I am about to re-read Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy. In response to the New York Times' list of notable books written in the past 25 years, Beth Quittman has called for the creation of an alternative list, something more inclusive, less old-white-male. Apparently, the list is up. Paul Auster won the top spot. I think I voted for him, as well as Richard Powers, AM Holmes and Percival Everett. No Roth, no Updike (I like the former, the latter, not so much), but the list is still predominantly male and white. I did enjoy Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but I don't necessarily think it's one of the greatest novels written in the past 25 years. (just as good, Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude, which is not listed, and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, which does not qualify, the author being, well, British)
More on The New York Trilogy in two weeks.
I am also reading Terrance Hayes's Wind in the Box, which has been sitting on my floor for three months now. I am not sure it excites me as much as Hip Logic. It doesn't seem as ambitious. It's more narrative. In a way, you can see the poems where Tony had some input. Of course, I am only at the beginning.
I am staring in awe at the stuff that Claire is putting together for Jessica's new magazine foursquare. I can't wait to receive the first issue. I mean, how could you not subscribe to this when you have K. Lorraine, Shanna Compton, Juliana Spahr, Michelle Detorie, Maureen Thorson and Claire? Last update says there are 25 subscriptions left.
I am a bit pissed off at myself, but I had it coming. Some of the things I had planned may have to be postponed. Well, at least now, I'll have a lot of time to read and write. And doodle.
Oh, and apparently, Barbie dolls are now a feminist icon because no one really gives a rat's arse about Ken. I thought Barbie dolls were a tool of patriarchal repression. I no longer know what to think on this.
More on The New York Trilogy in two weeks.
I am also reading Terrance Hayes's Wind in the Box, which has been sitting on my floor for three months now. I am not sure it excites me as much as Hip Logic. It doesn't seem as ambitious. It's more narrative. In a way, you can see the poems where Tony had some input. Of course, I am only at the beginning.
I am staring in awe at the stuff that Claire is putting together for Jessica's new magazine foursquare. I can't wait to receive the first issue. I mean, how could you not subscribe to this when you have K. Lorraine, Shanna Compton, Juliana Spahr, Michelle Detorie, Maureen Thorson and Claire? Last update says there are 25 subscriptions left.
I am a bit pissed off at myself, but I had it coming. Some of the things I had planned may have to be postponed. Well, at least now, I'll have a lot of time to read and write. And doodle.
Oh, and apparently, Barbie dolls are now a feminist icon because no one really gives a rat's arse about Ken. I thought Barbie dolls were a tool of patriarchal repression. I no longer know what to think on this.
Comments
Forthcoming authors are: Shanna Compton, Linda Russo, Lorraine Graham, Elizabeth Treadwell, Juliana Spahr, Maureen Thorson, Brenda Iijima, Jenny Boully, Michelle Detorie, Chris Turnbull, Claire Webb, and T.A. Noonan. And that's just the summer! Wait till you see who's up for the fall....
http://www.outsidevoices.org/foursquare/
Barbie will always be a figure of patriarchy, the Ken argument is lame. Kids should anyways play outside instead of with storebought toys and all the little accessories. Barbie is the tool of capitalism. Kids need: a good rope, a cheap magnifying glass, and access to books.
I like Paul Auster's wife's work much much much better than his work. I do get teary when he reads Mallarmé's poems for his son on linebreak, but those are technically just translations, it's Mallarmé's poetry. But I think I will always dislike Paul Auster because he is so MALE. And i'd think that in some ways he was deconstructing Masculinity (the male hero) but then there's that book (Invention of Solitude) where it's like, ME! my Son! my Dad! My Y chromosome! Yippee! I think it's just an impatience I've developed with things that are so resolutely male. Maybe that's why I'm drawn to your poetry, because even when it's sensual/sexual it's not phallocentric.
Siri Hustvedt is Auster's wife, and in contrast, her work is more "female". I loved The Blindfold, which is this creepy little book abut the experience of being a woman in societies of two or more people. It's like nothing else I've ever read... just the subtle creepiness that makes your skin crawl. And that creepiness is often what it's like to be a woman in a public space, because one can't pin down "what's wrong' with the way one's being looked at or treated, but there's something unsettling about it.