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problems with the text as published: artifactiness (which leads
to its stasis, at least in this edition, as the text contains errors, uncorrectable
except via errata sheets: [1], reprinting,
or admitting of them, as such). |
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personality problems: selfishness; self-absorption; solipsism;
suaveness; sauciness; overwhelming love of salsa; sappiness; sadness, general
and pervasive; inability to shut up at times; sad-sackitude; sweetness;
suckage |
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problems related to performance of these texts:
- difficulty of performing these pieces out loud, or even reading them,
as they so obviously make use of the page, and are written almost as
visual performances, or at least are so involved with the visual
- the daunting task of reading the sentences out loud, of performing
them, because some of said sentences diverge so far and often that they
will probably obscure their own beginnings before I can get around to
ending them, so how is a listener able to follow them without some sort
of handout or visual designed for this purpose
- perhaps I should try out PowerPoint and see what it has to offer
- though I have doubts that its technology is any better suited
for this sort of maze either
- but at least I could use a laser pointer and have some
text rotate and blink
- and then the boredom of reading the four (or so) somewhat performable
essays over and over at readings; and then the perceived boredom
of those who have seen me read the same pieces over and over at
readings, and my decision whether to try to think of their feelings
or whether I should just blaze on, or whether I should perhaps try
reading different bits each time until I have read the whole book—possibly
in sequence?
- I am thinking about having people vote at readings for their
least favorite poem of the bunch (when I read poems) and then
retiring that least favorite one from all future performances,
or, more reasonably, for future performances in the next x
years or whatever. It will be kind of like the television show
Survivor I think, except, like, with poetry and stuff.
- consideration of whether the medium of these essays is the page or
webpage (and thus the viewer slash reader's eye) or the voice, or something
else
- and further, the question of perhaps sending a couple of these
out for publication, if they are essays per se, or publishable,
and what it means to publish, whether these are in fact
published or not, given their ability to be tinkered with ad
nauseam, which is a Latin phrase I think I can figure out without
wikipedia
- it seems I will have to think out loud a lot and get caught in recursion,
or at least experiment to find a way to make it work
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problems related to the publication of this text:
- many essays too long to be considered for regular "publication"
in journals or beautiful magazines
- many essays too obnoxious or mind-blowing, whichever you prefer on
any given day
- many essays already published on this website, if that's what we can
call it—I think of it more as a concordance of neurotic or thinky
tics
- essays published on website (ostensibly as part of book, that open-ended
equation of a noun) beginning to dwarf actual essays published in physical
object of codex
- possible necessity of overused and too-academic air quotes around
"this" and "text" in this heading—or need
for further elucidation
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problems related to the artifact:
- how to continue to metabolize the contents of the book; the codex;
the artifact after the book's acceptance for publication and after the
various stages of editing; and even after publishing? Difficulty of
just letting this material go.
- how to refract the book into this other form without annoying or doing
things stupidly
- how to make the text continue to be true even after circumstances
have changed, leaving the book just an artifact, a record, a pointer
to a yawning space, a former truth, has-been, also-ran
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problems with the website:
- general uselessness of book (and often author) websites and widespread
(perhaps) perception of this fact
- probably too cute slash smart for its own good (like author)
- how to deal with the idea that websites themselves, and the web, thinking
larger, may be doomed technologies, thinking long term, galaxies collapsing,
though at that point the dooming of the web will be the least of our
problems; maybe the book is the thing that will persist after our silicon
and silicone has burned itself away
- how to get one's head around the fact that everything tends towards
obsolescence
- fear that it is not smart enough about itself, its subjects
- fear that author has said too much
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problems; answer key for; chapters one through six (even-numbered
only):
(2) James Agee; (4) the quadratic equation; (6) eighteen; (8) James Ellroy;
(10) the band James; (12) how to be a better friend; (14) Sunday morning
service at the drive-in church just north of 28th St off Breton; (16)
sixteen is the legal age; (18); he's just a dick, so can we finally drop
it?; (20) the punctuation goes inside the quotation marks; (22) the number
twenty-two; (24) the letter U and the numeral 2; (26) there are ghosts
all around us, all the time, I think sometimes, they're hovering, circling,
it's like they're in orbit around the sun of us—can't you see them?
reach out yr hand? just there—; (28) an immense amount of pain,
more than most people could stand; (30) nearly proportional to beauty;
(32) who invented the answer key anyway? the problem? does it come from
the Greek, like I imagine?; (34); in German, it means other (36);
(38) more true than most; (40) just to have the answers, even though you've
cheated: it can be enough, just that; (42) a hush, a shush, a brushing
of the fingers across the lips; (44) 1983, then version 2.0 came out in
1985; (46) this answer key itself; (48) when I was fourteen; (50); Einsturzende
Neubaten, or maybe Negativland (52); (54); (56) repetitive stress from
typing the same keystrokes in, all these numbers, an arithmetic series
stretching on by implication toward infinity, and the open- and close-parentheses,
the litter of spilled-out semicolons doing something here like Morse;
(58) train B, by six minutes; (60) if you got sixty less than x, then
you're golden: congratulations—answer keys never reward
you in the way they should; (62); the very center is the sweetest;
(64) the answer key itself; (66) ooh, recursion; (68) I love it when you
talk that way; (70) snow is white, for starters; (72) what comes to us
by satellite; (74) I tried to discover / a little something / to make
me sweeter / so baby, refrain / from breaking my heart; (76) everything
slouches back to its beginnings; (78) the Poincaré conjecture;
(80) ars poetica; (82) Bennigan's; (84) alcoholism, maybe, or
maybe not, depending; (86) Alexander Graham Bell; (88) playfulness: you
should try it, too; (90) aphorisms; (92) anaphora; (94) looking slouchy
and anachronistic with that tie; (96) the inexorability of the end that
you see approaching; (98) the ridiculousness of inexorability
as a word, much less the use of it in casual or causal conversation; (100)
the emptiness of closed salons when you're the last appointment of the
day and you can feel the place draining all around you. |
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A selection of (found) answer keys:
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