Tuesday, November 27, 2018

186. Can an audience } be wrong?





Saturday evening [6:30pm – 9, Dec. 1st] I read with [ — ] as part of the Arcade Asylum Author Series. I don’t know much about my co-readers. Larissa Glasser sings with Hekseri (a black metal outfit) (I’m listening to Microstoria Init Ding); Barry Lee Dejasu writes about horror movie soundtracks and reviews books, or did (I can’t tell); and Julie C. Day’s first collection, just out, is Uncommon Miracles (from PS). And Clint Smith.

Not Clint Smith the poet whose “the drone” was published in the October issue of Poetry. I don’t like Smith’s poem “the drone.” Here’s the passage that first put me off: “the drone could have been something other than a killing machine || the drone could have been a house || the drone could have been a spoon || the drone could have been a swing” I get it. Replace “drone” with “cannonball.” Or reconsider what drone could be as a drone. Or don’t list three things that are meant to be—what? Good? Is a house good?

Smith’s “the drone” never grows up. It’s just drone = man-made bad that kills. It fails to consider drone as machine than can be used for a variety of purposes. Consider the drone footage at Standing Rock:
But some of the clearest and most impactful footage offered a literally new perspective. Myron Dewey, a journalist and founder of the indigenous media platform Digital Smoke Signals, was capturing the scene from above with his drone and sharing it on Facebook Live. The footage, which clearly showed torrents of water falling down on protesters, now has over a million views on Facebook and was used to challenge statements by law enforcement suggesting the water cannons were primarily used to put out fires. [from Witness Media Lab]
I digress. The Clint Smith I’m reading with on Dec. 1st writes horror stories. His second collection The Skeleton Melodies is due soon. He reached out to me after I praised his story “Fiending Apophenia.”

Why not come hear us read? It’s free and there’s a bar/coffee joint nearby. I’ll be there for the whole event. Readers’ books will be there too. The series is put together by Farah Rose for the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences bookshop.

Yes, by the way.



[ image from Tales from the Darkside episode "Seasons of Belief" (1986) ]

Saturday, November 3, 2018

185. Weaving a great cloth } a crimson cloak.






Read Tatiana Dubin’s “fictionalized essay”—i.e. hybrid non/fiction published by new New York journal Xeno.

The journal looks good. Dubin’s essay, “I Am a Daughter of the Hebrews, but I Am Fleeing from Them” is great—it maps Judith, the Hebrew beheadress of Holofernes, to Beth Berenson, an Israeli pageant winner who runs away. It’s about weaponized beauty and ordinary cruelty. Holofernes’ head on a platter. Or in a sack. Served with bitters.


[ image: bust of Helen of Troy by Antonio Canova (replica), circa 1812. ]