Massive People

Further from Jessamyn West on David Foster Wallace as a teacher: her remembrance of him @ librarian.net, including his quote, “Just because it really happened, doesn’t make it good fiction.” Thanks again to her.

Unto Us, These States of Grace: A Love Letter to Sugar

When I was younger, I used to read Dear Abby and Ask Ann Landers. Those advice columns offered brief glimpses into the troubled lives of others. Sometimes, the columns were lighthearted and humorous with advice on how to deal with inlaws or children who refused to move out at the age of 31. There were more serious columns that dealt with addiction, or the death of a loved one, or a crumbling marriage. The advice of Ann and Abby was always sage, albeit a bit tame. In a few sentences they applied down home wisdom and common sense but more than anything their advice felt like a brief reminder that we are not alone.

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Massive People / 48 Comments
July 16th, 2010 / 3:35 pm

Vouched Books

Christopher Newgent has a new project, Vouched Books and it is pretty awesome.

The concept around Vouched is simple.

Vouched is here to spread and promote small press literature by peddling literary wares at art events and farmers/flea markets around Indianapolis. Every book on the Vouched Books table is a book that Chris personally read and enjoyed and wants other people to read and enjoy.

Most of all, Vouched is about talking about books. Small presses are putting out some of the best and most artistic literature out there. Chris wants to talk about these books, and wants these books to be talked about.

Check them out and consider making a donation to support the project.

Massive People / 24 Comments
July 2nd, 2010 / 4:47 pm

THE FROWNING SUN by Ariana Reines

[Regular readers might recall that back in March, Ariana Reines was trying to raise some money to send herself to Haiti as a translator for a group of trauma clinicians. We helped her, and then checked back in a month later. Today we’ve got something very special- over the approximately five pages that follow, Ariana offers an original piece of nonfiction, two paragraphs of journalism, a reading list, an explanation of WHAT [SHE] DID, an appendix, and some links. You can download THE FROWNING SUN as a .pdf, or click through and read it all here on the site.  – JT ]

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THE FROWNING SUN

One day two years ago I was drunk and angrily fucked my boyfriend while the movie Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti played on ubuweb with the volume turned up loud. Eight months ago, that boyfriend found my subsequent boyfriend in bed with me and beat him severely in the head, screaming “You fucking rapist”. Now the former is married and the latter is far away.

While I was in Haiti, about five weeks ago, the man I referred to above as “my boyfriend,” “that boyfriend,” and “the former” got shot in the stomach by a neighbor in what the internet reported as a “dispute over a dog.” I hope he is alright and can continue to eat spicy foods, which he enjoys, and that his career of violence, like mine, is at an end.

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Excerpts & Massive People / 16 Comments
June 30th, 2010 / 11:37 am

Saramago

A world of blindness, now without him:

Massive People / 14 Comments
June 18th, 2010 / 9:43 am

5 dune ungrazed haircuts

11. Alexandra Chasin at the always glow zoran rosko vacuum player.

2. Question: Is Andy Warhol’s art on the moon?

19. Fady Joudah interview over at Willow Springs.

Nevertheless, it is just the idea that you store something you don’t want to throw away, your sense of existence—you store it and ignore it. Only when you move from that house do you check what you left in the attic and see what you want to take with you or throw away.

5. The words inside were solid, but the cover for Oxford American 2010 Best of the South sort of annoys me. Some type of Euro-model riding on the back of her adolescent brother? Is it the toy gun? The Tide clean T-shirt? Or the airbrushed/possibly perfectly placed strand of horizontal hair on her head? Something. It doesn’t click for me.

Author Spotlight & Massive People / Comments Off on 5 dune ungrazed haircuts
June 8th, 2010 / 11:27 am

David Markson, a master, passes

RIP 1927-2010

Ok seriously, this year needs to quit now.

Massive People / 72 Comments
June 6th, 2010 / 1:11 am

Ok Death, that’s enough now

Louise Bourgeois, RIP, 1911-2010

Massive People / 8 Comments
May 31st, 2010 / 11:04 pm

No more, please

Not just Dennis Hopper, but also Leslie Scalapino, she was a marvel.

Massive People / 6 Comments
May 29th, 2010 / 5:47 pm

Don’t You Fuckin’ Look At Me

RIP Dennis Hopper, a great one

Massive People / 41 Comments
May 29th, 2010 / 2:20 pm