Dummies or Ventriloquists

Joseph Young and I read each other's work for Apostrophe Cast. It's good and strange to hear Joe read my poems. It's a pretty short and easy reading to listen to.

Joseph Young Interview in The Faster Times

Regarding the 30 words in one story of Easter Rabbit, Joseph Young was interviewed by Michael Kimball. Click through this quote to read the whole thing at The Faster Times:

The mystery of the things you write, how they got there, out of your head, on to the paper, and then, whatever does the heavy lifting in the writing process, the thing that makes up the puzzles, back there in the dark of the head, it’s better than me, smarter. I’m wary to disturb it.

Easter Rabbit Giveaway

This should be fun.

Announcing the Easter Rabbit giveaway, in which three entrants will receive an inscribed copy of Joseph Young's book.

It's a Write Like Joseph Young contest, judged by Ellen Parker.

It might be hard to prove that Joseph Young invented microfiction, but it's clear that he is its best practitioner. Read sample stories at Frigg and Lamination Colony to study up. And then, since he's the champ, it makes sense to try and emulate him. At least it makes sense in order to win a copy of his book.

To enter, submit three microfictions written in the style of Joseph Young. Entries can be funny or serious. They can be mocking or reverential. They only need to somehow copy Young's extremely distinctive style. Here, I just did one:

End
He stood out in the breakwater, his vacation pants rolled like clouds. You forgot to take the stone, she called from the shore. He remembered it there, on the nightstand, it's gray beating as a face to the wall.

Hey, that's pretty good. Why not see if you can beat it? There will be three winners.

Submissions are due by December 15, which is the official release date. Send them to editor@publishinggenius.com with the words "ER Contest" in the subject. (There is no charge for entering.) Spread the word.

Easter Rabbit Read (While You Wait) at .the idiom.

Easter Rabbit is all over the place. Christopher Newgent has live-chronicled his reading over at .the idiom., a really cool blog, one that I'll be keeping up with for the long haul.

10:44 – Neko, my cat, is reading over my shoulder. He seems to have enjoyed “Menlo Park”; when I started to turn the page, he put his paw to my shoulder and said, “Read it again.”

11:22 – Pushed past the halfway, reading onward, I never was a distance runner. This book is maps upon maps.

His thoughtful post shows, I think, how close to impossible it is to read all of the book in one sitting. He says, "Honestly, by the end, I didn’t know what I was processing, or if I was processing anything at all beyond the language and myself." Which is saying a lot about a book that only has about 3,000 words in it.

Easter Rabbit is a nice place to live.

Joe Young gets knocked

I really like this quote from Christine Sajecki, the cover artist of Easter Rabbit.

"There’s really only one [story in Easter Rabbit, 'Parallax,'] I don’t like at ALL, it bugs me every time I see it or hear him read it. The ambiguity in it feels so cheap and easy. With the last sentence in the story, the main man looks around at these people he 'has.' The end. It makes me want to scream at Joe. Has?? What a dumb word to end a good story on. He just purposely selfishly withholds everything from us there, with no image, no feeling, and I don’t even want to bother to imagine what 'has' possibly refers to. He gives nothing, I give nothing. Has. Fucking bullshit.

"When I love one of his stories, which is most of the time, it's because it's a small puddle reflecting a tall stand of trees, with complete and startling accuracy."

I would have liked to have left off that last sentence, but oh well. I guess it's impossible to really hate Joe's writing.

Get a copy.

The Words in Easter Rabbit

Easter Rabbit Reviewed at Ghost Factory **REVISED**

David Peak wrote a review of Easter Rabbit at his blog, Ghost Factory. The niceness begins,

Joseph Young's debut collection of micro-fictions, Easter Rabbit, is a big book. Not big in its sense of ambition, or girth or bloat, but big in a personal way--in the way these little stories blow up inside your imagination, sometimes fitting their teeth against the cogs of your memories, other times sealing themselves tight inside glowing atmospheres of mystery, of pain, beauty and significance--these little stories are bigness.

"Fitting their teeth against the cogs of your memories" is, whoa, strangely lovely in spite of its gruesomeness. Peak does a close reading in his review, and I think it's the best kind of close reading -- one that names questions rather than answering them. But he does note some imperfections, and the one I want to address isn't because I feel defensive, but because it is in this objection that he hits on the one thing that makes me most excited about the book.

Peak's contention is that some of the stories are incomprehensible in their abstraction. I would argue that in my reading, they are all too abstract to comprehend. Like, I keep going back to "Sine," the first story. What does that one mean? NOTHING.

Probably Joe is tired of me always referring to "Sine." Sorry Joe, but that's about as far as I've come in terms of really reading the book. (Well, that and "Occupation," which is like the other end of the spectrum. It's so plot heavy.)

What I mean to say is that no matter how many times I've read the book, or read several stories in a row (because I haven't read the book straight through more than once), I don't actually feel like I've read anything. It's a very strange experience. These stories call into question what it means to read. Do you read eye charts at the eye doctors? Do you read tarot cards? Do you read STOP signs? I think these are things you look at, and I have looked at most of Easter Rabbit more than I have read it.

Which isn't to say that I have read "Sine" enough times to get it, to approach it and see something that it means. In fact, that story had an immediate impact on me -- I read it and afterward I knew something that I hadn't known before.

Unfortunately, Fortunately, I cannot put a name to whatever it is that I learned. This isn't that sort of epistemology. It's art, man, and some sublimity cannot be named. Joe has said that he prefers the company of artists, and I think that might be because they can visualize (or otherwise present) their responses to phenomena in a way that is satisfied without the need to name. At the Easter Rabbit release party, Joe has asked several artists to respond to the stories, and I bet the pairings will create a new dawn.

To bear out the analogy from above: when new agers "read" tarot cards they look at them on the table and then apply a complicated system of interpretation that they have studied and internalized, and they make connections. This connectivity is still what's at play in our dialectical system -- thesis, antithesis, synthesis -- but what I love about Easter Rabbit is that it operates outside of that. The reading habits that we are so trained in rely on what we already know to give meaning. More to the point, these habits rely on what we know we know, and by grouping these fact sets, story emerges.

When drivers "read" STOP signs they see them and know what is meant. That is exactly the same thing as seeing a tree. The only people who read STOP signs are people who are just learning to read and find they have to sound out the word. This reading is actually quite close to the way I would read Easter Rabbit, if I could. I can immediately identify the words in each sentence, but I have to "sound out" the signification.

When patients "read" eye charts, the only thing being learned regards the person's ability to see. The actual "text" in question is irrelevant. If Joe's stories weren't so darn beautiful, I could actually make a case about a similiarity here. I am not entirely certain of how much the stories have to do with the implications of the book.

Socrates referred to himself as a midwife because his role was to give birth to the things his students already had inside them. I don't believe Joseph Young is playing in the same gymnasium as Socrates or Hegel.

***

In other news, it was a good weekend. Sweatpants played the "I Will Smash You" Baltimore premiere. Michael Kimball and I met yesterday morning to discuss Rachel Glaser's book of short stories that is coming out next summer. Michael is the editor. I like this arrangement because it makes me feel like the president of something.

I watched the Ravens almost lose, almost win, finally lose at the football match.

Stephanie Barber sent me a bunch of fantastic cover images for the Byrne book. Website for that book forthcoming, with much anticipation.

Joke: This string walks in and says to the Other Guy, “185 Teachers walk into a bar and the bartender says, ‘We don’t serve 185 Teachers here’ and 185 Teachers say, ‘That’s okay, we’re History’ and they leave.” The Other Guy refrains from laughing. He has a face like the scratchy part of a matchbook. He says, “We don’t server strings here,” and the string goes, “I know, but listen to this. A guy walks into a bar with a snapping turtle—” but before he can finish Ronnie at the end of the bar hollers, “Get that string out of here.” The Other Guy says, “I’m afraid not.” Baboom!

Easter Rabbit Reviews #1

Joe Young's book, Easter Rabbit, is already making waves. You can probably keep better track of everything at his blog, http://www.easterrabbit.blogspot.com/, but here are a few of the latests:

At Big Other, Greg Gerke said, "These micros refuse any sense of completion. They live in the actions of the characters, in the details of the river or forest, and in the Beckettian/Pinteresque bits of dialogue. They are story and poetry and they describe a universe in mourning for its own mysteries, a human race run down but capable of enchantment."

I'm interested in the commenter to that post who said, "I think I’ll buy this book if only to see what faint or largeblown taste lingers after reading. I wonder if these microfictions will clench my fists in frustration? I wonder if this form is capable of delivering the same sense of satisfaction that one can derive from a well-written and engaging novel."

There is a review at FlashFiction.net that I like a lot. In it, Jess Bouchard tries to explain microfiction to her 8-year-old daughter using the book.

The 8-year-old likes “Girl” because she doesn’t know anything about the “girl.” We are given enough information. She says, “I know this piece is deep. I don’t know why. I just do.”

There are a bunch of other links in that review to Joe's other work.

I think it would be really scary to ride a bike with my eyes closed -- probably I couldn't do it

Joseph Young was on NPR's The Signal on Friday. The Signal is a really great show out of Baltimore's station, WYPR. Joe reads some stories and talks with the host, Aaron Henkin, about how microfiction works -- and why.

When Aaron asks about the best way to read the stories, Joe mentions my money back guarantee: whoever reads the 3,000 words in one sitting, can email me for a full refund. My thinking is that the stories satiate after reading three or four, overwhelm after seven or eight. Buy the book here.

Joe's reading/interview is at about minute 25. Also on the program are: Chris Ferrera, my friend who does this really awesome letter writing campaign to Starbucks; Kathy Flann, my friend who hosts a reading series (last month she brought in Tao Lin and PG's own Rupert Wondolowski); and Matt Gilman, a blind mountain biker I've never met. Once again The Signal programs an hour well worth your ears.

Chroma by Joseph Young

Joseph Young made this movie:

Preorder Easter Rabbit

Joseph Young's book, Easter Rabbit, is now available for preorder. $12 includes shipping. Go here to preorder.

Preorders will ship on or about Oct 15.
The preorder phase of the book will continue until Nov 15.
The book will be available to the world at large on Dec 15 for $14.95.


Some info about the book:

• Easter Rabbit is 100 pages long.


• There are fewer than 3,000 words in it.


• Each word was hand selected by Joseph Young.


• He determined that over a million words were not right for this book.


• The cover is a painting done in encaustic by Christine Sajecki.


• Everyone thinks it's a beautiful painting.


• It's digitally edited by the artist. Click here to see what the painting actually looks like.
• It's digitally edited, but to be clear, the rabbit is mobile.


• The book has been proofread by four people.


• All four people were like, "Looks good."


• Jasper Johns declined the opportunity to blurb Easter Rabbit.


• He doesn't even write blurbs for his friends, he said in a handwritten note.


• When I asked him for a blurb, I didn't write "blurb" or millions of other words.


• "Blurb" I thought sounded too vulgar to say to someone like Jasper Johns.


• Anyhoo, the stories in Easter Rabbit perfectly exemplify what Publishing Genius is trying to do.


• I didn't realize this till right now.


• But Publishing Genius likes to make short books that are expansive.


• And this book is a collection of short stories, very short, like less than 50 words each.


• But each story is massive.


• For serious. I mean, it's remarkable how much Joe Young can conjure up in these things.


• If you're paying attention.

Here is a very special offer:

• If you can read the entire book in one sitting, I will refund your money.


• You won't be able to do it.


• It's too long, even though it's so short.


• I mean, fewer than 3,000 words, come on.


• So if you can read the whole thing in one sitting, email me 50 words describing what you thought, and I'll give you back your money.


• No sweat.


• I dare you.


• I defy you.

Go here to preorder.

Easter Rabbit by Christine Sajecki