Jackie Wang letters a letter about EVO REV

Jackie Wang is nothing short of impressive. Her essays are sophisticated and sharp. And now, she's started an epistolary review series, and she's chosen my humble EVOLUTIONARY REVOLUTION as the inaugural book! Check it out here at Bomblog.

frustration

After spending many ridiculous hours working on a grant application, it turns out the internal deadline may have passed without anyone in the department knowing. I can only hope this is a joke.

I'm reading articles and articles for class.

I'm reading books and books in an attempt to catch up.

I'm not reading enough.

I'm not reading enough fiction. I miss reading fiction.

I have a stack of review books on my shelf. They are exciting books. I wish I had the time to read them.

For many months now, I've abandoned this blog, using my "blog time" for HTML Giant, but I will start blogging here again now. Hello, Lily's Pad. I've missed you.

the book that launched a thousand... somethings...

Please come help me blast off THE EVOLUTIONARY REVOLUTION:

Les Figues postcards have arrived

Evolutionary Revolution postcard:

The New Poetics by Mathew Timmons + Evolutionary Revoltion

Postcard for THE EVOLUTIONARY REVOLUTION

Tell me this isn't gorgeous:

Bookslut Review

Jacquelyn Davis over at Bookslut gives The Evolutionary Revolution a gracious and generous review. I even get compared to Jay-Z!?

One of the world's greatest bookstores

needs YOUR help. It's under threat. Please read and help. I wrote about it on HTML Giant.

Bloomsday

He took a reel of dental floss from with waistcoat pocket and, breaking off a piece, twanged it smartly between two and two of his resonant unwashed teeth.

Thank you, Mr Joyce.

Everyday Genius: Be the peeper you always wanted to be

This week, like right now, at Everyday Genius, Matt Bell will be writing, LIVE. He's got a paragraph now, by Tuesday, he'll have a story, hopefully. Tuesday night, Michael Kimball will guest edit/write. Wednesday from 1-2, I'll be joining in. Thursday, anyone can play, and Friday, Matt fixes it up all pretty. Brilliant!

Special offer

AWP-goers: If you stop by the Les Figues table & take YOUR picture with my new book & send it to me, I'll mail you something special off my bookshelf. It'll be something very special indeed. So do it! (Small print: Offer good for first five photographs.)

Buffalo

I'm reading in Buffalo tomorrow night. Come. Laugh. Whatever, you know?
Info

Western Mass

If you're near or around western Massachusetts, I'll be reading at UMass Amherst (info here) this Thursday, Jan. 28, at 8pm with the very cool Jedidiah Berry.

an update

i'm blogging over at html giant now. you can read my interview with the kickass, smart, charming, and talented jeremy davies.

i've moved to canada.

i'll probably start blogging again here some time soon. maybe. we'll see.

happy new decade, everyone. a new decade. wow.

a (fake) holiday

happy hannuhak day, blake. may it be filled with hiding joy.

Upcoming events & news

I'll be reading at Tasha Matsumoto's place on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 4pm. This is a reading/going away party. All are welcome! She lives at: 330 W. Colfax, Apt. 113. Tasha throws a mean party. You should be there. Also, I like reading.

I'll be reading in New York on Dec. 2 with Uwem Akpan (recent Oprah pick) & Juan Felipe Herrera for the PEN celebration, titled "Crossing Over." The reading will be followed by a panel discussion with Norton editor Brendan Curry & NBCC President Jane Ciabattari. This is happening at Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe, 126 Crosby St., at 7pm. I'm certainly the least known writer of the group so come show me some love, peoples!

In other news, I'm an Editor now over at Tarpaulin Sky. I love them.

In other news, my collection UNFINISHED has been picked up. I love you, Debra Di Blasi.

wittgenstein, emoticons, & the death of email

yesterday, i was schooled by austin choi-fitzpatrick. apparently, email is dead. email is "so 2006." according to choi-fitzpatrick (wtf? i'm citing him like he's the fucking scholar he is), email had it's heyday from 1996-2006. now, email is a dead form. for him, email is only his inbox: subject headings, nothing more. for him, it's all about facebook, text messaging, etc. we, as humans, reduced to 140 characters or less as our mode of communication.

this morning, i read wittgenstein's notes & lectures on aesthetics, psychology, & religion. wittgenstein argues that language is not universal; however, physical reactions are. he talks, at length, about the inadequacy of words such as "beautiful" or "lovely," that "beautiful" comes to represent not what is beautiful but an interjection. he argues,

would it matter if instead of saying 'this is lovely,' i just said, 'ah!' & smiled, or just rubbed my stomach? as far as these primitive languages go, problems about what these words are about, what their real subject is, don't come up at all.

whereas i get wittgenstein's point--words like beautiful or lovely are at times empty, they come to mean much less than what we mean them to mean--i don't think we could simply substitute a grunt or a physical action. and i agree that words like "beautiful" never conjure up the same thing to any two people, that does not make the word itself--or words in general--obsolete. after all, facial expressions, gestures, etc. can be just as misleading, if not more so, than words.

but this got me thinking about what austin had to say (see here how i've switched to calling him austin): what if we play wittgenstein out to his logical extreme? in this increasingly technologically fragmenting world, what if rather than communicate via facebook or text or even email, we just used emoticons, as our way of expressing emotion & feeling? rather than say, "i had a shitty day," i could just put up a some frazzle faced grumpy tired face? here's the thing, as austin pointed out, we can't just have our 10-20 emoticons. we need combinatory abilities. then, we'll create a new language, one with more capacity for miscommunication & confusion.

one of my colleagues, a philosopher, asked me, as i was thinking out loud about this earlier this morning, what does this reduction of experience into 140 characters do? i had my standard answer, nothing sophisticated or new: well, obviously, it breaks down communication, such that we're nothing but quippy cleverness that generates as many "responses" as possible. real life people, we're bound to disappoint, but on facebook, we're clever.

this is particularly pertinent to these blogs popping up everywhere. i'm a fan of html giant, but what's there is a lot of self-referential cleverness. is big other any different? is my blog any different? no! but you get a bunch of writers in a room together without booze, and what happens? i remember walking around awp, a freaked out zombie, unable to talk to people. i remember walking around &now, eyes racing from person to person, hiding & wanting to be seen. i'd like to blame technology for that, but it turns out i've just got social anxiety. but the thing is that everyone today has social anxiety, and that's something for reals we can pin on technology. are you cooler than your facebook persona? that's the real question.

and as for email, i love email. i have long email exchanges with many friends. it's my preferred mode of communication. i mean, i'd love to sit & talk to most of these people, but email gives me time to think over things, ruminate, delete, cut & paste, etc etc etc. that, & i don't actually have to leave my house.

Big Other

I've been blogging over at Big Other. Check it out, and thanks, John, for inviting me.

post-&NOW

I'll have a full write-up on my experiences at &NOW, but I'm happy to say that I've survived it without too much scarring.

It was great to see old friends--HTML Giant folks (Blake, Ryan, etc.), FC2 folk (Lance, Andi, Steve, Debra, etc.), Chiasmus people (Trevor, Shane, Kate Z.), Les Figues people (Vanessa & Teresa), Starcherone people (Ted, etc.) & old old friends (Bee & Michael Stewart!)--and meet new, by which I mean once virtual & now real, friends--Josh, Matt Bell, Matt Kirkpatrick, James Yeh, John Madera, JA Tyler, etc.

I didn't sleep or eat nearly enough but I made it! Onward!

BBC Vietnam write-up

Here's something Hai Le wrote about me & Changing for the BBC Vietnam. If you read Vietnamese, it's quite nice!
BBC Vietnam

&NOW

&now &now &now