Mean
Lit Mags as an Empty Mob Scene & yes I know this is an oink
If there’s anything the majority of the community of literary magazines suffers from, it is a lack of imagination: a whole-on blanket of blanking in the way of actual attention demanding, which is very likely a large part of the reason why many of these magazines, and the book industry as a whole, often, doesn’t spread. Blank. Noise for noise’s sake. Tribunals and routine.
This statement manifests itself in several ways:
1. You are a major literary magazine. In this context I mean major as in you are respected as a name, though this does not mean you sell a lot of issues (i.e. I’m not talking about the New Yorker or Harper’s, etc., I’m talking about most any ‘respectable’ college journal). In any issue you have 3-5 ‘known’ names. Often these are names that have been published to quite a large extent, have published books that tout themselves if possible as Bestsellers (even literary ones) or as having been in Best American, etc., etc. You think that by housing these names and pimping them on the cover you will sell issues to people who also want to be in those places someday, if they can. To fill out the rest of the issue, you have open submissions. You have a committee of people who read what you are sent, which is a lot. Because there are so many people involved in the process, it takes a good bit of finagling for something to actually get through the gamut, which is fine, because a lot of what you are sent is actually pulp. As a result of the screening, though, most of the work that gets to the top is stuff that can be understood and recognized as strong by a focus group of people. Like, associate reader A reads, sees echoes of the bigger name people you have published, which is now your aesthetic, in the work, passes it to reader B. Reader B sees it too, and continues to hand the item up the ladder. By the time it reaches the top of the pile, the piece has been read and understood under the guidelines by at least a handful of people. Work that some people might have gotten and passed on might get turned back at some point. One of the major reasons I’ve heard for this is “We like this, but we don’t know what to do with it” or “I really am intrigued by this, but I don’t know that our audience would understand.” What makes it to the top, then, is a sampling of premises of an aesthetic, which are often then voted on by the group, or stamped yay or nay by the editor, who often has little to no idea what other work has come in beyond what has worked its way through and through. Yes, some ‘challenging’ pieces do get into the magazine, but often these come from solicitations, often by lower associate editors who don’t handle the big dogs. Soliciting fills the niche that likely defines your magazine, and is often what makes you believe the magazine sells, but you do feel good about the ‘new voices’ you can ‘work in,’ even if a lot of the time they sound exactly like the old voices, or else how would they have gotten through. As a result, the magazine is mostly nothing no one’s never seen before, and though there are some flagstones to grab some people into buying, the issue will likely very quickly be forgotten. The issue takes front rank for a month and then is subverted by the process of building the next one. And we go and go and go.
And people keep reading less in general because that’s what happens.
And. And.
This is of course not the case across the board with all journals, but it seems to be quite common, and especially in older, more established and collegiate-related journals. The staffs at these places also rotate every couple years, so it can be hard, even once you get a roster of people that seem interested in shifting the game, to keep that momentum rolling. But still, things must go on, and the magazine must push forward, and at the end of the day you don’t dwell too hard, because it is what it is.
What is being created here is a blank. By publishing magazines full end to end of the familiar and the strained out, you are building a noise that covers other noise. The end product is not a positive function, in that it exists, but actually a black hole, as not only are you peddling moderate product, you are essentially talking into a void. You are putting paper in public places where people who pick it up know there’s nothing in it that will interest them. People stop going to newsstands. People stop thinking about it. You exist, mainly, as a conduit for people to make tenure by building portfolios and to pad their publications arcs and maybe to end up nominated for some award that means absolutely nothing to anybody except those people who really care about the portfolios, etc. It’s very small. You might get a piece into a Best American or a Pushcart, and then there’s that. There’s that story by T.C. Boyle or Alice Munro that anybody in your position at any magazine of your stature would have taken. It is as if you do not exist.
And so books exist less also. And aura. And there is more to pulp at the end of the quarter or whatever.
Cool.
2. You are a mid-tier journal run independent of the college program. You pay for everything yourself. You make ends meet somehow, usually by finding ways to cover your loss doing readings and fundraisers. You sometimes might be seen to beg people to subscribe. But really, you knew you weren’t going to make money doing this, or even break even, so really it’s just the way things go, and you’re fine with that. You do it because you like reading. Or something.
In any issue you probably do the same thing the bigger journals do. By this I mean, you get the biggest name writers you can find who will send you work for free, and you run it up your flagpole as a way to get others on the raft. The ‘names’ are what sell the few issues you do sell, right? Sure, that’s what people want. We’re so proud to publish Steve Almond! Is that why you exist?
So many journals coming out of the gates as new and wow and neato and we pay and still forking forward the same routine bees.
So, while your website and mission statement or whatever talk about new voices, it’s still above that that you are talking about who you got to send you work, and those bigger names are usually the ones you use in promo materials or blurbs. It feels good to publish a name. It also feels good to get these new people in and out there, and you like that you are independent from an overhead. If you like something, you can publish it.
The problem I see often here is that these magazines, while less of a white noise, are still interested in publishing mostly only work their ‘audience’ can ‘understand.’ It seems important before anything else that the work be clear. One common thing you might say is that you want submissions to be the author’s best work. Send us your best work. Best work often meaning, something that moves you. Something with legs.
I need to define here that I’m talking about a very specific sect of journal here. There are certainly journals that challenge and delight with a great % of work they include. But more often, it feels like, many journals are just a junior version of the bigger dogs. Less funded, more controlled, but still interested in pushing forward the same values as the ones they claim to be proud to be separate from. And so, when someone comes to this ‘market’ in the idea that they are escaping the above, and finds more of it, with worse design, what does that feel like? Where is the exit? What kind of ship?
And so, here we are, with more noise. And more blank. Talking to hear ourselves talk.
Seems like we all know this and aren’t saying or are saying and are still right here.
Now what.
3. You are a bottom tier and/or electronic journal. You do what you can. You might publish cool things, you might publish farts in a bag. People read you or they don’t. They come and click on a couple things and leave. They maybe tell some other people. You fill a void that exists between the above, a lot of it filler, some of it better than most places. You do it up, until you don’t do it anymore.
Now what.
4. Now what?
The answer to this question is patent. Things are going on. There are more new entities and creations coming out now more than ever, I imagine. But we already know that, and many good things will continue to be made. We also already know that these above places are blank for the most part. So how do we get out? How do we end or amend a cycle so embedded it doesn’t sit in one fixed place, but is more so all around? And at the same time, not around at all? Because here we are.
Of course I like to read some of those big names too. They are sometimes big for a reason.
Still, I have some ideas.
Take a shit in a bag and mail it to All Story. Mail it to Poetry. Mail it to the Georgia Review.
Get your kid to throw up in a manuscript sized envelope and address it to the fiction editor of Glimmer Train.
Make an audio cassette of yourself banging your face against a cake with squishy noises and pop it over to that journal you used to think you wanted to be in and that you never even read.
Here’s another idea: buy a frozen dinner. Put it in a mailer. Send it to Granta or Harvard Review, whoever. Imagine the stink by the time they get to that in all that slush pile.
Embed a word file with a photo of a guy getting reamed by donkeys and submit it electronically to Narrative or whoever.
Send it to me.
I’m not kidding. This is really a decent solution. If not a solution, it is a psychic message. If not a psychic message, it might feel good. Or might leave a fart smell in the void that has been burned.
None of this will be done. Sure. And it doesn’t matter. Sure. And I’m just talking. I am.
Really I’m just trying to waste time because I don’t feel like writing, though I know I should.
Writing.
Boxes, words.
Another idea, though this is aimed at editors: publish work you do not understand. Stop sending messages that say “We absolutely loved this, but can’t quite wrap our heads around it.” Take it around. Stop coveting. Stop having dinner in a glossy photo album. Nudge over in your mind that anyone wants you to billboard a new story by Richard Bausch or Joey Lawrence whoever else. Don’t be afraid to take a shit. Stop worrying about where things are headed. Stop looking for the next twitter, or the current twitter.
I don’t mean this as in saying all things should be edgy. All things ‘experimental.’ Shit. There is just as much if not more shithouse shit shit coming out in the name of being against the front as there is anywhere else. There is just as much if not more good things being foisted by places that are here to carry the load, and these will always be the minority, and will always be. And etc. Blah. Speakings.
Think about design. Think about making something you would touch if you didn’t make it. Think about if anybody would give a fuck if you did not exist. Realize they wouldn’t, and then try to do something about it, and fail, and feel better. Keep trying. Get better looking and more hairy. Put mayonnaise on a door. Try to imagine, not bursting your own nut always, but bursting a nut anywhere, at all.
Republish something that killed you once. Think about blood. Be kind.
Remember ever feeling inspired? Remember having no idea?
Remember Jean Genet is dead.
Remember Tim O’Brien isn’t dead, yet
Editors, who aren’t reading this: tear down a wall in your house and have it replaced by cottage cheese.
Wear a strap on to bed and cry to get your chest wet and then try to ream yourself in your wet fold.
No, really.
I realize this is all just wind. “A tempest in a teapot,” they told me.
What isn’t.
i waste a lot of time. time is for wasting. versus scooting. i am eating bran cookies.
i waste a lot of time. time is for wasting. versus scooting. i am eating bran cookies.
today from AGNI, in a pamphlet on why they like themselves: “[The] auguries couldn’t be better for now and times to come: this is a cracker of a magazine, a reader’s delight, a standard achieved, a balance held between service to new writers and fidelity to what’s what in writing itself.” – Seamus Heaney
for halloween i am going to go as seamus heaney
for halloween i am going to go as me
today from AGNI, in a pamphlet on why they like themselves: “[The] auguries couldn’t be better for now and times to come: this is a cracker of a magazine, a reader’s delight, a standard achieved, a balance held between service to new writers and fidelity to what’s what in writing itself.” – Seamus Heaney
for halloween i am going to go as seamus heaney
for halloween i am going to go as me
i can’t find any real butter
that dude said auguries
i can’t find any real butter
that dude said auguries
if you could throw up anything would you rather throw up money or good language on paper
money, duh
when is halloween, is that tomorrow?
if you could throw up anything would you rather throw up money or good language on paper
money, duh
when is halloween, is that tomorrow?
you’re getting fat anyway, from sitting around, yesterday the chic-fil-a felt wrong even. close this browser
close this browser
you’re getting fat anyway, from sitting around, yesterday the chic-fil-a felt wrong even. close this browser
close this browser
Stop padding your numbers, Butler.
‘a cracker of a magazine’
holy shit
Stop padding your numbers, Butler.
‘a cracker of a magazine’
holy shit
i’m mad at you this week
i’m mad at you this week
kiss me, you fool.
kiss me, you fool.
I like this. Joey Lawrence, ha.
I feel shit in a bag is potentially more effective if practiced collectively in a semi-coordinated campaign.
I think this is very true and very well said, but yeah, it still seems hopeless. There are so many journals that obviously just exist because they have a yearly budget and they figure they might as well spend it so they can get the money for the next year. I’ve gotten acceptances from these sorts of journals that came off as unenthused as rejections.
And university presses–do they even want people to read their books? They can’t get a random undergrad to design a book cover that doesn’t use times new roman and a cheesy stock photo of a storm on the horizon?
I like this. Joey Lawrence, ha.
I feel shit in a bag is potentially more effective if practiced collectively in a semi-coordinated campaign.
I think this is very true and very well said, but yeah, it still seems hopeless. There are so many journals that obviously just exist because they have a yearly budget and they figure they might as well spend it so they can get the money for the next year. I’ve gotten acceptances from these sorts of journals that came off as unenthused as rejections.
And university presses–do they even want people to read their books? They can’t get a random undergrad to design a book cover that doesn’t use times new roman and a cheesy stock photo of a storm on the horizon?
Let’s not fight in front of the children. By which I mean Jereme and Gena.
Let’s not fight in front of the children. By which I mean Jereme and Gena.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf-qgqLqzds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf-qgqLqzds
I’m mad at Matthew too because I watched that twee girl cover Beyonce, and hated it, and then realized I thought the twee girl was kind of hot in a big-wet-eyes alien kind of way, then hated myself.
I’m mad at Matthew too because I watched that twee girl cover Beyonce, and hated it, and then realized I thought the twee girl was kind of hot in a big-wet-eyes alien kind of way, then hated myself.
We could get 65 people to agree to shit in the same large bag.
We could get 65 people to agree to shit in the same large bag.
I dunno. I feel like the people receiving the shit would just be good-ish people doing what they do. Blake’s right I think abt the ‘problem’ being everywhere and nowhere.
I dunno. I feel like the people receiving the shit would just be good-ish people doing what they do. Blake’s right I think abt the ‘problem’ being everywhere and nowhere.
What could they do? Really? If they received a bag with 65 separate shit’s in it?
Prosecute?
Sit all 65 of us in a courtroom?
they may be good people but they would still have shit on their hands
What could they do? Really? If they received a bag with 65 separate shit’s in it?
Prosecute?
Sit all 65 of us in a courtroom?
they may be good people but they would still have shit on their hands
shits. sorry. grammar lesson.
shits. sorry. grammar lesson.
If they were good people than they’d publish our bag-shit.
If they were good people than they’d publish our bag-shit.
I think I dislike the expression ‘good people.’ I wish I hadn’t used it.
I think I dislike the expression ‘good people.’ I wish I hadn’t used it.
Heh, I received an acceptance once from a journal like that wherein it was signed The Editors. The Editors really liked my story and blah blah blah. It was certainly a big blank, to employ Blake’s appropriate term.
Heh, I received an acceptance once from a journal like that wherein it was signed The Editors. The Editors really liked my story and blah blah blah. It was certainly a big blank, to employ Blake’s appropriate term.
Blake, we are going to put all those things, especially the frozen dinner, on Artifice’s wishlist. We read everything ourselves. No one else reads it. We don’t like magazines that “publish the best of established and emerging writers” because we think that is a load of bull. We take stuff based on gut reaction and whim. I wonder if we will suck as much as you think other magazines do?
Blake, we are going to put all those things, especially the frozen dinner, on Artifice’s wishlist. We read everything ourselves. No one else reads it. We don’t like magazines that “publish the best of established and emerging writers” because we think that is a load of bull. We take stuff based on gut reaction and whim. I wonder if we will suck as much as you think other magazines do?
i am excited about Artifice. i am excited about some other mags too. they are the only things that float.
i am excited about Artifice. i am excited about some other mags too. they are the only things that float.
I’ve been waiting to restart the wishlist. Here we go. You are the initiator, pal: http://www.artificemag.com/wishlist/.
I’ve been waiting to restart the wishlist. Here we go. You are the initiator, pal: http://www.artificemag.com/wishlist/.
fuck you blake, this made me smile and then want to cry.
then to bash my head against the table and then the door.
thankfully it’s beautiful outside the internet today. i think i’m going to go ride my bike before sitting down again to suffer
i luv y’all
fuck you blake, this made me smile and then want to cry.
then to bash my head against the table and then the door.
thankfully it’s beautiful outside the internet today. i think i’m going to go ride my bike before sitting down again to suffer
i luv y’all
smiling and crying are good for the soul
you are a good person
smiling and crying are good for the soul
you are a good person
Fuck the noise. I’m going out to get a burger and a hand job.
Fuck the noise. I’m going out to get a burger and a hand job.
hey blake
i know it’s mean week
but i think this is my favorite entry of yours yet
i don’t know why
maybe i do
but really
it is the new best
hey blake
i know it’s mean week
but i think this is my favorite entry of yours yet
i don’t know why
maybe i do
but really
it is the new best
posts like this are good for the soul.
this should be required reading for anyone with the idea that they want to start a lit mag or get into publishing or endeavor to do anything remotely related to books. i don’t care if that’s elitist or whatever. it’s the truth.
too many people aren’t doing shit. i’m not talking about the people who aspire to but fail. we shall all fail, the best of us are no exception. the people i’m talking about are the ones just doing it to do it, with some mindless, automatic inkling of what they want, but absolutely no vision. they are blind, deaf, unfeeling, already dead. they are, as you put, “the blank.”
simply put, there’s a lot of blank — a lot of horseshit out there and a lot of shoveling to be done. of course, it’s hopeless. the storm keeps storming and the shit keeps falling.
of course we’ll fail.
that’s part of the point.
wait, i was supposed to go ride my bike now
posts like this are good for the soul.
this should be required reading for anyone with the idea that they want to start a lit mag or get into publishing or endeavor to do anything remotely related to books. i don’t care if that’s elitist or whatever. it’s the truth.
too many people aren’t doing shit. i’m not talking about the people who aspire to but fail. we shall all fail, the best of us are no exception. the people i’m talking about are the ones just doing it to do it, with some mindless, automatic inkling of what they want, but absolutely no vision. they are blind, deaf, unfeeling, already dead. they are, as you put, “the blank.”
simply put, there’s a lot of blank — a lot of horseshit out there and a lot of shoveling to be done. of course, it’s hopeless. the storm keeps storming and the shit keeps falling.
of course we’ll fail.
that’s part of the point.
wait, i was supposed to go ride my bike now
The only big names I publish are only big because I published them. They were nobodies until I published them. You hear me? NOBODIES!
The only big names I publish are only big because I published them. They were nobodies until I published them. You hear me? NOBODIES!
that’s the spirit gian
that’s the spirit gian
i am glad to elicit that kind of response from someone like you james, seriously. i feel a little better in having said it now
i am glad to elicit that kind of response from someone like you james, seriously. i feel a little better in having said it now
thank you mike
tyrants are exempt from all consternation
thank you mike
tyrants are exempt from all consternation
Well, that’d kind of a lie. The “biggest” names of alive people I have published are Gordon Lish, John Haskell, and Jonathan Ames.
But I did publish some dead people. Breece D’J Pancake and Stanley Elkin
I could really show off here and list the “big” names of people I have rejected but I won’t do that because then it would lose all meaning to me.
Well, that’d kind of a lie. The “biggest” names of alive people I have published are Gordon Lish, John Haskell, and Jonathan Ames.
But I did publish some dead people. Breece D’J Pancake and Stanley Elkin
I could really show off here and list the “big” names of people I have rejected but I won’t do that because then it would lose all meaning to me.
i’d like to get rejected by you so i can taunt you with your poor decision later in life but your subs are always closed.
i’d like to get rejected by you so i can taunt you with your poor decision later in life but your subs are always closed.
I only send frozen dinners to magazines staffed by guinea pigs.
I only send frozen dinners to magazines staffed by guinea pigs.
That doesn’t make any sense.
That doesn’t make any sense.
davidpeak,
I am sorry our submissions are always closed. I don’t have any readers I can trust so I do it all alone. I don’t even feel like we can be considered a “journal” anymore because all I do is solicit these days. But I have accepted some things that people submit even though the submissions are closed. I could lie and say that the “submissions closed” thing is just a way of getting submissions from people who disregard the rules and how rule-breakers write better stories. I wish that were true. Hey, maybe it is. If I think it’s true, then it is, right? Done.
davidpeak,
I am sorry our submissions are always closed. I don’t have any readers I can trust so I do it all alone. I don’t even feel like we can be considered a “journal” anymore because all I do is solicit these days. But I have accepted some things that people submit even though the submissions are closed. I could lie and say that the “submissions closed” thing is just a way of getting submissions from people who disregard the rules and how rule-breakers write better stories. I wish that were true. Hey, maybe it is. If I think it’s true, then it is, right? Done.
holy shit indeed
holy shit indeed
This is what I am afraid of and thinking about a lot. I think we are avoiding some of this with Puerto now. I want to run my own magazine with my wife when we graduate. Blow minds. Fuck shit up. I am bored of magazines.
reverse that
This is what I am afraid of and thinking about a lot. I think we are avoiding some of this with Puerto now. I want to run my own magazine with my wife when we graduate. Blow minds. Fuck shit up. I am bored of magazines.
reverse that
i went through the same thing
i went through the same thing
At Thirst for Fire we do not give a fine fuck who you are; if you’re a “name” or nobody. We just want things that make our dicks hard or make us puke or drive us to the edge of suicide.
At Thirst for Fire we do not give a fine fuck who you are; if you’re a “name” or nobody. We just want things that make our dicks hard or make us puke or drive us to the edge of suicide.
along with publishing things they don’t understand, i would encourage people to publish things that they like but they are not sure why they like them, or they know they shouldn’t like them, or they are maybe a little embarrassed to like them
i think is different than things you don’t understand
this is bbq chicken pizza territory
but i still think that would be an interesting stagger, things you don’t understand + things you like but don’t know why
i think *this is different than things you don’t understand
along with publishing things they don’t understand, i would encourage people to publish things that they like but they are not sure why they like them, or they know they shouldn’t like them, or they are maybe a little embarrassed to like them
i think is different than things you don’t understand
this is bbq chicken pizza territory
but i still think that would be an interesting stagger, things you don’t understand + things you like but don’t know why
i think *this is different than things you don’t understand
i agree. that is a good addition. some of my favorite things i’ve published were things i had no idea what even happened, even though they were very clearly written
i agree. that is a good addition. some of my favorite things i’ve published were things i had no idea what even happened, even though they were very clearly written
Mean week: I get tired of how everybody immediately responds to almost all posts with “Well here at _____, we do ______,” “Well when I ______, I always make sure to _____” and starts talking abt themselves or their own enterprise, when nobody really asked or cares, like they’re talking at the post and never to one another in any real way about whatever issue is on the table. I don’t mean to single you out Nathan, it’s totally fair for you to talk abt your pub or whatever, this is just a particular way nearly all comment threads develop that I find really tiresome.
Mean week: I get tired of how everybody immediately responds to almost all posts with “Well here at _____, we do ______,” “Well when I ______, I always make sure to _____” and starts talking abt themselves or their own enterprise, when nobody really asked or cares, like they’re talking at the post and never to one another in any real way about whatever issue is on the table. I don’t mean to single you out Nathan, it’s totally fair for you to talk abt your pub or whatever, this is just a particular way nearly all comment threads develop that I find really tiresome.
oddly, even though I do it I also find it tiresome. Still, when someone takes a shot at “literary publications” as if they were some monolithic thing, one cannot help the need to answer with ‘but some of us are fucking different’. Blake makes solid points, but they only really apply to a certain sub-genera of lit mags. Certainly Glimmer Train and the like suffer the rot he speaks of, but The legendary, lamination Colony, PMJA, TFF and hundreds of others don’t. It’s fair to pint it out.
bbq chicken pizza is delicious
oddly, even though I do it I also find it tiresome. Still, when someone takes a shot at “literary publications” as if they were some monolithic thing, one cannot help the need to answer with ‘but some of us are fucking different’. Blake makes solid points, but they only really apply to a certain sub-genera of lit mags. Certainly Glimmer Train and the like suffer the rot he speaks of, but The legendary, lamination Colony, PMJA, TFF and hundreds of others don’t. It’s fair to pint it out.
bbq chicken pizza is delicious
Started it. Sorry.
Actually, fuck you. (Mean week?)
Started it. Sorry.
Actually, fuck you. (Mean week?)
what is pmja
what is pmja
i think it’s obvious i’m not saying there are no good magazines. there are great magazines. i’m aiming at the bad ones, which are the majority. i would not say there are hundreds of good.
and by ‘bad’ here i’m talking about ‘lazy’ or ‘blank’ or ‘____’
i think it’s obvious i’m not saying there are no good magazines. there are great magazines. i’m aiming at the bad ones, which are the majority. i would not say there are hundreds of good.
and by ‘bad’ here i’m talking about ‘lazy’ or ‘blank’ or ‘____’
sasha has changed
sasha has changed
yeah- that’s right. You’re to blame, you lousy pimp! (mean week)
yeah- that’s right. You’re to blame, you lousy pimp! (mean week)
Clearly it’s okay to talk about Artifice because I’m in it and you’re my friend.
I mean… fuck you, guinea pig!
Clearly it’s okay to talk about Artifice because I’m in it and you’re my friend.
I mean… fuck you, guinea pig!
I think everybody does it. I’m certain I probably have.
I think everybody does it. I’m certain I probably have.
“this is bbq chicken pizza territory”
nice
“this is bbq chicken pizza territory”
nice
@davidpeak what is pmja? Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k) which I love
@davidpeak what is pmja? Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k) which I love
Or “Shameless Heiney” as they used to call him in the old days, for reasons I am not at liberty to disclose…
Or “Shameless Heiney” as they used to call him in the old days, for reasons I am not at liberty to disclose…
This was a dynamite post, and i mean that in the very specific sense of blowing some shit up.
This was a dynamite post, and i mean that in the very specific sense of blowing some shit up.
I bet Blake is about 200 right now, 210. I just know he’s fat. Haven’t seen any running posts and he’s all successful, the photo shoot and lobster circuit, all those micro-brews. Yeh, he’s fat.
I bet Blake is about 200 right now, 210. I just know he’s fat. Haven’t seen any running posts and he’s all successful, the photo shoot and lobster circuit, all those micro-brews. Yeh, he’s fat.
Blake knows the “good” magazines. This reminds me of a certain Flannery O’ Connor story…
that exclamation mark is bothering me.
Blake knows the “good” magazines. This reminds me of a certain Flannery O’ Connor story…
that exclamation mark is bothering me.
@ Blake Butler –
yeah, I know you weren’t talking about “all” but it still bears saying that there are a lot of great mags out there that don’t suffer the STD you’re decrying
Misfit waiting for you, Blake.
[God, I’ve been posting a lot this week. Know why? I’m really hyper. It just happens to me. I usually run it all of on my treadmill, and I am doing that, too.]
off I mean
@ Blake Butler –
yeah, I know you weren’t talking about “all” but it still bears saying that there are a lot of great mags out there that don’t suffer the STD you’re decrying
Misfit waiting for you, Blake.
[God, I’ve been posting a lot this week. Know why? I’m really hyper. It just happens to me. I usually run it all of on my treadmill, and I am doing that, too.]
off I mean
Your mom doesnt make any sense.
Your mom doesnt make any sense.
Actually, I feel like the way you worked Artifice into your comment was much stealthier and relevant-seeming than what I was complaining abt.
Actually, I feel like the way you worked Artifice into your comment was much stealthier and relevant-seeming than what I was complaining abt.
i also agree there aren’t hundreds not doing blank. if there were, there’d be no need for a post like this, or us talking about it.
i also agree there aren’t hundreds not doing blank. if there were, there’d be no need for a post like this, or us talking about it.
Do you post from the treadmill?
Do you post from the treadmill?
weren’t you going for a bike ride, james? go ride your fucking bike. walk away.
weren’t you going for a bike ride, james? go ride your fucking bike. walk away.
maybe not hundreds, but many.
maybe not hundreds, but many.
can’t, tried, back
can’t, tried, back
I do post from y treadmill. Is that wrong?
my
I do post from y treadmill. Is that wrong?
my
on a related note, i cringe when i see magazines so desperate to grab our attention that they pimp the big-name authors, then you look and see those authors didn’t contribute stories or poems to the issue, they were just interviewed in the issue. woopty fucking do — another interview. i like a good interview, but how many do we need? plus, that kind of name-drop eye-grab is disengenous and desperate. slice magazine — a newish one — does that.
back to the bbq chicken pizza
on a related note, i cringe when i see magazines so desperate to grab our attention that they pimp the big-name authors, then you look and see those authors didn’t contribute stories or poems to the issue, they were just interviewed in the issue. woopty fucking do — another interview. i like a good interview, but how many do we need? plus, that kind of name-drop eye-grab is disengenous and desperate. slice magazine — a newish one — does that.
back to the bbq chicken pizza
A friend of mine submitted sandwiches to lit mags about five years ago. “Please consider this tuna sandwich.” He got responses from several places. “Thanks for your submission, but we prefer ham.” Then he just went ahead and became a conceptual artist and pretty much stopped writing.
A friend of mine submitted sandwiches to lit mags about five years ago. “Please consider this tuna sandwich.” He got responses from several places. “Thanks for your submission, but we prefer ham.” Then he just went ahead and became a conceptual artist and pretty much stopped writing.
was your friend on heroine? i had one of those friends. he pretty much stopped living.
was your friend on heroine? i had one of those friends. he pretty much stopped living.
i can’t spell because i’m fake or something
i can’t spell because i’m fake or something
Audacity is missing from journals these days. Deviance from ‘theme’ is missing these days. I’m with you, Blake. There is a notion in publishing of having a ‘finger on the pulse’ of some kind of authentic literary scene, as if it lived elsewhere, as if the representation of it (journals, reviews, etc.) wasn’t in fact it’s very home (outside of highly personal literary communities not based in publication). Who considers their literary circle in far better a light than the big literary publishers? I imagine many of you. Before editing became an exact profession, publishers would rely on writers having their own readers, from their own circle. If we think of the Bloomsbury Group, one would conclude that the editorial opinions of the group far outweighed the journals taking their work. This group had the last say, if you will, were the trend, the literary movement, the audacity, all rolled up in one conclave. Is this more ideal? I’d be curious to hear what many of you (small publishers, online and otherwise) think.
Audacity is missing from journals these days. Deviance from ‘theme’ is missing these days. I’m with you, Blake. There is a notion in publishing of having a ‘finger on the pulse’ of some kind of authentic literary scene, as if it lived elsewhere, as if the representation of it (journals, reviews, etc.) wasn’t in fact it’s very home (outside of highly personal literary communities not based in publication). Who considers their literary circle in far better a light than the big literary publishers? I imagine many of you. Before editing became an exact profession, publishers would rely on writers having their own readers, from their own circle. If we think of the Bloomsbury Group, one would conclude that the editorial opinions of the group far outweighed the journals taking their work. This group had the last say, if you will, were the trend, the literary movement, the audacity, all rolled up in one conclave. Is this more ideal? I’d be curious to hear what many of you (small publishers, online and otherwise) think.
I’m not sure that the situation you’re describing is all that different from the current small press world, given that most of us running journals and small presses are also writers, and, I would imagine, are attempting to publish stuff that furthers our own ideas of what’s aesthetically interesting.
I’m not sure that the situation you’re describing is all that different from the current small press world, given that most of us running journals and small presses are also writers, and, I would imagine, are attempting to publish stuff that furthers our own ideas of what’s aesthetically interesting.
Maybe every writer believes their own work has unparalleled merit, their prose is God’s gift to English literature, and that recognition of their particular genius is imminent, and would certainly be inevitable were the world just and fair and good. Maybe over time, when their work is not received with open arms and cheering crowds, the fault lies with the gatekeepers, the system or the subsystem or the nature of a world in which we all are failures who can only attempt. Then the only answer is shit in a bag, lunch by freight, or the happy galaxy of the interweb, where the like-minded congregate, commiserate, and imagine truckloads of shit sent anus to offending hand, slop, slop, suey. Maybe.
But it seems more likely that most lit journals, first tier, independent, and electronic, have their limitations– all institutions become conservative over time, all editors are inclined in aesthetic toward their own idiosyncratic taste and all tend to like their friends work and be convinced *they* alone are the chosen few who have it right, and. And as much as that happens, people make new things, try new things, find a home for those things, and that imperfect process really isn’t so awful. I say that having seen all sides of it– a year ago, I had three hundred rejections and one publication in an e-journal of little consequence. I simply persisted, and now my work has covered all tiers (short of that Harpers/NY’er tippety-top) in twelve months, and having worked with all of them I have to say that all are pretty much the same. The truth is, there’s the work, and there’s all the other idiots, and if you’re doing the work and sending it out there an idiot or two might come around. Or not. But it’s actually not the fault of the world– all the mediocre lit journals and the occasional actual excellent one and the ones you think are fine because your friend started it, or you want to sleep with an assistant editor, or your work appeared there one time… those things will continue to exist. The electric journal world and the new ways of consuming print will eventually resemble the old system in large part– perhaps it all will be a little more democratic, less space between the author and reader, perhaps there will be more ability to ‘share’, perhaps new gatekeepers will exist, perhaps there will be greater diversity and we will all be linked into the great rhizome that is the web, but… the world will be the world, and writing will be writing, reflecting what is and what can be made to reflect or reify that. And there will always be a need to find readers and communities that fit the work.
Maybe every writer believes their own work has unparalleled merit, their prose is God’s gift to English literature, and that recognition of their particular genius is imminent, and would certainly be inevitable were the world just and fair and good. Maybe over time, when their work is not received with open arms and cheering crowds, the fault lies with the gatekeepers, the system or the subsystem or the nature of a world in which we all are failures who can only attempt. Then the only answer is shit in a bag, lunch by freight, or the happy galaxy of the interweb, where the like-minded congregate, commiserate, and imagine truckloads of shit sent anus to offending hand, slop, slop, suey. Maybe.
But it seems more likely that most lit journals, first tier, independent, and electronic, have their limitations– all institutions become conservative over time, all editors are inclined in aesthetic toward their own idiosyncratic taste and all tend to like their friends work and be convinced *they* alone are the chosen few who have it right, and. And as much as that happens, people make new things, try new things, find a home for those things, and that imperfect process really isn’t so awful. I say that having seen all sides of it– a year ago, I had three hundred rejections and one publication in an e-journal of little consequence. I simply persisted, and now my work has covered all tiers (short of that Harpers/NY’er tippety-top) in twelve months, and having worked with all of them I have to say that all are pretty much the same. The truth is, there’s the work, and there’s all the other idiots, and if you’re doing the work and sending it out there an idiot or two might come around. Or not. But it’s actually not the fault of the world– all the mediocre lit journals and the occasional actual excellent one and the ones you think are fine because your friend started it, or you want to sleep with an assistant editor, or your work appeared there one time… those things will continue to exist. The electric journal world and the new ways of consuming print will eventually resemble the old system in large part– perhaps it all will be a little more democratic, less space between the author and reader, perhaps there will be more ability to ‘share’, perhaps new gatekeepers will exist, perhaps there will be greater diversity and we will all be linked into the great rhizome that is the web, but… the world will be the world, and writing will be writing, reflecting what is and what can be made to reflect or reify that. And there will always be a need to find readers and communities that fit the work.
I read an interview once where a poet suggested a moratorium on poetry. For 10-20 years, nobody could publish anything. He guessed that afterward, there would be maybe 12 people still writing, and those are the people we should read. I think that number’s a little low, but I like the sentiment. An enema for the literary world’s big ass.
I read an interview once where a poet suggested a moratorium on poetry. For 10-20 years, nobody could publish anything. He guessed that afterward, there would be maybe 12 people still writing, and those are the people we should read. I think that number’s a little low, but I like the sentiment. An enema for the literary world’s big ass.
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Tim O’Brien isn’t dead???