In Madness & Civilization, Michel Foucault says:
The novel constitutes the milieu of perversion, par excellence, of all sensibility; it detaches the soul from all that is immediate and natural in feeling and leads it into an imaginary world of sentiments violent in proportion to their unreality, and less controlled by the gentle laws of nature. (219)
If Foucault says this about readers of novels, just think about what it means for writers of novels.
5. A class reading list, to be good, really needs to elicit only one thought from the student (s): I didn’t even know you could write this way. I mean to say the list should liberate.
14. New Diagram. It smells crunchy and tastes like running past goats.
3. Godin is coming out of retirement so watch your face.
99. When people are crimped in one of the various poetry scams, is it best to tell them or best to let them purchase a framed copy/recording/anthology/conference fee? Do scams have validating aspects? I used to tell people. I now let them fall into the web because I feel the web is pretty harmless (no one is actually eaten) and they usually struggle their little selves out eventually and maybe realize spiders will poison and mummify self-esteem, naivete, and cash.
1. Opinion: People just don’t get Krazy Kat.
Terry Gross with Jonathan Franzen
TERRY GROSS: A lot of people think we look very similar, would you care to comment on that?
JONATHAN FRANZEN: Well Terry, you do sort of look like a man; no offense, and I’m dating a feminist, so we’re on the same team here. Most women have long hair and softer features, which is where the problem is. I just think Americans really need to step back and realize it’s not all about capitalism and gender. My new novel Freedom aims to expose the underbelly and subconscious of the American pathos.
TERRY GROSS: Thanks, that was really touching — speaking of which, what am I hearing under the table?
JONATHAN FRANZEN: Well Terry, I’m under contractual agreement with my publishers to “pound away at [my] future,” and this moment I’m focusing on DNA.
TERRY GROSS: Gross.
JONATHAN FRANZEN: Franzen.
Jonathan Franzen’s new novel Freedom will be the next Oprah Book Club selection. Between the two of them, nice will be made.
And remember: future events such as this will affect you in the future.
Robert Schumann said: People compose for many reasons: to become immortal; because the pianoforte happens to be open; because they want to become a millionaire; because of the praise of friends; because they have looked into a pair of beautiful eyes; for no reason whatsoever.
Vladimir Horowitz said: I am a general. My soldiers are the keys and I have to command them.
@ Fury.com, a series of conversations between random AOL IM users and a psychoanalyst program named ELIZA, which operates by asking questions based on the previously entered text:
| fiftyeight: Hello, a/s/l |
| AOLiza: hi. what seems to be your problem? |
| fiftyeight: just looking for random people to talk to |
| AOLiza: tell me more about that. |
| fiftyeight: I like to talk to random people from all around it is fun. But enough about me, lets talk about you. |
| AOLiza: tell me more about that. |
| fiftyeight: Lets talk about you… where do you hail from? |
| AOLiza: you’re not really talking about me — are you? |
| fiftyeight: Yes, I am. |
| AOLiza: please go on. |
| fiftyeight: well in order to talk about you tell me about yourself |
| AOLiza: suppose i did tell you — what would that mean? |
| fiftyeight: that would mean that this was a conversation |
| AOLiza: that is interesting. please continue. |
| fiftyeight: conversations are fun |
| AOLiza: what if they were not fun? |
“The Wish to be a Red Indian”
by Franz Kafka
Trans. by Willa and Edwin MuirIf one were only an Indian, instantly alert, and on a racing horse, leaning against the wind, kept on quivering jerkily over the quivering ground, until one shed one’s spurs, for there needed no spurs, threw away the reins, for there needed no reins, and hardly saw that the land before one was smoothly shorn heath when horse’s neck and head would be already gone.
