Saturday, May 24, 2008

Opium 6: Go Green!

The new print issue of OPIUM MAGAZINE is out, #6. I have a story in it, as does Aimee Bender, Benjamin Percy, Jensen Whelan, and others, plus there is poetry and short contest winners by Shya Scanlon, Dawn Corrigan, Darby Larson, Pedro Ponce, a bunch of others. It is designed by David Barringer and looks incredible, with interesting layouts on all the texts and tons of image. Opium is one of the best laid out print mags I've seen, and this issue is overflowing. When a publication spends this much time and attention, you can't help but want it.



Here are the first few sentences of my story, 'WEIGHT GAINER':

When Paul got back from powerlifting, he found his wife in the hall closet. She'd been knitting a Christmas scarf for their son, Juan, for more than a month now, well beyond the needed length, beyond the need itself. The scarf was twenty feet and counting. He'd tried to make a joke--
what, was she dressing a giraffe?--but Marcy didn't grin. She never grinned. When she wasn't knitting, she wore the scarf everywhere--to bed, in the shower. It had begun to stink of mildew. Worst was she still talked about giving it to the boy.

Since Paul had found the baby blinkless on their bed, he'd been exercising three times a day for twenty-eight days in a row.


Buy the issue & read the rest, it's only $10.

To receive this publication I ate a child, threw the child up inside another child's mouth, ate that child, threw that child up into a puppy, raised the puppy to adult size, covered myself in peanut butter and let the dog eat me, swelled up inside the dog's stomach until I burst the dog and together we became air.

13 comments:

Catherine Lacey said...

that last paragraph made me really happy to be alive.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

catherine, that is a nice thing to hear.

Ken Baumann said...

i really like this whole post.

Adrian Todd Zuniga said...

I hope anyone in NYC can make the Literary Death Match/Opium6 launch party: www.LiteraryDeathMatch.com. I promise it'll be a perfect showcase for the magazine!

BLAKE BUTLER said...

thank you ken.

todd, wish i could be there. you should have death match in atlanta one day.

Adrian Todd Zuniga said...

@ Blake: An Atlanta LDM would be amazing! You find a cool, sexy bar with a stage and a soundsystem, and a couch for me for a night, and we can start planning for late this year (I'm not kidding).

BLAKE BUTLER said...

i am on it. f'real.

qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq said...

We will have a death match in Atlanta one day.

We can have a hell in a cell match.

The Jaguar Uprising

vs.

Whoever the hell has the guts.

We are a better visual experience than Reading Rainbow.

Deal with it.

DG Beat said...

I purchased Opium 6 and I'm almost done reading every word between the covers. I enjoyed your piece. Extremely visual. Well done.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

ttb, still waiting for chapter two so i can crush

john, thank you glad you liked it. nice blog.

jereme said...

What exactly is occuring at a literary death match?

I always envisioned it as a reading like other readings.

Is there melee and death?

Or is it like a word jumble and the loser gets punched in the balls for not figuring it out fast enough?

I have questions. I am so confused.

Adrian Todd Zuniga said...

Really, the only way to experience an LDM is to go to one, and if that can't happen, go to our LDM TV link at www.LiteraryDeathMatch.com.

It's seriously so much fun you'll never want to go to a normal reading again!

jereme said...

I'm not a big fan of normal readings in the first place.

I'll check out the TV thingy as I know damn well there won't be anything to do with literature within the Orange County limits.

This place is a black hole when it comes to art and culture.

But hey, we got lots of starbucks and mortgage companies here.