Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Trailer
Just feels so wrong.
(Thanks to Gian for the heads up.)
I’m Not Really Sure This Will Work, But Here Goes: A Reading Group
I’m updating this post and bringing it up “above the fold” just to, y’know, make sure everyone who’s interested has a chance to comment. It looks like we’re going to be reading MAXIMUM GAGA together and talking about it. Because it’s DIFFICULT.
Original post:
For a while I’ve been thinking, you know what HTMLGIANT needs, it needs — no, you know what the WORLD needs, it needs — no, HTMLGIANT and the WORLD are the same thing — you know what we should do, I’ve been thinking, what we should do is, like, a reading group. READ MORE >
Fuck
Seems like people like to edit things down to what offends them a lot of the time. Positive efforts get sometimes burped.
Here’s where somebody did that with the movie Casino, but in a fun way.
It’s okay to have fun.
In-ter-net.
Who Deserves What?
New York Times best-selling Anteater?
When you think about it, the title of this post really asks two questions. The answers, as near as I can tell, are, respectively, nobody and nothing. But Felicia Sullivan (author of The Sky Isn’t Visible From Here and former everything-in-chief of the venerable & lamented Small Spiral Notebook) isn’t so sure. Over at her blog, she takes on what she calls “the culture of entitlement” within the literary world today. Then, in the comments section, Rachel Fershleiser (of Housing Works, Smith magazine & co-editor of the Six Word Memoir books) raises some questions about the assumptions underlying the arguments of the post. Things get pretty heated pretty quick, between the two of them and a third commenter named Les, who seems more interested in critiquing Rachel’s grammar than listening to what she says. (Felicia, on the other hand, dives in head-first). It’s an interesting back and forth between two smart people (and Les), who actually seem to be talking TO each other at least as often as they’re talking PAST each other, which in internet-thread terms is basically a miracle of loaves and fishes. I am still sorting out my exact thoughts about this debate/discussion, but forget about what I think for a second. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Hate Mail
Ed Champion has started this new series on his blog where he does dramatic readings of user-submitted hate mail. Who here has gotten (or sent) hate mail? You should send it along.The new one he posted is really funny. You can hear it here.
GIANT Review: Stephen Elliott’s The Adderall Diaries
HTMLGIANT and the RUMPUS love each other; everyone knows that. We also work together often; everyone knows that too. It’s like this office romance everyone is really okay with and maybe even roots for because it’s between two basically likeable freelancers who are each a dozen freelancers, none of whom ever actually go to the office, and if they did it wouldn’t be the same one anyway. Which is another way of saying it is AWESOME. But given that fact, it seems ludicrous to pretend to anything like objectivity or critical distance about Rumpus-editor/steam-engine Stephen Elliott‘s new book, The Adderall Diaries. Therefore, I decided to drop all pretense and just write him a letter that says what I think of his book, which, by the way, is officially available today. (Click through to see his generous offer of free used galleys for would-be readers who make less than $25k/year.)
Dear Stephen,
6 Comments
September 1st, 2009 / 11:27 am
September 1st, 2009 / 11:27 am
3 Fall Books I Just Preordered, All by Debut Authors
How Some People Like Their Eggs by Sean Lovelace (Rose Metal Press, August 09)
The Drunk Sonnets by Daniel Bailey (Magic Helicopter, October 09)
Prose: Poems, a Novel by Jamie Iredell (Orange Alert, fall 09)
Fuck Books, It’s Friday, Let’s Slow Out Live, Mane
Thanks to Gene, this whodie-in-the-truck ‘freestyle’ makes me happy to be alive:
Followed by one of my favorite blankpunk songs, live made. Yeah, I just made up blankpunk.
Two from the Faster Times–NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW
“Seeing Through Masks: What Jonathan Franzen Gets Wrong about Writing the Other” by Darin Strauss.
Using the novelists’ secret formula — one part research, three parts empathy — I hope I’ve made my Darlene a credible veteran of the Black experience. But you never know; I’ve been faulted for even trying. (My 2000 book Chang & Eng was about the famous “Siamese Twins,” and some reviewers questioned my right even to attempt a novel about Asians.)
Also, FT’s main books guy–as well as regular Giant commenter–Lincoln Michel presents a compilation of literary humor from The Onion. Look for such classics as “Did I Say That, or Did John Updike?”; “Man Reading Pynchon on Bus Takes Pains to Make Cover Visible”; and my personal favorite–so good I can’t stop myself from linking it directly, even though that fucks Lincoln over, so please do not click the following link but instead go and read Lincoln’s post–“Lovecraftian School Board Member Wants Madness Added to Curriculum.”
Double also, how did we miss that two weeks ago Lincoln posted about the re-emergence of a lost George Saunders story?(!?!?!) Holy smokes. We’ll be keeping a closer eye on these guys, from here on out.