Category
Books
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Books
Lulu Redux
Following an earlier post about self-publishing, I’d now like to direct your attention to the news that John Edgar Wideman* has opted to release his next book, a collection titled Briefs, via Lulu. Consider me curious as to how it works out. I’m inherently skeptical of retail exclusives, and Lulu is — as far as [...]
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Books
Justin Taylor Post No.3
Not long ago, I waxed ecstatic on the subject of Justin Taylor. In that spirit, I’d like to draw your attention to two more interviews with that selfsame author: Edward Champion’s, as the 323rd installment of the Bat Segundo Show, and Justin Taylor’s, for the cultural site Jewcy.
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Books
Justin Taylor and “The End of History”
Last week, I reviewed Justin Taylor’s Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever for Vol. 1:
Halfway through “Estrellas y Rascacielos,” the third story in Justin Taylor’s collection Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever, there’s an exchange of dialogue that’s at once unexpected and critically important to what [...] -
Books
Self-Publishing: Two Takes
This week on The Rumpus featured a Steve Almond essay laying out his rationale for self-publishing two books that wouldn’t easily be categorized. Almond also discusses his practice of only selling them at readings, and the result of that:
[T]he weirdest part was that I sold out at every reading. I’d love to believe that [...] -
Books, Film
Literary Adaptations, Science Fiction Division
One: At io9, an interview with Joh Alan Simon, the writer/director of an upcoming adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth. (With a Robyn Hitchcock soundtrack, no less.)
Two: At Bleeding Cool, Adi Tantimedh discusses the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky’s work on science fiction. While I don’t agree with his take on the Soderbergh adaptation [...] -
Book Review, Books
Horses + Jello.
I reviewed Matthew Simmons’s A Jello Horse for Vol.1. Here’s a bit of it:
This mundane surrealism contrasts with a more vivid dreamlike imagery that arises throughout the novel in intervals, sometimes as a result of slumber, sometimes arising out of hallucinations. It serves as a bridge between the protagonist’s childhood and his restless twenties, and [...] -
Books, Music
In Which Anything is Done
Interesting piece from Warren Ellis on the process of creating his Do Anything columns, complete with sample scanned notebook page.
I’ve enjoyed these a lot — essentially, meditations on assorted facets of comics, music, art, and culture in general,with Jack Kirby as a starting point. This one is a particular favorite, and includes some best-music-of-2009 thoughts [...] -
Books
zine-o-matic
I may be somewhat unobjective about this (a piece of mine is mentioned in the piece I’m about to link), but this Jason Diamond essay on zines at the Rumpus is quite good.
I’m not sure if 2009’s quality crop of zines was a reaction to the sad state of print media, but it would hardly [...] -
Books
Fiction + Disorientation
Via Warren Ellis comes this link to Reza Negarestani’s Cyclonopedia, which looks to be a massively disorienting work of fiction:
At once a horror fiction, a work of speculative theology, an atlas of demonology, a political samizdat and a philosophic grimoire, Cyclonopedia is work of theory-fiction on the Middle East, where horror is [...] -
Books
In Which Fiction is Recommended
Highly recommended fiction: at Knee-Jerk, Amelia Gray’s excellent “Go For It and Raise Hell.”
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Books
“Lucinella” reviewed
Over at Vol.1, I have some thoughts on the recent Melville House reissue of Lore Segal’s novella Lucinella.
The novella’s initial realism quickly ebbs away, revealing a world in which gods and literary personages are interchangeable, panel discussions play out like avant-garde theater, and no less than three versions of the title character can be found [...] -
Books
2009 / Books
Some thoughts on books I liked that came out in 2009 can be found at Big Other and Vol.1.
Both of these end up being de facto “favorite novels of 2009″ lists as, The Adderall Diaries aside, I did not delve into the year’s nonfiction all that much. -
Books
Dzanc!
As a quick reminder: I’m taking part in Dzanc Books’ Write-A-Thon today.
My earlier post on the subject had some background on it and why I’m taking part. Other folks taking part include Steven Gillis, J.A. Tyler, and Jana Martin, among others.
I can also say that my story references the musician known as Solex, the city [...] -
Books, Film
In Which ‘Crazy Heart’ is Reviewed
I reviewed the film Crazy Heart for Flavorwire. My thoughts on it were somewhat mixed.
Writer-director Cooper — here adapting Thomas Cobb’s novel — introduces the less savory aspects of Blake’s life with a heavy hand. That includes early scenes in which Blake handles a bottle of his own urine and drunkenly fishes his sunglasses out [...] -
Books
On Bookstores
For the last few years, I’ve been out in the Northwest at least once a year. And while my fondness for Portland’s Powell’s is something of a given, I’m equally fond of Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Company, a store I first visited while on a trip to Seattle in mid-2004. Beyond simply falling for the [...]
the scowl
Tobias Carroll lives in Brooklyn, New York. He has covered music and books for a number of publications, and his fiction has appeared in THE2NDHAND, 3:AM, Word Riot, and as part of Featherproof Books' "Light Reading" series. He is presently working on multiple projects of varying lengths.
