May 29, 2024
Survival Technologies opens May 30th!!!
Survival Technologies
At Festival TransAmériques.
More information here: https://fta.ca/en/event/survival-technologies/
Produced by PME-ART
Creator, Director, Sound Design, Performer: Elena Stoodley
Co-Ideator: Kamissa Ma Koïta
Visual Design: Kamissa Ma Koïta, Elena Stoodley, Bay Dam, Vladimir Cara
Set and Lighting Design: Paul Chambers
Assistant Set and Lights: Jordana Natale
Interactive Art Design: Bay Dam
Performer, Cultural Consultant: Jean Durandisse
Performer, Dance Consultant and Costume Designer: Michèle Jean-Jacques
Performer and Dance Consultant: Sophia Gaspard
Percussionist and Cultural Consultant: Karl-Henry Brézault
Artistic Consultants: Dana Michel + Karla Étienne
Artistic Facilitator, Dramaturgy Assistant: Jacob Wren
Artistic Contribution: Sonia Hughes
Producer: Sylvie Lachance
Technical Director: Vladimir Cara
Assistant Stage Manager: Nicoleta Stoodley
Production Manager: Becks Lefranc
Co-produced by Festival TransAmériques + Forum Freies Theater (Düsseldorf) + Festspillene i Nord-Norge (Harstad)
Developed with the support of National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund (Ottawa)
Presented in association with Agora de la danse + Tangente
Premiered at Festival TransAmériques, on May 30, 2024
Read a review here: https://ruinaacesa.com.br/survival-technologies/
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May 22, 2024
From 2015: My Apologies
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I wrote this in 2015:
"Guilt is conservative. We are all implicated in more ways than we will ever know but shouldn’t feel guilty. We should be angry, must become open to an anger that experiences possibilities everywhere, that opens towards genuinely other ways of seeing our predicament and where it might first or most crack."
From this novel I started but couldn't finish: My Apologies
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I wrote this in 2015:
"Guilt is conservative. We are all implicated in more ways than we will ever know but shouldn’t feel guilty. We should be angry, must become open to an anger that experiences possibilities everywhere, that opens towards genuinely other ways of seeing our predicament and where it might first or most crack."
From this novel I started but couldn't finish: My Apologies
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May 10, 2024
Lilly Dancyger Quote
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"I always tell my writing students not to try to wrap things up in a neat little bow when they’re actually complicated and unresolved. That the lack of closure can be a better ending than manufactured closure that’s not genuine. The parts of the story that don’t seem to fit together can often be where the real story is. I encourage them to look for those spots of friction and write into the complexity. That’s where the good stuff is."
- Lilly Dancyger
From this interview: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/finding-the-story-a-conversation-with-lilly-dancyger/
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"I always tell my writing students not to try to wrap things up in a neat little bow when they’re actually complicated and unresolved. That the lack of closure can be a better ending than manufactured closure that’s not genuine. The parts of the story that don’t seem to fit together can often be where the real story is. I encourage them to look for those spots of friction and write into the complexity. That’s where the good stuff is."
- Lilly Dancyger
From this interview: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/finding-the-story-a-conversation-with-lilly-dancyger/
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May 7, 2024
protest music
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The fact that it's Macklemore who's bringing the protest music wasn't on my bingo card: HIND’S HALL.
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The fact that it's Macklemore who's bringing the protest music wasn't on my bingo card: HIND’S HALL.
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April 26, 2024
Riches et pauvres and La joie criminelle des pirates published by Le Quartanier
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Very excited that Riches et pauvres and La joie criminelle des pirates have been translated into French and published by Le Quartanier:
https://lequartanier.com/auteur/95-jacob-wren
The original English versions of these books are Rich and Poor and If our wealth is criminal then let’s live with the criminal joy of pirates.
A review in Le Devoir: https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/813123/critique-fiction-riches-pauvres-petite-entreprise
And a review in La Presse: https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/litterature/2024-06-01/lutte-epistolaire.php
Thank you to the translator Christophe Bernard and to everyone else at Le Quartanier.
Very excited that Riches et pauvres and La joie criminelle des pirates have been translated into French and published by Le Quartanier:
https://lequartanier.com/auteur/95-jacob-wren
The original English versions of these books are Rich and Poor and If our wealth is criminal then let’s live with the criminal joy of pirates.
A review in Le Devoir: https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/813123/critique-fiction-riches-pauvres-petite-entreprise
And a review in La Presse: https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/litterature/2024-06-01/lutte-epistolaire.php
Thank you to the translator Christophe Bernard and to everyone else at Le Quartanier.
April 24, 2024
many false starts
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Between writing novels, I attempt to start writing new novels, many false starts. Why does one of the starts eventually take while the others don't? Not a reason but a feeling. Mostly a feeling that I don't know where it's going but I want to find out.
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Between writing novels, I attempt to start writing new novels, many false starts. Why does one of the starts eventually take while the others don't? Not a reason but a feeling. Mostly a feeling that I don't know where it's going but I want to find out.
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April 16, 2024
Miguel Gutierrez Quote
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“Living longer means you witness the daily onslaught of stupid and mean that passes for reality.
Living longer means you witness the toggle between progression and backlash, over and over like a tennis game from hell.
Living longer means you meet young people who are better or worse versions of who you once were.
Living longer means you draw the logic of your perspective into a latticework of meaning that purportedly helps you see patterns, something you might call “maturity.” But more often than not it feels like you’re just decorating a cage of your own design, rendering yourself unsupple and resistant to change.
Living longer means coming to terms with whether or not this is true, every day.”
- Miguel Gutierrez, Aging Awfully
,
“Living longer means you witness the daily onslaught of stupid and mean that passes for reality.
Living longer means you witness the toggle between progression and backlash, over and over like a tennis game from hell.
Living longer means you meet young people who are better or worse versions of who you once were.
Living longer means you draw the logic of your perspective into a latticework of meaning that purportedly helps you see patterns, something you might call “maturity.” But more often than not it feels like you’re just decorating a cage of your own design, rendering yourself unsupple and resistant to change.
Living longer means coming to terms with whether or not this is true, every day.”
- Miguel Gutierrez, Aging Awfully
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April 4, 2024
Two Robert Wyatt Quotes
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Ryan Dombal: “…your career is a good example of how being an underdog isn’t necessarily something to overcome.”
Robert Wyatt: “Well, that’s about the nicest thing anybody’s said to me in years. I hope that’s the truth. It’s not even a moral question. It’s a question of pride. You have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror, and I don’t know how some people do that. God knows I’ve been so wicked and selfish in the past, but nevertheless, I do really think the things I think and support the people I support. I would encourage people to realize that you don’t have to panic if you’re not part of a mainstream or if you find yourself outside the flow. If it doesn’t suit you, don’t go along with it. Just sit it out and get your stuff done. Don’t just sit moaning or getting drunk—I spent some years doing that. But if you can just come up with something of your own, however minor it is, that’s going to be easier to live with when you’re at the end of your life.”
From this piece: https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/9544-robert-wyatt/
*
“I kind of had nervous breakdown in ‘95. I felt burnt out before my time and just collapsed. I just didn’t want to be me anymore. I was tired of it, though not suicidal. A lot of the stuff we’re talking about is me attempting to find an identity outside of the given one, whether it’s listening to Spanish music or Russian communist music or black music. They’re all ways of getting out of the prison of self, really. But at that point, I couldn’t get out. I just felt trapped. Maybe that was a decade-late delay about the accident – at last, the difficulty I was in kicked in. Alfie and I spent most of our time in a sort of fancy wooden cabin on the coast at this point, half an hour away from where we lived in Lincolnshire, and there was no electricity. We didn’t even have records. We listened to stories you could get on cassette.
I got some treatment. I actually went to the doctor and went to anxiety management classes. Alfie said, “I can’t handle this at all,” because I’d gone mad. She’d dealt with everything up to that point, but not that. I came out of that and started working on a record, which became Shleep, and that’s really what took me out of it.
I’d been making records on my own, and somebody said, “Why don’t you get some other people in? You don’t have to marry them. They can just spend a couple of days at your house and do a song with you.” And I thought, "Why not?" From that point on, my records got more crowded. [laughs] It’s helped me. I made two or three records totally solo, and I was going mad in this musical isolation. I just felt so cut off from the world.”
– Robert Wyatt
From this piece: https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/8776-robert-wyatt/
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Ryan Dombal: “…your career is a good example of how being an underdog isn’t necessarily something to overcome.”
Robert Wyatt: “Well, that’s about the nicest thing anybody’s said to me in years. I hope that’s the truth. It’s not even a moral question. It’s a question of pride. You have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror, and I don’t know how some people do that. God knows I’ve been so wicked and selfish in the past, but nevertheless, I do really think the things I think and support the people I support. I would encourage people to realize that you don’t have to panic if you’re not part of a mainstream or if you find yourself outside the flow. If it doesn’t suit you, don’t go along with it. Just sit it out and get your stuff done. Don’t just sit moaning or getting drunk—I spent some years doing that. But if you can just come up with something of your own, however minor it is, that’s going to be easier to live with when you’re at the end of your life.”
From this piece: https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/9544-robert-wyatt/
*
“I kind of had nervous breakdown in ‘95. I felt burnt out before my time and just collapsed. I just didn’t want to be me anymore. I was tired of it, though not suicidal. A lot of the stuff we’re talking about is me attempting to find an identity outside of the given one, whether it’s listening to Spanish music or Russian communist music or black music. They’re all ways of getting out of the prison of self, really. But at that point, I couldn’t get out. I just felt trapped. Maybe that was a decade-late delay about the accident – at last, the difficulty I was in kicked in. Alfie and I spent most of our time in a sort of fancy wooden cabin on the coast at this point, half an hour away from where we lived in Lincolnshire, and there was no electricity. We didn’t even have records. We listened to stories you could get on cassette.
I got some treatment. I actually went to the doctor and went to anxiety management classes. Alfie said, “I can’t handle this at all,” because I’d gone mad. She’d dealt with everything up to that point, but not that. I came out of that and started working on a record, which became Shleep, and that’s really what took me out of it.
I’d been making records on my own, and somebody said, “Why don’t you get some other people in? You don’t have to marry them. They can just spend a couple of days at your house and do a song with you.” And I thought, "Why not?" From that point on, my records got more crowded. [laughs] It’s helped me. I made two or three records totally solo, and I was going mad in this musical isolation. I just felt so cut off from the world.”
– Robert Wyatt
From this piece: https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/8776-robert-wyatt/
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April 3, 2024
L’idealismo infranto di Jacob Wren di Manuela Pacella
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Thank you to Manuela Pacella for an in depth and charming account of my work, first published in the Italian version of Flash Art, and now part of the book Tell me stories!
Here is their summary, in Italian, of Polyamorous Love Song:
Il cinema e il film sono molto presenti in questo libro. Un personaggio chiave è Filmmaker A. Nel 2002 viene invitata al New York Film Festival, la stessa edizione alla quale Abbas Kiarostami non poté prendere parte perché gli fu negato di entrare negli Stati Uniti. Questo evento la sconvolge e si ritrova a vagare per le strade della città ragionando su come poter realizzare film più veri e riflettendo su Close-Up (1990) di Kiarostami. Ha un’idea che diviene esplosiva e la rende famosa, creando seguaci in tutto il mondo: non si girano più i film; si fa in modo che la propria stessa vita diventi una sceneggiatura e, semplicemente, si agisce, riprendendo la vita ma senza il filtro della telecamera. Ad estrema applicazione del mentore Filmmaker A c’è un gruppo, The Centre for Productive Compromise, che di base usa il sesso libero come sceneggiatura. Per evitare estreme scene di gelosia si sono inventati una droga, insieme a quella che ha il potere di far ricordare i numeri di telefono ma, come effetto collaterale, anche quello delle persone con le quali si sta avendo un rapporto sessuale. C’è anche il Mascot Front, un gruppo di attivisti politici estremi che indossano pelose maschere da mascotte e c’è un artista visivo che un giorno le vede dalla sua finestra correre, armate, inseguite da uomini in divisa: prima un orso, poi un coniglio, poi un cono gelato, una tartaruga e un canguro. Durante questa visione surreale un colpo di pistola lo ferisce per sbaglio. Da quel momento diventa un’ossessione e ovviamente vuole farci un’opera d’arte ma finisce rapito dalle mascotte e da queste legato a un termosifone in una loro sede. Poi c’è l’amico dell’artista, l’artista vero, con molto potenziale che se ne esce con frasi illuminanti tipo: “Tu, i tuoi amici, l’intera cultura mondiale degli artisti e dei bohémien, è come se aveste una strana sorta di malattia. Tutto ciò che volete è che la gente vi guardi, che guardi ciò che fate e pensi che siete speciali e talentuosi. Lo desiderate così tanto da pensare che ci sia qualcosa di sbagliato in quelli di noi che non lo fanno (…) Credimi, non ho bisogno di lettere di ammiratori che mi dicano che i miei pensieri hanno valore. Sono sicuro di me… La mia vita ha il suo percorso… I miei pensieri sono la giusta e unica ricompensa” 14. Ma poi si e ci tradisce: diventa scrittore. E la sua compagna anche è scrittrice e sta scrivendo A Dream for the Future and a Dream for Now, titolo che si scopre poi essere lo stesso di altri libri scritti da diversi autori. Ma mentre quest’ultimi sembrano avere a che fare con un nuovo tipo di religione politica, il principale riguarda una società segreta scomparsa subito dopo la Grande Guerra e riapparsa nei tardi anni Quaranta a New York (ho un flash con Che la festa cominci di Gabriele Ammaniti del 2009). Lo scopo è di organizzare orge a larga scala per assassinare imprenditori e politici di Destra attraverso un’infezione virale a trasmissione sessuale che non infetta, invece, tutti gli altri. Nel capitolo apparentemente meno confuso di tutto il libro, Wren nei panni di Wren si sta facendo tagliare i capelli da un barbiere a Berlino e si immagina un altro barbiere, emigrato a causa delle leggi razziali dalla Germania a New York… Beh, è lui l’inventore del virus, come credo l’inventore della nuova religione politica. STOP. Lo so, è tanto. Ma aggiungo che tutto quello che ho scritto non è affatto in una sequenza che rispetta quella del testo di Wren nel quale, poi, ci sono talmente tanti io narranti da far venire il mal di testa.
Ma è onestamente un capolavoro e la cosa incredibile è che nasce dalla mente e dalle mani di un autore che si autodefinisce cinico ma, in fondo, non è il cinismo “sempre e solo una sorta di idealismo infranto?”15. Appunto, Wren. Non bisogna combattere contro i mulini a vento ma semplicemente, quotidianamente, desiderare qualcosa di diverso. Il desiderio. “Ma non il desiderio che è solo l’altra faccia dell’insicurezza: il desiderio come disperazione. Un vero desiderio, il desiderio di vivere e di essere vivi, di trovare un valore o un significato o una convinzione che possa riempire in modo convincente e dare un senso al nostro breve tempo su questo pianeta dimenticato da Dio”
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Thank you to Manuela Pacella for an in depth and charming account of my work, first published in the Italian version of Flash Art, and now part of the book Tell me stories!
Here is their summary, in Italian, of Polyamorous Love Song:
Il cinema e il film sono molto presenti in questo libro. Un personaggio chiave è Filmmaker A. Nel 2002 viene invitata al New York Film Festival, la stessa edizione alla quale Abbas Kiarostami non poté prendere parte perché gli fu negato di entrare negli Stati Uniti. Questo evento la sconvolge e si ritrova a vagare per le strade della città ragionando su come poter realizzare film più veri e riflettendo su Close-Up (1990) di Kiarostami. Ha un’idea che diviene esplosiva e la rende famosa, creando seguaci in tutto il mondo: non si girano più i film; si fa in modo che la propria stessa vita diventi una sceneggiatura e, semplicemente, si agisce, riprendendo la vita ma senza il filtro della telecamera. Ad estrema applicazione del mentore Filmmaker A c’è un gruppo, The Centre for Productive Compromise, che di base usa il sesso libero come sceneggiatura. Per evitare estreme scene di gelosia si sono inventati una droga, insieme a quella che ha il potere di far ricordare i numeri di telefono ma, come effetto collaterale, anche quello delle persone con le quali si sta avendo un rapporto sessuale. C’è anche il Mascot Front, un gruppo di attivisti politici estremi che indossano pelose maschere da mascotte e c’è un artista visivo che un giorno le vede dalla sua finestra correre, armate, inseguite da uomini in divisa: prima un orso, poi un coniglio, poi un cono gelato, una tartaruga e un canguro. Durante questa visione surreale un colpo di pistola lo ferisce per sbaglio. Da quel momento diventa un’ossessione e ovviamente vuole farci un’opera d’arte ma finisce rapito dalle mascotte e da queste legato a un termosifone in una loro sede. Poi c’è l’amico dell’artista, l’artista vero, con molto potenziale che se ne esce con frasi illuminanti tipo: “Tu, i tuoi amici, l’intera cultura mondiale degli artisti e dei bohémien, è come se aveste una strana sorta di malattia. Tutto ciò che volete è che la gente vi guardi, che guardi ciò che fate e pensi che siete speciali e talentuosi. Lo desiderate così tanto da pensare che ci sia qualcosa di sbagliato in quelli di noi che non lo fanno (…) Credimi, non ho bisogno di lettere di ammiratori che mi dicano che i miei pensieri hanno valore. Sono sicuro di me… La mia vita ha il suo percorso… I miei pensieri sono la giusta e unica ricompensa” 14. Ma poi si e ci tradisce: diventa scrittore. E la sua compagna anche è scrittrice e sta scrivendo A Dream for the Future and a Dream for Now, titolo che si scopre poi essere lo stesso di altri libri scritti da diversi autori. Ma mentre quest’ultimi sembrano avere a che fare con un nuovo tipo di religione politica, il principale riguarda una società segreta scomparsa subito dopo la Grande Guerra e riapparsa nei tardi anni Quaranta a New York (ho un flash con Che la festa cominci di Gabriele Ammaniti del 2009). Lo scopo è di organizzare orge a larga scala per assassinare imprenditori e politici di Destra attraverso un’infezione virale a trasmissione sessuale che non infetta, invece, tutti gli altri. Nel capitolo apparentemente meno confuso di tutto il libro, Wren nei panni di Wren si sta facendo tagliare i capelli da un barbiere a Berlino e si immagina un altro barbiere, emigrato a causa delle leggi razziali dalla Germania a New York… Beh, è lui l’inventore del virus, come credo l’inventore della nuova religione politica. STOP. Lo so, è tanto. Ma aggiungo che tutto quello che ho scritto non è affatto in una sequenza che rispetta quella del testo di Wren nel quale, poi, ci sono talmente tanti io narranti da far venire il mal di testa.
Ma è onestamente un capolavoro e la cosa incredibile è che nasce dalla mente e dalle mani di un autore che si autodefinisce cinico ma, in fondo, non è il cinismo “sempre e solo una sorta di idealismo infranto?”15. Appunto, Wren. Non bisogna combattere contro i mulini a vento ma semplicemente, quotidianamente, desiderare qualcosa di diverso. Il desiderio. “Ma non il desiderio che è solo l’altra faccia dell’insicurezza: il desiderio come disperazione. Un vero desiderio, il desiderio di vivere e di essere vivi, di trovare un valore o un significato o una convinzione che possa riempire in modo convincente e dare un senso al nostro breve tempo su questo pianeta dimenticato da Dio”
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March 15, 2024
Scrolling through Twitter...
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Scrolling through Twitter and I randomly see that claire rousay is reading my book:
https://twitter.com/clairerousay/status/1769129525349368109
http://bookthug.ca/shop/books/authenticy-is-a-feeling-my-life-in-pme-art-by-jacob-wren/
Scrolling through Twitter and I randomly see that claire rousay is reading my book:
https://twitter.com/clairerousay/status/1769129525349368109
http://bookthug.ca/shop/books/authenticy-is-a-feeling-my-life-in-pme-art-by-jacob-wren/
March 14, 2024
New Jacob Wren chapbook: From Desire Without Expectation
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From Desire Without Expectation
Jacob Wren
$5
"Writing comes easily to me, while I find most other things in life exceedingly difficult. This is often a problem with writers. The truth of what they write is deeply shaded by a writerly distance from life which is also often connected to various forms of loneliness. Writers are often not the best people when it comes to understanding either community or solidarity. Maybe I should only speak for myself. Certain kinds of religious conversions bring one directly into community with others who are similarly converted. As you might have already guessed, I lean rather heavily into not wanting to be part of any club that might have me as a member. Religion has always been one of the places people look to for community. As has often been noted, in our current world, community can be rather hard to come by and even harder to maintain. One of the many reasons religion hasn’t disappeared, as was not so long ago predicted, is it allows its adherents to mainline a sense of community. This is the reason I find easiest to understand."
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
as the twenty-fourth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
This is Jacob Wren’s second chapbook with above/ground press, following Tributes To The Subtlety Of Matter (1996).
To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com
https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2024/03/new-from-aboveground-press-press-from.html
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From Desire Without Expectation
Jacob Wren
$5
"Writing comes easily to me, while I find most other things in life exceedingly difficult. This is often a problem with writers. The truth of what they write is deeply shaded by a writerly distance from life which is also often connected to various forms of loneliness. Writers are often not the best people when it comes to understanding either community or solidarity. Maybe I should only speak for myself. Certain kinds of religious conversions bring one directly into community with others who are similarly converted. As you might have already guessed, I lean rather heavily into not wanting to be part of any club that might have me as a member. Religion has always been one of the places people look to for community. As has often been noted, in our current world, community can be rather hard to come by and even harder to maintain. One of the many reasons religion hasn’t disappeared, as was not so long ago predicted, is it allows its adherents to mainline a sense of community. This is the reason I find easiest to understand."
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
as the twenty-fourth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
This is Jacob Wren’s second chapbook with above/ground press, following Tributes To The Subtlety Of Matter (1996).
To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com
https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2024/03/new-from-aboveground-press-press-from.html
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February 26, 2024
Final Words
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“My name is Aaron Bushnell, I am an active duty member of the US airforce, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine!”
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“My name is Aaron Bushnell, I am an active duty member of the US airforce, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine!”
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February 21, 2024
Sometimes it seems to me that the process of rehearsal is simply a process of emotional armouring...
A quote from my book Authenticity is a Feeling: My Life in PME-ART. As posted by Lucy Bellwood on Tumblr:
https://lucybellwood.tumblr.com/post/728466340736827392
“Sometimes it seems to me that the process of rehearsal is simply a process of emotional armouring: we will make everything absolutely perfect so no one will ever see who or what we really are.”
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February 2, 2024
Ten years ago I thought this was never meant to happen....
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I've been thinking a lot about how Polyamorous Love Song came out ten years ago. How it was a moment that, in some ways, really changed my life. The first time it had occurred to me my books could have any sort of readership. I had always assumed I would be a writer without a readership. I had always been told my books were too experimental for very many people to ever read them. And here was one of my most experimental books, being read by far more people than had read anything I'd previously written. I partly assumed the success of Polyamorous Love Song had something to do with the last minute title change, that the title itself drew people to the book. But, much later, a friend said the quality she most liked about it was its “surrealist polyvocality,” and this quality was one of the main reasons for its success. (When I was young I think I wanted to be some sort of “cult writer.” But now that I am in fact some sort of cult writer, I have the strange feeling that people don't even really know what that is anymore.) Ten years is both a long time and not such a long time. Sometimes I have the feeling I will never write anything people like as much again. But, I suppose, every time one puts out a new book there's a chance something unexpected might, once again, occur.
You can read an excerpt here.
You can find out about the original title here.
Plus some reviews of Polyamorous Love Song:
Shannon Tien at Cult Mtl
Liz Worth at Quill and Quire
Jade Colbert at The Globe and Mail
Featured book in Maisonneuve
Lesley Trites for the Montreal Review of Books Blog
Letters we wrote to friends after reading Polyamorous Love Song
I've been thinking a lot about how Polyamorous Love Song came out ten years ago. How it was a moment that, in some ways, really changed my life. The first time it had occurred to me my books could have any sort of readership. I had always assumed I would be a writer without a readership. I had always been told my books were too experimental for very many people to ever read them. And here was one of my most experimental books, being read by far more people than had read anything I'd previously written. I partly assumed the success of Polyamorous Love Song had something to do with the last minute title change, that the title itself drew people to the book. But, much later, a friend said the quality she most liked about it was its “surrealist polyvocality,” and this quality was one of the main reasons for its success. (When I was young I think I wanted to be some sort of “cult writer.” But now that I am in fact some sort of cult writer, I have the strange feeling that people don't even really know what that is anymore.) Ten years is both a long time and not such a long time. Sometimes I have the feeling I will never write anything people like as much again. But, I suppose, every time one puts out a new book there's a chance something unexpected might, once again, occur.
You can read an excerpt here.
You can find out about the original title here.
Plus some reviews of Polyamorous Love Song:
Shannon Tien at Cult Mtl
Liz Worth at Quill and Quire
Jade Colbert at The Globe and Mail
Featured book in Maisonneuve
Lesley Trites for the Montreal Review of Books Blog
Letters we wrote to friends after reading Polyamorous Love Song
February 1, 2024
Percival Everett Quote
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“In my writing my instinct was to defy form, but I very much sought in defying it to affirm it, an irony that was difficult enough to articulate, much less defend.”
– Percival Everett, Erasure
*
[Fascinated by the idea that they’ve made an Oscar-nominated film from Percival Everett's Erasure. As is often (but not always) the case, the book is considerably better. But I was intrigued by just how Hollywood they managed to make it while at the same time maintaining something of its original essence. Between American Fiction and Poor Things, I find myself wondering if turning experimental novels into Hollywood films has become something of a momentary trend.]
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“In my writing my instinct was to defy form, but I very much sought in defying it to affirm it, an irony that was difficult enough to articulate, much less defend.”
– Percival Everett, Erasure
*
[Fascinated by the idea that they’ve made an Oscar-nominated film from Percival Everett's Erasure. As is often (but not always) the case, the book is considerably better. But I was intrigued by just how Hollywood they managed to make it while at the same time maintaining something of its original essence. Between American Fiction and Poor Things, I find myself wondering if turning experimental novels into Hollywood films has become something of a momentary trend.]
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January 9, 2024
The Air Contains Honey / with a reading by Assiyah Jamilla Touré
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The Air Contains Honey
With a reading by Assiyah Jamilla Touré
Fundraiser for Brique Par Brique
Co-presented by Arts in the Margins
La Sala Rossa
Wednesday January 31st, 2024
7:30pm doors / 8pm show
$16 + tax in advance / $20 at the door
NOTAFLOF
(The Air Contains Honey only performs once a year. Don't miss your chance!)
(The Air Contains Honey’s lineup is ever shifting. But on January 31st we believe it will be: Pietro Amato. Maude Arès, Patrick Conan, Michael Feuerstack, James Goddard, Thanya Iyer, Modibo Keita, Adam Kinner, Liam O’Neill, Lara Oundjian, Pompey, Stephen Quinlan, Rebecca Rehder, Catherine Fatima, Frédérique Roy, Mulu Tesfu & Jacob Wren.)
Advance tickets
Facebook Event
The Air Contains Honey Facebook Page
Poster by Maude Arès
.
The Air Contains Honey
With a reading by Assiyah Jamilla Touré
Fundraiser for Brique Par Brique
Co-presented by Arts in the Margins
La Sala Rossa
Wednesday January 31st, 2024
7:30pm doors / 8pm show
$16 + tax in advance / $20 at the door
NOTAFLOF
(The Air Contains Honey only performs once a year. Don't miss your chance!)
(The Air Contains Honey’s lineup is ever shifting. But on January 31st we believe it will be: Pietro Amato. Maude Arès, Patrick Conan, Michael Feuerstack, James Goddard, Thanya Iyer, Modibo Keita, Adam Kinner, Liam O’Neill, Lara Oundjian, Pompey, Stephen Quinlan, Rebecca Rehder, Catherine Fatima, Frédérique Roy, Mulu Tesfu & Jacob Wren.)
Advance tickets
Facebook Event
The Air Contains Honey Facebook Page
Poster by Maude Arès
.
January 5, 2024
The Haunting Presence of a Network: On Eugene Lim / By Shinjini Dey
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The Haunting Presence of a Network: On Eugene Lim / By Shinjini Dey:
https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/eugene-lim
I’ve been reading all of Eugene Lim’s books for a while now and it was really nice to read such an important essay on his work by Shinjini Dey. A short excerpt:
“No one is writing like Lim. If anything, Lim forces us to articulate how we ask questions of the world—inside and outside literature. How does anyone act in retaliation or defense? How does anyone appraise and evaluate anything at all? How does one live inside this impasse?”
(I highly recommend all of Eugene Lim's books but if you have to pick just one I would definitely start with Search History.)
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The Haunting Presence of a Network: On Eugene Lim / By Shinjini Dey:
https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/eugene-lim
I’ve been reading all of Eugene Lim’s books for a while now and it was really nice to read such an important essay on his work by Shinjini Dey. A short excerpt:
“No one is writing like Lim. If anything, Lim forces us to articulate how we ask questions of the world—inside and outside literature. How does anyone act in retaliation or defense? How does anyone appraise and evaluate anything at all? How does one live inside this impasse?”
(I highly recommend all of Eugene Lim's books but if you have to pick just one I would definitely start with Search History.)
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January 3, 2024
Pum Pum Poetry by PYNE featuring Gavsborg
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I only posted albums on my 2023 end of year list. But if I'd also had individual songs I would have definitely included Pum Pum Poetry by PYNE featuring Gavsborg:
https://pyne-sound.bandcamp.com/track/pum-pum-poetry
Such an amazing track.
I only posted albums on my 2023 end of year list. But if I'd also had individual songs I would have definitely included Pum Pum Poetry by PYNE featuring Gavsborg:
https://pyne-sound.bandcamp.com/track/pum-pum-poetry
Such an amazing track.
January 2, 2024
a trilogy (of a sort)
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I guess I'm working on a trilogy (of a sort): https://radicalcut.blogspot.com/2020/10/three-trilogies.html
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I guess I'm working on a trilogy (of a sort): https://radicalcut.blogspot.com/2020/10/three-trilogies.html
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December 23, 2023
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