Eat the Viscera

1. Chicago activist and former Weatherman Bill Ayers has written a post-election apologia for the New York Times. I find his position reasonable enough, though Little Green Footballs is characteristically unimpressed. A belated thought occurred to me: Bill Ayers may have been one of the models (the Weathermen were certainly the aggregate model) for Eat The Document, Dana Spiotta’s 2006 novel about 1960s fugitives co-existing with younger hipsters in Seattle. I liked this novel when I first read it, and have come to like it even more in retrospect.

2. You’re getting tired of hearing about Roberto Bolano? Imagine how Gabriel Garcia Marquez feels. Bolano’s “visceral realism” appears to mock Marquez’s magical variety, but the elder statesman will be bouncing back with a new novel. Meanwhile, here’s Bud Parr’s report on last week’s Words Without Borders event honoring Bolano (who, truth be told, is good enough to earn most of the hype).

3. Maud Newton considers recent developments in e-books for handheld devices. Myself, I just want Stanza to become available on iPhone wannabes like my own Verizon LG Dare. Lexcycle, please stop believing that the iPhone is the only handheld that matters.

4. Ed says stay writing. Correct.

5. Neil Gaiman is concerned about legal culpability for fictional characters.

6. Laura Albert will be making a rare appearance, along with Janice Erlbaum, at a benefit for exploited and homeless young women at Under St. Marks Theatre in New York City this Sunday. Info at Janice’s blog.

7. I’ll be making a not-so-rare appearance myself at a music/storytelling event in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Friday evening, December 19. More details to come!

8. Friend of LitKicks John Freeman has been named the US Editor of the British literary journal Granta.

9. Daily Routines: How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days. The eclectic selection of writers represented here includes Franz Kafka, P. G. Wodehouse, Toni Morrison, John Updike, Gertrude Stein, J. M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk.

10. The Village Voice presents favorite obscure books.

11. I’m amazed at how much attention our (losing) Literary Trivia Smackdown got. There are soundbites and photos at WYNC radio, and here’s a write-up at the New Yorker’s Book Bench, which goes into some detail about a question involving Algonquin regular and drama critic Alexander Woolcott.

Just for the record: I did think of Alexander Woolcott (I once read an entire biography of the man) but for some incredibly dumb reason I didn’t think it would be the right answer.

As for WNYC’s mention of litbloggers “trying to cheat” — well, we asked politely if we could break the rules, which isn’t really the same thing as trying to cheat. Rest assured, if I ever really try to cheat at something, you won’t read about it on a blog, because I’m pretty sneaky and I won’t get caught.

5 Responses

  1. Who needs a 1960’s activist
    Who needs a 1960’s activist to know which way the election went.

  2. FYI, today, 12/11, I found
    FYI, today, 12/11, I found out that in March 2009 Harvey Pekar’s The Beats: A Graphic History is slated to be available for purchase.
    I read Pekar’s SDS History and am a big Pekar fan.
    I know this has nothing to do with the posting but thought might be of interest to people that visit here.

  3. Nice post; interesting stuff.
    Nice post; interesting stuff. Here are two neglected books that are essential reading for anyone interested in the East Village/Alphabet City scene in the 80s:

    Once There Was a Village, by Yuri Kapralov. His memoir of the immigrants to the EV, including himself. “People who lived in horrible poverty and died forgotten.” Kapralov died of alcoholism in 2005, but he left us this remarkable book.

    The Lotus Crew – novel by Stewart Meyer. Story of some EV drug dealers, written by one who participated in the scene. Meyer was a friend of Burroughs, who blurbed this fine book, his only work as far as I know.

    Both are available on Amazon.

  4. hey thanks for mention. i
    hey thanks for mention. i have a new novel ready to go and a memoir titled ‘memory chips and reconstituted pebbles’ set on the lower east side, mid 70s to mid 80s. grove press and serpents tail editions of ‘lotus crew’ are available on line. they’re both out of print and the rights’v reverted back to me. like the rest of us i miss m’dear ol’ uncle bill but y’know wot man, he’s with us as we speak.
    best from stewart meyer

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What We're Up To ...

Litkicks will turn 30 years old in the summer of 2024! We can’t believe it ourselves. We don’t run as many blog posts about books and writers as we used to, but founder Marc Eliot Stein aka Levi Asher is busy running two podcasts. Please check out our latest work!