Category: Bitching
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Attention Span/What I am Currently Reading
Periodically, I’ll read in a bar. I know there are some folk who think that’s a bit silly, but honestly, relaxing in a corner with a couple of beers and a good pulp-y novel can be sublime. I wouldn’t recommend reading “Gravity’s Rainbow” in a bar (although getting wasted just might be the key to…
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Lazy Week/85% of “The Recognitions”/“Naked Lunch”/“The Unfortunates”/Creators who are Assholes
I didn’t do a lot of reading this week. It happens sometimes, and I don’t really beat myself up about it. I know some booktube types claim they read for like four hours a day no matter what; normally I spend around 2 or so, give or take. During the early part of the pandemic,…
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“The Sirens of Titan”/“Player Piano”/Developing Artistry
“Machines have less problems. I’d like to be a machine, wouldn’t you?” -Andy Warhol At the start of this year, I got the idea that I would re-read (and in come cases, read for the first time) the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. It was originally going to be the entire focus of this blog, but…
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“Bottom’s Dream”/“The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym”/Finishing or not finishing something you hate
“Tekeli-li!” I got a copy of “Bottom’s Dream” on the secondhand market; Dalkey Archives sold out ages ago. The book got a print run of 2.500. My copy was still in shrink-wrap, unopened. No one had read it. I once remember reading a review of Morton Feldman’s “Second String Quartet” which was released in a…
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HP Lovecraft/Friday the 13th vs A Nightmare of Elm Street/“Stage Fright”, again…
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me” -Palmer, The Thing. It’s the stated policy of this blog to spoil things. It’s part of the process. I’m re-stating it here. Everything mentioned in the title will have the fuck spoiled out of it, so if you want surprises, I quote Lord Humungus: “just walk away”. Horror has…
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30% of “The Recognitions”/“Book of the New Sun”/Rereading/‘Difficult’ Reading in General
“To Mrs. M—, I was “a pompous snob, and a real ass-hole.” -Johnathan Franzen According to my kindle, I am 30 percent of the way through William Gaddis’ “The Recognitions”, which is a book that has a reputation of being a ‘difficult read’. Some of this reputation comes from Johnathan Franzen’s essay called “Mr. Difficult”,…
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Booktube/Stage Fright/Reading as a Hobby/A Further Introduction
Also, I mention a book I have not read, which will likely be a running feature. I like the idea of booktube. I’m a fan of “the video essay”, and long form YouTube videos in general. But ‘booktube’ is frequently awful. Generally speaking, when I find someone talking about something I am interested in, booktube…
The Lithole 