Ken Baumann—
The more you remember something, the less accurate the memory becomes. (from an article titled Memory Is Fiction)
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It’s No Use, Everything Is Fucked: An Interview With Ben Brooks
To celebrate the release of Ben Brooks’s superlative new novel(la) AN ISLAND OF FIFTY, he and I corresponded across the great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean via electronic mail.
MLP publisher J.A. Tyler has graciously offered to give away a free copy of Ben’s book to the commenter who gives the most interesting answer to this question (apropos Ben’s book): What would you miss most if civilization were to be dismantled?
Interview after the jump…
Uncategorized / 101 Comments
June 4th, 2010 / 5:31 pm
June 4th, 2010 / 5:31 pm
It is Fry-day: Go Right Ahead
Teenagers, drunk, disheveled, excited…they ruined our party.
What is the feeling when you’re driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?
Like you haven’t slept in the kitchen.
And now listen now old buck old wild sunombitch don’t you get drunk today.
I’ll walk across the damn prairie by myself.
Always staying late, freeloading, shouting, foolish.
There will be no music, just dancing.
I am hightingled on the beer.
All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.
Disorderly, lost.
Dude, don’t go halfway.
That’s being blackened, from the inside.
Justin Taylor—
HEY NEW YORK- Tomorrow is the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe Street Fair. It’ll be going all day (10a-6p) with free live music and lots of really cheap books. Last year (six months ago? whenever it was–last time) I got The Oxford Book of Letters, edited by Frank Kermode and his wife, for a dollar. But don’t worry, they’ll also have books that real people actually want, and those books will be a dollar each, too. Plus clothing, records, savory meats, and more. Full details here.
Regarding the Cover Letter Summary
As I remember it, it was once common to write cover letters for magazine submissions that started out like this:
Please consider my 3,444 word story “The Reinvigoration of Ronaldo” for publication in Fine Literary Journal Produced Either Independently or By the Grace of University Support. In “The Reinvigoration of Ronaldo,” the title character is running late for the most important meeting of his career, until he learns that life has more to offer for those willing to forsake punctuality.
It’s the second sentence I’m most curious about here, the summary of the story being submitted, modeled here after dozens of similar cover letters I’ve received at various magazines (but with all of the details being made up). When I first started submitting to literary magazines, this is exactly what books like the yearly Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market suggested you do (although I have to say that I thankfully never followed their suggestion). I haven’t bought a copy of that book in years, but recently had a chance to look through someone else’s, where I saw that they’ve moved to a cover letter that leaves out the summary, a move I certainly appreciate and that I think is generally agreed on. As an editor, I know the summary almost never endears me to read the story in question, partly because any summary of a short story tends to be incredibly (and negatively) reductive.
My question here isn’t whether or not submitters should leave off the summary–I think they most definitely should–but whether or not the summarizing itself is harmful to the writers who practice it.
Dick Context
Last night I told a male co-worker slash friend that I had a lot of good meat for him. I was in a hurry to give away CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) meat that my wife had ordered from an expensive organic farm, as I didn’t want it to go bad like our previous batch. This morning I re-read the text and realized the innuendos, if taken without context. My co-worker slash friend had never received a call or text from me; I had his phone number for some incidental reason. My co-worker slash friend does not know that I am not a homosexual or pervert. I am just a guy he works with, a guy who one night abruptly told him that he had a lot of good meat for him. This morning I texted him explaining that the “good meat” was not my penis, in a diplomatic way that did not explicitly mention my penis. Words have meaning, but so do the areas around those words. There were some wieners though, so cosmic/semantic harmony is not completely lost on us.
Film socialisme
Via James Greer, a free and legal artist-offered download of Jean-Luc Godard’s latest (and perhaps final) film: Film socialisme, which according to IMDB = “A symphony in three movements. Things such as a Mediterranean cruise, numerous conversations, in numerous languages, between the passengers, almost all of whom are on holiday… Our Europe… Our humanities. Visits to six sites of true or false myths: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Hellas, Naples and Barcelona.” Here’s a trailer:
20 Under 40 Pick ‘Em Winners
I’ve finally gone through the 24 entries (forgive my slowness), double-checked them, emailed the winners, and then I also had to wash the dishes and do a few other things before I could get this post live. Anyhow, thank you for being patient; I now present to you the 20 Under 40 Pick ‘Em Winners:
1st place: James Tanner (13 correct picks); Tanner selected prize package #2.
2nd place: Snowden Wright (12 correct picks); Wright selected prize package #1.
3rd place: Georgia Cool (12 correct picks, submitted one hour after Snowden’s entry); Cool will receive prize package #3.
Last place: Marshall, who submitted the following list:
1. Tao Lin 2. Tao Lin 3. Tao Lin 4. Tao Lin 5. Tao Lin 6. Tao Lin 7. Tao Lin 8. Tao Lin 9. Tao Lin 10. Tao Lin 11. Tao Lin 12. Tao Lin 13. Tao Lin 14. Tao Lin 15. Tao Lin 16. Tao Lin 17. Tao Lin 18. Tao Lin 19. Tao Lin 20. Dave Eggers
Congratulations, again, to the winners, and thank you to everyone who took the time to submit an entry! I hope this was a bit of distracting fun for all. If you liked this contest, please help us spread buzz about our next pick ’em: 10 Authors Most Likely to be Dropped by Their Publishers in 2011!
Thanks, especially, to all the authors and publishers and editors who donated products of their hard work to the prize packages. Please consider supporting them however you can.
(illustration from Dan McPharlin’s series Inland)