Let’s Love Some Stuff
crash art by Scott Teplin
I was lucky enough to hear Fred Moten read at the Segue Poetry series at the Bowery Poetry Club a month or so ago. This post at Beatrice.com has one of Moten’s poems, as well as a link to Pennsound where you can hear him read some of his work.
Schools used student laptop webcams to spy on them in school and at home. (h/t to Rumpus for the link.)
There was a Times profile of DeLillo and we somehow missed it when it was new. But now it’s NYTea Time. William T(ea) Vollmann has the cover story, a review of Ted Conover’s The Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today. Dwight Garner discusses Elif Batuman’s The Possessed–remember this book? We all flipped out over the excerpt that was published at the Chronicle of Higher Education a few weeks ago. You probably don’t remember that this book was first discussed on this site before the Chronicle “controversy,” when Keith Gessen mentioned it in his anti-top 3 top 3 of 2009 guest-post. Jenifer Egan, whose reviews I always appreciate, discusses Eight White Nights by Andre Acimann. On the Paper Cuts blog, I am answering Stray Questions , and David Goodwillie has a playlist for his new novel, American Subversive.
The Rules
The Guardian has published ten rules for writing fiction from several different writers. Find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. My favorite are Jeanette Winterson’s rules which include:
2. Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.
7. Take no notice of anyone with a gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.
9. Trust your creativity.
What are your rules?
Friday Fuck Books, Let’s Get the Band Back Together.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30AYABGnGkU
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuWB9Nhoypw
For you, B.
It is Friday: Go Right Ahead
I’d feel better if you drank your drink.
I like to laugh smoke out.
You’re drunk, and I’m drunk, and I’m just exactly drunk enough to tell you anything you want to know.
Stupidly calm.
Now I am dangerous.
Drunk, yes, but so what?
I want to try cocaine, though because that’s suppose to sharpen the brain, isn’t it?
Stop waving your hat in my face.
Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny.
Michael Kimball Guest Lecture #4: Story and Plot
“Fuck the plot.” Edna O’Brien says that in a Paris Review interview. She then goes on to say this: “What matters is the imaginative truth.” I don’t know what she means, exactly, by “imaginative truth,” but I can imagine what she means.
It reminds me of something that somebody told me Rick Whitaker said: “Plot tells you how their life turns out. What the fuck do I care about how their life turns out? I want to know their heart.”
And that reminds me of this quote from Andy Devine: “We all know how the story ends. If you have the baby, then the baby will die. If you fall in love, then the love will end.”
In spite of my affection for those three quotes, I still like to think about story and plot. I still like it when things happen in fiction. In fact, I have always thought that one of the great things about being a fiction writer is that you can make anything happen.
Celestial Navigations
“Tens of millions of people have seen these films. No one knows who made them.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UdZSrEos-k
Oh Satan, you rascal
As of late, I’ve been on this Black Metal kick. Mayhem, Burzum, Krallice, Sigh, Cobalt, Liturgy, Wolves in the Throne Room, etc. So a buddy lent me this book called Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind. It’s not very well written, by which I mean the composition isn’t particularly engaging, the organization is less than fluid, the structure is uninspired, and the insights are rarely explored beyond their basic recognition; but, as a primer for the genre, I thought it was pretty good. (Plus, there’s a bunch of crazy pictures depicting Norwegians in corpsepaint.) Before I read it I didn’t know anything about Black Metal, and now I feel like I have a fair understanding of its origin. Plus, I learned a little about Vikings, a little about murder, and a little about Satanism, which are all interesting things to learn a little about.
Here’s the opening paragraph:
The Devil has always treasured music. What better arena to inspire, cultivate, and propagate his will into the affairs of man? Music serves as both balm and excitant, soothing the savage or awakening dormant passions. In spiritual terms music is a magical operation, a vehicle for man to communicate with the gods. Depending on whom the celebrants invoke, this can mean soaring to heaven on the voices of angels or raising beasts from the pits of hell.