June 8th, 2010 / 2:07 pm
Snippets
Snippets
Blake Butler—
What is your favorite story or poem title? I like “Upstairs, Mona Bayed for Dong.”
-
Archives
- January 2023
- February 2022
- September 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- August 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
-
Meta
“Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer.”
“Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer.”
close second is “NEANDERTHAL CLITORIS” by sam pink.
close second is “NEANDERTHAL CLITORIS” by sam pink.
“Girl With Curious Hair” always stuck it to me, but just lately, I read “The Dickmare” and I want desperately to use that phrase every chance I get. And “Upstairs, Mona Bayed for Dong,” that story, I just kept it at arm’s length for so long, read the collection around it, for some reason terrified what it might be.
“Girl With Curious Hair” always stuck it to me, but just lately, I read “The Dickmare” and I want desperately to use that phrase every chance I get. And “Upstairs, Mona Bayed for Dong,” that story, I just kept it at arm’s length for so long, read the collection around it, for some reason terrified what it might be.
“Midnight and I’m Not Famous Yet” He was killer for titles.
“Midnight and I’m Not Famous Yet” He was killer for titles.
That’s tough… maybe “Things To Do With Naphtha” by Swenson.
That’s tough… maybe “Things To Do With Naphtha” by Swenson.
“Aisle Idle, Ride Down Rosedale” by Stevie Davis is a nice one. Stevie titles are always nice, actually.
Shirley Jackson’s “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts” or Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”
The Temptation to Exist
Me and Miss Mandible
I like these:
Harlan Ellison: “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman”
PK Dick: “A Scanner Darkly”
Herman Melville: “Moby-Dick”
Ashbery: “The Instruction Manual” and “Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape”
Kathy Acker: “Blood and Guts in High School”
The Dong with a Luminous Nose — Edward Lear
Stanley Crawford’s Some Instructions to My Wife Concerning the Upkeep of the House and Marriage and to My Son and Daughter Concerning the Conduct of Their Childhood.
Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan–JG Ballard
Examination at the Womb-door–Ted Hughes
So far it seems like people like longer titles best. All but three of those mentioned above are four words or more.
Charles Willeford had a theory that longer titles are better because they draw the reader in by forcing him or her to read more of your words up front.
not a favorite (i can’t think of one right now), but i kind of like when poems are simply titled “Poem” because to me it suggests that the poem itself is a thing that is so great that it doesn’t require a name.
though, i know a lot of people would call that laziness.
These would have to go to Graham Foust– “The Only Poem,” “Four Poems Titled ‘The Poem,'” “My Graham Foust,”
& Ariana Reines– “I WANT YOU TO INJECT MY FACE WITH BOTULISM,” “I COULD BE A DIAPER FOR THE DAY’S RESIDUALS,” & “I LOVE MY EMERGENCY.”
“Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,” by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka).
I’m surprised I can respond to this question sincerely.
ariana reines has awesome titles.
“Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer.”
close second is “NEANDERTHAL CLITORIS” by sam pink.
“Girl With Curious Hair” always stuck it to me, but just lately, I read “The Dickmare” and I want desperately to use that phrase every chance I get. And “Upstairs, Mona Bayed for Dong,” that story, I just kept it at arm’s length for so long, read the collection around it, for some reason terrified what it might be.
Haven’t read it, but ‘Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere’ by Mykle Hansen is almost a great enough title to make me buy a book with that awful a title.
“Midnight and I’m Not Famous Yet” He was killer for titles.
man, call me simple, but i like a lot of titles like these:
under the volcano
omensetter’s luck
the rings of saturn
i dig the barthelme wordy titles too, but there’s something in a short, possibly mysterious title that gets me goin
That’s tough… maybe “Things To Do With Naphtha” by Swenson.
Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
“Aisle Idle, Ride Down Rosedale” by Stevie Davis is a nice one. Stevie titles are always nice, actually.
Shirley Jackson’s “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts” or Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”
The Temptation to Exist
Me and Miss Mandible
I like these:
Harlan Ellison: “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman”
PK Dick: “A Scanner Darkly”
Herman Melville: “Moby-Dick”
Ashbery: “The Instruction Manual” and “Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape”
Kathy Acker: “Blood and Guts in High School”
The Dong with a Luminous Nose — Edward Lear
Stanley Crawford’s Some Instructions to My Wife Concerning the Upkeep of the House and Marriage and to My Son and Daughter Concerning the Conduct of Their Childhood.
Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan–JG Ballard
Examination at the Womb-door–Ted Hughes
So far it seems like people like longer titles best. All but three of those mentioned above are four words or more.
Charles Willeford had a theory that longer titles are better because they draw the reader in by forcing him or her to read more of your words up front.
not a favorite (i can’t think of one right now), but i kind of like when poems are simply titled “Poem” because to me it suggests that the poem itself is a thing that is so great that it doesn’t require a name.
though, i know a lot of people would call that laziness.
Look through a Complex Eye and See 1000 of Everything
If Great Lakes
both by Zachary Schomburg. they are both the kind of “catchy” titles that I always find myself just thinking about sometimes, like sitting doing nothing and the titles run through my head. love when that happens. also happens with Everything Was Fine Until Whatever a lot.
Speaking of Charles Willeford, “New Hope for the Dead” is a killer title.
I Will Unfold You With My Hairy Hands
These would have to go to Graham Foust– “The Only Poem,” “Four Poems Titled ‘The Poem,'” “My Graham Foust,”
& Ariana Reines– “I WANT YOU TO INJECT MY FACE WITH BOTULISM,” “I COULD BE A DIAPER FOR THE DAY’S RESIDUALS,” & “I LOVE MY EMERGENCY.”
“Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,” by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka).
I’m surprised I can respond to this question sincerely.
ariana reines has awesome titles.
oh yes
Haven’t read it, but ‘Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere’ by Mykle Hansen is almost a great enough title to make me buy a book with that awful a title.
man, call me simple, but i like a lot of titles like these:
under the volcano
omensetter’s luck
the rings of saturn
i dig the barthelme wordy titles too, but there’s something in a short, possibly mysterious title that gets me goin
Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
i have 2:
At the Mouth of a Synthetic Covered Stairway Leading to a Metro-North Station, Bound Hand and Foot by Hairless Homeland Security Officials, I Saw You Step Into a Train Headed Towards the West. I Wanted to Smile at You, but an Overzealous Militiaman Slipped a Black Hood Over my Head and Carried Me Off to a Big Black Town Car with Tinted Windows, Stopping at Dunkin’ Doughnuts on the Way to Set Fire to the Woods Where We Lived
http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n10/sampson-starkweather.html
After Reading the Poem about Training an Army of ATM Machines to Do my Bidding and Later, on Cold Lonely Nights, whose Squarish Bodies I would Seduce with Smirnoff Ice and Debitcard-Play as a Plan to Spawn a Mechanical Clan of Starkweathers to Rule the Free Market to a Crowd of Portly Ladies who Smelled like a Mix of Unopened Tennis Balls and the Perfume Section of a Macy’s Department Store in The First Mutual Bank of Chappaqua, where for 20 Seconds that Sound like a Moment-of-Silence After a Principal’s Prayer that Crackles Over the Loudspeaker of a Kindergarten Classroom, Carried like a Wave, until one Teller-Lady with Chemical-Clown Make-up on, Stood up in the So-Called Silence and Burst into Thunderous Applause…
Look through a Complex Eye and See 1000 of Everything
If Great Lakes
both by Zachary Schomburg. they are both the kind of “catchy” titles that I always find myself just thinking about sometimes, like sitting doing nothing and the titles run through my head. love when that happens. also happens with Everything Was Fine Until Whatever a lot.
Speaking of Charles Willeford, “New Hope for the Dead” is a killer title.
I Will Unfold You With My Hairy Hands
oh yes
i have 2:
At the Mouth of a Synthetic Covered Stairway Leading to a Metro-North Station, Bound Hand and Foot by Hairless Homeland Security Officials, I Saw You Step Into a Train Headed Towards the West. I Wanted to Smile at You, but an Overzealous Militiaman Slipped a Black Hood Over my Head and Carried Me Off to a Big Black Town Car with Tinted Windows, Stopping at Dunkin’ Doughnuts on the Way to Set Fire to the Woods Where We Lived
http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n10/sampson-starkweather.html
After Reading the Poem about Training an Army of ATM Machines to Do my Bidding and Later, on Cold Lonely Nights, whose Squarish Bodies I would Seduce with Smirnoff Ice and Debitcard-Play as a Plan to Spawn a Mechanical Clan of Starkweathers to Rule the Free Market to a Crowd of Portly Ladies who Smelled like a Mix of Unopened Tennis Balls and the Perfume Section of a Macy’s Department Store in The First Mutual Bank of Chappaqua, where for 20 Seconds that Sound like a Moment-of-Silence After a Principal’s Prayer that Crackles Over the Loudspeaker of a Kindergarten Classroom, Carried like a Wave, until one Teller-Lady with Chemical-Clown Make-up on, Stood up in the So-Called Silence and Burst into Thunderous Applause…
The first-tier list would be full of Barry Hannah titles.
The second-tier list would be full of Lee K. Abbott titles: The Talk Talked Between Worms; One of Star Wars, One of Doom; What Y Was; How Sin Is Said in Wonderland; The Unfinished Business of Childhood; Wet Places at Noon; X; The Human Use of Inhuman Beings; The View of Me From Mars; The Final Proof of Fate and Circumstance; Ninety Nights on Mercury.
Also: Nathan Englander, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. DFW, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Donald Ray Pollock, Fish Sticks. Amy Hempel, At the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried. Rick Moody, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven. Isaac Bashevis Singer, Gimpel the Fool.
I always really liked “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said,” although I have no idea why that’s one of Dick’s better-perceived books.
The Policeman’s Beard Is Half Constructed
With the exception of this introduction, the writing in this book was all done by a computer. The book has been proofread for spelling but otherwise is completely unedited…
The first-tier list would be full of Barry Hannah titles.
The second-tier list would be full of Lee K. Abbott titles: The Talk Talked Between Worms; One of Star Wars, One of Doom; What Y Was; How Sin Is Said in Wonderland; The Unfinished Business of Childhood; Wet Places at Noon; X; The Human Use of Inhuman Beings; The View of Me From Mars; The Final Proof of Fate and Circumstance; Ninety Nights on Mercury.
Also: Nathan Englander, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. DFW, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Donald Ray Pollock, Fish Sticks. Amy Hempel, At the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried. Rick Moody, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven. Isaac Bashevis Singer, Gimpel the Fool.
“when life gives you lemons, shut up and eat your lemons.”
Zidane’s Melancholy, Jean-Phillipe Toussaint.
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
Everything That Rises Must Converge
Ditto: The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven.
Also: Do No Go Gentle Into That Good Night
(I like my themes spelled out)
I loved some of Chelsea Martin’s crazy-long titles, but I can’t find that book right now to quote.
“when life gives you lemons, shut up and eat your lemons.”
Zidane’s Melancholy, Jean-Phillipe Toussaint.
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
Everything That Rises Must Converge
Ditto: The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven.
Also: Do No Go Gentle Into That Good Night
(I like my themes spelled out)
I loved some of Chelsea Martin’s crazy-long titles, but I can’t find that book right now to quote.
Don Share – Squandermania
V.
(changed my mind)
“And Lead Us Not Into Penn Station”
Don Share – Squandermania
V.
You’re Ugly, Too
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Eeeee Eee Eeee
(changed my mind)
“And Lead Us Not Into Penn Station”
You’re Ugly, Too
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Eeeee Eee Eeee