2 New Titles from Ellipsis Press: Lock and Ruocco
Two new titles from the incredible Ellipsis Press are now on presale. After their first two titles by Eugene Marten and Eugene Lim being two of my favorite new releases last year, Ellipsis is already a monolith, and I’ve been drooling for these both since they were announced. For those that for some reason did not pick up the first two, you can get the entire set of 4 Ellipsis titles together in a bundle for $40, a ridiculously nice and limited-time deal. Shit, I’m doing the package just to be able to give the first two as gifts. I guarantee it is worth twice as much in mind. They are also all available individually, and shipping soon.
Here are their two latest titles:
Shadowplay by Norman Lock
In Java, a master of the shadow-puppet theater seeks to possess—by his art—a woman, who perishes as though by the contagion of his unnatural desire. Shadowplay is a meditation on story-telling as an act of seizure, a parable of obsession and of the danger of confounding the real with its representations.
“Stories compensate for lives unlived. They are what Norman Lock, or his avatar Guntur, calls shadows, negative reflections on a backlit screen, comprising, through artistry and brief illumination, ghosts. Lock’s teller is imprisoned by darkness, captivated by warriors and princesses no longer, if ever, living. Death becomes a distance from which the voices of these unliving return. It is a journey as delicious as it is threatening.” —R.M. Berry
Blake Butler—
Giancarlo DiTrapano day on Everyday Genius, still featuring the guest editorialship of Michael Kimball, a monthlong+ reign of great work by a long list of good people. From Gian’s piece: “If the mind is a terror gift, he is an opener.”
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Hate Mail
Ed Champion has started this new series on his blog where he does dramatic readings of user-submitted hate mail. Who here has gotten (or sent) hate mail? You should send it along.The new one he posted is really funny. You can hear it here.
Blake Butler—
Lily Hoang wins the 2009 PEN / Beyond Margins Award for her book Changing, because she is a badass. There are excerpts from the novel on the site. You can buy it here, and should. Congrats Lily!
I Like Howard Finster A Lot.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERRxtwPDFZc
Howard Finster on why he did what he did:
JC: How did this start?
HF: Well, you know. Like, if you had a place itching up here on your head, Johnny? And the first time you put your hand up here you put your hand where it is—don’t matter where it is, you put your hand on it, you know? And if you was to ask me to scratch it, I wouldn’t know where to look. See, I just had a feeling to build this garden, like you know when you have a feeling right where to scratch.
The other half of the interview after the jump.
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Another dispatch from the Axis of Who Gives a Shit? Michiko Kakutani’s s just not that into the new, apparently Poe-inspired E.L. Doctorow novel. To save everyone a lot of time and effort, I put MK’s thesis through the Translation Party engine that seemed to make everyone so happy when I posted about it last week.
Poe’s stories and complaints, his psychology, pathology Pejidokutoro for some new facts will be generated using a mixture of the first patent.
4 Comments
September 2nd, 2009 / 9:15 am
September 2nd, 2009 / 9:15 am
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
The Last King Of Scotland
The Guardian says that Scottish literature has been split in two by comments made by James Kelman, who over the weekend attacked “writers of detective fiction or books about some upper middle-class young magician or some crap.” My first reaction to this was “Man, it is apparently super fucking easy to split Scottish literature in two,” but upon further reflection that seems petty. American literature gets split in two pretty much every other week, and usually Oprah Winfrey has something to do with it.
I should refrain from discussing what this whole contretemps might do to Scotland’s collective national psyche, at least until I can fake a better Scottish accent. But it got me thinking about the old “literary fiction” versus “genre fiction” debate, which leads me to this question: Does this debate make you want to (a) shoot yourself in the head, or (b) stab yourself in the face? If someone brings this topic up, do you usually (a) cry, or (b) vomit blood? Either way, it sounds like Scotland is kind of fucked, which is a shame, because I like that “Belle and Sebastian” band. (By the way: Hi! My name is Michael.)
Sam Pink—
i am assuming that a lot of people who read this site do not write their own work for a living, meaning, their income is predominantly the result of another job. what have other jobs taught you about writing? i worked at a daycare and i learned that even a book someone may want to hear read to them day after day is still not as important as juicey juice and graham crackers and a table full of your friends. i worked as a house painter and i learned that thinking long term is depressing and to focus on just doing small things right. i have learned working with customers at other jobs that each individual’s problem is almost always him or herself, but his or her life manifests as a series of outward aggressions. working at a pizza place i learned my boss was a dick and that some people hate you so much they don’t even need a two week notice. these are pretty cliched lessons but i am posting this because i like to know what other writers (not necessarily famous) do or did for work. also, since there are more writing programs at colleges, (maybe) it has become easier to do something related to writing for a living. how does this type of job impact writing? i can’t tell if this is a good or interesting article. the school across the street from my apartment just had a three hour recess beginning early in the morning so i feel demented.