Matt’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2009)

Matt’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

like

I think trying to "understand" either of the Tropic books is maybe the wrong approach

they're not really organized in a typically linear narrative fashion and there's not really much of a plot - think of them more as kind of episodic entries in the diary of an overly-libidinal dude running riot in the streets (of Paris &/or NYC depending which Tropic you're charting)this happens, that happens, this one fucks that one etc

here's Miller on his own technique "Up to the present, my idea of collaborating with myself has been to get off the gold standard of literature. My idea briefly has been to present a resurrection of the emotions, to depict the conduct of a human being in the stratosphere of ideas, that is, in the grip of delirium" which is to suggest it's something of a mash-up

placed in the context of its time the language and the world view are from out of nowhere - there was nothing like this - it's 'realer' than anything from his contemporaries (it still is) - it was literally shocking and he had people like TS Eliot and George Orwell clamoring his praise and fighting his cause when his work was banned

and look at his impact on the beats - all the transgressive and formalistically open/free form stuff they wound up exploring is pretty much already right here - he has many "children", look at Chuck Palahniuk or Jerry Stahl - there's Miller in Hawkes' The Blood Oranges and there's Miller in Van Zandt's Drugstore Cowboy and there's Miller here there and everywhere there's a little grit and gristle

interesting article on algebra in the latest harpers?

I posted a poem 10 days ago, it has since been pulled

10 days ago since pulled

wrong e, 2 ee's would be more like it

spring? how about:

By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines-

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches-

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind-

Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined-
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf


But now the stark dignity of
entrance-Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken

WCW

l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness

....

I think 'kill them all'

seriously Dan, what's your beef with bellicosity? I'll fight you!

Dan wrote: "I think this thread got a little more bellicose than intended..."

what's wrong with a little bellicosity?

nah, fuck those people - why would you waste time on them?

there are plenty of on-line sites to buy books from that are not amazon - often times not a bad way to support your local independent from afar

I dont read but I dont write

I just dont like it on general principle because fuck amazon

sketch I'd argue that you're wrong on your particulars in terms of 'top literary bookstores selection and ordering' but your general thesis isnt far wrong which is to say at the very least the pubs & distributors havent helped

but it's naive to assume that amazon hasnt done significant damage to street bookselling

nor that the lazy &/or complacent consumer hasnt pitched a shovel or two of dirt on the grave (which is fine just dont whine to me about how your favorite bookstore is closing down)

what's interesting now however is that alot of independents are seeing a resurgence - it's actually the death of 'corporate bookselling' (aside from amazon) that's happening now

and you could argue that 'corporate bookselling' was never a good idea in the first place

the GR value prop from an amazonian world view probably looks like this:

massive dbase of potential ready-made customers

to patty's point data data data

& a recommendation engine better than any algorithm (us talking to each other)

Im sure there's more they're not stupid, just venal

prepare to be monetized

here, soon. thoughts?

well, fuck those people