Alex Kudera's Blog, page 60

disappeared

 America is better at ignoring its poets.

New Poets

"Tracey held the apple aloft. 'We know that it’s the nature of all objects to fall through space. I understand that. I accept it. But one day, in this universe of endless universes, I believe there’s going to be something that doesn’t fall. That doesn’t have to fall. I have to believe that.' She gripped her prop by its stem, and we all looked on, soundlessly, breathlessly, as she let it go. We half expected, half desired, half required with half the fibers in our bodies that the apple would float there once she released it. We watched like children, we idiots. It fell to the floor with a soft crunch as its flesh compacted under the force of its plummet."

~~ from "New Poets" by Michael Deagler

Serotonin

Philly's own S er otonin  is open for submissions and receptive to donations as well. Find the tip jar at the bottom of their page.

Walker and Burgin

 Jerry Jeff Walker and Richard Burgin are no longer with us. Rest in peace.

The Man Without Talent

"We are, in other words, enamored with The Man Without Talent as one of the premier examples of the "I-novel" (shishosetsu) in comics form, referring to a genre of putatively autobiographical fiction, popular in Japan since the early twentieth century, that typically dwells on the writer/protagonist's struggles with poverty and artistic creation and their less-than-admirable interactions with the opposite sex."

~~ from "Where is Yoshiharu Tsuge" by Ryan Holmberg, 

       an essay included in the English translation of 

       Yoshiharu Tsuge's The Man Without Talent

The Partisan Crowd

Poet Ben Mazer posted a curious sales item in his Delmore Schwartz social-media group. It's a complete run of The Partisan Review from December 1937 to December 1959, and many of the issues are in excellent condition. "The Partisan crowd" also received good mention in Joseph Epstein's recent essay in Commentary Magazine about his early days among the New York Intellectuals when, as a subscriber, he'd avidly read Commentary, The Partisan Review, and Encounter.

indiebound

Auggie's Revenge is currently available at a strong discount as a new trade paperback from you-know-who, and both Auggie's Revenge and the Classroom Edition of Fight for Your Long Day remain available wherever books are sold by independent bookstores.

a flying trapeze

 We're taking a short break, but we'll be back soon. 

a commodity in little supply these days

"I don’t want to overstate this point. These novels [of William Gaddis] demand more effort on the reader’s part than the average page-turner. Above all, they demand attention—a commodity in little supply these days. I read them both for the first time twenty years ago, in college, when I had all day to read long novels, and I have counted them among my favorites ever since. But I returned to them for this essay with some trepidation. I was in quarantine, working remotely with a newborn and a three-year-old at home. If I stopped reading mid-paragraph because a notification popped up on my phone, I would find myself lost and have to start the paragraph or the entire page over. But this problem was easily solved: I set my phone aside. I had hardly noticed how conditioned I’d become to give at best half of myself to whatever I was reading. There was something exciting about returning to books that asked something of me. And they rewarded my investment copiously. I count my second time through these novels—like my first—among the great literary experiences of my life."

~~ from "Because God Did Not Relax: The Difficult Pleasures of William Gaddis" 

      by Christopher Beha

      Harper's Magazine, November 2020

Gaddis and Cravan

Profiles of William Gaddis, in Harper's Magazine, and Arthur Cravan, in The Paris Review, caught my eye this week.