April 2011
10 posts
WE DON’T USE THE TERM ‘CRAZY’, MR. COLE →
I wrote this essay about 12 Monkeys that has several factual errors! Marginal Gloss already spotted one. I didn’t title this essay—my editors did. I am eternally thankful. I wonder about ‘CRAZY’, <— that comma right there, on the outside. Using all caps titles forces certain typography decisions creating euphony on the screen/page. But, let us march forward Christian...
In Mississippi, But Not Disconnected, As Such
My oldest brother and sister-in-law send perhaps three photos of Connor Allen sleeping every evening. My nephew is beautiful, obviously. Here is an example:
But his uncles are beautiful too:
Also:
And (my form is way off, but it was last minute—I didn’t know it was pose-specific):
Well. Creepy post/best of intentions.
The Fogroads of Hell, pt. 2
Continuing the Longest, Most Self-Serving Duck Beating to Date, for Which, Regrettably, the Administrator of Duck Beater Is Contractually Obliged to Publish, Spoilers Intact
Mortals, through the duration of its description of Ray and his wife Iris’ disintegrating marriage, presents the activities of a dying love as similar in form to an interrogation, to the work of spies and...
God Damn It →
Elif Batuman: Life after a bestseller
Elif Batuman’s life changed when she published a hit book. She writes about how it feels no longer to be the outsider – and about asking Jonathan Franzen for some weed
Why Not? →
I wrote what others have generously described as an “emo” film piece for A Bright Wall in a Dark Room. If you do not feel like reading it—my sense is that many will not want to read it—but you still want to talk about it with the twenty-plus people who have read it (including my brother—he liked it!), here is a tidy summa:
Liberal arts major is growing older and doesn’t feel...
4 tags
The Fogroads of Hell, pt. 1
The Longest, Most Self-Serving Duck Beating to Date, for Which, Regrettably, the Administrator of Duck Beater Is Contractually Obliged to Publish, Spoilers Intact
I am reading Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain to understand a long torture sequence in Norman Rush’s novel Mortals.
I thought I was reading The Body in Pain because of being in some kind of pain that was keeping me from...
FIGHT! →
undertrees:
I find this so interesting.
A few days ago, BWDR posted my review of Sucker Punch (which was not favourable). Fellow BWDR scribe Evan Bryson took issue with a few of my points and made his views known in the comment section. I, in turn, took issue with the issues he took, and posted a reply (hopefully) furthering the debate. I don’t yet know if Evan will respond, but it’s all in...
1 tag
“Writers would not so resent publishers if the relationship were only about...”
– Jenny Turner reviewing Your Name Here. Noemi Press is publishing the work in bookform this October.
Call Me Hot Shit
Phone pic sent to me from Todd, brother now living with girlfriend on Key Largo:
Accompanying text exchange:
Todd: narrator todd. Ha people are dropping like flys around here so i have to narrate
Evan: Oh my god. Like, sick?
Todd: Yes and lots of people have quit the job around here so im mate and narrator now not fun
Evan: Haaaaa!!! Wowza. You look like a space agent; also, so relaxes....
5 tags
Excerpted from "The Five Percent Paradox: excerpts...
Don’t kid yourself, journals like McSweeney’s and n+1 are just mafias jockeying for turf, full of replacement envy of the really big showboats in the culture and their best and brightest would be laughed out of town in any European capital and most anywhere else—except the United States. I don’t mean those mafias are unintelligent; they’ve been trained at the best...
