September 22nd, 2009 / 12:54 pm
 Snippets
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Merlin Mann, hero, rewrites the beginning of Absalom, Absalom! as Dan Brown.

22 Comments

  1. September 22nd, 2009 / 5:59 pm Shya—

      That’s actually strangely beautiful.

  2. September 22nd, 2009 / 1:59 pm Shya—

      That’s actually strangely beautiful.

  3. September 22nd, 2009 / 6:26 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Yes! This is fantastic! This is the future! Viva la genre: re-mix, re-write, re-contextualization of previously written material.

  4. September 22nd, 2009 / 2:26 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Yes! This is fantastic! This is the future! Viva la genre: re-mix, re-write, re-contextualization of previously written material.

  5. September 22nd, 2009 / 7:03 pm Shya—

      I’ve edited a Fan Fiction section of Opium Magazine’s next issue, and the things people came up with are as enjoyable as they are diverse. I don’t know how serious you are, Christopher, but I’d go so far as to say that there’s been some kind of general acknowledgment of the fan’s role in culture, both high and low, and it’s feeding back, affecting more and more art production.

  6. September 22nd, 2009 / 3:03 pm Shya—

      I’ve edited a Fan Fiction section of Opium Magazine’s next issue, and the things people came up with are as enjoyable as they are diverse. I don’t know how serious you are, Christopher, but I’d go so far as to say that there’s been some kind of general acknowledgment of the fan’s role in culture, both high and low, and it’s feeding back, affecting more and more art production.

  7. September 22nd, 2009 / 3:55 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Hi Shya,

      My sentiments above are completely sincere. Over the past year or so, I have taken up this act of remixing: taking a previously constructed text and cutting, splicing, rearranging, erasing, repeating elements of it (without adding any other outside material) to produce what I consider to be a new piece. More and more I am drawn to this procedure.

      Now the particular strand of conceptual writing that you are talking about, which (I would assume) is different than the remix project I’m talking about — sounds similar to Merlin Mann’s project – yes? Maybe not? Hmmm. This is interesting.

      By “Fan Fiction” do you mean that writers entered the world of a preexisting text and developed an element that had previously been undeveloped (I’m thinking here of Fan Fiction in terms of Star Trek or Buffy or something, which tends to focus on content rather than form) — or do you mean something more along the lines of Mann’s project?

      Either way, I have yet to attempted it; but I think it is an extremely exciting frontier, ripe with potential and brimming with possibilities, so many of which have yet to be tapped!

      Anyhow, I’m excited to see the forthcoming issue of Opium that you edited – I’ll be sure to post about it here on the Giant.

      Also, nice to exchange words with you. I admire your work.

      Chris

  8. September 22nd, 2009 / 7:55 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Hi Shya,

      My sentiments above are completely sincere. Over the past year or so, I have taken up this act of remixing: taking a previously constructed text and cutting, splicing, rearranging, erasing, repeating elements of it (without adding any other outside material) to produce what I consider to be a new piece. More and more I am drawn to this procedure.

      Now the particular strand of conceptual writing that you are talking about, which (I would assume) is different than the remix project I’m talking about — sounds similar to Merlin Mann’s project – yes? Maybe not? Hmmm. This is interesting.

      By “Fan Fiction” do you mean that writers entered the world of a preexisting text and developed an element that had previously been undeveloped (I’m thinking here of Fan Fiction in terms of Star Trek or Buffy or something, which tends to focus on content rather than form) — or do you mean something more along the lines of Mann’s project?

      Either way, I have yet to attempted it; but I think it is an extremely exciting frontier, ripe with potential and brimming with possibilities, so many of which have yet to be tapped!

      Anyhow, I’m excited to see the forthcoming issue of Opium that you edited – I’ll be sure to post about it here on the Giant.

      Also, nice to exchange words with you. I admire your work.

      Chris

  9. September 22nd, 2009 / 8:13 pm Shya—

      Thanks for the kind words, Chris. The Opium stuff is pretty straight-forward fan fic, a la Star Trek, etc. (though we have everything from Moby Dick, to Jim Crace, to the video game Spore). So yes, content, not form. But what interests me is the larger openness to using source texts in composition. To essentially topple the anxiety of influence by embracing it. The project you describe reminds me of another by a friend of mine. He remixed Dubliners, and I think his rules were only to exclude text, not changing order at all. Here’s one: http://sporkpress.com/weeklies/prose/archives/00000003.htm The others can be found by going back to the index.

  10. September 22nd, 2009 / 4:13 pm Shya—

      Thanks for the kind words, Chris. The Opium stuff is pretty straight-forward fan fic, a la Star Trek, etc. (though we have everything from Moby Dick, to Jim Crace, to the video game Spore). So yes, content, not form. But what interests me is the larger openness to using source texts in composition. To essentially topple the anxiety of influence by embracing it. The project you describe reminds me of another by a friend of mine. He remixed Dubliners, and I think his rules were only to exclude text, not changing order at all. Here’s one: http://sporkpress.com/weeklies/prose/archives/00000003.htm The others can be found by going back to the index.

  11. September 22nd, 2009 / 8:56 pm darby—
  12. September 22nd, 2009 / 4:56 pm darby—
  13. September 22nd, 2009 / 10:33 pm John—
  14. September 22nd, 2009 / 6:33 pm John—
  15. September 22nd, 2009 / 10:36 pm John—

      Re: “He remixed Dubliners, and I think his rules were only to exclude text, not changing order at all”

  16. September 22nd, 2009 / 6:36 pm John—

      Re: “He remixed Dubliners, and I think his rules were only to exclude text, not changing order at all”

  17. September 23rd, 2009 / 1:06 am Christopher Higgs—

      Good call, John. Along with Ronald Johnson’s Radi Os, Tom Philips’s A Humument is classic erasure brilliance.

  18. September 22nd, 2009 / 9:06 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Good call, John. Along with Ronald Johnson’s Radi Os, Tom Philips’s A Humument is classic erasure brilliance.

  19. September 23rd, 2009 / 1:14 am Christopher Higgs—

      High five, Darby! That piece you so graciously published was one of my first attempts at this new approach. I often cite that piece as an important prototype for what I’m doing now with my theatrical remixes. Long live Abjective!

      Shya, thanks for the link to your friend’s work — it’s really cool. I just read the one piece and plan to seek out others….just found his website. I’m super thrilled to learn about his work. Much appreciated.

  20. September 22nd, 2009 / 9:14 pm Christopher Higgs—

      High five, Darby! That piece you so graciously published was one of my first attempts at this new approach. I often cite that piece as an important prototype for what I’m doing now with my theatrical remixes. Long live Abjective!

      Shya, thanks for the link to your friend’s work — it’s really cool. I just read the one piece and plan to seek out others….just found his website. I’m super thrilled to learn about his work. Much appreciated.

  21. September 23rd, 2009 / 4:51 am darby—

      high five back! it’s a great piece.

  22. September 23rd, 2009 / 12:51 am darby—

      high five back! it’s a great piece.