Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 212
October 22, 2010
Paula Bomer. Babies. And Publisher's Weekly. Cool.
Quite cool we think to see TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Paula Bomer being interviewed in Publishers Weekly about her new collection Baby & Other Stories. We also think you will find it quite cool and so there you go. Enjoy.One of your character wonders if his wife has any "genuine feelings of the positive variety." Why are your characters so mean?
One woman I know—a wonderful mother of three kids—once said to me, "Every time I have another child, a part of me dies." I thought that was beautiful and honest. My characters can be horrible, but I try to show their humanity. I feel sympathy toward these characters. They're taking care of small children and not taking care of each other. This book is as much about marriage; I wanted to call it Bad Marriage. I took out a bunch of things. I wanted to make it tight... and relentless.
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October 21, 2010
Chasing the Runner's High. Quite geeked we are.
We are quite geeked to have connected with Ray Charbonneau author of the memoir Chasing the Runner's High which is now available in both a soft cover version yes, wait for it, and a pay-what-you-want e-version. Most sweetness, yes, yes, and after we read it, and it will be read, soon, we will report back, post-haste, for real, promise. [image error]
October 19, 2010
October 18, 2010
HTMLGIANT Lynda Barry Neck Goozle Daddy's and Hunter.
Quite happy we are to see the Lindsay Hunter interviewed by Blake Butler at the HTMLGIANT. You?BB: I find the voices that come out of you often really surprising, both as image and in the odd colloquial phrasings and manners of speaking. Is this entirely invention, or does it come out of a place you grew up or spent time, or a mash of both? Do you ever scare yourself?
LH: I think there is a more specific way to get at an image than to rely on something people are used to reading. Like "yellow sun." Or "crowded teeth." These phrases get the point across but they don't tell you anything unique about the brainspace the character inhabits, and they aren't accurate enough visually, they just aren't. Like right now I am having a hard time not rewriting those phrases to something like "pee dribble in a sky wedge" or "gums like a collection of driftwood," and even those phrases aren't enough, aren't it.
So I think the cadence in the language and the accent is maybe something that comes from a place I hold dear, but the phrasing is all invention, I feel confident in declaring that.
I've scared myself plenty, and I sometimes want to get up and walk it off, but if I stay and keep going, man that shit is good. That moment of surprise, if you can shock yourself like that, that's all the reason in the world to keep going.
October 17, 2010
Codex Quick Questions Kazam Kismet Absurdity Beards and Bosworth.
Codex and Boworth unite. Feel the love.
After The Cats Razzed The Chickens I expected more absurd. Or was that notion absurd? I like the part where David pops his eye out.--Or did you purposefully play down the absurd?
Absurd comes and goes. It has a mind of it's own, at least in my mind. And your notion isn't absurd. But there's a good amount of absurd in Grease Stains, no? Did I play down the absurdity? Was Razzed really more absurd than Grease? Hm. To be totally honest, Josh, and I hope I don't sound like a turd saying this, Grease Stains pretty much wrote itself. I was just the tool. I am a ginormous tool. I really got out of my own way on this one. Words flew out of my hands and they stayed where they landed. Is there absurdness? Absurdity? Is it played down? It's there, doing its thing in its own way. In the end, I suppose the words and the absurdness, played down or otherwise, were simply trying to get as close to the characters as they could. Because it's all about them. And their sometimes absurdness and the absurdity around them. Absurd.
October 16, 2010
Sophomoric Philosophy. Victor David Giron. Curbside Splendor. Coming soon.
An excerpt from Sophomoric Philosophy | Part 1 from Garett Holden on Vimeo.
October 15, 2010
This Book Will Change Your Life - Lambs of Men by Charles Dodd White.
Travel. Read. Rinse. Repeat. This week we were road. And this week we read Lambs of Men by Charles Dodd White, which presents us with the story of a soldier returning home from World War I to his birthplace in the Appalachians. It is a tale of murder and even love, that is rich in mood and setting, and yet as finely as all this is told, it is much more than this as well, for what White is really trying to explore, is storytelling in all its forms, the endless clash of fathers and sons, legacies and pain, how we are haunted by violence, and whether we can make peace with any of this. Ultimately it is a story about how we cope, with pain, our own limitations, mistakes and regrets and the memories we can never quite shake regardless of our efforts to run from them, shut them out or drink them away.
October 14, 2010
The Gift. In Minimal Books. In Polish. And freaking cool.
It is freaking coolness. Piotr Siwecki and his crew at MinimalBooks have translated our story The Gift into Polish and it is now available starting on page sixty of the October issue of MinimalBooks along with work by longtime friends and TBWCYL, Inc. favorites Corey Mesler and Peter Schwartz among others. We couldn't be more appreciative or floored by this and we most definitely hope you will take a look. If you interested in reading the story in English as well, it can be found in our collection Repetition Patterns or in its most original form in the most excellent THE2NDHAND. Big thanks to MinimalBooks and drinks on us for sure, somewhere, some time, soon, yes, maybe, wonderful.
October 13, 2010
Happy Birthday.
"The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it... try to fake three laughs in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha - they'll take you away, man. You can't." Lenny Bruce
October 12, 2010
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live and full of trapeze artists, books and a lot of Corrigall. Or something like that.
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live and full of trapeze artists and books. Or something like that. We have a new story The Circus and The Library by Melodie Corrigall, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and stump speech prose love from Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy this edition and we appreciate all shout-outs and links. Finally, please note, we are hoping more of you will submit comix, and music, and combinations there of. And most finally, and to quote E.T., "be good."
