June 13th, 2009 / 7:33 am
 Uncategorized

Less time consuming than Moby-Dick or War and Peace. More colorful than Ocho Cinco.

greatauthorsI’m currently sitting on my parents couch in an undisclosed location in South Jersey. It’s 7am on Saturday, and I’m awake because my folks are both teachers and wake up, even on their days off and summer vacations, at painfully early hours. Since, when I come to their house, I opt to sleep on the couch in front of their flat screen TV and soak in the cable I don’t have in New York, they usually wake me up too. It’s worth it, I think, although I’m still a bit groggy. Now I don’t have to move much in order to turn on cartoons or Rocky IV, which I think I saw On Demand. But this place of rest also gives me a chance to continue reading a fun series from Harper Perennial called Fifty Two Stories, where those guys pair short works from great authors (Tolstoy, Cather, Melville, etc) with a piece from a lesser known contemporary acolyte of the form (our beloved Dennis Cooper has a story paired with Stephen Crane). I’m through Tolstoy and most of the Dostoyevsky, and I have to say that it’s a nice way to run through some iconic authors, most known to casual readers as writers of epically longer works, that I probably wouldn’t get around to any time soon. Hell, it’s worth $10 cover price just to see Fyodor’s dour, existentially pockmarked visage on the cover. Guy looks seriously bummed out about life. Someone get him a Dippin’ Dots.

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21 Comments

  1. June 13th, 2009 / 12:07 pm Ross Brighton—

      For lovely cover portrait, you can’t go passed Green Integer. If you don’t already know them, well worth checking out. And they all fit in any reasonably sized pockets. I myself have a lot of fun going out on the town, and whipping out Lyn Hejinian’s My Life while having a pint, and looking SERIOUSLY intellectual. Haven’t pulled any hot babes doing that yet, but it will happen, one day. Avant-gardism has to be sexy, or else books have ruined me for the real world.

  2. June 13th, 2009 / 8:07 am Ross Brighton—

      For lovely cover portrait, you can’t go passed Green Integer. If you don’t already know them, well worth checking out. And they all fit in any reasonably sized pockets. I myself have a lot of fun going out on the town, and whipping out Lyn Hejinian’s My Life while having a pint, and looking SERIOUSLY intellectual. Haven’t pulled any hot babes doing that yet, but it will happen, one day. Avant-gardism has to be sexy, or else books have ruined me for the real world.

  3. June 13th, 2009 / 2:18 pm alan—

      I saw an ad for these in the New York Review and my first thought was it was NOT worth $10 to read a public-domain reprint paired with a story from a writer they’re promoting. It might be fun for like a third of the price, and probably more effective from a marketing point of view. It doesn’t say who translated the Dostoevsky but it’s probably like Constance Garnett. Which Dennis Cooper story are they offering with Crane?

  4. June 13th, 2009 / 10:18 am alan—

      I saw an ad for these in the New York Review and my first thought was it was NOT worth $10 to read a public-domain reprint paired with a story from a writer they’re promoting. It might be fun for like a third of the price, and probably more effective from a marketing point of view. It doesn’t say who translated the Dostoevsky but it’s probably like Constance Garnett. Which Dennis Cooper story are they offering with Crane?

  5. June 13th, 2009 / 2:58 pm ryan manning—

      Dippin’ Dots is an ice cream snack, invented by Southern Illinois University Carbondale graduate Curt Jones in 1988.

  6. June 13th, 2009 / 10:58 am ryan manning—

      Dippin’ Dots is an ice cream snack, invented by Southern Illinois University Carbondale graduate Curt Jones in 1988.

  7. June 13th, 2009 / 1:08 pm Drew Toal—

      Dude Dippin’ Dots were the shiiiittttt. Spaceman ice cream.

      But, yes, a flawed marketing experiment to be sure. But just look at those colors!

  8. June 13th, 2009 / 1:46 pm pr—

      They still sell that shit at the Binghamton Senators hockey games (AHL, or minor league hockey). Once a year or so my kids tried to like them- they didn’t. They just taste so bad!

  9. June 13th, 2009 / 2:15 pm Drew Toal—

      Pbbbfffffff.

      Bad? It tastes so good when it hits your tongue. Dippin. Dots 4 life.

  10. June 13th, 2009 / 3:08 pm pr—

      We will have to agree to disagree on that. I like some gross things. I like three muskateers bars and used to eat the chocolate off the entire outside first and was left with this slimy goo inside last (save the favorite for last).

      I like Bugles? Even though they make me feel sick.

  11. June 13th, 2009 / 7:27 pm Janey Smith—

      I like the HarperPerennial concept of bringing two ‘noncontemporaneous’ writers together using the short story and a technicolor cover with pictures. I don’t think ten dollars for such a little book is unreasonable if HP lists the name of the translator of any of the stories that require it, provides a short introductory essay ‘connecting’ the two writers included in the volume, and pairs the two writers together either ‘randomly’ or ‘relationally’ (i.e. stylistically, similar content, etc.) or ‘biographically’ or even ‘mathematically’ (one of the ‘first’ to do such and such, etc.).

      The 52 Stories series might be more fun if the more ‘iconic’ writers were maybe less ‘iconic’? Anyways, I like the concept, but I also agree with Alan, in part, and by implication, that this kind of publishing practice, or experiment, could be improved!

  12. June 13th, 2009 / 3:27 pm Janey Smith—

      I like the HarperPerennial concept of bringing two ‘noncontemporaneous’ writers together using the short story and a technicolor cover with pictures. I don’t think ten dollars for such a little book is unreasonable if HP lists the name of the translator of any of the stories that require it, provides a short introductory essay ‘connecting’ the two writers included in the volume, and pairs the two writers together either ‘randomly’ or ‘relationally’ (i.e. stylistically, similar content, etc.) or ‘biographically’ or even ‘mathematically’ (one of the ‘first’ to do such and such, etc.).

      The 52 Stories series might be more fun if the more ‘iconic’ writers were maybe less ‘iconic’? Anyways, I like the concept, but I also agree with Alan, in part, and by implication, that this kind of publishing practice, or experiment, could be improved!

  13. June 13th, 2009 / 3:35 pm Drew Toal—

      I mean, considering inflation, $10 is, like, $1.50 in 1990 money. That’s a sweet Jesus Jones era deal.

  14. June 13th, 2009 / 8:24 pm Angi—

      I eat the chocolate outside of my last bite of a Snickers bar because I like the stuff inside better than I like chocolate, and I am incredibly OCD about my last bites of food.

      But I like Dippin Dots.

  15. June 13th, 2009 / 4:24 pm Angi—

      I eat the chocolate outside of my last bite of a Snickers bar because I like the stuff inside better than I like chocolate, and I am incredibly OCD about my last bites of food.

      But I like Dippin Dots.

  16. June 13th, 2009 / 8:56 pm Mark Doten—

      Poor punching bag Constance.

  17. June 13th, 2009 / 4:56 pm Mark Doten—

      Poor punching bag Constance.

  18. June 13th, 2009 / 10:45 pm alan—
  19. June 13th, 2009 / 6:45 pm alan—
  20. June 14th, 2009 / 9:52 pm michael—

      dippin’ dots are awful. plus i don’t know that they could erase the blues that can come from velvet-souled-shoed guards and a firing line even if you do like them

  21. June 14th, 2009 / 5:52 pm michael—

      dippin’ dots are awful. plus i don’t know that they could erase the blues that can come from velvet-souled-shoed guards and a firing line even if you do like them