April 29th, 2010 / 12:26 pm
Snippets
Snippets
Blake Butler—
What’s the last thing you read that really bit your head?
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Meta
Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson. Crueler than usual.
dickbiter
“Theory of the Avant-Garde” by Peter Bürger. This non-fiction thing bit my head especially because I should re-write parts of my dissertation now. Why hadn’t I read this book sooner?..
shadows of sirius. going to see merwin read on monday, i fully expect it to change my life.
when i ‘read’ todd hido’s between the two monograph i imagined myself reborn as a heterosexual drifting through the world of sex and abandon
and when i read jon leon’s the painting show i couldn’t imagine any part of the future other than this vague concept that leon’s poems were that, literally: text-as-future.
AND WHEN I READ MAURICE BLANCHOT’S THE LAST MAN I COULDN’T REORIENT MYSELF INTO ANY SORT OF TIME-LINE THAT OUR WORLD EXISTS IN, PREFERRING, INSTEAD, TO ERASE THE IDEA OF RELATIONSHIPS.
I HAVE BEEN BITTEN. I HAVE BEEN BITTEN, I BLEED, ETC.
does “witz” qualify for that in your book, blake? i’m anxious to read it. yall see this excerpt?: http://benmarcus.com/smallwork/preparations/
i dunno if this excerpt by itself “bit my head,” but i liked it.
quite honestly, “no shameless promo whore,” but “during my nervous breakdown…” actually bit my head right off. i was alone in my apartment and feeling emotional, but still.
Fucking hell, Paradise Lost, bit my head clean off. I’d never read it straight through (had read the first few books for class before), and holy hell. I’m kind of obsessed with it currently, reading a sweet bio of Milton right now. It has a very weird power for me, an odd demonic pull. It’s similar in intensity to the force Emerson’s essays exert over me, but in kind it’s much more. . . I don’t know? Emerson compels me toward generosity; Milton makes me want to build something big and tall and expensive and then burn it and giggle.
THE VIRUS IS SPREADING
A Number by Caryl Churchill
Recently read “Molting” by Aaron Burch and can’t get that shit out of my head.
“Permission” and “Rafters,” two stories from Kevin McIlvoy’s collection “The Complete History of New Mexico.” Wow. The kind of stories that don’t just retell or “show” states of wonder, but do their damndest to actually recreate those states of wonder in the reader. And in the narrator too. (The states are similar in both, but not the same. And definitely complementary. Both get bitten on the head.)
Human Smoke by Baker
Dusk by James Salter
Everyone should go out and grab a copy, it’s like 4 bucks at Borders right now
I love that book. Right up there with The Killer Inside Me
Footnotes from Gaza by Joe Sacco
Concrete by Thomas Bernhard
how do you folks have so much time for all this obscure literature? don’t you have jobs or anything?
i don’t mean that as an insult, genuinely curious where all this time comes from
Black Life by Dorothea Lasky, I guess.
not insulting. just sort of a weird question, i guess.
i work in a library & read while i’m at work & am obsessive & don’t watch tv other than gossip girl and lost which i download so no commercial & i’m really good at maximizing my time & i don’t watch a ton of movies any more & i only sleep six hours a night
wow. chris is my new fave person.
Mc rules.
Iowa by crazy left-wing moonbat, Travis Nichols.
(Not kidding or just finding a reason to link, by the way. Fantastic book.)
I work in a bookstore. Also, I like to read HTML Giant.
yes to WITZ, no to Nervous Breakdown. How are they even remotely comparable?
Ourednik’s CASE CLOSED. Before that, ALTHOUGH OF COURSE YOU END UP BECOMING YOURSELF.
is the ourednik on the market now? man i really really really want that.
agreed, really loved it. Reading his new novel next.
That is by far my favorite story in that book. Every time I read it, I just think, goddamn.
Ben Greenman’s What He’s Poised to Do. Still shocked by how blown away I have been by this book.
Olive Kitteredge by Elizabeth Strout.
I don’t watch much tv, I don’t work out or participate in team sports, and I’m an old married lady with a husband who also likes to read and buy books and read about books. So, that’s what we do besides work.
Not yet, but god damn it’s good.
Calvino’s Cosmicomics.
How could I not have time for it??
Brian Kubarycz’s story in the latest issue of New York Tyrant. Can’t remember the title. I was thrilled by it. Anyone know what the title is?
ooh, and Pink and Hot Pink Habitat. That practically bit my face off it was so good.
Lucinella by Lore Segal
the lime works by thomas bernhard.
going rogue by, er, attributed to sarah palin. i don’t know who wrote it.
I just make the time. And I read fast.
Jonke’s Homage to Czerny
I wanted Moya’s Senselessness to.
Daniel Clowes’ Wilson
the compeltel works of marvin k mooney. its swelling me to swelldom.
also re-read a particular fizzle last night that had me at what is
it was 3, afar a bird… https://www.msu.edu/~sullivan/BeckettFizzle3.html
is it weird? i don’t know. every time i read this web site, i leave feeling like there are ten more books that invoke meta elements that i NEED to read, and i’m lucky to get through two a week
Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson. Crueler than usual.
dickbiter
“Theory of the Avant-Garde” by Peter Bürger. This non-fiction thing bit my head especially because I should re-write parts of my dissertation now. Why hadn’t I read this book sooner?..
shadows of sirius. going to see merwin read on monday, i fully expect it to change my life.
Ha. Seriously a great story, dude. I snagged HTTYA, &c. at AWP read it over coffee Friday morning, and thought, “That might be the best story I’ve read in 2010,” though Bell’s story, “The Receiving Tower,” in the latest Willow Springs is a close 2nd.
Good words, man.
Poems For Teeth, Richard Loranger.
when i ‘read’ todd hido’s between the two monograph i imagined myself reborn as a heterosexual drifting through the world of sex and abandon
and when i read jon leon’s the painting show i couldn’t imagine any part of the future other than this vague concept that leon’s poems were that, literally: text-as-future.
AND WHEN I READ MAURICE BLANCHOT’S THE LAST MAN I COULDN’T REORIENT MYSELF INTO ANY SORT OF TIME-LINE THAT OUR WORLD EXISTS IN, PREFERRING, INSTEAD, TO ERASE THE IDEA OF RELATIONSHIPS.
I HAVE BEEN BITTEN. I HAVE BEEN BITTEN, I BLEED, ETC.
does “witz” qualify for that in your book, blake? i’m anxious to read it. yall see this excerpt?: http://benmarcus.com/smallwork/preparations/
i dunno if this excerpt by itself “bit my head,” but i liked it.
quite honestly, “no shameless promo whore,” but “during my nervous breakdown…” actually bit my head right off. i was alone in my apartment and feeling emotional, but still.
Lunch breaks, coffee breaks, stretch breaks, bathroom breaks, line breaks, face breaks, &c. breaks.
Fucking hell, Paradise Lost, bit my head clean off. I’d never read it straight through (had read the first few books for class before), and holy hell. I’m kind of obsessed with it currently, reading a sweet bio of Milton right now. It has a very weird power for me, an odd demonic pull. It’s similar in intensity to the force Emerson’s essays exert over me, but in kind it’s much more. . . I don’t know? Emerson compels me toward generosity; Milton makes me want to build something big and tall and expensive and then burn it and giggle.
THE VIRUS IS SPREADING
A Number by Caryl Churchill
Recently read “Molting” by Aaron Burch and can’t get that shit out of my head.
“Permission” and “Rafters,” two stories from Kevin McIlvoy’s collection “The Complete History of New Mexico.” Wow. The kind of stories that don’t just retell or “show” states of wonder, but do their damndest to actually recreate those states of wonder in the reader. And in the narrator too. (The states are similar in both, but not the same. And definitely complementary. Both get bitten on the head.)
Dear Everybody, Kimball
Stoner, John Williams
A lot of people said they would. They did.
Human Smoke by Baker
Dusk by James Salter
Everyone should go out and grab a copy, it’s like 4 bucks at Borders right now
I love that book. Right up there with The Killer Inside Me
Footnotes from Gaza by Joe Sacco
Concrete by Thomas Bernhard
how do you folks have so much time for all this obscure literature? don’t you have jobs or anything?
i don’t mean that as an insult, genuinely curious where all this time comes from
Black Life by Dorothea Lasky, I guess.
not insulting. just sort of a weird question, i guess.
i work in a library & read while i’m at work & am obsessive & don’t watch tv other than gossip girl and lost which i download so no commercial & i’m really good at maximizing my time & i don’t watch a ton of movies any more & i only sleep six hours a night
wow. chris is my new fave person.
Mc rules.
Iowa by crazy left-wing moonbat, Travis Nichols.
(Not kidding or just finding a reason to link, by the way. Fantastic book.)
I work in a bookstore. Also, I like to read HTML Giant.
yes to WITZ, no to Nervous Breakdown. How are they even remotely comparable?
Ourednik’s CASE CLOSED. Before that, ALTHOUGH OF COURSE YOU END UP BECOMING YOURSELF.
is the ourednik on the market now? man i really really really want that.
agreed, really loved it. Reading his new novel next.
That is by far my favorite story in that book. Every time I read it, I just think, goddamn.
Ben Greenman’s What He’s Poised to Do. Still shocked by how blown away I have been by this book.
Olive Kitteredge by Elizabeth Strout.
I don’t watch much tv, I don’t work out or participate in team sports, and I’m an old married lady with a husband who also likes to read and buy books and read about books. So, that’s what we do besides work.
Not yet, but god damn it’s good.
Calvino’s Cosmicomics.
How could I not have time for it??
Brian Kubarycz’s story in the latest issue of New York Tyrant. Can’t remember the title. I was thrilled by it. Anyone know what the title is?
ooh, and Pink and Hot Pink Habitat. That practically bit my face off it was so good.
Lucinella by Lore Segal
the lime works by thomas bernhard.
going rogue by, er, attributed to sarah palin. i don’t know who wrote it.
I just make the time. And I read fast.
Jonke’s Homage to Czerny
I wanted Moya’s Senselessness to.
scorch atlas. no fun – i am serious.
seems like the consensus is that this story is some sort of literature/miracle crossbreed. where might I purchase it? is it part of a collection?
Oh man, he’s so great. Have you read “Little Peg”?
Daniel Clowes’ Wilson
the compeltel works of marvin k mooney. its swelling me to swelldom.
also re-read a particular fizzle last night that had me at what is
it was 3, afar a bird… https://www.msu.edu/~sullivan/BeckettFizzle3.html
is it weird? i don’t know. every time i read this web site, i leave feeling like there are ten more books that invoke meta elements that i NEED to read, and i’m lucky to get through two a week
With Deer, Aase Berg
A Plate of Chicken, Matthew Rohrer
Ha. Seriously a great story, dude. I snagged HTTYA, &c. at AWP read it over coffee Friday morning, and thought, “That might be the best story I’ve read in 2010,” though Bell’s story, “The Receiving Tower,” in the latest Willow Springs is a close 2nd.
Good words, man.
Poems For Teeth, Richard Loranger.
Lunch breaks, coffee breaks, stretch breaks, bathroom breaks, line breaks, face breaks, &c. breaks.
Dear Everybody, Kimball
Stoner, John Williams
A lot of people said they would. They did.
yeah, man. over at PANK: http://www.pankmagazine.com/?page_id=83
scroll to the bottom, and it’s there under the PANK Chapbook Series header.
scorch atlas. no fun – i am serious.
seems like the consensus is that this story is some sort of literature/miracle crossbreed. where might I purchase it? is it part of a collection?
Oh man, he’s so great. Have you read “Little Peg”?
Crawling at Night by Nani Power.
With Deer, Aase Berg
A Plate of Chicken, Matthew Rohrer
yeah, man. over at PANK: http://www.pankmagazine.com/?page_id=83
scroll to the bottom, and it’s there under the PANK Chapbook Series header.
Crawling at Night by Nani Power.
everything is comparable. I wish people would stop asking that question. it’s absurd.
also, is saying “this thing bit my head off. also, this thing did” really implying a comparison?
I second this. Paradise Lost is incredible. Satan is such an interest character, as well–almost Dostoevskian.
interesting*
(blah)
ah, cool. cheers
sorry, j. i shouldnt have dismissed your q so quickly. i think i understand now wat you were asking.
everything is comparable. I wish people would stop asking that question. it’s absurd.
also, is saying “this thing bit my head off. also, this thing did” really implying a comparison?
I second this. Paradise Lost is incredible. Satan is such an interest character, as well–almost Dostoevskian.
interesting*
(blah)
ah, cool. cheers
Frankenstein. Have you heard of it?
friday, bottoms up.
sorry, j. i shouldnt have dismissed your q so quickly. i think i understand now wat you were asking.
Frankenstein. Have you heard of it?
friday, bottoms up.
“Those of Us in Plaid” by Seth Fried
It didn’t bite my head, but it did nibble at my brain in a way that tickled all the way down my spine.
“Those of Us in Plaid” by Seth Fried
It didn’t bite my head, but it did nibble at my brain in a way that tickled all the way down my spine.
dusk, yes yes.
would that make raskolnikov or the underground man or [one of the nihilists from ‘demons’] miltonian?
end zone, donny d.
football and nuclear war and language breakdown and authorial intrusion and picnics and other good things. his second book. a dandy.
dusk, yes yes.
would that make raskolnikov or the underground man or [one of the nihilists from ‘demons’] miltonian?
end zone, donny d.
football and nuclear war and language breakdown and authorial intrusion and picnics and other good things. his second book. a dandy.
@Lily Hoang: who said i was comparing? the only link is the potential for “head-biting,” whatever that is. i was asking if witz bit butler’s head, and stating that breakdown bit mine. there are probably many varieties of “head-biting” and they are all subjective, lily.
thanks for the reminder, lily. need to get “although of course” ASAP
for my review of “during my nervous breakdown,” go here: http://popserial.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/during-my-nervous-breakdown-i-want-to-have-a-biographer-present/
here are my favorite lines from the book:
“i want to turn into wild grass and get eaten by a soft moose”
“if i could get all the text messages and emails that i will
receive during my life right now there would be no more
questions and i could move on”
“i would have rather flown into outer space with you/stared into a telescope with you next to me/or committed suicide together/or something”
“i said i am sending you a song and we will feel closer/you said can this song play when we meet”
“i feel like a tired robot/on my way to the store i thought about you/i thought about everyone/i feel like a dead echinacea flower”
I have been using “during my nervous breakdown…” in a “Communication Skills” class I’m teaching, in an attempt to make poetry “more accessible” to young people. (I also use Emily Dickinson & Robert Frost. Al Young, Robert Hass & Brenda Hillman. David Berman. Tao Lin & BSG. – all kinds of stuff)
I got into just a little bit of trouble a few weeks ago when a parent saw the title “face annihilation” (“That’s terrible!”) and I had to “explain” my way out of it.
Yeah, I kind of mirrored the terms (could that be an accurate description of it?) for the sake of convenience.
I think the key word is ‘almost’, since none of them are entirely identical, but yeah, I wrote an essay a couple of months ago on the similarities between Milton’s Satan, Hamlet, Raskolnikov, the Underground Man, and also some of the characters from ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. The emphasis was on Satan, and obviously the points of overlap differed from one character to another.
I haven’t read ‘Demons’, though.
@Lily Hoang: who said i was comparing? the only link is the potential for “head-biting,” whatever that is. i was asking if witz bit butler’s head, and stating that breakdown bit mine. there are probably many varieties of “head-biting” and they are all subjective, lily.
thanks for the reminder, lily. need to get “although of course” ASAP
for my review of “during my nervous breakdown,” go here: http://popserial.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/during-my-nervous-breakdown-i-want-to-have-a-biographer-present/
here are my favorite lines from the book:
“i want to turn into wild grass and get eaten by a soft moose”
“if i could get all the text messages and emails that i will
receive during my life right now there would be no more
questions and i could move on”
“i would have rather flown into outer space with you/stared into a telescope with you next to me/or committed suicide together/or something”
“i said i am sending you a song and we will feel closer/you said can this song play when we meet”
“i feel like a tired robot/on my way to the store i thought about you/i thought about everyone/i feel like a dead echinacea flower”
I have been using “during my nervous breakdown…” in a “Communication Skills” class I’m teaching, in an attempt to make poetry “more accessible” to young people. (I also use Emily Dickinson & Robert Frost. Al Young, Robert Hass & Brenda Hillman. David Berman. Tao Lin & BSG. – all kinds of stuff)
I got into just a little bit of trouble a few weeks ago when a parent saw the title “face annihilation” (“That’s terrible!”) and I had to “explain” my way out of it.
Yeah, I kind of mirrored the terms (could that be an accurate description of it?) for the sake of convenience.
I think the key word is ‘almost’, since none of them are entirely identical, but yeah, I wrote an essay a couple of months ago on the similarities between Milton’s Satan, Hamlet, Raskolnikov, the Underground Man, and also some of the characters from ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. The emphasis was on Satan, and obviously the points of overlap differed from one character to another.
I haven’t read ‘Demons’, though.