Holy Shit is Right
Work this week means my blogging will be nearly non-existent, but Christian Lorenzen talks to Lorin Stein, Daniel Nester, and me about the Paris Review recalls in today’s Observer.
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[...] Wolff for the win (see [...]
You all did fine, but I think Rebecca FTW
Agreed.
nice. he talked to me too, but my comments were less interesting than thine.
As the good Daniel Nester knows, the McSweeney’s editors are not above engaging in somewhat similar practice:
http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/09/30/my-mcsweeneys-story/
It would surely make for both a fun anthology and a valuable text for future students of the secret history of post-2000 literary journal editing: Poems accepted then rejected, with a footnote of history for each entry.
Were an anthologist to put out the call, I wonder how many submissions would come in? Maybe quite a few.
Totally different situation Kent.
I wish all the commentary about this would skip the biz about the poor poets’ hurt feelings & bruised egos. This just rehashes old stereotypes about poets.
“When a magazine accepts an author’s work, it goes out of circulation until published. That is a real world negative consequence for the author in this case. PR’s action may not be breach of contract in a strictly legal sense : but it’s a breach of trust. Very tacky in my book.”
since PR never accepted any of the poems i sent them over the course of my descent into quackdom,
can’t help feeling a little schmadenfras malicious glee at those
“poor poets’ hurt feelings & bruised egos” . . .
good title for something (“Descent unto Quackdom : or, the Doleful Historie of Pedro Pipsqueak”)
You’re a douche!
[That's Daniel Nester, ladies and gentlemen, hero of editorial propriety by day, Sir Douche by night. --rpb]
[Takes bow.]
So, if somebody you knew said the following, would you think about them more or less favorably?
I want to be able to try and shape and manage the impression of me that’s coming across.
who sd that.
DFW.
Why do you ask, Jordan? I don’t like traps.
Just making my annual pitch for DFW-agnosticism.
MR: Context is the Mason NYRB piece, DFW responding to a writer who’s profiling him by noting his anxiety and proposing a counter-profile.
That would have been a nice segment of the Million Poems Show, though I wouldn’t subscribe.
I don’t see anything to judge in that statement, seems to me one of the most essential of animal activities. DFW’s willingness to own it is one of his charms, as he well knew.
Oh the show, that was fun. If we could have squeezed more euros out of Casali, makers of Schokobananen, I’d still be at it today, Matt Lauer hairline and all.
That I would have subscribed to, sorry I missed it.
OK, so I won’t yuck anybody’s DFW yum, then.
Also, anybody waving a Mad Men banner wondering who keeps shooting spitballs at it, nobody saw me and you can’t prove anything.
Sincerely,
The Chilmark Country Club Capture-the-Flag Team
I would think of them unfavorably. It means they’re not paying attention.
“I want to be able to try and shape and manage the impression of me that’s coming across.”
Who doesn’t? I choose my wardrobe, bathe, brush my hair . . .
If he’d have said, “control,” rather than “shape and manage” — well, that would be delusional. I don’t get what’s striking about the quote as is.
That’s why they placed a skull on their wooden desk. To leave a lasting impression. As far as impressionism goes.
When I was in Egypt some years ago, I twice came upon loose human skulls — once at the long-abandoned oracle of Siwa (if I’m not mistaken — I know it was in the oasis village of Siwa, and it was at a ruin . . . ) and once in a random cemetery in Cairo. And I really really wanted to pick one up to bring home for my desk, but was afraid I wouldn’t make it through Customs!
Alexander the Great traveled 8 days across the desert to consult the oracle of Siwa, which, back in the day, rivaled Delphi for fame.