{"id":101,"date":"2008-06-11T22:31:55","date_gmt":"2008-06-12T05:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=101"},"modified":"2008-06-11T22:33:18","modified_gmt":"2008-06-12T05:33:18","slug":"books-for-perusing-and-the-introduction-of-a-new-genre-bsraydekwtdwt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=101","title":{"rendered":"Books for Perusing and the Introduction of a new Genre: BSRAYDEKWTDWT"},"content":{"rendered":"

As usual, I\u2019m juggling 4 long-ish books at the moment (and the unyielding commitment to finish Infinite Jest<\/a>, even if it\u2019s only at a 2-3 page-a-day pace).<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019ve also been regularly thumbing my way through a handful of books of shorter material. Thought I\u2019d share some of the highlights of these thumb-intensive texts:<\/p>\n

Separations<\/a> by Marilyn Hacker \u2013 Intense collection of poetry from the \u201870s I found for cheap. The slightly torn dust jacket with the creepy Magritte painting makes me consistently pick this up. I usually end up rereading the first poem in the collection and freaking out at the fact that I bought this at the same time that I\u2019ve been listening to a an album that quotes from this collection (that would be the supremely great Alopecia<\/a><\/em> by Why who turns the following line into a dirge-like call to arms: \u201cBilly the Kid did what he did and he died\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Most of It<\/a> by Mary Ruefle \u2013 Another female poet, but this is actually a collection of (often very) brief prose. The stories are of the wacky, you\u2019re-not-supposed-to-be-able-to-do-that variety. I\u2019ll admit I was a sucker for the book\u2019s design. That the content is just as solidly crafted comes as a sort of awesome bonus.<\/p>\n

Novels in Three Lines<\/a> by Felix Feneon \u2013 Hundreds of single sentence news items that ran in the French newspaper Le Matin during the early 1900s. The power of these sentences (as one demigod Luc Sante<\/a> describes in a fantastic introduction) is the way Feneon reveals and builds suspense through the end. Each story reveals another aspect from the seedier side of France \u2013 sex, drugs, violence, car accidents, abuse, are the norm. Here\u2019s an example drawn entirely at random: \u201cLe Verbeau his Marie Champion right on her breasts, but burned his eye, because acid is not a precision weapon\u201d (page 83). You\u2019ll either love it or you\u2019ll feel the need to read one more to be fully convinced \u2026 so here you go: \u201cThe tramp Bors, all bloody, was on the road near Acheres. He had been on the receiving end of his friend Bonin\u2019s truncheon\u201d (page 107). There are more than a thousand of these collected. So good.<\/p>\n

Hall of Best Knowledge<\/a> by Ray Fenwick \u2013 I\u2019m still not sure to make of this one. Every once in a while you\u2019ll get a book that you just don\u2019t even know what to do with. These get filled into the category of Books So Ridiculously Awesome You Don\u2019t Even Know What To Do With Them (BSRAYDEKWTDWT). I don\u2019t mean that the content is necessarily confusing. I mean that when you pick up the book and riffle through the pages you literally don\u2019t know how you are suppose to use the book. What is the book\u2019s function? How am I supposed to engage with this text? Examples of this include the Dictionary of the Khazars<\/a> (I actually only own the female copy of this text), the Internet and Everyone<\/a> (as recommended by Ms. DeWitt), and A Humument<\/a> (I own two different versions of this one). Usually these become some of the most interesting books in my library. I have a feeling the Hall of Best Knowledge will be joining their ranks soon. From what I\u2019m able to grasp, each page is a dense synergy of design, image, and text. Some are narrative based some are just head scratchers. The collection is baffling. I can\u2019t get myself to read\/look at more than one or two of these at any given time. I set the book down frustrated, inspired, and dumbfounded that there\u2019s nothing that even comes close to the originality of this collection.<\/p>\n

Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>