Morphs On…
The writer sitting in the department meeting is still a writer.
The pursuit of publication is a cowardly action.
A writer who has never been humiliated is a monster.
It is possible for the diary of a revolutionary to have a greater impact on society than the revolution itself.
Entertainment has already replaced art under the name of art; and soon information will replace entertainment under the name of entertainment.
The writer cannot afford to be isolated and trampled.
Accepted writers love to discuss rejection.
Some Notes on Affect
A lot that’s happening on this site right now, in posts and in comments, has somehow coalesced around a few themes and texts that I first explored seriously in a college course I took, called Excess, that focused on, well, the literature of excess, or transgression: Sade, Bataille, Sacher-Masoch, and films like Irreversible. It was taught by Paul Mann, poet and author of Masocriticism, which, as its title suggests, radically exposes the viscera gaping from the act of reading and interpreting texts. He writes,
The text never recognizes us. It neither assents to nor dissents from our reading, our desire. Whatever validations we establish, it remains silent throughout our reading.
At the end of each reading, it returns as a Greek.
At the end of each masocritical scene, one is abandoned to the absolutely otherness of the other. One suffers an utter loss of agency, out of and against which a new scene or new reading must be projected.
This formulation of the text recalls Bataille’s vision of the sun burning itself up with no consideration for the life that its combustion nurtures, a concept that is central to much of Bataille’s work (including the essay whose title I stole for the reading series I run w/ Blake and Jamie Iredell in Atlanta, Solar Anus). The way Mann equates the sun with the text deepens this idea of reading as hyper-sensory experience. READ MORE >
PHOTO: THE CREEPIEST NURSERY SCHOOL FACADE EVER
I swear to God, this is a real nursery school in Manhattan. I took the picture.
jhonen vasquez school for tots
One Reader Writes
This comment appeared yesterday on a very NSFW post of mine from back in June, “Getting to Know Furry Girl & Feminisnt”. It comes from Janet Hardy, co-author of The Ethical Slut, and it clears up some confusion I had about a seeming change in authorship–namely hers–between the original and revised editions of the book.
December 20th, 2009 / 10:58 pm edit Janet Hardy—
Janet Hardy here — a Google alert pointed me toward your blog when you started talking about Ethical Slut. “Catherine A. Liszt” and I are the same person — she’s a pen name I used to use when my kids were still minors (“cat-a-lyst,” get it?).
The new edition of “Slut” is an extensive rewrite and expansion of the original book — after 12 years, we found we had a lot more we wanted to say, and a lot of changes we wanted to make in how we said it. I’m glad you enjoyed the original book but I think you’ll like the new one even more.
Thanks,
Janet W. Hardy
You can learn more about The Ethical Slut (the perfect last-minute Christmas gift for that special slut in your life–or, better yet, that special non-slut you’re looking to loosen up) at the Greenery Press site (while you’re over there, be sure to also check out The Compleat Spanker and A Hand in the Bush: The Fine Art of Vaginal Fisting for all Genders and Orientations). And the best part of this whole episode is that I was reminded of how long it’s been since I checked in with either Furry Girl or with Susie Bright. Anyway, we can all look forward to more sex-positive literature-related pornography appearing on this site in the nearish future.
PS- bonus points for any commenter who, without googling, can cite the literary reference in the title of this post.
The Laminated Cat (Rule of Threes #2)
Urban Perspective with Self-Portrait, Federico Garcia Lorca from graphicwitness.org
1. …and I just spilled coffee all over García Lorca’s “Dance of Death” from Poet in New York. Just listen to these lines (read them aloud, I mean):
They are gone, the pepper trees,
the tiny buds of phosphorous.
They are gone, the camels with torn flesh,
and the valleys of light the swan lifted in its beak.It was the time of parched things,
the wheat spear in the eye, the laminated cat,
the time of tremendous, rusting bridges
and the deathly silence of cork.
Now imagine those lines swimming in Starbucks Christmas blend. What is a laminated cat? WHAT IS A LAMINATED CAT? (Other than the band or the song.) I don’t care–I’m a believer in Keats’ negative capability argument:
when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.
Which could be a handy way of getting out of analysis, but I don’t think so.
If you buy any book with that holiday gift card from Aunt Mitzy, go out and get García Lorca’s Selected Verse, Revised Bilingual Edition, edited by Christopher Maurer. With cover art by the poet. I don’t actually understand very much Spanish, but I think it’s important to read the Spanish aloud anyway to get the rhythm and lilt into my bones.
2. On a more ridiculous note, I reread The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett this weekend. Yes, that’s The Secret Garden, the book many of you (girls?) read when you were nine or ten. I was at my parents’ house and forgot to bring a book. Dickon was one of my first literary crushes. He went around with a pet raven on his shoulder (those of you who know me will recall my only tattoo).
Remember the books that made you fall in love with reading? And the characters you first fell in love with? What were they? Sometimes I think we all get so caught up in what’s going on now, what’s cool now, that we forget the importance of our formative literary experiences…
3. Interesting article about female sexuality as portrayed in the media (New York Times).
Ten Albums that Didn’t Shit Me in 00s
I kind of gave up on music during this decade. I got tired of the repeat. Or tired of things that could not be repeated, as most albums I got a hold of got thrown out of the window after a week. There were some things worth hearing a few times, as wallpaper, and then no need to hear them again. In me, music seemed to have become mostly tired of itself. On that note, here are ten albums from the last ten years that to me felt both new and worth repeating, or at least ones I spent some time with, or had their own business about them, whatever that means. Yeah, another list, feel free…
1. Liars, Drum’s Not Dead [2006]
2. Madvillain, Madvillainy [2004]
3. Storm & Stress, Under Thunder and Fluorescent Light [2000]
4. Tom Waits, Alice [2002]
5. The Angels of Light, Sing ‘Other People’ [2005]
6. Fantômas, Delìrium Còrdia [2004]
7. U.S. Maple, Acre Thrills [2001]
8. Subtle, For Hero: For Fool [2006]
9. Of Montreal, The Sunlandic Twins [2005]
10. Boredoms, Vision Creation Newsun [2000]
As much as I like these albums, along with perhaps a few others, I’m still going to maintain that this past decade has been by far the worst decade of music thus completed. 99% blank, in a bad way, and getting blanker. Somehow electronics and onlines and send this and that here and there has come to mean ‘less work, less presence’ in the sound. Here comes the 10s.
Oh! Canada!
Hello, HTML Giant, from sub-zero Canada! I’m happy to be on board.
So yesterday, I packed all my stuff in a car and drove up here. And now, here I am, in Canada. What’s with this place? What’s going on here? Free health care? Clean cities? Really, it can’t be trusted. I mean, can people who choose to live in a place this cold be trusted? (Obviously, I’ve chosen to live here & I know I’m untrustworthy. Logic then tells me that anyone else who makes this decision also can’t be trusted.)
And what’s with the writing scene here? I mean, sure, Christian Bok & Jeff Parker, among a handful of unknown writers like Michael Ondaatje, are here, but who else? What else?!? Give me hope, HTML Giant!
You Owe Me Nothing! (And, You Sir, Will Pay)
Yesterday my employer, a local university, sent a bill to my house. I owe the university $0.00 immediately! That is Zero Dollars and Zero Cents. The university is not playing around. In their words: PAYMENT DUE. In their words, my options are an INSTALLMENT PAYMENT PLAN or LATE PAYMENT FEE. I am also instructed to KEEP TOP PORTION FOR YOUR TAX INFORMATION.
What are your favorite surrealist/absurdist artists or text?
HOW TO SEE AVATAR
it's really quite good
Just saw Avatar. Hardcore noble savage leftist story; Dances with Sexy Blue Catgoats. (I like that it was all, “Kill the humans!”) Fucking incredible immersive 3-D. Definitely worth going, you’ll be like WHOA the whole time. I really regret seeing it in a regular state of mind. My advice is: Don’t.
HAMLET’S SOLILOQUY AS TAUGHT TO A TODDLER BY BRIAN COX
I don’t even like kids that much, but this is great.
Also, one of the two best movies I saw in 2009 was The Escapist, starring Brian Cox, the first film by a guy named Rupert Wyatt. It’s absolutely terrific and it played in New York for one week, in one theater, and then disappeared. Imagine Brian Cox as an action hero. Excellent trailer after the jump.