Furthur, Further … that literary device on wheels, that great American rolling metaphor.
Fifty years after novelist Ken Kesey gathered his friends into a painted bus and drove a jagged route from California to New York City, the novelist’s son Zane Kesey is hitting the road again, in a new … Read the rest
The essence of Action Poetry is creativity, spontaneity and responsiveness to others in the room. Please write us a poem!
… Read the rest
Magic Trip, a new film by Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood, tells the story of novelist Ken Kesey‘s 1964 road trip across America in a painted bus with a troupe of fanciful hippies and legendary beatnik Neal Cassady at the wheel.
This bus trip was immortalized in Tom … Read the rest
As if I needed more prodding to write about David Shields’ Reality Hunger, the book appears in today’s New York Times Book Review, respectfully reviewed by Luc Sante, who urges (I nod approvingly here) a calm and sympathetic reading of the controversial work:
… Read the restOn the whole, though, he
Why is there so little good old-fashioned literary satire on the scene today? Reviewing Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask in todays New York Times Book Review, Lydia Millet examines:
… Read the restLiterary satire has become a rare form in America over the past three decades. When it does make an appearance, it
1, A font face captures Franz Kafka’s handwriting, which turns out be rather pretty in a Kafkaesque sort of way.
2. Tablet Magazine interviews eternal Fug Tuli Kupferberg and points us to his excellent YouTube Channel. I love the audience participation in this little-known literary facts video, … Read the rest
I’ve spent this weekend reading David Shields’ exciting Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, a book that urges us to reject the notion that fiction is artistically or philosophically superior to nonfiction. This impressive book is empowering me to accept and embrace for the first time the dread and boredom I … Read the rest
Apparently the reputations of our acclaimed magazines have recently sunk to the depths of ignobility. William Vollmann, reviewing Ted Conover’s The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today in the current New York Times Book Review, complains that Conover “occasionally seasons … Read the rest
1. In honor of the Knack’s lead singer Doug Fieger, who passed away on Valentines Day, here’s Sherman Alexie’s tribute to “My Sharona”. It was a pretty good song, and the best use of an octave in a riff since Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”.
2. I’m enjoying watching the … Read the rest