Mad Dash Around the Internets
The Rumpus talks to Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats. They also have a review of Wormwood, Nevada, a new novel by David Oppegaard.
Christopher Hitchens on Stieg Larssen.
Guerrilla cyclists paint illegal bike lanes back into an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood where the woman-hating morality squad got special permission from the city to have their bike lanes removed because they didn’t want inappropriately dressed women (read- in shorts, maybe *gasp* tee shirts) riding freely through their streets. What part of Jerusalam is this happening in? Try Williamsburg, Brooklyn, motherfuckers.
And, since I’m annoyed with the far-asshat Right flank of “my” people, why don’t we all kick a little sand in their eye by learning about the Shi’a legend/prophecy/doctrine(?) of The Hidden Imam.
Kimberly King Parsons on some developing competition for Amazon. Also at Faster Times: Jay Diamond reviews a graphic biography of Trotsky, Michael Kimball talks to Dylan Landis.
What else? Dennis C. has new male escorts up. I think my favorite is “BlondRobin,” or else the one tangled up in blue light. Anyone else? Favorites? Here’s another one to end on. Happy Tuesday!
All he wants for Christmas is for that cigarette to be stubbed out in the middle of his star tattoo.
One man’s trash…
Maybe this dude is old news, but I just found out about NYC Garbage by Justin Gignac via a newish blog called polis I’ve been reading. Here’s what the polis folks say about themselves:
polis is a collaborative blog on urbanism with a global focus. It is a space for our regular contributors and readers to share ideas and information about anything and everything urban from multiple lenses.
But back to the garbage: from the outset I wanted to hate the guy who figured out how to market crushed cans and mangled plastic spoons from the streets of NYC. But I don’t know. The collecting part, more than the academic arguments about the irony of preserving and profiting from the very stuff that’s creating environmental havoc, etc., is what I can’t shake. Here’s maybe why:
This is Why Black People Always Seem Angry
Once again demonstrating a baffling deafness for tone and a pathetic grip on reality, Publisher’s Weekly offers this as the current issue’s cover:
I don’t even know where to begin in deconstructing this bizarre image. The black woman as the exotic, wild creature with crazy hair is not, perhaps, the wisest choice of images. Why not just have Venus Hottentot bare breasted and holding a book parading around the cover? Also, can we talk about the fact that black people haven’t had afros that required picking for roughly 20 years, save for a few people who like a little throwback and even then, they aren’t walking around with a head full of picks? The saddest detail of all may well be the black power fist at the end of each pick (see: Black Panthers, 1960s, things we have let go). What does this image have to do with writing? What is the message PW is trying to convey? This image is offensive and weird and creepy and that the people involved in the editorial process didn’t stop to ask themselves how this image might be perceived is kind of funny and very sad.
WRITERS WHO ARE REAL OR POTENTIAL MURDERERS
ominously hot: Patricia Highsmith at 21
I recently heard someone state the offhand opinion that Patricia Highsmith was a sociopath who managed to use her “condition” to produce excellent fiction. The New York Times has a big, fascinating article today on a new biography of Highsmith (“She kills so many dogs… She hated dogs. She couldn’t bear sharing attention”), who in fairness I think was not really a sociopath but just a very troubled person. Also, as the photo above suggests, a pretty sexy one as well.
Hey Let’s See What’s in the World Today
The December issue of Bookslut is the first one published with Michael Schaub as Managing Editor. It’s filled with goodies like an interview with Kathleen Rooney, and a review of Momus’s “novel” The Book of Jokes. Cheers to Michael! And we’re all looking forward to many more.
The Millions has a bunch of people giving shout outs to their favorite books of the year. Why haven’t/aren’t we done/doing something like that? (Note: I just decided that we are doing this. I am doing it right now–okay, email’s gone out). They’ve got Gass, Ferris, Flynn, and more.
Over at Vol1Brooklyn, Juliet Linderman is talking to Stephen Elliott.
And The American Prospect is concerned about the nature of the backlash against fans of the Twilight series. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not going to read this, but if you do, maybe you can tell us about it. Basically what I got from looking at the picture and not really reading the subhead is that maybe there’s a feminist critique to be made concerning the nature of the denigration of the teenage girls who want to dress goth-lite and stay chaste. Or something. It all seems pretty, um, oh fuck it.
Choose to Know
In the fall of 1997 I had a lot of raking to do, but my friends dragged me up to the University of Chicago instead. Kurt Vonnegut was there, reading from his new book, Timequake. During an extended discussion with the moderator, the old man made a keen point about what challenges an audience’s sympathies and what placates them. Referring to Schindler’s List, I think, Vonnegut suggested the movie was exploitative, and that a far better goal would be to try showing Hitler from a sympathetic angle. I would go farther and look for an art that makes me empathize.
No one has done either yet, though Downfall does show him in a very human way (as opposed to most other representations of Hitler, which I think are caricatures and, as such, not human). But would a writer be castigated for showing Hitler as a sad, diligent, intelligent and charismatic leader? Would an audience be able to accept the despot portrayed as a hardworking idealist, perhaps kind and grandfatherly — or would we call for censorship? I doubt it would be difficult to put together a story that showed Hitler, truthfully, as someone we can identify with. It would be scary, but would there be value?
I can’t see how there wouldn’t be. READ MORE >
Overheard in NYC: Why Do the Heathen Rage? Edition
This Saturday I gave a one-day seminar on Gordon Lish and the Lish school(s) of writing at The New School. A lot of what I spoke about I’ve written about on this site, and some of it may be posted in the future, when its written form is a bit more polished than lecture/discussion notes, but for right now I just wanted to share one tidbit from the class. Actually, it happened before the class. And actually, it didn’t even happen to me. I was sitting in the classroom, and the first student walked in. He was holding a copy of “Guilt,” a story from GL’s collection What I Know So Far that I had assigned as pre-reading. He told me that he’d been looking it over in the elevator, and the man next to him had noticed what he was reading. He said the man was a good bit older, and presumably affiliated with the program, because if you weren’t taking a class or teaching one, you wouldn’t be there on a Saturday. He said the man leaned over and remarked irritably to him: “Everything Gordon Lish says is lies.” Then the ride was over and they parted ways. He came into class and told me this story. It made me feel like it was bound to be a great class, and moreover, despite the gray sky and freezing rain, a wonderful day. I thought, that, right there. That’s why I love Lish- he brings it out in people.
We Are Not All Women Writer Mothers
Several months ago, I joined a new community for women writers, She Writes, and then I never really participated in the site because with all the networking sites out there, I had a difficult time justifying the investment of my time into yet another social networking site.
The interface is a bit bewildering and chaotic but for the most part, the site seems interesting and offers resources and an active community for women writers. There’s a store selling the books of the site’s members, a blog, many different groups catering to many interests and occasional webinars where experts lead workshops and discussions on topics ranging from finding an agent to self-marketing. The eager, extremely instructive/self-help tone of the site seems to juxtapose awkwardly with the genuine depth of talent of many of the site’s members—many of the instructional efforts seem to be in the vein of preaching to the choir.
BEING HYPNOTIZED TONIGHT TO STREAMLINE THE DREAM-FICTION LINK
[Everyone, please welcome our new contributor Nick Antosca, author of Midnight Picnic [Word Riot] and Fires [Impetus]. We’re lucky to have him. — Ed.]
Somebody told me if you eat bananas before you go to sleep, it’ll cause wild dreams. Actually the point was any food eaten in meal quantity right before bed will have this effect–bananas were just the example. Now I love to eat before I go to bed. My dreams tend to be vivid and madcap anyway (something I apparently get from my mother, who was always telling me when I was a small child about dreams where she was in an ocean full of sharks or a mansion full of panthers, things of that nature) but food further enhances them.
READ MORE >
Here are three things to go like
Ben Greenman’s fragments from Tiger! The Musical .
Dan Nester on The Outfield at Poets Off Poetry.
Here’s an analysis of The Economics of Pinball.
That image, btw, is borrowed from today’s post at The Weaklings: Pictures of 14 Scandinavian Theme Parks.