Friday, December 12, 2008

someone in the other room has said 'i would like to speak to an agent' into the phone at least 30 times literally in the last 3 minutes

Scott Garson blogged about a maybe interesting, maybe controversial thing that happened involving me over at HTML Giant.

I have no further comment.






I got a really amazing rej. letter from one of the book institutions I hold highest of high. It is nice when such a letter can feel like holding light rather than just an end to a thread. I feel high off it some.







I am right now reading Coleman Dowell's ISLAND PEOPLE, based on Eugene Lim saying somewhere that is his favorite, or at least among his favorites, book. I've been reading a lot of short novels lately and really wanted to get into something longer. This book is only 300 pp but so so so fucking rich and full of ideas and language, it's like reading something 600 pp by most others. I am 60 pp right now and already have felt my brain switched on by it in a way I haven't felt maybe in a while. Every other graph or so I've had to stop and close the book a little in my hands and think about it, though the language is not obfuscating. It just has power. I think this is the beginning of me getting back into the really long novels, which are my true love. A small book is nice and much more fun to read, but there is something about the long, dense novel that engrosses and takes hold of your life for a while. Of the great long novels I've read (among them, somemy favorites: INFINITE JEST, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, THE TUNNEL, SUTTREE, THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG) it seems I can remember vividly the days and minutes of the reading of those pages, the carrying, the heft and all, more so than I can with smaller books. The books really come into your life. And I am sounding like a fuck.






Krammer Abrahams picked part of 1 sentence out of many thousands of words or something that I didn't write for his new twitter journal: HeyShortyComeToMyKegPartyDougIsInABadMoodThereAreNachos-
RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGBANANAPHONEPenguinsOnWings-OfAirplanesEatingCloudsILove$

I told Krammer I had written it via methods but really it was not made by me at all. I have been corresponding with a very young person.

The sentence is called ken griffey jr





I preordered Ellen and Brandon's books from Muumuu House yesterday: you should as well, they are going to be fantastic, I am excited about their books and MH as a whole.






I closed subs for Lamination Colony a day or 2 ago for the first time in the 5+ years of the journal. I am about to put together a big double issue, after I finish weeding through the overflowing inbox. After that I don't know what is going to happen. I am either going to have a big format change, or put the baby down, or maybe even keep going as it has been. I'm not sure which, but I think at least I want to spend some time thinking about something new. It is time, for me at least, for something new to happen. How I can make new happen has been on my mind a lot lately. I have some maybe ideas that might burn up into bigger bubbles, or might shit my pants. I don't know. We'll see.

Regardless, there is some other large to semi-large news looming that I am super stoked about. Things.

6 comments:

Darby said...

Island People looks interesting. I wishlisted it. i finished Lim's Fog and Car. That is a doozy. That is something I may read again.

matthew savoca said...

on no i would be so sad if lamination colony ended, i would lose all hope and stop writing forever, i might even kill myself

BLAKE BUTLER said...

darby, yes to both. i want to reread fog and car as well.

matthew you sly fuck

Molly Gaudry said...

The end of Lamination Colony? Oh dear. Well, here's to bigger and better, Blake.

M.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

hi molly. i don't think its the end. just different. ideas forming, we'll see.

Matt DeBenedictis said...

Lamination Colony is my wubbie. It keeps me warm at night and keeps the monsters as a respectable distance of 43 yards.