farewell s key

in

you were a solid key a good key starting many a sentence and finishing many a word the middle too but now youre going going gone at least on one keyboard which brings me to the question of did i use you too much whatwith too many plurals maybe or possibly too many starting and stoppings and stirrups in symmetrical efforts at synchronicity lost to fallings and failings and lackings of imagination(s) but then again these are the days as natalie and the maniacs remind us the days now of the s-key clickclacks sounding still though seen now not upon your empty plastic placeholder but only in your manifestations resultant on-screen and off

THE BODY ARTIST, revisited

in

First (re)reading of the month complete, DeLillo's THE BODY ARTIST, and wanted to record first, immediate, visceral thoughts in the 18 minutes left in my reading time: an unsettling snapshot of grief and shock – the grief of shock, the shock of grief – and the unmooring that ensues, the loss of identity, of self, the pressure of finding a new one, of grasping for one...

Is reality too powerful for you? 

Take the risk. Believe what you see and hear. It's the pulse of every secret intimation you've ever felt around the edges of your life.

… that ranks still – as it has since my first reading in 2014 (has it really been eight years? reality reality) – among my favorite books, probably my favorite of his; followed quickly by UNDERWORLD and LIBRA (the other two contenders for the favorite DeLillo title), my first recommendation to anyone seeking to dive into DeLillo's work.

Next up on the (re)read list: Carson McCullers’s THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER; my complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.

coming in july: PRESS (A) TO START

in

I'm launching my own semiannual (though *possibly* quarterly – have to see how the first issue goes over the next month) zine, PRESS (A) TO START, which will be the home of all my fully-fleshed writings – essays, Modulae, etc – moving forward.

The why of it all: thanks to recent TSR interviews with both Justin Duke, the creator of Buttondown and MJ Slide, the brain behind their own zine, PRISMATIC SLANT, I realized that I've been making a mistake with my newsletter in that I was asking too much of the form in overwrought attempts to have it function both as my primary communications medium *and* my primary expressive medium. My working theory (which I'm considering truth whether it is or not) is that by splitting comms and expressions into two different entities, I will be able to craft a more rewarding communicative reading experience in the newsletter and, likewise, a more rewarding creative and expressive experience for me in PRESS (A).

(For instance: had I not found my way to PRESS (A), I never would have been able to publish the 7,000 word essay I’ve been cooking up as I deal with the fallout and complexities of my mother’s death at the end of April.)

Newsletter subscribers will receive not only free access to a digital edition of each release but substantial discounts on physical editions; you can sign up here if so inclined.

Looking forward to sharing it with all of you. First issue should arrive sometime next month.

in

“Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words. But on the other hand here I am sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, and visions, and so on, and can’t dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm. Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it.”

– Virginia Woolf

(re)reading/202206

in

Given that I've never set time aside to actually re-read things, I've declared June and December to be my re-read months (also useful way to catch up on Paris Review and Laphams stuff) moving forward. Currently on the probably overly-ambitious list for June (but will make the move to December should I not get them all done):

  • Calvino's INVISIBLE CITIES

  • DeLillo's THE BODY ARTIST (complete, 2020603)

  • McCullers's THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER

  • Pynchon's V

  • Krasznahorkai's SATANTANGO

  • Garcia-Marquez's CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD

  • Spark's MEMENTO MORI

  • Morselli's DISSIPATIO, H.G

  • Sorokin's THE BLIZZARD

  • McCarthy's CHILD OF GOD

  • Murakami's AFTER DARK

May the (re)reading commence; my complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.

Muse, round two (or three? IDK)

in

Made a second attempt at using Muse, having quit and cancelled my subscription sometime late last year when it reverted whole blocks of text to earlier versions with no rhyme or reason and their helpful support staff ceased being so: to not trust a writing tool, no matter how brilliant it is – no matter how close it is to representing how you think – is a death sentence for its utility.

However, in the course of working MainFictionThing (into the ground, perhaps) yesterday morning, I saw the potential benefit it could derive from the spacial thinking canvas approach that Muse offered and, intrigued by the promise offered in the new Mac version and the truly genius interplay of it and the iPad and iPhone versions, I – with fingers duly crossed that the text reversion issues had been fixed – downloaded and logged in and played.

While the genius of the idea behind the app remains intact – and I could see, as in previous attempts, its value in writing not only MainFictionThing but in organizing TSR interview prep and etc etc – I found the text editing options to be still rudimentary at best (though perhaps I've been spoiled by the nigh-limitless abilities of Obsidian and my years now of working in Markdown) which would more likely than not require that I work with another text editor to create the final product (that said, I'm excited that iA Writer 6 will, apparently, add in wiki-linking), and, unfortunately, found further that no matter how much I tried, I couldn't shake my distrust of the earlier release's textual vanishing acts.

Deleted it from all devices of work and distraction by afternoon.

For now, sticking with Obsidian (I have to say here that writing in Obisidian is an absolute joy; thinking in Obsidian... eh) and legal pads and dry erase boards – but damn, do I want Muse to live up to its promise: it's so, so close.

Side note: compiling a list of Obsidian community plugins that have become invaluable to my process. Will share eventually.