Blake Butler
http://www.gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com/
Blake Butler lives in Atlanta. His third book, There Is No Year, is forthcoming April 2011 from Harper Perennial.
I asked a bunch of writers to write down everything they know about Glimmer Train magazine w/o research
i know it is called glimmer train. i picked one up in a barnes and noble once. i never read a story in it except for if it was republished in an anthology maybe. i submitted to glimmer train once i think a long time ago. i never got interested in glimmer train for some reason.
– Darby Larson
Blake Butler—
Three Chatbots Answer the Proust Questionnaire “Q: Which living person do you most despise? A: Not funny.” [via Mediabistro]
4
The Humanity in Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho
1. I avoided American Psycho for as long as possible before picking it up. I hadn’t even realized it’s about to celebrate its 20th birthday (jesus christ) until I was about halfway through my first and only read at last last week, which went down from cover to cover in two evenings. It’s the first time in I don’t know how long that I’ve been compelled to carry a book around with me and read it wherever I am, instead of doing other things, such as on a Friday night on my sofa in my underwear, wanting to stay inside it, even as in many ways the book keeps repeating itself, its elements; there felt something there.
2. I think I hadn’t read the book, and in fact talked shit about it not having read it, all this time because of a series of false expectations placed upon it. I’m certainly one of the last you’d call a squeamish reader, in fact often the more brutal the better, but something about the mythology of Ellis, and the weird taste I’d gotten in Less Than Zero, the only book of his I’d picked up until this year, which reflected to me at the time a kind of retarded field of vision I wasn’t really interested in: drugs, and fucking (which, I know, that’s supposed to be what you want, but that’s part of what made it not at all what I want: it seemed obvious). I chalked American Psycho, too, even among all its hype, to the same kind of thinking: that this couldn’t really be that big of a deal, that it was just some guy getting his balls off writing out some not even that hardcore (in language) action, and etc. etc.
HTMLGiant Reviews Section
Today is the launch day for our newly formatted reviews section at HTMLGiant, which you can see kicked off below with Maxi Kim’s review of Stewart Home & Matthew Timmons.
Every Monday and Friday of each week we’ll host long formal review of this nature, live at noon. This section will be edited by our new Formal Reviews editor, Janice Lee.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each week we’ll be running a new review feature, with anonymously written, shorter reviews. This section will be edited by Anonymous Reviews editor, Brooks Sterritt.
Anyone interested in submitting reviews to either section is encouraged to do so, particularly the anonymous. Feel free as well to query if you would like to write but don’t yet have a book in mind.
Formal reviews should be 800-1500 words and up, and can be sent to Janice at janice [at] htmlgiant [dot] com.
Anonymous reviews should be 300-500 words, have a rating from 0.0-10.0, and can be sent to Brooks at brooks [at] htmlgiant [dot] com.
Obviously in submission your anonymity won’t be possible, unless you want to send from a strange address, but we promise not to tell. This also should not mean, though, that anonymous reviews are designed solely to tear shit up; we simply hope to bypass some of the insular review practices that happen in a community as frequently incestuous as lit. Review submissions are open as of today.
Presses or authors hoping to be reviewed here can send a query, not to the editors, but to reviews [at] htmlgiant [dot] com. Queries sent elsewhere will not be able to be responded to.
As well, all regular reviews will be archived for easy access here (also clickable at the top of this page). We hope in the midst of this to keep a dependable forum for new and old work alike.
Welcome to Janice and Brooks!
Blake Butler—
One of the major reasons I love Infinite Jest is that it seems like it was written by an extremely intelligent alien; someone trying so intricately and direly to figure out humans and so utterly, utterly failing.
Everything I’ve read so far this year with brief notes
When Marina Abramović Dies: A Biography by James Westcott * * * Read a lot of this in a bathtub where it was cold out and the tub was warm after Scott McClanahan suggested I’d like it; I did like it; reading about her life dedicated to making these insane performances seemed really motivating, and that time can be put to good use over periods. I like to think about the phases of her life.
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt * * * * Had tried to read this before and lost the book before I got really going; it has such an insanely beautifully orchestrated opening section, one of the sharpest I’ve read in a while, while still having narrative; she does a lot in this book that seems like nothing I’ve seen elsewhere, orchestrated almost entirely around the relationship between a mother and son; loved.
Termite Parade by Joshua Mohr * * * * Really liked the sections about the conceptual video project in this book; he has a good edge to his voice, a good mix of action and idea; looking forward to his next one in the trilogy, Damascus.
The Loser by Thomas Bernhard * * * * Different for Bernhard in a way; really enjoyed reading about Glenn Gould and the two minds of the friends there in their jealousy of his mastery; suicide is always compelling to read about; the last page of this book wins it.
The Book of Lazarus by Richard Grossman * * * * Reading this book felt insane, like being locked up in a cabinet or something; I like thick books that have pages that move quickly, like you are swimming.
Dennis Cooper & Keith Mayerson’s Horror Hospital Unplugged
Finally the gorgeous and psionic (and previously OOP) graphic novel Horror Hospital Unplugged, written by Dennis Cooper and illustrated by Keith Mayerson, has been rereleased by Harper Perennial. “If Antonin Artaud and Keith Haring took the wrong drugs and collaborated on a kids cartoon show.” Wish I could plaster the walls of my house all over.
More excerpts available at DC’s blog, as well as in the ‘look inside the book’ feature on Amazon.
Aldrich Ames on Writing
“I’m a traitor, but I don’t consider myself a traitor.”
“The human spy, in terms of the American espionage effort, had never been terribly pertinent.”
“You might as well ask why a middle-aged man with no criminal record might put a paper bag over his head and rob a bank. I acted out of personal desperation.”
“I could have stopped it after they paid me the $50,000. I wouldn’t even have had to go on to do more than I already had: just the double agents’ names that I gave.”
“The use of the polygraph has done little more than create confusion, ambiguity and mistakes.”
“The betrayal of trust carries a heavy taboo.”