Monday, December 1, 2008

'Ejaculation is a waste of valuable resources.'

Thanks to everyone who has preordered EVER so far. I've been really happy about the first two days. The more that get preordered I think the more I will make to include in the free shit, which I will be telling more of soon. Very awesome, anyway, that folks have bothered.


Please check out & order EVER. I am going to keep saying that for a while, bear with me.




God help me I just joined twitter


What text by Zizek should I read? What is his 'most important' work, or at least the one I might like the best? I have always meant to read a full book but in looking at them I find it hard to know which I would most respond to. Comments?


This morning I woke up with 'I saw myself / What were you doing' written on my hand, though it wasn't there when I went to sleep and I don't remember writing it during the night.


My sleeplessness is ramping up again, I sleep two hours and want to get up. I don't. I don't know why.


Here is Derek's book trailer, for those who haven't seen it:



If anyone has readings in the southeast or northeast and would have me for a reading, please email me also. I have some dates set up in NYC, Baltimore, pending Michigan, pending Northampton, Chicago for AWP, and some others pending. I would love to do a bunch.



Awesome website for Shane Jones's LIGHT BOXES



I think I am beginning to give up. No negatives today, despite Rod Stewart coming through the damn wall.











God I can't stand brass instruments.


I think I have said 'fuck america' out loud at least 20 times today, I'm not sure why.



I am going to read Jesse Ball's new book tonight maybe. I have been waiting for the right time.



We saw LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, a new Swedish vampire movie: it does a really good job of not overburdening the idea of vampires, and making it something that could fit into the world, which makes it that much more palpable and invoking than the typical retardation of normal vampire films. The shots are really good, there is a bed explosion, there is child violence and blood and Morse code, this is a horror movie I can get behind.


Ryan Call just saved my mind.

30 comments:

Ken Baumann said...

Thank you for crowdsourcing (BUZZWORD) Zizek, you beat me to it.

Josh Maday said...

EVEREVEREVEREVEREVEREVEREVEREVEREVEREVER

EVER

keep shouting it, man. nice work on the EVER website, too.

Zizek is one prolific mofo. Higgs will have a good idea of where to start. He wrote a book called The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch's Lost Highway, which is short and pretty expensive on amazon. I'll see if I can manage to copy it if you're interested. I also recommend, if you haven't seen it yet, Zizek!, an excellent documentary. Here's the torrent file, if you want.

I have a bunch of Zizek ebooks and articles I can send, too. Just email me.

Yes, the LIGHT BOXES website shaves my eyelids. Very nice.

Josh Maday said...

Ha, I meant that Zizek wrote "Ridiculous Sublime", not Chris Higgs.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

josh back in da house thank god


i think chris higgs is zizek


i saw the box for that movie it looked cool, i will torrent it

BLAKE BUTLER said...

and i will email yu

Anonymous said...

insomnia parties

DOGZPLOT said...

'pending michigan' where you thinking of reading at. i know a few great places in ann arbor if you're interested

bgemich@yahoo.com

kristina born said...

done and done

whap whap whap

Matt DeBenedictis said...

I've said "fuck my whiteness" 3 times today. I've said "Your America is skanky" 2 times.

Ken Baumann said...

no zizek recommendations yet

Ken Baumann said...

this book money is burning a hole in my pocket c'mon

BLAKE BUTLER said...

barry i will email you thank you, i've been talking to matt bell some, but we will talk too

kristina thank you thank you

i am going to have to go to higgs directly i guess

Anonymous said...

I am halfway through Zizek's "Violence," and I don't think I'll make it to the end. This ass-eyed Slovene actually made a career out of defending Stalin. Yeah, like as in S T A L I N.

Check it:

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=097a31f3-c440-4b10-8894-14197d7a6eef

BLAKE BUTLER said...

hmm defense of stalin sounds interesting. how is the book otherwise?

ryan call said...

we did it!

DB said...

you you you you you.

sleep is fucked. i can't sleep anymore without some sort of chemical help.

tonight at work, after all the kids were in bed, this one kid walked out of his room holding his blanket. he walked right past me. i said, "(kid's name), what are you doing?"

he said, "13 matches!"

i said, "what? what does that even mean?"

he said, "shut up." he started walking away from me to the other end of the cottage.

the other staff working tonight walked over to him and asked what he was doing.

the kid looked at the floor and said, "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY BED?"

sleep disorders. i don't know. i didn't mean to write that like it was a short story or something. i feel like a dickwad.

Josh Maday said...

sorry blake, i think the torrent has pretty much no seeders or feeders.

i think zizek has defended lenin, not stalin. in Zizek!, he has a photo of stalin hung ironically in his apartment to scare people away. maybe i'm wrong.

yes, blake, michigan reading. you could read at the zeitgeist with some language poets.

christopher higgs said...

Sorry I'm late to the dance.

Where to go for Zizek depends on what you're looking for. The thing is, Zizek is like the Stephen King or Joyce Carol Oates of theory, in that he publishes a new book every other week.

Are you interest in his take on Lacan? Marx? Hegel? Anarchism/Terrorism? Cinema? Religion?

If you just want some kind of primer to his way of thinking, I would second Josh's suggestion to watch the documentary - it's clutch - the guy is a madman.

Personally, I'd say look at The Puppet and the Dwarf. It's relative compact. The Sublime Object of Ideology is his big one (so far). I haven't read the newest ones yet but In Defense of Lost Causes looks like it's gonna be a humdinger.

Re Michael's comment: "Zizek made a career out of defending Stalin" - no he didn't. He made a career out of being one of the most provocative thinkers of our time. He has made a career out of pissing people off by saying the things no one else is willing to say.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

daniel that sounds amazing. you should write about it for sure...

thanks chris. i think the lost causes one sounds pretty amazing. i am up for it. i will start with the film though and see what happens

jereme said...

i want to make a short film of you sleeping blake.

i think it would be interesting to video your sleep patterns.

have you ever done that before?

BLAKE BUTLER said...

i haven't, though i've thought about it. it could be fun?

jereme said...

i think you should do it. sitting down and watching yourself on a television is basic. you were conscious when the video was shot. you are cognizant of what your next actions are.

watching yourself sleep can be discomforting. it is sick voyeuristic fun.

introspective voyeur.

get creepy with yourself. see where it goes.

Molly Gaudry said...

Zizek, Twitter: What the crap's going on?

I'd like to direct people to my GCN blog via this new site:

http://mollygaudry.blogspot.com

Thanks,
M.

P.S. I read something by Zizek, I think, about Shel Silverstein's THE MISSING PIECE. Good stuff. (Was it Zizek? I'll have to double check. Will let you know soon.)

Molly Gaudry said...

Oh, yeah. Did anyone notice that TIN HOUSE misspelled Zizek's first name--not on the cover, of course, but on the inside.

DOGZPLOT said...

blake:

if you talked to matt you probably dont need to email me. he knows places i know.

p said...

MICHIGAN!

Laura Carter said...

Zizek is good. Looking Awry or Sublime Object or Ticklish Subject are good. How good are you with Lacan? He is quite the Lacanian. Every now and then I dip back into my copy of The Parallax View to remind me of the fact that there is smart, provocative theory-writing going on. But I read other things, too. Zizek is not a romantic dreamer, nor a liberal, nor a "beautiful revolutionary soul." It is possible to love him and hate him for these thing at the same time.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

hi laura! sublime object, i like that title. maybe i will buy that. i am interested to read him, though its been a while since i read any philosophy except for wittgenstein. we'll see what happens

i like non romantic dreamers and non liberals, i maybe fit into that category loosely 60% of the time, who knows :)

Ben Segal said...

i once saw zizek go up to avital ronell and say 'you fucking dirty bitch!' and then give her a big hug and kiss and finish with "i love you'. i think that sums him up.

Laura Carter said...

Ben, that sounds like Zizek!