This will be the first in what may prove to be several installments on this tome by William Gaddis. Yes, it’s 954 pages (Penguin edition). Yes, it’s astounding. I urge you to put aside all else and read this novel. Another author’s first rule on writing is to ‘Never open a book with weather.’ While [...]
Archive for August, 2010
The Sun is Your Friend (Read The Recognitions)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Elmore Leonard, Malcolm Bradbury, The Recognitions, William Gaddis on August 29, 2010 | 7 Comments »
I am always alike
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Christopher Nolan, iain pears on August 29, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Without intending it, I seem to have produced a companion piece to my comments on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. It comes from having just read Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears.
Scott Pilgrim vs. Inception for the Future of the Cinematic Imagination
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Amélie, Art as Device, Christopher Nolan, Edgar Wright, Inception, Plumtree, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Princess Bride, Viktor Shklovsky on August 26, 2010 | 19 Comments »
Since I wrote this critique of Inception, one question more than a few have asked me is: “What could Nolan have done differently?” Which is one way of asking: “What could he have done that you would have liked?” At first my response was along the lines of, “Well, not doing the things he did”—but [...]
Lydia Davis Interview
Posted in Uncategorized on August 26, 2010 | 3 Comments »
“In certain moods I’d rather watch what the ants are doing than read a page of Hegel; but in other moods I’d rather read the page of Hegel. That’s just an example—I don’t often read Hegel.” Rumpus Interview
My Guily Pleasure and Taste and etc…
Posted in Uncategorized on August 24, 2010 | 5 Comments »
My poems, from now on, are all Inception based. Hey, my poems are dreamy, or, are they? Here is my final comment on Guilty Pleasures and the earlier discussion on Taste, for now.
Gass-X
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Rainer Maria Rilke, Reading Rilke, Shakespeare, Sonnet 116, William Gass on August 24, 2010 | 4 Comments »
On a sunny day I would argue that the first 46 pages of William Gass’s Reading Rilke: Reflections of the Problems of Translation, which outlines the major themes of Rilke’s art and gives a nice summation of his life, as well as a number of poems by the master, is as essential as reading Rilke [...]
Hobby Horse
Posted in Uncategorized on August 24, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Wikipedia told me about the origin of the word ‘hobby’: ‘A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse (which was sometimes called a “Hobby“). From this came the expression “to ride one’s hobby-horse”, meaning “to follow a favorite pastime”, and in turn, hobby in the [...]
My Guilty Pleasure
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Cluny Brown, Margery Sharp, My Guilty Pleasure, The Rescuers Down Under on August 23, 2010 | 33 Comments »
I heard on NPR recently a segment called “My Guilty Pleasure,” which features writers talking “about the books they love but are embarrassed to be seen reading.” I wondered: What is my guilty pleasure? And I came up with only one answer: ANYTHING by (British writer) Margery Sharp. My all-time favorite of hers is a [...]
What not to do when setting up a book tour
Posted in Uncategorized on August 23, 2010 | 17 Comments »
Dear Elliott Bay Book Company, I’m contacting you in hopes of setting up a reading at Powell’s for my first published book coming out from Blaze Vox Books. Titled There’s Something Wrong With Sven, the book is a collection of fifty short fictions and prose poems. (Etc, etc.) A few days later, the reply. If you [...]
The moment we’ve all been waiting for…
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Black Square Editions, Gary Lutz, I Looked Alive on August 23, 2010 | 5 Comments »
I Looked Alive By Gary Lutz Publisher: Black Square Editions/Brooklyn Rail PubDate: 10/1/2010 ISBN: 9781934029077 Binding: PAPERBACK Price: $17.00 Quantity Available: 90 Pages: 190 At Small Press Distribution
The Big Other Interview #1023: Andy Devine
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Adam Robinson, andy devine, henry mescaline, iowa review, proust, Publishing Genius Press, walter abish on August 22, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Several years ago a writer with whom I have been linked, Henry Mescaline, published a piece in The Iowa Review (37.3) titled “First paragraph of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way, (Translated from the French by C. K. Scott Moncrieff), Alphabetized,” which begins like this: a a a a a a a a a actually after all [...]
Godspeed, Jack Horkheimer
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Chris Marker, Claude Debussy, Jack Horkheimer, Sans soleil, Star Hustler, Star Trek, Tom Carvel on August 21, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Back when I was in late grade school/early high school, every Friday night, my local PBS station would run two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, plus one episode of the Original Series, all commercial free. In between ran episodes of Jack Horkheimer’s Star Hustler: I’m not ashamed (now) to confess that, in those [...]
Pop’s Beautiful Blankness
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Dusty Springfield, I Only Want to Be With You, I've Told Ev'ry Little Star, Inception, Jerome Kern, Linda Scott, Mary Ellis, Music in the Air, Oscar Hammerstein II, Rob Reiner, The Princess Bride, Tim Jones-Yelvington, William Goldman on August 21, 2010 | 2 Comments »
I wanted to add something to Tim’s recent post “On Pop Songs,” where he wrote: Part of the magic of pop songs is their blankness as texts. How, with their generic sentiments, and accessible melodies that rapidly signal which emotion they’re meant to represent, they are easily appropriated. You know, like — ” Omigod, omigod, [...]
Art as Device, and Device (When it Works) as Miracle
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Art as Device, Billy Crystal, Christopher Nolan, Ellen Page, Inception, Joshua Gordon-Levitt, Mandy Patinkin, Peter Falk, Rob Reiner, The Princess Bride, Viktor Shklovsky, William Goldman on August 20, 2010 | 14 Comments »
In my post on Inception, I criticized Nolan for his inelegant use of screenwriting devices, like his endless reliance on (often irrelevant) exposition. Some took objection to this. (See the comment thread here, also.) To clarify: the problem is not the device, but the clumsy, bare-boned way in which it’s executed. (A friend of mine [...]
these are two I want (& just pre-ordered)
Posted in Uncategorized on August 20, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Kendra Grant Malone’s EVERYTHING IS QUIET & Matthew Savoca’s LONG LOVE POEM WITH DESCRIPTIVE TITLE These are from Scrambler Books. These are two books I want. These are two books I just pre-ordered. These are two books that you can get together in paperback for $20 or in a limited-edition hardback for $25. These are [...]
Down With Tanzer: An Interview
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 99 Problems, Ben Tanzer, CCLAP on August 20, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Ben Tanzer is the author of the novels, Lucky Man and Most Likely You Go Your Way, the story collection Repetition Patterns, a MLP mini chap, I Am Richard Simmons, and many more chunks of goodness. His next novel, You Can Make Him Like You will be published by Artistically Declined Press. But before people [...]
Fact-Simile 3.1
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Brian Evenson, Fact-Simile on August 19, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I got hardcopies of the new issue of Fact-Simile in the mail today and am thoroughly enjoying the innovative poetry and prose within its pages. Check out a free pdf verion here to read new work from Michelle Disler, Cralan Kelder, Shanna Miller McNair, Andrew Wessels, Mark Cunningham, Tim Roberts, Derek Henderson, Elizabeth Robinson, Roxanne Carter, Mary Kasimor, David [...]
You Can Win New Books by Destroying An Old One
Posted in Uncategorized on August 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »
via Blake Butler & Featherproof comes the one-year anniversary contest for SCORCH ATLAS. This book boils & sizzles & is lovely & terrifying & now, if you’ve read it & want to maim or destroy or terrorize your copy, you might just win a boatload of new titles & Featherproof schwag. Check it out here & get [...]
Frank Kermode
Posted in Uncategorized on August 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Frank Kermode, one of the finest of literary critics (I would love, just once, to produce a piece of criticism comparable to his work), died yesterday. The London Review of Books (which will be the worse for his absence) has a commemoration here. I saw him once, on a panel with Terry Eagleton (my other [...]
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