Matthew Simmons—
Stacey Levine on Ryan Boudinot: “This one whom some were following was calm and restrained. His work shows so much work. Thousands of bees in his brain. His work makes its own ceiling, then bursts the ceiling again and again. Those calm, compact manners and the close shave. But you sense at any moment the gentlemanly restraint could fall away. At the spelling bee he was the most polite of them all. He is not in love with the normal. But I think he dislikes the abnormal, because, after all, the normal and its trajectory is so much more complicated and interesting.”
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Boudinot! An Appreciation by Aaron Burch
[Massive Novel Alert #2! Here’s a Boudinot appreciation, a little bit of online journal history, and a “This Is Your Life,” sort of piece by Mr. Aaron Burch, the man behind the unstoppable Hobart journal. The occasion for this appreciation? The publication of Ryan Boudinot’s stellar new novel, Blueprints of the Afterlife.]
In 2003, I think it was, I still lived in Seattle. I’d moved away, and then moved back, and had been doing Hobart for a couple of years. I’d just put out #3, a joint issue with Monkeybicycle, because they (Steven Seighman and Shya Scanlon) were also on their third issue, and we were all in Seattle, and none of us really knew what we were doing, but we were figuring it out and everything seemed new and exciting. And readings! Steven and Shya started a Monkeybike reading series and brought together people in and around the northwest (Kevin Sampsell! Matthew Simmons! Ed Page! Sean Carman! Matthew Stadler! Adam Voith!) and we formed something of a lit community, reading with each other, hanging out and drinking, seeing one another at other readings – at Elliott Bay or University Bookstore or various cafes and bars and even a makeshift garage or warehouse or someone’s living room. READ MORE >
The Soul Transformative Experience of Writing Itself: An Interview with Ryan Boudinot
Massive Novel Alert: Today marks the official release of Ryan Boudinot’s massive (in all senses of the word[seriously—it’s going to create a gravity well]) new novel Blueprints of the Afterlife(Grove 2012). I got a chance to read this early on. I like Ryan’s work. I like Ryan. Ryan’s a solid citizen of literature in Seattle. And everywhere. I figured I would like the book.
I didn’t figure it would be as expansive, as imaginative, as powerful, and as quaking as it it.
Seriously. It’s awesome. Take a look. Here’s a sample chapter.
Over the next few days, I’ll be posting some Boudinot appreciations and a round-up. (And if anyone reading has something they’d like to add, feel free to get in touch with me @ giantblinditems @ gmail dot com.) Today, though, we begin with a long interview with the author.
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You’ve written flash stories, short stories, a short novel, and a really long novel. Do you have a length at which you feel most comfortable?
You’re really wanting me to start this interview with a penis joke, aren’t you?
Heh. For the record, I think that no matter what is said in this email chain, we should use it in the interview. So, that line. And this caveat. We should just use everything said in here.
So, yes. READ MORE >
Three Seattle Things
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBsmdMCwZjE
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWs8PX2kHUc
Prose poems by Seattle treasure, John Olson, read at Pilot Books during Small Press Fest. Go here to see Brandon Downing introduce Mr. Olson. I missed this reading. I hate that I missed this reading.
Suggested John Olson books: The Night I Dropped Shakespeare on the Cat, Free Stream Velocity, Eggs and Mirrors.
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In treasured writer slash treasure-hunting news, Ryan Boudinot’s geocaching story project “Found and Lost” continues. It appears that copies of the story “Juan” now exist in California and North Carolina. Fans of short fiction and fans of GPS device-based tracking games take note.
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Another Seattle treasure is the producer Vitamin D. To celebrate his birthday, he gave away a free 9-song EP called Bornday, much of which he says was recorded on his birthday. Go here for a link and grab it.
Which reminds me: I started A Jello Horse on my birthday. Anyone else feel a creative urge on their born day? Anything of note come out of it?
Stories for the searchers
Ryan Boudinot has a new project. It’s called Found and Lost, and it’s stories distributed to readers through geocaches. Here’s a description of the stories:
“Found and Lost” is a series of interlinked short stories. Each story focuses on a main character who, in the course of the story, finds something and loses something else. The stories are set in various settings and time periods. The stories are connected to one another like links in a chain. For instance, Betty finds a cell phone and loses a framed butterfly. In another story, Juan finds the framed butterfly and loses his wallet. In another story, a man finds Juan’s wallet and loses his glass eye. The stories are linked in a circle, so that the “last” story involves someone who loses something that the “first” person finds.
Ryan has always approached technology in interesting ways—both in his writing and in the way he gets his writing to people. I like this idea a lot. I’m in favor of people giving work away, but I like that Ryan has made a challenge out of it.
Do any of you do this? This geocaching thing? Would you work for a good story? Would you search for one, given the chance?
Eyeball it
My friend Ryan has been writing a column about film on The Rumpus for a little while now, and I thought I’d bring it to your attention. I’ve been enjoying it.
Here’s a nice post on the movie Old Joy, a movie I wrote about on the Hobart blog. (Link in the comment I made to the post, if you’re interested.)
Here’s an interesting take on Guy Maddin’s Dracula. (Dracula is currently my favorite Maddin film. I had, until watching it, never really connected with ballet.)
And here’s a post about Lord of the Rings and the War on Terror.