Millard & Magoo & You Maybe & Yates & Me I Guess
My mother’s output, starred and pseudonymous, appeared regularly in one of those little, irregular periodicals so limited in readership that they might be called incestuous. Subscription was by invitation only, and contributors would go into a rage over a misplaced comma and brood for days if their poems were understood. All this called for constant and voluminous correspondence between my mother and the editor, about what I never knew, because the whole system was built along the lines of a secret society whose secrets were kept from everybody, including the membership.
– Millard Kaufman, Bowl of Cherries
I used to think this was bold. Now I wonder if it isn’t bitter? Maybe it’s both? Question mark?
Millard has a new book out from McSweeney’s. It is called Misadventure. And I like it. The Spanish-to-English translation is a clever thing done well. (You’ll see what I mean. ((Maybe?))) More question marks? Can this really go on?
Unfortunately I did not quite love it, as I did his last book, his first book, Bowl of Cherries.
But Misadventure is a pretty unconventional private eye novel. And so I feel it is sort of impossible not to read the whole thing in suspense, and feel that you got your money’s worth, more or less. I guess that’s not necessarily true. But in this case it is worth checking out, is what I’m saying, or else I wouldn’t be saying any of it, because it is.
Millard Kaufman (March 12, 1917 – March 14, 2009) was an American screenwriter and novelist. His works include the Academy Award-nominated Bad Day at Black Rock (1955). He was also one of the creators of Mr. Magoo.
Tao Lin (born July 2, 1983) is an American poet, novelist, short story writer, and artist.
– Wikipedia
I’m reading Richard Yates right now. One of the first things I did was pour beer on it. Not on purpose, mind you. I’m just a damn klutz opening my mail in the park. The book is okay (I mean, the beer dried and everything) and it’s making me happier right now and I’m glad it exists. I actually like the fact that it’s about an illicit love affair between ‘Haley Joel Osment’ and ‘Dakota Fanning’ (Holy shit are those scarequotes? Fuck you.) because it inverts something that you should maybe think about for a few minutes or so.
Longer than that.
Tao’s prose and metaphors have gone to some new place that looks a little like the dark, dirty, inner belly button of a Jacques Tati film written by Richard Brautigan if he were around to pull up a pair of Cheap Mondays lifted by the sticky-fingered jazz hands Tao played on in SFAA fleshed out and fresh as the kind of funky-looking Look Book outfit that frankly doesn’t give a fuck about your level of perceived marginalization by a subculture that will probably outlive you since it’s never really gone anywhere anyway because there’s nothing anywhere to go away and just one moment and it’s right now and if you know what I mean you know that of course this shit is too good to simply disappear like so much of Brautigan’s pubic hair would if this simile extended into your imagination the way it has in mine. Not that I look at Look Book or anything. Shit. I’m watching youtube videos of apes chucking feces at each other right now. That’s what I do.
I don’t feel slightly embarrassed by the cover this time. And I’m really into that.
I might say more about all of this later. But maybe this is enough? Too much? Too soon? Too many questions? Can there be too many questions? I don’t know.
“normally attentive/loving parent temporarily ‘distracted’ by ‘marital problems combined with “vague existential despair”’ as its young child looks toward it with vague, complex, vicarious intentions involving (to different degrees and among other things) approval, comfort, pride, concern, love, fear at a mixed-species skate park that ‘just opened’” by Tao Lin
Tags: alliteration, haley joel osment is a bro, millard kaufman is a magoo, tao lin is a hampster, to be young and in something
i read “Richard Yates” today.
Clancy Martin had this to say: “Richard Yates is hilarious, menacing, and hugely intelligent. Tao Lin is a Kafka for the iPhone generation. He has that most important gift: it’s impossible to imagine anyone else writing like he does and sounding authentic. Yet he has already spawned a huge school of Lin imitators. As precocious and prolific as he is, every book surpasses the last. Tao Lin may well be the most important writer under thirty working today.”
Oh, thanks for weighing in by worshipfully pasting a quote by someone else about your hero, Stephen!
Do people have “advanced galleys” of RY or something? (Not really sure what a “galley” is.)
[a positive mental attitude. constructive criticism. conflict resolution. thoughtful and inclusive analysis.] … did i miss any others that won’t wind up in this thread?
i read “Richard Yates” today.
Clancy Martin had this to say: “Richard Yates is hilarious, menacing, and hugely intelligent. Tao Lin is a Kafka for the iPhone generation. He has that most important gift: it’s impossible to imagine anyone else writing like he does and sounding authentic. Yet he has already spawned a huge school of Lin imitators. As precocious and prolific as he is, every book surpasses the last. Tao Lin may well be the most important writer under thirty working today.”
Oh, thanks for weighing in by worshipfully pasting a quote by someone else about your hero, Stephen!
Do people have “advanced galleys” of RY or something? (Not really sure what a “galley” is.)
ha. but also, dakota, thanks for playing your part with integrity by hiding behind an alias.
how might one go about acquiring a copy of Richard Yates at this stage? I’m not asking for myself, obviously, but I have a friend who’s been fretting over this for weeks…
indeed. but ‘advanced galley’ is redundant, marshall, fyi.
i’m sure tao will offer some way of trying to get one. or you could just wait a couple of months.
RY is wonderful. Cried twice while reading it. Tao’s using the autobiographical technique in a really compelling way here.
Soooo looking forward to RY.
And, no, Rey-Rey, it’s never too much.
Nice long sentence. A bit wriggly and wormy in a nice long-short way.
ha. but also, dakota, thanks for playing your part with integrity by hiding behind an alias.
how might one go about acquiring a copy of Richard Yates at this stage? I’m not asking for myself, obviously, but I have a friend who’s been fretting over this for weeks…
Dakota Fanning?
i kind of cried once too, hehe…
you are welcome, dakota.
I cried three times while reading it!
Damn. “One-upsmanship, one-upsmanship, one-upsmanship.”
Also interested in the “autobiographical technique” re “what it is.”
i didnt know ry was ‘out’ yet. i would like to read it.
oh or is it like people are reading review copies. okay.
indeed. but ‘advanced galley’ is redundant, marshall, fyi.
i’m sure tao will offer some way of trying to get one. or you could just wait a couple of months.
RY is wonderful. Cried twice while reading it. Tao’s using the autobiographical technique in a really compelling way here.
Soooo looking forward to RY.
And, no, Rey-Rey, it’s never too much.
Nice long sentence. A bit wriggly and wormy in a nice long-short way.
Dakota Fanning?
i kind of cried once too, hehe…
you are welcome, dakota.
Shit drops in September.
he mentions a way to get it in august on his website
I cried three times while reading it!
Damn. “One-upsmanship, one-upsmanship, one-upsmanship.”
Also interested in the “autobiographical technique” re “what it is.”
Yeah. You can get it in August if you sign up for The Rumpus Book Club (http://therumpus.net/bookclub/).
i didnt know ry was ‘out’ yet. i would like to read it.
oh or is it like people are reading review copies. okay.
you guys are cry babies but that’s okay. i mean, i guess that’s impressive. i’ve never cried because of a book. i cried once from listening to moondog’s ‘wind river powow’ which has no words. but i was also stoned out of my mind and watching the itunes visualizer. i think i cried the first time i saw paris, texas. and big fish got me because i guess i could see myself being the old man telling stories to a son who doesn’t give a fuck.
i’m glad you like my long sentence, mimi, it hangs a little to the left. if you email me i’ll let you borrow my galley. my email address is not very hard to find. (it’s reynard.seifert((at))gmail.com)
“A man tells so many stories, that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal.”
Shit drops in September.
he mentions a way to get it in august on his website
Yeah. You can get it in August if you sign up for The Rumpus Book Club (http://therumpus.net/bookclub/).
I was watching Click (starring Adam Sandler) on TV last week and I cried when he died. At the same time, I was kind of amused that I was crying. It felt good to be emotional or something.
you guys are cry babies but that’s okay. i mean, i guess that’s impressive. i’ve never cried because of a book. i cried once from listening to moondog’s ‘wind river powow’ which has no words. but i was also stoned out of my mind and watching the itunes visualizer. i think i cried the first time i saw paris, texas. and big fish got me because i guess i could see myself being the old man telling stories to a son who doesn’t give a fuck.
i’m glad you like my long sentence, mimi, it hangs a little to the left. if you email me i’ll let you borrow my galley. my email address is not very hard to find. (it’s reynard.seifert((at))gmail.com)
“A man tells so many stories, that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal.”
whassup
I was watching Click (starring Adam Sandler) on TV last week and I cried when he died. At the same time, I was kind of amused that I was crying. It felt good to be emotional or something.
@donald re: alias … is Anonymity a Crime?
whassup
Well, the first passage is surely something. I’d lean toward bold.
No one knows who the Kafka of the iPhone Generation (blech) is. The Kafka of the iPhone Generation will be discovered twenty years after the fact, which is what will make them the Kafka of the iPhone Generation.
Well, the first passage is surely something. I’d lean toward bold.
No one knows who the Kafka of the iPhone Generation (blech) is. The Kafka of the iPhone Generation will be discovered twenty years after the fact, which is what will make them the Kafka of the iPhone Generation.
Cloris Leachman in the last 2 minutes of The Last Picture Show. First time that facial expressions ever made me lose it. Sad Keanu nearly did too though…
Cloris Leachman in the last 2 minutes of The Last Picture Show. First time that facial expressions ever made me lose it. Sad Keanu nearly did too though…
dude, last picture show, yes, love you eric
So that’s what long sentences are all about? You make me laugh.
I will email you soon and tell you all my true confessions.
dude, last picture show, yes, love you eric
So that’s what long sentences are all about? You make me laugh.
I will email you soon and tell you all my true confessions.
I think mimi and reynard have something burblin out/up/insyde here, don’t you? somethin’ spicy
they will tell their babies they met on the internet? or maybe they already met, they go to grad school together or some such.
Are you reading this on your iPhone???
anyway, ‘me like!!’ b/w ‘get a room’
what kind of music is this
I think mimi and reynard have something burblin out/up/insyde here, don’t you? somethin’ spicy
they will tell their babies they met on the internet? or maybe they already met, they go to grad school together or some such.
Are you reading this on your iPhone???
anyway, ‘me like!!’ b/w ‘get a room’
what kind of music is this