt for playing video games when you should be writing.
7. Term for sentence you wish you wrote.
8. Term for disappointment of meeting the writer in person after glowing his/her words.
9. Term for hatred of flash fiction.
10. Term for writer who gets drunk and discusses own books.
11. Term for person at reading who laughs loudly at things not funny.
12. Term for the feeling you get when meeting someone in person you only knew online.
Third Annual Indie Lit Secret Santa Gift Exchange
From now until December 14th, you can sign up to participate in our annual Indie Lit Secret Santa Gift Exchange. We are again using Elfster this year to handle the exchange, so if you’d like to sign up, head over to our gift exchange page and join.
When you click on the link, it will take you to the exchange page with an RSVP field. Add comments if you want, click ‘Yes’ in the left top corner of the field, and then click the green RSVP button. If you haven’t joined Elfster before, then you will be prompted to join.
If you’re unfamiliar with the exchange, it’s pretty simple. We’d like everyone to exchange gifts related to indie lit presses and publications. We’re thinking that $20 is a solid gift value. We’ll draw names the 15th, the day after the exchange closes, and then participants will have about a week and a half to buy and ship out their gifts.
If you have any questions about the exchange, let me know. Email me, comment here or at the Elfster page, and we’ll figure it out.