Barnes & Noble Made Me Sad Last Night
I was in a Barnes & Noble last night for the first time in years. I don’t live close to bookstores so I mostly buy my books online, at AWP, or at independent bookstores I happen upon during my travels. What I love about B & N is how there are so many options. If I feel like helping myself, there’s a book for that. If I want to read a trashy romance novel with a cheesy dude on the cover exposing his cleanly shaven chest, there’s a book for that. If I want to read up on starting my own business or Kabbalah or the Kama Sutra, there are books for that too. While I was in B & N last night, the whole place felt shrouded in a bit of sadness, as if the whole idea of the brick and mortar bookstore was on its last legs. I don’t really think this is the case but there was something rotting in that store. There were plenty of people milling about but they were mostly lounging in the cafe or reading quietly in the plush, oversized chairs probably covered in bacteria, or browsing the stacks and stacks of books muttering things like, “I could do better than this.” There were these other two guys in the Entrepreneurship section engaged in a hopeless little discussion about how they were going to get rich! Quick! That really happened.
{LMC} November’s Selection: The Collagist
One of the things we’re most interested in doing with the LMC is looking at both print and online literary magazines. Much is made about whether or not great writing exists online and every other month we’ll try to answer that question as we read a new issue of an online magazine. The first online magazine we’ll be reading is The Collagist, edited by Matt Bell and published by Dzanc Books.
The Collagist is published on the 15th of each month and features a mix of fiction, poetry, novel excerpts, essays and reviews.
Equality Rules
The Equalizer series is complete! See the final three installments below, plus the final series all in one pdf, along with a note from editor, Michael Schiavo.
The Equalizer 1.13 Henry Gould’s Lanthanum 4
The Equalizer 1.14 Tony Tost, Maureen Thorson, Lytton Smith, Richard Deming, Cosmo Spinosa, James Meetze, Matt Cozart, Eric Unger, Janaka Stucky, Cody Walker, Katherine Factor, Matt Hart, Buck Downs, and Jim Behrle.
The Equalizer 1.15 Mark Horosky’s Fabulous Beasts
Foer’s Tree of Codes
One of our favorite writers-to-hate Jonathan Safran Foer has a new book—or sculpture, as he describes it—called Tree of Codes. Foer slices—literally—words out of his favorite book, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz. I haven’t read the book (Foer’s not Schulz’s), or even held it in my hands, but something about the premise is striking, memorable, so memorable that it sounds familiar… But more on that later.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Foer talks about the materiality of the book. He says he likes to break the spine, take it into the bath with him, etc. And I admire these things because I agree. I like books too. So why is it that I agree with many of his sentiments and yet dislike the idea? Is it just because it’s Foer? Ultimately, yes, there’s something about Foer that makes me doubt his authenticity. But that’s my issue, not his. And I’m sure there are tons of people who will probably piss themselves with delight at his cleverness. I’m just not one of them.
93 Comments
November 14th, 2010 / 2:57 pm
November 14th, 2010 / 2:57 pm
Margaret Atwood: Twitter Champion
Margaret Atwood, Twittering into the Dystopian Future
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939. This Thursday she will be 71 years old. Since 2000, she has published 13 books in five genres (novels, short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s books.) She is writing the libretto for a chamber opera to be produced by City Opera of Vancouver. Her middle name is Eleanor. She has 100,122 Twitter followers. Some of them compose Tweets and send them to her. She responds daily to many of these Tweets, even the mean ones. Here are a few representative Tweets Atwood has recently Tweeted:
@anthonyslatcher: handmaids tale sucks & I’m gonna fail alevel exam because of it, thanks..not!! M:Aww.I flunked algebra. I didn’t study.
@Gaiaellyn: I hope that you are able to eat crunchy foods again… M. sez: Not yet :( But learning to appreciate wet noodles.
@keeleyoconnor: hi :) we are in english class in HONDURAS discussing your poems! We have some questions? M: Short questions? :)
But have I ever mentioned Bat Segundo? Mentioning now:www.edrants.com/segundo
paulcgallagher: Hi, planning to continue story of Oryx & Crake/Year of the Flood? Wondering what might happen next… M: Tis the plan! :)
I have some IKKS men’s reading glasses left at #giller table 16: I took them into protective custody for their own safety. Let me know…
@Bexxaloon: so how close do you think we are to Handmaid’s Tale becoming real life? #ofGlenn M: Too close, but with different outfits..
@EvenCool: My daughter’s very own creation: youtube.com/watch?v=Y4hYSe… M: Very soothing for this painkiller’d old biddy…Tx!
Three Films: The Blah, The Okay & The Pretty Good
Because my wife is away, presenting a paper on The Gurlesque at the National Women’s Studies Conference, I’ve been filling the lapses in my workload with movie watching. I’ve also been reading a manuscript by one of our fellow giants, which brilliantly knocks the rotten teeth out of language. But in terms of movies, I’ve watched three over the last three nights. One was blah, one was okay, and one was pretty good.
This Week in Ghost Writing
I don't know. Here's this guy covered in bees. What is happening?
1. A little while ago I put up a note about ghost-writing, wondering if anyone had done it or would. Since then I found out that Ben Greenman ghost-wrote Gene Simmons’s tell-all memoir, which sounds like fun in a weird way. In the interview they don’t ask any follow up questions which is ridiculous considering the title of the piece is “Ben Greenman Ghost-Wrote the Celebrity Tell-All for Gene Simmons.” All I can think of is a boy-faced Greenman trying to have a normal conversation with Simmons as he’s decked out in full KISS attire, or Greenman calling ex-lovers with cigarette-punctured voices to fact check which drugs they were taking when.
2. If you’re in the mood to get upset, have a look at this article about James Frey’s book-factory scheme. A friend who’s working on a book for them suggested I pitch one, too. It seems like basically a terrible idea. I feel greasy just thinking about it. Why are the MFA programs letting this crazy man into their classrooms? I do not know. I am currently abandoning hope. In general, I mean. All hope.
Will some of the trolls please have a look at the article and spew some much-deserved anger in the thread? Thanks. This one is ripe for a shouting match. (If only it were still Mean Week!)
{LMC}: What We Talked About This Week in LMC
Robb Todd wrote a nice little thing about Scott Garson’s Silt.
Andy Devine’s Apartment City, much discussed by the LMC, is discussed more closely by Tom DeBeauchamp.
Owen Kaelin takes a look at New York Tyrant 8 as a whole.
{LMC}: They Have Not Been Nice
If you would like to have the full PDF of NY Tyrant 8 so you can participate in this month’s LMC discussions, get in touch with me. But still, when you buy a literary magazine, an angel gets its wings.
It’s true: The editors of New York Tyrant have given me a stern talking-to. They’ve cleaned a few small clocks. Instead of prudently pussy-footing their way along the long shore of mainstream taste, as do some editors who purport to be “open to experimental literature” (carelessly using the derogatory term): the Tyrant’s editors have chosen bravely to lead us into the wild and brilliant, mind-losing woods and then lead us back out, then lose us into the woods again, then lead us out, then get us happily lost yet again. But, of course: I already knew what the Tyrant has purported to be about — I knew what they were interested in. Therefore: their tactic was not a surprise. I thought I would live with it, and now I live with it.
There are two ways to read a print journal. If you’re like me then you’ll begin reading New York Tyrant #8 at approximately two-thirds of the way through, with the first piece that grabs your eye, this being, in this case, Josh Maday’s spooky, fragmentary Dark Math.
This is the sort of material one reads literary journals to discover. Maday is now on my watch-list.
FUCK YOU LETTERS
Any & all comments on this one, and sharing, is very appreciated. Also: what are some fuck you letters that come to mind? Any favorites?