What are we reading?

Started by edison, September 21, 2003, 11:20:03 PM

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wilder



Debauched, divorced and courting death, Billy Ray Schafer is a comedian who has forgotten how to laugh. Over the course of seven spun-out days across the American Southwest, he travels from from hell gig to hell gig in search of a reason to keep living in this bleak and violent glimpse into the psyche of a thoroughly ruined man. Ex-inmate, ex-husband, ex-father - comedian is the only title Schafer has left. Trapped in the wreckage of his wasted career, Billy Ray knows the answer to the question: what happens when the opportunity doesn't come - or worse - it comes and goes?

Read this compulsively a few months ago. Big fan of the writing style (first pages are available to preview), which the author said was largely inspired by The Dig by Cynan Jones. Think Reelist would love it.

It's cheaper on Amazon but if you buy direct (click the cover) the author makes 3x the price or something like that.

Stanhope blurbed it

Quote from: Doug Stanhope"Brilliant writing. Astounding. One of the best books I've read. Ever. The best fictional representation of comedy in any medium."

putneyswipe

Just quickly devoured these two excellent books by the art critic Dave Hickey... his insights and ease of perception are pretty astounding. Highly recommend these for the BEE fans, and WF if you liked Hito Stereyl's book you'll dig this

WorldForgot

Corrigenda - Yusef Komunyakaa

WorldForgot

Currently still on Infinite Jest (gosh, I really adore the Don Gately storyline bits. And also any descriptions of J.O. or Mario Incandenza's filmmaking), and taking breaks with Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson's TRANSMETROPOLITAN.






Robyn

This one, which i found in a thrift store. Is it good? Not really. Am I still happy with the find? Hell yeah!



wilberfan

Interesting.  I, too, am somewhat BONNIE AND CLYDE-centric at the moment.

Robyn

I own that one, too. Need to watch them all before reading it though.

Trantino called it one off his favorite books on film l, recently.

Alethia

Well gonna have to read it then, damn it.

Wilber, have you read The Big Goodbye yet?

wilberfan

Quote from: eward on October 15, 2021, 01:04:39 PM
Wilber, have you read The Big Goodbye yet?

I have, indeed.  The author came to our local library around the time of its release and did an interesting Q&A.  Fascinating stuff...

Scrooby

Revenge is sweet.

https://www.odysseyandiliad.com/


O Muse, speak to me of the many-sided man,

of his many wanderings after his destruction

of the mighty city of Troy. Many people

and places he came to know, their ways and habits;

astray at sea he suffered much to save his life

and return home with his companions. But his men

would not be saved, but perished, for like foolish children

they ate the cattle of the sun-god Helios : so the men asea

day by day were denied their return. O goddess,

daughter of Zeus, begin where you will and speak to me. . . .           

WorldForgot

Recently I read Kathe Koja's THE CIPHER.

Gosh, did I need that book. Entirely coated in angst, it's exactly the kinda horror novel that I like to fly through; character driven, steeped in ineffable sights and sounds that sprout from an abusive relationship. Nicholas' substance abuse at the onset rang true to me. And Shrike's acceleration toward death drive isn't pure curiosity: it's experiment. That I can relate to, too.

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Alethia

Been on a Stephen King bender as of late - read The Shining and Doctor Sleep, back to back. Today I read Misery over a mostly uninterrupted span of about 8 hours. Next up: Revival.

Scrooby

Gods

But far above the battlefield, up in highest Olympus,
Athena Bright-Eyes observed the Trojans routing the Argives,
for her curiosity for the struggle was unbridled;
so in an instant she stepped down from the peaks of Olympus
onto the Trojan plain and into the battle assurgent.
Then Apollo, watching from high-walled Troy, accelerated
to her side; and she knew her brother supported the Trojans.
So the two met by the oak tree overlooking the Scaean gate.

https://www.odysseyandiliad.com/

WorldForgot

I've been going through Kai Bird and Sherwin's AMERICAN PROMETHEUS in anticipation for Nolan'z film, and it's really fucking good. But sad/disheartening family business iz ongoing in my life and it robbed me of my spring enthusiasm. I sort of wanted to take a break from Oppenheimer's life to read something horrorific or that would jolt me into a state of appreciating what I have - 'it could always be worse.'

Well... I found this work after reading about cTom on Letterboxd, where somebody compared those films' obsession to Sotos. And I'd heard the name before through art-circle journals, namely, this collaborative work with Lionel Maunz. So I ventured forth with the early work.

PROXY: Peter Sotos Pornography 1991-2000

Not for the faint of heart or mind, to put it lightly.

Disturbing and vile. True crime and fatal libido. My first foray into Sotos' writing after having listening to Whitehouse. As an exercise of mining your psyche, it's hard to think of books that'll warp you the way this collection might. Not even Sade or Bataille - where salacious approach feelz civilized compared to the violent honesty of Sotos' subject matter.

There is much to be discussed here, if ever you find someone with the gall and morbid curiosity to appreciate Sotos and talk it out loud. Queer culture's dangerous and diseased past - the bathhouse, the porn theater, the concrete assault. An unending truth of the tragic abduction and abuse of children - presented many times through excerpted/clipped documents from various cases. Screening questions of 'mental health' that actually prod at mental woundz. There's something astounding about all the research that Sotos must do for these projects.

WorldForgot

Oh, thank you for sharing this interview! I will be listening to it this weekend for sure. "[Sotos] was a good friend of Jamie Gillis" woah, interesting.

""This is deadly serious stuff. It's the kind of thing that if you read it and it gives you an erection, you may want to seek out a psychologist." LOL...

I think your instinct is right. The letterboxd association between cTom and Sotos sort of described something similar; 'you walk away from it gaining the same thesis peter sotos collage work wants to instill in the person consuming it. like, obsessing over something to the point you develop your own pornographic interest in it. '

Certainly there were countless times when I knew it was going to be upsetting me to the point of not sleeping. But I wanted something that would distract me from any feelings of what's going on in my own life - and in that sense it totally helped. Yet, where it guides your mind is the deepest of depths and without remorse. Whole other can of worms if you aren't asking yourself 'why this,' or feeling afraid. At times I'd think "Dennis Cooper and Chuck Palahniuk can only imitate this" which izn't a slight to their abilities. Sotos is so authentic that there just can't be comparison.

And some of the excerpted portions will even cite people that are notable today for their strength. Kathleen Hanna quoted from ANGRY WOMEN IN ROCK, or Annie Sprinkle, notable sexologist. Not that that's required to legitimize the clipped portions, but that it allows for a very broad context. The work has much merit, but it's certainly touching on everything most people would rather not be reminded of.