Ever Be Filled: An Interview with Matthew Simmons
Late last year Keyhole Press released a short book of fiction about black metal by Matthew Simmons, The Moon Tonight Feels My Revenge. Given its heavy inspiration, the texts employ a surprising and refreshing mix of thoughts about creation and duress, delivered in the eye that only Mr. Simmons could pull off. Over the past month Matthew kindly answered some q’s about the book.
* * *
BB: How did this book begin? Was it your intention specifically to write a book about black metal, or did a specific story come first?
MS: I wrote a couple of one-man black metal band pieces for my blog a while back. (I think I was just writing about black metal bands and then noticed that all the ones I liked and wanted to write about were made up of one guy.) When I got together with Keyhole for the collection coming out next year, Peter asked if I had something shorter, a couple of stories that weren’t going to be in that collection, that we could gather and publish in a little minibook. I had a few, and I decided to use the short black metal pieces as a gathering principle and as little breaks between longer stories that, though not explicitly about one man black metal bands, felt like cousins to them. The three full stories in the book feature three individuals who isolate or world build or reject collaboration.
The Moon Tonight Feels My Revenge
I have a new minibook. You can order a copy now. If you want.
There’s some black metal in it. And three short stories.
UPDATE: Can I just point out how awesome my name looks as a black metal band logo?
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August 30th, 2010 / 3:13 pm
August 30th, 2010 / 3:13 pm
No Nukes
I just want to go on record saying that this is not me. If anyone was wondering.
On Earth As It Is
I don’t know if someone else was going to write about this here at htmlgiant, and they still oughta if they wanna, but in the meantime let me say: everyone tune your browser to On Earth As It Is, a new web journal that uses prayer as a story telling form. As the website puts it, “On Earth As It Is is a cycle of prayer narratives, or dramatic monologues addressed to God, from writers of different faiths.” It’s run by our beloved Matthew Simmons and Bryan Furuness, and so far they’ve run two pieces (one per week). Last week we were given an Augustinian-but-more-lovely apologia from Melanie Rae Thon:
What more evidence do you need?
Snow melts into dark earth and here in damp woods white trillium blossoms.
and yesterday, from Erin McGraw, “A Statement from the Defense.” READ MORE >
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March 19th, 2010 / 9:56 am
March 19th, 2010 / 9:56 am
“It is like a paler Earth, he says.”
Really astoundingly good new story from our friend Matthew Simmons at The Nervous Breakdown: “We Never Ever Went to the Moon.” It’s got plot and heart and floating. In a self-interview, Matthew says that the story’s from an as-yet-unpublished collection called Happy Rock, all about people who believe in things even while other people are watching them. Somebody needs to make that collection appear, if you ask me.
Literary Doppelgangers
Matthew Simmons and Eddie Vedder are from Seattle. They are both musicians, pro-choice, and own the album Ten. Matthew Simmons, when he was in high school, identified with Jeremy, the protagonist in the song “Jeremy.” When Matthew told his mom he wanted to shoot himself in front of his class, she said “that’s a banana, dear.” Matthew Simmons’ tongue is not as long as Gene Simmons’, and neither will his career be. (Ouch.) When Pearl Jam was on SNL with Sharon Stone, Eddie professed to smelling her garments in the dressing room. I remember thinking “go pervs!” When I read Matthew Simmons’ posts here, I think “insane is okay.” Thank you Matthew Simmons for being you. I can mail you some unwashed articles for you to sniff. My B.O. Boxers in your P.O. Box — get it? Moron.
Adam Robinson—
Jim Ruland wrote a great open letter to Matthew Simmons about A Jello Horse at The Believer. It starts:
Dear Matthew Simmons,
I am writing today to ask you a question about your book, which I read with great pleasure: what is it?
18
Review of Matthew Simmons’s ‘A Jello Horse’ (by Christopher Higgs)
I see this text consisting of a heart and appendages.
The heart = the funeral.
The appendages = the memories (of what it’s like to be a kid & of previous dating experiences) – plus the experiences at the roadside attractions.
Oddly, the heart (the funeral section) seemed to be of tangential importance. What seemed to hold the most significance, for me anyways, were the appendages. But perhaps that observation says more about me as a reader – and what I see as a tension between reality and imagination – than about the text itself.
As a reader, I generally tend to dislike conventional realism because I find it uninteresting to read a transcript of a situation that could feasibly occur in the ordinary reality in which I live: in the case of A Jello Horse it would be what I am calling the heart — the transcript of driving to a house party, playing pinball, going to a funeral, going to a health clinic, etc. And to be honest, I can’t really understand why other people don’t feel the same negative reaction to this kind of realism. I mean, we already share this ordinary existence, why would I want someone to tell me about their version of it? That would be like someone giving me a running commentary while I’m watching a Lakers game. It’s like: dude, I’m watching it with you, I don’t need you to tell me your version of it – I already have my version, which I will always value greater than anyone else’s version. What I don’t have is whatever strange imaginary things other people hide in their heads, which is one of the primary reasons I turn to literature in the first place.
Uncategorized / 34 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 7:57 pm
May 27th, 2009 / 7:57 pm
‘A Jello Horse’ Contest
True HTML Giant Matthew Simmons will release his first book, a novella, in May from Publishing Genius, fantastically titled ‘A Jello Horse,’ the inversion-politics of which already have me bubbling.
In the spirit of this soon forthcoming title, Matthew is running a contest at his blog: The Man Who Couldn’t Blog, in which you can one of a very limited run of hardback copies of the book.
Please do indeed:
Haut or Not: contributor couplet
Justin Taylor
Of course there’s Barthelme — and Lish, and Brautigan, and Markson — these writers are not knee-jerk ambivalent with form, but better, curious about its malleability. They always nodded to the past, full circle. A hot rating is likely, if not inevitable, but what concerns me more is that pile of rubber bands, the Grateful Dead box set, and the array of book marks. Justin, please don’t tell me you’re one of those bookish hipster kids who wear rubber bands like a bracelet. If those function any way as cock rings, congratulations, your girth is unyielding. I had to google St. Mark’s Bookshop and it’s a pleasure imagining you perusing the shelves (we all love that glue and pulp smell) but must you take a complimentary bookmark every single time? Or are those testament to each book you bought there? As for the Grateful Dead — to borrow a line from my mother whenever she heard Motley Crue coming out of my room, “I can smell them from here.” Free love is okay, free drugs is probably better, but these guys were just annoying. I do give Justin props for boldly fracturing his rubber band bracelet image. Should we ever see Justin with a beard, we’ll know that shit ain’t Walt Whitman. Nah, it’s positively Haight Street. How about this for a c/o Lish title: Will you please take a shower, please?
Happy Cobra Books
Our own Matthew Simmons’ Happy Cobra Books has just released their new website, featuring Matthew Savoca’s e-book TOUGH!!! with his poems accompanied by illustrations by Tao Lin, Greg Lytle, Mike Bushnell, Tracy Brannstrom, Gene Morgan, Chelsea Martin, among many others.
Editor’s note:
TOUGH! is a book of brief pieces, haiku of the apotheosis of rural American maledom. Very funny. Wonderful illustrations, too.
Downloadable pdfs featuring Chelsea Martin, Catherine Lacey, Ellen Kennedy, Justin Dobbs and Blake Butler coming soon.
Uncategorized / 13 Comments
March 11th, 2009 / 1:12 pm
March 11th, 2009 / 1:12 pm
