New NANO Fiction (Volume 3, Number 1)

Just acquired the newest issue of NANO Fiction. I counted 26 stories--hard-hitting pellets, all. Work from Audri Sousa, Jimmy Chen, Josh Maday, Dan Moreau, and others. A very nice three-piece from Holly Simonsen called "Tract." Subscribe yourselves.

Donald Barthelme's "Report"

"'We could, of course, release thousands upon thousands of self-powered crawling-along-the-ground lengths of titanium wire eighteen inches long with a diameter of .0005 centimeters (that is to say, invisible) which, scenting an enemy, climb up his trouser leg and wrap themselves around his neck. We have developed those. They are within our capabilities. We could, of course, release in the arena of the upper air our new improved pufferfish toxin which precipitates an identity crisis. No special technical problems there. That is almost laughably easy. We could, of course, place up to two million maggots in their rice within twenty-four hours. The maggots are ready, massed in secret staging areas in Alabama. We have hypodermic darts capable of piebalding the enemy's pigmentation. We have rots, blights, and rusts capable of attacking his alphabet. Those are dandies. We have a hut-shrinking chemical which penetrates the fibers of the bamboo, causing it, the hut, to strangle its occupants. This operates only after 10 P.M., when people are sleeping. Their mathematics are at the mercy of a suppurating surd we have invented. We have a family of fishes trained to attack their fishes. We have the deadly testicle-destroying telegram. The cable companies are coöperating. We have a green substance that, well, I'd rather not talk about. We have a secret word that, if pronounced, produces multiple fractures in all living things in an area the size of four football fields.'

'That's why--'

'Yes. Some damned fool couldn't keep his mouth shut. The point is that the whole structure of enemy life is within our power to rend, vitiate, devour, and crush. But that's not the interesting thing.'"

PIES

Some writing of mine went live over the weekend: a very short piece of fiction called "Camera Obscura" at Word Riot, and a review at Rain Taxi of What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going by Damion Searls, published by Dalkey Archive Press. I enjoy both websites--they are nice and clean and have great content. Word Riot has a new feature that allows you to rank a story (1-10 stars) and also a counter that shows how many times a piece has been read.

Jackie White is a Trichromatic Catholic

Conjunctions 53: Not Even Past, Hybrid Histories

Pretty excited about the latest issue of Conjunctions that appeared in my mailbox today. Beckett, Bernhard, Bolaño: a memoir concerning, a poem by, and an excerpt from a forthcoming novel, respectively. Work by Francine Prose, Tim Horvath, Matt Bell, Robert Coover, Can Xue, and William H. Gass! I've only read Barney Rosset's memoir so far, but it's engrossing. Contains some of their correspondence, and Beckett's letters are (no surprise) well written. A passage from one, dated June 25, 1953:

"With regard to my work in general I hope you realize what you are letting yourself in for. I do not mean the heart of the matter, which is unlikely to disturb anybody, but certain obscenities of form which may not have struck you in French as they will in English, and which frankly (it is better you should know this before we get going) I am not at all disposed to mitigate. I do not of course realize what is possible in America from this point of view and what is not. Certainly as far as I know such passages, faithfully translated, would not be tolerated in England."

*addendum: Here is a link to Matt Bell's story "His Last Great Gift," online feature at Conjunctions.

Core Sample: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

"That priceless galaxy of misinformation called the mind, harnessed to that stupendous and threadbare glomerate compulsion called the soul, ambling down the most obliterated bridle path of Well and Ill, fortuitously planned--is the holy Habeas Corpus, the manner in which the body is brought before the judge..."

Shoplifting from American Apparel: An Interview with Tao Lin

I interviewed Tao Lin at Vernacular Lit. Check it.

First Reading Ever

I read some fiction (and one poem--a translation) at Emerson College's Graduate Reading Series. There were about 40 people there. I enjoyed the other readers' material. The bio I submitted for the event was apparently so vulgar that the curator(s) refused to read it. I don't blame (t)him.