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.
Raul Zurita at Notre Dame 2/2011
At Montevidayo, a fantastic series of videos of Raul Zurita reading from Song for His Disappeared Love at Notre Dame, with translation by Daniel Borzutzky. Part one of the series is below, part 2 & 3 at the link.
An Unnecessary Consideration of How 10+ Years of Daily Writing Has Changed My Wiring, Which I Wish I’d Considered Before I Started Even If I Wouldn’t Have Understood
I guess for like 10 years I’ve been coming to the computer to begin the day almost every day. I wake up to it, it is there. The machine has buttons that allow interaction with the system on a controlled level, meaning unlike humans it will not waver unless it finds errors or accrues age in hidden crap in such a way it can hardly work with the new sizes of the files of programs that run the programs that make the days go.
Tyler the Creator’s “Yonkers”
Shit’s spreading across the net like something else but too good not to post again here.
Blake Butler—
The BBC did an End Notes feature on the legacy of David Foster Wallace, which you can stream at their site here, or can download as an mp3 here [w/ thanks to my pal Eric].
3
Blake Butler—
Are all perceptions of inequality equal? If not, is gender discrimination worse than race discrimination, or sexual orientation discrimination? What about income, or shoe size? Or if they are all equal, who isn’t inequal? I’d like to see more publication of work by glass.
“Last April I hurt my knee doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu” : 6 Questions W/ Jesse Ball
[Jesse Ball’s latest novel, The Curfew, will be released from Vintage on June 14th. Last month Shane Jones caught up with Jesse about the new book via email. – ed.]
SJ: When I first interviewed you back in 2007 we spoke a little about how fast you write your books (some in several weeks) and I’d like to go back to that discussion. Specifically, how fast your books feel to a reader (the latest feels even faster than your first two books). I literally could not stop reading THE CURFEW because it felt like I was being pulled along, my eyes kind of racing over the words. Is this something you consciously try to implore in your novels? Was THE CURFEW written in the same short-time/style as the others?
JB: Even more quickly, actually.
I feel very strongly the burden that a writer ought to tell a tale and that the writer should do it so properly and well that the reader forgets himself or herself. There are many other things I do (or try to do), but that is the first.
Blake Butler—
At the Electronic Book Review, Curtis White pretty much nails the problems with David Shields’s Reality Hunger: ‘At best, it is the sort of call to arms that comes from an editor saying, “Why shouldn’t we do a call to arms this season? I think it’s time for that again. In the spring, of course. I don’t see this as a Christmas book.”‘
Raúl Zurita @ AWP
It’s hard to keep track of anything if you’re going to AWP, but here’s one I’m making sure not to miss: Raúl Zurita reading and in conversation Friday at Noon in support of his new book from Action Books, Songs for His Disappeared Love. From Johannes: “This is like getting Neruda to the fucking AWP. This guy spent 6 weeks in a shed being tortured following the Pinochet coup.” More info and locations here.
While you’re at it, come by and say hello as a bunch of us from HTMLGiant will be at a monster table chillin.
What other events are worth seeing?