Jenny Bouly's "The Body: An Essay" also comes to mind. Written in footnotes that reference an absent essay. You piece together what the absent essay might be talking about based on how the "I" of the footnotes interprets the text that you can't see.
Great list, many of which I hadn't heard about. Thanks for sharing.
I found it helpful in examining things like endings in poems. I became suspicious of how I sometimes ended poems that I knew would please the reader versus the other type of ending that felt strange and open and dangerous. Also I became more aware of how some lines I wrote were just there to convince the reader about maybe some recognizable touchstone in the body of known poetry.
I'm still dwelling on your question in class once about what it is about Love Hotel that remains with us. I found that feeling in Mt. Analogue too. I'm wondering if its something to do with travelling in a kind of unfinished labyrinth. Like I'm still inside those books, bursting with an uncanny feeling/energy that wanders those books. Samedi the Deafness is a labyrinth too.
great observation, i love the comparison to an unfinished labyrinth - seems way more exciting than a finish one in a lot of ways - makes it feel less contained and removed from the world, and more like artifice can affect reality. love being in between like that which is why i think i tend so far to endings and titles that open the field up rather than solder it off - great to see you in the class today
Great list! First time ever David Ohle and Harmony Korine have made a list with Thomas Bernhard and Clarice Lispector!
A few more I thought of:
Carole Maso, "AVA", how it deals with memory fragmentation through a dying woman's consciousness.
Haven't read the B.S. Johnson novel you mentioned (added to the TBR!) but the one that I have read, "The Unfortunates", breaks the form by being a book in a box where only the first and last chapter are 'properly ordered'...like AVA, deals with fragmentation of memory. This one was pretty inspirational for me.
Macedonia Fernandez's "The Museum of Eterna's Novel", where the prologues are longer than the 'novel' section (suppose in form ideology, it's similar to how in Nabokov's 'Pale Fire' the bulk of the book is footnotes by the editor instead of the actual poem the book is named for).
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "Dictee", with it's multimedia approach with autobiography, history, language, identity.
The stuff on this list I've already read are all certified bangers, excited to dive in and check out the rest.
Jenny Bouly's "The Body: An Essay" also comes to mind. Written in footnotes that reference an absent essay. You piece together what the absent essay might be talking about based on how the "I" of the footnotes interprets the text that you can't see.
Great list, many of which I hadn't heard about. Thanks for sharing.
great one, ty, Bouly is always compelling
Jenny was one of my writing teachers in college - she was wonderful!
Found the lessons relevant for poetry too.
awesome, love to hear it
I found it helpful in examining things like endings in poems. I became suspicious of how I sometimes ended poems that I knew would please the reader versus the other type of ending that felt strange and open and dangerous. Also I became more aware of how some lines I wrote were just there to convince the reader about maybe some recognizable touchstone in the body of known poetry.
I'm still dwelling on your question in class once about what it is about Love Hotel that remains with us. I found that feeling in Mt. Analogue too. I'm wondering if its something to do with travelling in a kind of unfinished labyrinth. Like I'm still inside those books, bursting with an uncanny feeling/energy that wanders those books. Samedi the Deafness is a labyrinth too.
great observation, i love the comparison to an unfinished labyrinth - seems way more exciting than a finish one in a lot of ways - makes it feel less contained and removed from the world, and more like artifice can affect reality. love being in between like that which is why i think i tend so far to endings and titles that open the field up rather than solder it off - great to see you in the class today
I've really enjoyed reading this whole series, looking forward to diving into the books on this list I'm not familiar with🙏🏽
Great list! First time ever David Ohle and Harmony Korine have made a list with Thomas Bernhard and Clarice Lispector!
A few more I thought of:
Carole Maso, "AVA", how it deals with memory fragmentation through a dying woman's consciousness.
Haven't read the B.S. Johnson novel you mentioned (added to the TBR!) but the one that I have read, "The Unfortunates", breaks the form by being a book in a box where only the first and last chapter are 'properly ordered'...like AVA, deals with fragmentation of memory. This one was pretty inspirational for me.
Macedonia Fernandez's "The Museum of Eterna's Novel", where the prologues are longer than the 'novel' section (suppose in form ideology, it's similar to how in Nabokov's 'Pale Fire' the bulk of the book is footnotes by the editor instead of the actual poem the book is named for).
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "Dictee", with it's multimedia approach with autobiography, history, language, identity.
Currently winding through *the obscene bird of night* by Jose Donoso which totally fits here