I don’t know why we call it writing when it is clearly a matter of selecting
A book has neither object nor subject; it is made of variously formed matters, and very different dates and speeds. To attribute the book to a subject is to overlook this working of matters, and the exteriority of their relations. It is to fabricate a beneficent God to explain geological movements. In a book, as in all things, there are lines of articulation or segmentarity, strata and territories; but also lines of flight, movements of deterritorialization and destratification. Comparative rates of flow on these lines produce phenomena of relative slowness and viscosity, or, on the contrary, of acceleration and rupture. All this, lines and measurable speeds, constitutes an assemblage. READ MORE >
HTMLGIANT’s 400 Under 1
What follows is a list of what we at HTMLGIANT consider the top 400 writers worth watching under the age of 1. We all know it’s kind of hard to make predictions of the young artist, but that’s why we picked 400. These up-and-coming writers are from a lot of different countries and are of at least two different sexes. Some of them are probably even poets! We feel pretty good about it.
I keep saying we, but really I don’t want to trick you. I just compiled this all by myself. There have been many lists and lots of pining. But I, too, was scientific. Look:
During my extensive research process of compiling the 400, I talked to more than a couple dozen parents, nannies, day care owners, playground lingerers, pediatricians, obstetricians, and jr. agents. The infants range anywhere from second trimester (if its got a heart (for narrative), it’s legal) to the cut off period of exactly one year. Unfortunately there were some fantastic young pen holders who’d just had their first birthday party who we had to cross off the list. I also crossed off those babies who didn’t quite have that look in their eye. You know what I mean.
Other than their age, the work of these young authors have absolutely nothing in common that I can see. It’s a group of enormous, enormous promise. It is the future of all language. I hope you will join us as we watch these young Hemingwhos and Faulkwhatzits rise into the storyteller’s light.
If You Will Permit a Thought on TV
Throughout the nineties and for the first half of the past decade, there were two dominant strains of sitcom: the blue-collar/white-collar family sitcom (Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Frasier, etc.), and the five-or-so-friends-hanging-out-in-a-city sitcom (Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, etc.). The former culminated and withered with the end of Everybody Loves Raymond–now most often reiterated ironically by The Simpsons (which was far ahead of its time in that respect) and Family Guy–while the latter still persists in a way, only disguised or retooled as the workplace sitcom (30 Rock, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Party Down), a formula which began in part with Murphy Brown and, in its current mode, with Scrubs and the British Office.
“Name Rachel Sherman’s Firstborn” Contest Winner announced!
Dear Giant Friends,
The day before Thanksgiving, we posted a contest to NAME RACHEL SHERMAN’S BABY. Well, that contest has a winner now. Rachel writes:
>>After much thought and debate, the winner for most clever baby name is…
Thirdperson Close!
We will be welcoming Thirdperson (or Thirdy, as we like to call her) to the world in just 5 1/2 weeks. Hopefully she will like her name! Thank you for all your submissions!!
-Rachel<<
“Thirdperson Close” was submmitted by a guy named David who left no contact information of any kind. As promised, the winner gets a signed copy of Rachel’s story collection, The First Hurt. DAVID IF YOU’RE OUT THERE YOU SHOULD EMAIL ME VIA MY WEBSITE and give me a mailing address and the name to which you want the book signed. I’ll pass these along to Rachel and you’ll get your prize.
Whelp it good.
Mean Week vs Puppies and Rainbows Week
Darby Larson has posted about Mean Week over at his blog. I like Darby. He is good at arguing things, and he thinks hard about things. Many of his comments on blogs are very thoughtful, and I usually read them and think I should make my brain smarter in order to respond to them.
Darby on Mean Week:
I don’t think mean week has been mean, by my definition of it. The problem is that if it were mean, then there would be consequences. Friendships would end, would have to be mended over time, would depend on a puppies and rainbows week just to heal.
Maybe we could learn a thing or too from Gridskipper, a travel blog, that had its own Mean Week back in 2007. Apparently, they traveled places and were mean to babies.
Where is everyone?