interview with YACHT RACER Ben Marcus

I admire the hell out of Ben Marcus--for his abilities as a writer and competitive yacht racer. Seriously, ask him about it.

So of course it was a huge privilege to interview Ben over at HTMLGIANT, using some of the questions he sent to David Markson for an unfinished interview in 2000. Go read it.

The interesting thing about the process was that once I had selected which of Ben's original questions to redirect his way, and edited them slightly to be applicable to him, I felt this immense pressure as to how he might respond to "my" questions. As in, once his text was removed from its original context and altered somewhat, I began to read the questions as my own. Not that surprising, I suppose. Also, can't wait for his collection in January, called Leaving the Sea.

face

behind on blogging / liking pomengranate 5-hour E

i think i learned a great deal by not blogging recently

maybe i'll start a tumblr

have been writing

here's a piece up at Everyday Genius called A Face is Made of Fourteen Bones

(s/o to legit awesome people Penina Roth and Adam Robinson!)

3 quotes (moved)

"To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend."

"I prefer the inane, sometimes. The ane is often inutile to the artist."

Interviewer: "What do you think of space?"
De Kooning: "Fuck space!"

observatorium

found inscription

12/25/2008

Dave--
I figured as long as
you were on a massive
masterworks kick, we might
as well tackle Underworld
together next. :)
Merry Christmas!

Love,
Becca

personal blog

Right now, it seems the personal blog is a place to feature writing you want to emphasize and de-emphasize at the same time. Or a place for something you don't want to trumpet into social media only for it to fade in 24 hours, less really. Or a trumpet backup. I guess people do graze social media backlogs sometimes. In a way, the slowing down of personal blogs might not be a bad thing.

I've been reading all of DeLillo's novels in a weird but ultimately logical order since June and I have 3 books left--one of them is the big one. I'll probably write about it elsewhere. That's another thing: the occurrence of an idea, followed by the thought "Oh, I should really give this the long essay treatment, and do it right." Given infinite time and energy I would review everything I read.

I considered writing something about Twitter but thought better of it. Twitter tranquility.

A fun interview is in the works.

I've started working on a long thing again.

books i'm reading or plan to read

Enjoyable periodic breaks from a DeLillo kick are going to include:

Old Gus Eats by Polly Duff Bresnick

Every Laundromat in the World by Mel Bosworth

Heroines by Kate Zambreno

Other Kinds by Dylan Nice

Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith by Joanna Ruocco

Orange Juice and Other Stories by Timothy Willis Sanders

14 Dreams of Death by Ken Baumann, Blake Butler, M Kitchell

Notes on Conceptualisms by Vanessa Place