Comments on: “Run, run, run, run. You better run all day. And run all night.”: On Kim Chinquee’s Oh Baby.

By: Over Forty Writers Over Forty to Watch « BIG OTHER

Over Forty Writers Over Forty to Watch « BIG OTHER — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:24:13 +0000

[...] Chinquee: “Chinquee’s short shorts and prose poems are mercurial miniatures: they quickly shift from place… Her latest collection is sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read it. What the heck is wrong with [...]

By: John Madera

John Madera — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:23:19 +0000

You’re welcome, Brandon. Thanks for checking in.

By: Brandon Hobson

Brandon Hobson — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:21:44 +0000

Very nice. Thanks for posting this.

By: stacy

stacy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:35:58 +0000

Ah, discerning and discernible. Delish.

By: Joseph Young

Joseph Young — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:29:02 +0000

i’m always amazed by whatever magic that is that allows one person’s work to stand up against the others’. it can use 95% the same materials, 95% the same style even, but that 5%, whatever it is, some kind of communication between the parts, some interspatial energy, is all the difference. i wouldn’t claim i have it, but it smacks me in the head when i see it.

By: John Madera

John Madera — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:12:48 +0000

Most micros are banal, have nothing to distinguish them from countless others. It’s the new haiku. Like haiku, which, on the surface, has learnable “parameters,” the flash/micro/short short invites so much mediocrity. As I said before, in terms of percentages, there’s probably not a greater amount of bad work to good, but the sheer amount of it I’ve encountered makes it ever more harder to find the good ones. Finding a great book/story is like finding a needle in a haystack, but finding a great micro is like finding a button on a beach.

So we are lucky to have people like Kim Chinquee, Diane Williams, Lydia Davis, Gary Lutz, and Joseph Young (and others); all have an identity, a signature, and offer work that demonstrates how vital the form is, and how difficult it is to master.

By: stacy

stacy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:49:11 +0000

John, “stylistic anonymity”?

By: John Madera

John Madera — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:34:29 +0000

Much obliged, Joseph. I was talking with Greg about how there’s a kind of irksome stylistic anonymity found in the work of writers of micros, short shorts, and whatnot. I’d imagine that the percentage is not greater than what you’d find in longer works, but I think the ever proliferating amount of these shorts, the here-today-gone-tomorrow, flash in the pan flash fiction websites, perhaps, makes it all the more apparent. So within this climate it’s always inspiring to find a distinctive voice like Kim’s, like Davis’s, like yours.

By: Joseph Young

Joseph Young — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:43:01 +0000

Nice review, John. Kim’s stuff scares me with its exactitude. She makes watches. But they are really human ones.

By: Andy Linkner

Andy Linkner — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:47:48 +0000

I’ll get a hold of Easter Rabbit. I’ve seen it recommended by a lot of people I respect.