“Science is not about verification, it is about falsification. And science is therefore the art of being precisely wrong!” -David Livingstone, The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise
Two Sentences from Bernhard’s The Loser
In the opening pages of Thomas Bernhard’s The Loser, the narrator says:
If I hadn’t met Glenn Gould, I probably wouldn’t have given up the piano and I would have become a piano virtuoso and perhaps even one of the best piano virtuosos in the world, I thought in the inn. When we meet the very best, we have to give up, I thought.
A List of Things (pt. 1)
1. There is a new issue of Bookslut. In it there is a a really great interview of Kendra Grant Malone by Noah Cicero. Also, some stupid idiot interviewed Michael Earl Craig (again). It’s ok though because Michael Earl Craig is good.
2. I don’t know if people know this, but the NYU creative writing program archives all of its events in podcast form. I listen to this a lot. I’ve listened to that Matthew Zapruder one probably 5 times. There also is an Agriculture Reader reading from the fall of 2009 that I’ve listened to several times.
3. My friend Harriet runs this really nice (print+online) journal called “Her Royal Majesty.” They are now accepting submissions for the next issue.
4. Mike’s (Young’s) book of short stories is now available. Short stories are usually a little bit longer than poems are.
5. I went to this Publishing Genius book tour thing two nights ago in Chicago. It was fun as hell. If you’re in Minneapolis you can go too. (Hurry.)
6. There is a MuuMuu House DVD available. It’s a DVD of a MuuMuu House reading in Ohio (and other things) — featuring Tan Lin, Susan Boyle, Michael Jordan, Marcus Cicero, and Mallory Whitten.
7. After the jump is a semi-NSFW youtube vid. It’s more weird than anything. If you can make it past the first 10 seconds it’s pretty rewarding.
assist
This semester I teach a service learning creative writing class. I am excited and anxious (first time I’ve taught the class). “Service learning” palms a galaxy of definitions. Here is mine, as I’ve been thunking on it:
1. You must have a focus. I do. Empathy at its core, and I might write more expansively here later about this complex idea (and the word empathy itself), but my concept includes a literature list, books, excerpt readings, the power of writing, to show, to act as an actual social tool. Like a hammer. Seriously: Like a hammer.
2. You must engage with the community. Feet on ground, ass in seat. We will. The students will meet a minimum of 7 times—in one semester–with their community partners. We will create a print anthology and give a public reading, in a space OFF university grounds.
3. You must reflect. Why even do this? It’s not enough to say, “it’s a good thing”, “giving back” “whatever cliché.” Blar. I think the class, for the students, is pretty meaningless without serious reflection on the process, or why community work is even important, or why we might want to even talk/walk with someone not ourselves. So what? Always a great question. I want the students to answer me when I kindly and firmly ask, “So what?”
Anyone taken one of these classes? Taught one? Any advice? I’m not jesting—I haven’t done this. Any exhortation, forewarning, steer, 2.4 cents worth? What is service learning to you? Our model is, as writers with CW writerly skills (many prerequisites to take this class), to “tell” the stories of marginalized populations. The writers and partners meet to tell the community partner’s story (one or many), in a poem, story, or essay. Is that the best way? What do you think?
The New Yorker: No Girls Allowed?
Anne Hays reads The New Yorker and she recently noticed that most of the articles, stories, poetry and essays in the past two issues were written by men. She wrote an open letter to the magazine wherein she discussed her concerns. I did not notice the gender discrepancy in recent issues because, to be honest, I’m reading issues from like May 2010. It’s pretty stressful how that magazine keeps showing up in the mailbox every week. There is a lot of pressure to keep up.
Boredom 2010
James Ward
The other day I found myself waiting, and beside my waiting self was a newspaper. I looked at it. Of course, it was full of important stories about important people doing important things, and it would have been good of me to read about something of worth, but the only article I read the whole way through was one about a group of ‘Boredom Enthusiasts’ in London who had a conference last month. I have no idea why I was compelled to read about Boredom 2010 organizer James Ward‘s tie collection, which, as of June 2010 consisted of 55 ties, nearly half of which were solid-colored. “By December, his tie collection had jumped by 36%, although the share of single-color ties fell by 1.5%.” I must be channeling my inner Brit.
Only a day or two later a friend emailed me to ask if I had any favorite novels in which absolutely nothing, or almost nothing, happens. Oddly enough, none came to mind. I think this may be because I am often compelled by what may bore others and my definition of ‘nothing’ can be quite fluid depending on attention span or mood.
Of course there are the books about which people complain about nothing happens (High schoolers, I am looking at you.) The Old Man And The Sea is one but I am sure others (htmlgiant readers) might not categorize it in quite the same way. In David Markson’s Reader’s Block a different kind of nothing is happening, one in which an old man’s brain is sifting thoughts… Is it just me or do old men feature prominently in books about nothing and boredom? Makes it all the stranger that James Ward, mastermind behind Boredom 2010, is only twenty-nine. Someone cue the hand-wringing about the current generation.
Bernhard’s Shadow
In this interview at KCRW Bookworm, W.G. Sebald confessed his longtime attachment to Thomas Bernhard as an influence, mentor, and model. He also confessed to a longtime reluctance to confess his attachment to Bernhard for fear of being labeled simply a Bernhard derivative by those for whom it is convenient to attach such a label and use it to diminish the individuality of the work of a writer who simply has a less likely influence than another writer. (We rarely use “Chekhovian” or “Joycian” or “Faulknerian” as a critical diminutive, perhaps because they have influenced such a broad swath of writers that their own initial singularity has been diminished by the breadth of their influence.) READ MORE >
Blake Butler—
If you’re in NYC, tonight at 7 PM Vol. 1 Brooklyn will be hosting a panel on 90’s punk in Williamsburg, info here.
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