FREE HTMLGIANT MANIFESTO TEMPLATE
here is a free template to use for a literary journal manifesto. i feel that this will help other people alienate and discourage other people. i was going to write a post about the democratization of literature (after reading blake’s blog) but i can’t handle a steaming 85 comment thread. here is the template:
we at “(name of river or city or college) Review” like (random emotion). we like subversive (or transgressive, you choose!) work that (verb relating to exploration, perhaps “uncovers” or “unearths” (oh shit i like that “unearths”)) and (re-somethings, maybe re-interprets) the lens of fiction in an increasingly (vague literary theory) world. tempt us. hurt us. it’s like (author) said, “blah blah snow is pretty blah.” we like (vague descriptor, maybe “edgy” or “experimental”) but not (equally vague word like “profane” or “pornographic”). we want work that (verb meant to suggest intellectual stimulation) the reader. we want to change the world with our journal. we want mother teresa to leap from her grave (or condo if she’s still alive) and do a jig in her own ejaculate. in the words of (just go with ts eliot).
newest installment of Dennis Cooper’s online writing workshop
Coop writes,
This is the third in a new series of days on the blog where writers who are part of the blog’s community will present work-in-progress in search of the opinions, responses, advice, and critiques of both readers who don’t normally post comments here and local inhabitants of this place.
Initially I had held off from blogging about these workshops, because even though the stories are obviously posted in a public forum, the workshop seemed like a community/family project. But I talked to Dennis about it, and he’s 100% in favor of anything that gets the presenters’ work more widely read and commented on, so I’m encouraging people to go over there and check out what’s happening. Read the story, leave a comment, etc. And also, please keep in mind DC’s advice re how to play nice:
Obviously, the closer your attention and the more you’re able and willing to say to the writer the better. But any kind of related comment is welcome, even a simple sentence or two indicating you read the piece of writing and felt something or other about it would be helpful. The only guideline I’m going to give out regarding comments is that any response, whether lengthy or brief, praise filled or critical or anywhere inbetween, should be presented in a spirit of helping the writer in question.
This weekend’s story is called “The Routine,” by George Wines.
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December 21st, 2008 / 11:45 am
December 21st, 2008 / 11:45 am
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: New School in Exile WINS WINS WINS
He would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids!
from New School in Exile, posted ~ 3 AM: Occupation Wins Major Victory over University Administration in 3rd Day
After more than two weeks of concerted actions on campus, students in the occupation were finally able to win significant victories in the ongoing struggle to improve the New School. Those victories include: an agreement not to press charges or impose academic punishments for students involved in the protest, the implementation of a Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) committee within the university, more autonomy and power for Student Senate to communicate with the student body, more representation on the Board of Trustees for students and faculty, and finally the creation of more student study space on campus. As of approximately 4am this morning New School and other students have left the 65 5th Avenue building and declared the occupation successful, ending this stage of the action.
You can read the full text of the agreement reached with President Kerrey here.
(If you missed my original post about this story, it’s here.)
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December 19th, 2008 / 11:38 am
December 19th, 2008 / 11:38 am
occupation of New School flagship building continues!
This isn’t strictly literary, but I thought people would be interested to hear that the New School occupation is now into its 20-somethingth hour and as near as I can tell, going strong. After reading some snarks about the protesters on Gawker this afternoon, I decided to stop what I was doing, head into Manhattan and check things out for myself. I did my MFA at New School (see? not totally irrelevant to literature!) and so was able to get into the building. They have a list of demands, which you can read on their frequently-updated website, but the top item on the list is the removal of president Bob Kerrey, the former Democratic governor of and senator from Nebraska.
Everyone at New School–teachers and students alike–has basically known Bob Kerrey is a joke, at least as far back as my starting the MFA program (Fall 2005). After he brought both John McCain and Newt Gingrich to speak at the school, it became clear what his real agenda was: collect a big fat fucking paycheck while using the school to set the stage for his next political campaign. Thanks but no thanks you center-right impostor. Good riddance to neo-liberal rubbish. The sooner the better.
I sat and listened to the direct democracy at work for about an hour and snapped some pictures from the center of the occupation, which you’ll find after the jump.
writer’s i’d like to fuck MENCIUS
relax, mencius, i don't want to hurt you
i think i would most like to fuck Mencius, who was a distant pupil of Confucius. i would be gentle with Mencius and i would make Mencius a really good omelette afterward. i think Mencius would be the type of person who would thank me for the omelette even if it was kind of fucked up from flipping it the wrong way. it would be nice to just make an omelette for Mencius. i would make the omelette naked, standing in my kitchen and Mencius would come out of my room, with his hair kind of messed up and only a blanket on. i would say, “hey lover” and then i would ask Mencius if he ever met Confucius. i would then ask Mencius a bunch of questions about THE ANALECTS until Mencius got annoyed and started smoking a Newport and ashing onto my carpet. then Mencius would tell me to “look it up on wikipedia.” Mencius would ask me “whose number is that in your phone” and i would grit my teeth and avoid the question. i think Mencius would be the writer i’d most like to fuck because most writers annoy me in person. originally i though i would write this on bukowski so whenever people were arguing about how great or how shitty bukowski was, i could just say, “yeah well i fucked him, so shut up.” also, is katie couric a writer?
Top 5 WILFs
A WILF is a ‘writer I’d like to fuck,’ our new enterprise conceived by contributor pr. Since I really like the idea of hypothetical fucking, I cannot contain myself and have posted a top 5 list:
1. VIRGINIA WOOLF
That Virginia Woolf was a lesbian may explain the impractical choices in women I still have which sustained my virginity to an embarrassing point which shall not be disclosed at this juncture. That she has been dead for seventy-some years does not implicate any penchant for necrophilia — for I don’t literally want to ‘fuck’ Virginia Woolf at this point in her decomposition — I simply would have wanted to, had I been more of a man in England at the break of the twentieth century; she at the ripe age of eighteen.
2. PAUL AUSTER
That Paul Auster is a man may explain the impractical choices in women which let to the aforementioned exasperated virginity. I’m straight, but fuck that guy is gorgeous. When I think of his New York Trilogy, I think of his dong and ballsack. I went to his reading once and every woman almost had an orgasm when he spoke. I quivered a little myself, though it was probably just gas from my burrito.
Some of our favorite Weaklings: Recent highlights from Dennis Cooper’s blog
Today is “DC’s obscure porn search and rescue mission #8: Suck Cock America! (1972)
Every picture in this post except for this one came from this funny-creepy instructional website about activities for kids that I found while looking for "newspaper hat" pictures for the Pound post earlier. Instead of using MS Paint, why didn't they just give the kids emo haircuts?
Hagakure: Hidden among the shadows of leaves
The Hagakure is a samurai doctrine written by Tsunetomo Yamamoto near the end of his life. The text originally was kept alive within small samurai clans and later became the defacto warrior philosophy text of Japan. The kamikaze pilots of Pearl Harbor were gifted a handwritten version of the text during the ceremonies of their death mission.
Here are some excerpts:
A certain swordsman in his declining years said the following:
In one’s life. there are levels in the pursuit of study. In the lowest level, a person studies but nothing comes of it, and
he feels that both he and others are unskillful. At this point he is worthless. In the middle level he is still useless but is
aware of his own insufficiencies and can also see the insufficiencies of others. In a higher level he has pride
concerning his own ability, rejoices in praise from others, and laments the lack of ability in his fellows. This man has
worth. In the highest level a man has the look of knowing nothing .
These are the levels in general;. But there is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all. This person is
aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way arid never thinks of himself as having finished. He
truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of
pride but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, “I do not know
the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself. ”
Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is neverending.
Writing to Music
Do you write to music? I used to constantly, I thought what I was writing to a large part affected what I write. Now I find it pretty hard to concentrate in anything except total silence.
When the mood strikes me, though, I think my most common writing soundtrack is Fennesz. I wrote a lot of my novella to Fennesz, as well as a lot of the recent things I’ve been working on. ‘A Year in a Minute’ seems a perfect backdrop to me. I often find that ambient music with no beat and/or layers and for certain no words, is vital to me to writing.
I’ve also written quite a bit to Fantomas’s hour+ 1-track album DELIRIVM CORDIA. The panic house of collage and weird sounds that it compiles is a great thing to rub off of, at least if you’re writing about nausea and babies and crap.
Here they are performing a section of it live (the record is much different but the video is cool):
MEGA BONUS LITERATURE MUSIC TREAT: Gian sent this super sex mash up he made of Dr Dre vs. Dylan Thomas. I always knew Dre had it in him.
Download: DRE VS DYLAN
There’s a Christmas present for ya, courtesy of the Tyrant.
Anyway, I am curious: what do other people write to?
THE INTERUPTION: “Ok… I understand.” :)
The 1st 3:00 minute scene in this montage from the Shining gives me such a mind erection: I think I am going to buy a blood red iPod with one button on its face which when you press it just plays this scene at damage volume inside the head of who I have handed it to to listen and to know. I would use it every day:
God, it makes me punch the air the air in joy to see to see to see Jack nail that shit so hard. That smile of exasperation. Days and days and days.