I would like to read your poem! Consider this an official arm twist!
BTW I just finished Paula Fox’s Desperate Characters, which I liked, due to her good eye, partly, and partly because it was interesting to read a contemporanous account of the late ‘60s (it came out in 1970). Came across it while reading a book of essays by Jonathan Franzen from some years back where he talks about books he likes. Currently reading White Boy Shuffle.
Just read the poem! And much enjoyed it - I hope you continue indulging your visions of the picaresque! In the first section some composite protagonist arose in my mind and I had to remind myself the poem was found language. I can see why you created this - it is so quotable and the poem itself could be a fertile source of second degree text-to-text ekphrasis or at least some good fiction prompts. I myself am tempted to write something involving seizing the devil with a pair of red-hot tongs.
Just finished White Boy Shuffle where all, as in Melville, is indeed far from well but is very antic. The voice seems to me a younger cousin of that in The Sellout (my intro to his work) but this is a Bildungsroman, I guess with our young hero, Gunnar Kauffman a poetic and basketball phenomenon. The gag-filled style reminded me a little of early Woody Allen (my parents had his books lying around so when I was an impressionable teen I read stuff like “The Whore of Mensa”) - lots of comic incongruity via “high culture,” Pop culture mashups. The book is a piety-free zone, which I like. Also: lots of 70s/80s/90s LA vibe/sense of place, including a goodly amount of Japanese and Japanese American characters, all of which vibes with me a lot, having lived in LA for 30 years and being a contemporary of Beatty.
BTW I hope to someday see more of your own quirky, serio-comic work, poetry, essay or fiction as well as your superlative books column.
Yeah, let’s see it! Twist, twist!
Enjoy! https://open.substack.com/pub/evanreads/p/found-explanatory-notes-on-melvilles?r=cyn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
So Evan, how about that poem? (please)
Take a look! https://open.substack.com/pub/evanreads/p/found-explanatory-notes-on-melvilles?r=cyn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I would like to read your poem! Consider this an official arm twist!
BTW I just finished Paula Fox’s Desperate Characters, which I liked, due to her good eye, partly, and partly because it was interesting to read a contemporanous account of the late ‘60s (it came out in 1970). Came across it while reading a book of essays by Jonathan Franzen from some years back where he talks about books he likes. Currently reading White Boy Shuffle.
Just read the poem! And much enjoyed it - I hope you continue indulging your visions of the picaresque! In the first section some composite protagonist arose in my mind and I had to remind myself the poem was found language. I can see why you created this - it is so quotable and the poem itself could be a fertile source of second degree text-to-text ekphrasis or at least some good fiction prompts. I myself am tempted to write something involving seizing the devil with a pair of red-hot tongs.
Just finished White Boy Shuffle where all, as in Melville, is indeed far from well but is very antic. The voice seems to me a younger cousin of that in The Sellout (my intro to his work) but this is a Bildungsroman, I guess with our young hero, Gunnar Kauffman a poetic and basketball phenomenon. The gag-filled style reminded me a little of early Woody Allen (my parents had his books lying around so when I was an impressionable teen I read stuff like “The Whore of Mensa”) - lots of comic incongruity via “high culture,” Pop culture mashups. The book is a piety-free zone, which I like. Also: lots of 70s/80s/90s LA vibe/sense of place, including a goodly amount of Japanese and Japanese American characters, all of which vibes with me a lot, having lived in LA for 30 years and being a contemporary of Beatty.
BTW I hope to someday see more of your own quirky, serio-comic work, poetry, essay or fiction as well as your superlative books column.
Posted here! https://open.substack.com/pub/evanreads/p/found-explanatory-notes-on-melvilles?r=cyn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Good to hear on the Paula Fox – I feel like the only thing I got out of the Franzen essay book I read was a masochistic desire to read Gaddis – and let me know about White Boy Shuffle - have always wanted to read that one!