Sunday, August 26, 2007

ben marcus?

i wonder what happened to ben marcus. his book NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN is one of the greatest things i've read as far as experimental narrative goes. more people should read that book. it came out in 2002. the only other thing i've seen from mr. marcus since then was the anthology of american writing he edited and his essay on experimental fiction as a response to jonathan franzen, which was really well written and interesting. i hope he is working on some ridiculous new book that will arrive soon and help me read more.



here is a quote i like from NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN:
'If all the words of this book are misspelled, but accidentally spell other words correctly, and also accidentally fall into a grammatically coherent arrangement, where coherency is defined as whatever doesn't upset people, it means this book is legally another book.'

also here's a link to an interview ben marcus did with brian evenson that i find really very good: marcus interviews evenson.

i just finished rereading Steve Erickson's RUBICON BEACH and then i read Roy Kesey's ALL OVER which had some incredible stuff in it. now i am going to reread Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN. i think i am going to spend the rest of the year rereading stuff i already know i really like. there are so many books i call favorites that i haven't read in so long it is like i didn't read them. i have a terrible retention rate. there are people i've met 15-20 times and hung out with for hours and still can't remember their first name.

i am also going to reread Nicholson Baker's THE FERMATA, which if you haven't read it, is 320 pages about a man who learns to pause time and then goes around doing perverted shit to women while they are frozen. he does it really well.

i want to get a job teaching a writing class somewhere. or start an online writing school. as dumb as that might seem. someone help me.

2 comments:

christopher higgs said...

I second your desire for new Marcus.

Right now I am rereading Danielewski's House of Leaves.

I rarely reread books.

trevor said...

I watched an episode of the twilight zone over 10 years ago that had a woman who could stop time. I don't remember what the plot was, but I remember she had found this amulet that gave her the power and she would say something like "shut up" to freeze time and "start talking" to resume time. I wanted to be able to do that and still do. and to be able to open a small pocket in the air and store shit in it and be able to close and open it at will. and to have a thin field around me at all times that would make the weather for me a crisp 60 degree autumn afternoon. it's too humid in texas.

i'm going to look for the fermata.