“Only one critic mentioned the name of Kurt Vonnegut when writing about Europeana, and he is an author to whom I owe a lot, especially Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions.”

Makes sense to me.

And more from Ourednik about how he conceived Europeana:

In any case, my goal was not to conceive of the twentieth century as a theme—not even in the sense of a “reflection theme”—but as a literary figure. The primary question wasn’t to know what events, what episodes were characteristic of the twentieth century, but which syntax, which rhetoric, which expressiveness belonged to it, in what sense was it redundant, etc.

I could simplify this: what were the key words of the twentieth century? Undoubtedly, haste (rather than ”chaos,” which is no more appropriate to the twentieth century than to any another). This meant, let’s try to write a hurried text. Another peculiarity of the twentieth century, I think, is infantilism—with everything that it implies, from the romantic-commercial image of juvenility to the refusal of taking the full responsibility of one’s acts and words. Let’s try then to write a childish text, a text that could have been told by a kid reciting his lesson or by the village idiot. Thirdly, this century has been explicitly scientific. This meant, let’s use a vocabulary more or less scientific, with all its contradictions and, if possible, with all its vacuity. These are the elements that gave birth to the form and content of the book.

I’ve got The Failure Six on my queue and I can’t wait to read it.

As for what I read this week: MLKNG SCKLS, by Justin Sirois, Kamby Bolongo Mean River, by Robert Lopez, Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing, and I’m halfway through Grammar Desk Reference, by Gary Lutz and Diane Stevenson.

Matt: what else can be said? we loves us some shane jones. & Babyfucker is worth it. i read it in one sitting. i also like small, pretty books, and it’s a very small pretty book!

John: i’m pretty sure if you put your reading list up here, we’d all be put to shame. besides, most of the books on this list are fairly thin. many books but not very many pages.

I really want to read Babyfucker. All I have heard is of smiles and laughs from it. Good ones. Not the shitty smiles and laughs.

(smile)

I haven’t read Light Boxes (never got a copy!), but word on the street is that even our dear Mr. Jones prefers Failure…

i read The Failure Six a week or two ago… i think i may’ve liked it more than Light Boxes.