I just wrote an extremely long post about a post on another litblog. But it’s lost. Just as well. It was the kind of arrogant fury I’m trying to steer away from these days.
I’ll only say this: If you’re spending a good chunk of your time waiting for some journalist to call you up, you probably shouldn’t be blogging. Because that’s not what blogs are about. It’s certainly not what the top-caliber litblogs are about. Deep down, all of us care very much about literature. And I would venture that it’s the honesty of those convictions that gets people reading.
So knock off the pity parties. You haven’t been snubbed. There are no gates to crash. Just keep thinking and keep posting. And remember that you have the advantage of being outside the box, outside the mainstream. So what are you going to do with the Porsche now that I’ve given you the keys?
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious.
Ed,
Perhaps it is arrogant of me to think you might be talking about my post from earlier today, but if you are it was meant with heavy sarcasm. I don’t really care if I am not interviewed, etc. I don’t have the expertise or the dedication or the humor to pursue fame through a lit blog and that is not why I created one.
I do on occasion find it funny that the blogs referenced in these pieces are almost always the same, but I recognize lazy journalism when I see it.
Some times the irony/sarcasm/emotion doesn’t come through in plain text. Glad to see you back by the way.
There is —at the very least—something odd about the self-referential reporting about which newspaper dinosaurs are mentioning which web logs.
So, yeah, I’m wid u,
Well, okay, but it’s you’re loss: at my pity party, we’re serving Bartleby & James wine coolers and Smirnoff Ice.
No Stoli, Beck? No dry martinis? If you’re going to throw a pity party, get a real bar! The party guests are all playing “Leggo my ego” and have self-esteem issues to be assuaged!
So I guess you’ll be offended when I show up with a sixer of Zima?
Ed, do you have cats? That’s how I lose all the nearly completed posts I lose: when they decide to take the shortest path from one windowsill to the next across my keyboard.