The Now Here Found
September 20, 2006 11:56 AM   Subscribe

Only Revolutions, by Z. Also. They seem to be connected.
posted by Pastabagel (46 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I need to pick this up. Thanks for the reminder.
posted by grabbingsand at 12:13 PM on September 20, 2006


I checked the tour dates hoping to catch him, and predictably he was in town last night. Why does this always happen? Thankfully the youtube videos gave me a glimpse of how annoying a writer could really be in person. Off to pick up a copy, thanks!
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 12:15 PM on September 20, 2006


I'm excited. I loooved HoL.
btw, that last link looks borked.
posted by juv3nal at 12:18 PM on September 20, 2006


Don't know much about this guy, but I am a huge fan of his sister.

Hello should be considered a geek/nerd anthem.
posted by quin at 12:21 PM on September 20, 2006


I had it in my hand last night and couldn't bring myself to purchase it (though I love the web site and linked it from mecha a few days ago). After a great chat with a very helpful chap at the bookstore, I bought Half Life instead and ordered the Danielewski from the library.
posted by dobbs at 12:24 PM on September 20, 2006


Um, chap.
posted by dobbs at 12:24 PM on September 20, 2006


For some reason that last link (the jpg) only works after you reload it. Sorry about that.

In any case, it's page 151 from house of leaves, with a quote from Hailey discussing her relationship with Johnny Truant (the narrator of that book) and mentioning her "wrists" which are referenced in OR. I'm thinking trilogy.
posted by Pastabagel at 12:55 PM on September 20, 2006


So this Only Revolutions, it vibrates like Pepsi Blue?
posted by davy at 1:06 PM on September 20, 2006


Anyone know what the music playing on the first link's site is?
posted by TheDonF at 1:16 PM on September 20, 2006


The last link dosn't work if I reload it.

So this is a horror novel like those cheezy ones kids read in like 6th grade and stuff?
posted by delmoi at 1:23 PM on September 20, 2006


Wow, talk about a one trick pony.

Come back when you can write something that stands on it's own two feet without a bunch of silly typographical gimmicks.
posted by Artw at 1:27 PM on September 20, 2006


delmoi, cut and paste the last link and it works.
posted by dobbs at 1:27 PM on September 20, 2006


Please note that the format is a direct ripoff of the amazing Serbian writer Milorad Pavic's
The Inner Side of the Wind
.
posted by nasreddin at 1:29 PM on September 20, 2006


nasreddin - thanks for the tip.

ArtW - I'm guessing you haven't read House of Leaves...
posted by Pastabagel at 1:34 PM on September 20, 2006


haven't read the new one yet, but bought it yesterday. Loved House of Leaves.
posted by empath at 1:38 PM on September 20, 2006


Pastabagel - I have the misfortune of having read House of Leaves, pretentious over-hyped waste of time that it was.
posted by Artw at 1:43 PM on September 20, 2006 [1 favorite]


Artw: At least, unlike David Foster Wallace, MZD appears to have some sort of soul and is not just an Amherst-graduated machine for spouting jargon and lording it over the reader.

Given the present state of American letters, that's at least a hopeful sign.
posted by nasreddin at 1:47 PM on September 20, 2006


De gustibus non est disputandum, I suppose.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:47 PM on September 20, 2006


How about links to some reviews (MSM or blogs)? I loved House of Leaves but want to make sure OR is a keeper before I decide to sink some time into it.
posted by aparrish at 1:49 PM on September 20, 2006


Review of Only Revolutions - scroll down to Aug 25, 2006

It reads much faster than house of leaves, by the way.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:52 PM on September 20, 2006


Thanks Pastabagel, you are now my favorite starch. Hey all you haters, lay off the hater-ade!

That is all.
posted by Mister_A at 2:21 PM on September 20, 2006


Artw: At least, unlike David Foster Wallace......

This [1] will not [2] end well [3] .



1) By this, I mean the diss on Wallace [a] and resulting pile-on.

2) Not: a word used to negate things. As in: long sentences and explanations explaining why Wallace is one of Americas Greatest Writers NOT because his of wankery, but because of his insight into the human condition, depth of knowledge about a range of topics and technical mastery of wordplay synergising into a scrumptious [b] exhilarating blend of prose that is a joy to read.

3) OK I technically should have said NOT refers to the negation of the necessity of long sentences by long footnotes, but i) I thought it would look better ending well here in footnote c and ii) I got lost in one of those nested argument thingys that Wallace does so well.



a) Not to be confused with William Wallace. "You can have my semicolons but you'll never take my footonotes! "
b) Kinda like those chocolate swirlys, but with extra meta.

posted by lalochezia at 2:26 PM on September 20, 2006


I saw him read from this on Monday and I have to say, I'm glad I went. I read and loved 'House of Leaves', but I doubt I would've gotten into this one without hearing him read it and talk about it. It's verse, and it's very, very poetic, which tends to turn me off, but he hooked me.

Favorite moment: Someone asks about the cigarette-burn style marks on a bunch of the pages he replys: "That's an excellent question. I'm not going to answer it."

He was quite witty.
posted by lumpenprole at 2:32 PM on September 20, 2006


Yep another HoL fanboy here. I've got this ordered, and it's on its way.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 2:37 PM on September 20, 2006


I eagerly requested a galley of it, but after getting it, it's probably going to be a while before I try reading it. Smonk was just calling too loudly for me.
posted by drezdn at 2:40 PM on September 20, 2006


So will Poe release a new album that's half fore-words and half back-words?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:41 PM on September 20, 2006


I don't know if I'd want to read any of this guys books, but I think maybe he should be a rapper.
posted by Citizen Premier at 2:54 PM on September 20, 2006


Okay, quasi-meta-marketing fanboys, I'll try this new book, but I am holding my expectations realistically (?) low... even the least of Wallace's work runs rings around the (just-okay) Leaves, and Infinite Jest is on a whole 'nother level(s).

But, still and again... Leaves was okay and so this should be okay too... hopefully. :)
posted by j-dub at 2:58 PM on September 20, 2006


"That's an excellent question. I'm not going to answer it."
He's cheeky like that. When signing HoL, he has been known to write, "This is for you."
(the dedication to HoL reads "This is not for you").
posted by juv3nal at 3:12 PM on September 20, 2006


Artw: At least, unlike David Foster Wallace, MZD appears to have some sort of soul and is not just an Amherst-graduated machine for spouting jargon and lording it over the reader.

God help me, I liked House of Leaves and Infinite Jest. I feel they're both interesting, and not as easily comparable to one another as some folks think. As if the presents of footnotes obviates the need for any more nuanced consideration of the goddam work.

I must have been raised wrong.
posted by cortex at 5:01 PM on September 20, 2006


Sure wun't raised to spell "presence" right, anywise.
posted by cortex at 5:02 PM on September 20, 2006


Anyone care to explain why David Foster Wallace is being tossed around here as the counterpoint to Danielewski? The latter has only written three books, and is more of an experimental writer in a way that Wallace doesn't appear to be (unless I am missing something).
posted by Pastabagel at 5:22 PM on September 20, 2006


I have the misfortune of having read House of Leaves, pretentious over-hyped waste of time that it was.

I liked it "OK," but not really enough to ever recommend it to anyone.

I don't get the DFW comparison at all, other than young, male, American writers with popular books. Oh, I suppose they both get bashed a lot by people who didn't actually read their entire book. ;)
posted by mrgrimm at 5:25 PM on September 20, 2006


Anyone care to explain why David Foster Wallace is being tossed around here as the counterpoint to Danielewski?

FOOTNOTES AND POSTMODERNISM! POSTMODERNISM AND FOOTNOTES! DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM TO THE MOST PRETENTIOUS CIRCLE OF HELL!

Or something like that. I don't really get it, but folks love to hate 'em.
posted by cortex at 5:26 PM on September 20, 2006


Anyone care to explain why David Foster Wallace is being tossed around ...

I blame nasreddin. Don't start something if you can't finish it ...
posted by mrgrimm at 5:26 PM on September 20, 2006


cortex: I'm right there with you. Love them both, but don't really see much similarity. The tie seems to be people who skim them and go "Footnotes! They're the same! Books are hard! Let's go shopping!" You can safely dismiss those people without listening to them.
posted by rusty at 6:17 PM on September 20, 2006


Weirdly I have no clue who David Foster Wallace is.
posted by Artw at 8:59 PM on September 20, 2006


Well, if footnotes are all that matter, Douglas Adams can have the cake and eat it, too. (There is no footnote eleven.)
posted by j-dub at 1:04 AM on September 21, 2006


Comparing the two is like comparing Hemingway and Kerouac because they both used periods. One more often then the other, but still, they both used them. . .
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 2:26 AM on September 21, 2006


Apparently they are making a movie of House of Leaves.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:38 AM on September 21, 2006


Pastabagel, sorry to say that's a fan-made clip. I'd love a well done movie-version, but it'd be hard to make one that rivals the one in my head.

My copy of House of Leaves is appropriately lost (an educated guess is the lower bookshelf in a friend-of-a-friend's roomate's dormroom at Oberlin College) after being dutifully carted around on my post-high school travels. I read a few pages after I pitched a tent at Meat Cove, Nova Scotia. When I woke up the next morning I saw that there was, about twenty feet from where I had slept, a sheer drop to the cold grey water below. I remember the distinct sensation that the cliff was the end of all land and that the sea didn't stretch much past the fog. The calmness of the morning contrasted to that disctinct impression of absolute finality, the feeling that I was standing at the absolute end of the world, is a memory I treasure.

/yeah, I know: GYOB
posted by now i'm piste at 8:34 AM on September 21, 2006


Ahh crap a movie. If it's Revenge of the Blair Which? Project (i), I am going to LITERATELY CRAP MYSELVES!!!!(ii)

(i) Most likely, this title actually refers to Blair Witch 2: Electric Boogaloo

(ii) See Appendix A, section ix
posted by Mister_A at 8:47 AM on September 21, 2006


I guess I raised some hackles by bringing up DFW. I'm so sorry.

I think they're similar, because they're both confronting issues of the "abyss of signification"; that is, they're dealing with poststructuralist theory proper, not simply fragmented self-referential narratives (John Barth-style). I don't know why everyone thinks I'm talking about footnotes.

Yes, I think IJ had some very effective passages; but overall, its heavyhandedness is much less tolerable than House of Leaves. At least, to me.

Also, DFW has this shitty whiteboy Beat-heir attitude that writing about his characters doing drugs makes him a badass. It just makes him look like a hack. With MZD, it's a lot more tasteful--again, in my opinion.
posted by nasreddin at 10:20 AM on September 21, 2006


Also, DFW has this shitty whiteboy Beat-heir attitude that writing about his characters doing drugs makes him a badass. It just makes him look like a hack. With MZD, it's a lot more tasteful--again, in my opinion.

WTF? The Johnny Truant passages are a near unbearable half-assed rip off of Bukowski with all their "I do drugs and shag around a lot, aren't I fascinating?" crap.
posted by Artw at 11:01 AM on September 21, 2006


I'm currently in the process of reading Only Revolutions. Definitely harder to get into than House of Leaves, but I think (for me, anyway) that it had more to do with not realizing for a few "chapters" that certain words were constantly being misspelled for a reason. Of course, I'm still trying to decipher the reason, but I least I know one exists now.

For those who are reading it/have read it... Hailey first then Sam, or Sam first then Hailey? FWIW, I'm reading Hailey's "chapters" first and I never understand what the hell she's talking about until I read Sam's part. I'm just curious if anyone else felt that way too. Almost at the half-way point now...
posted by educatedslacker at 8:43 PM on September 21, 2006


educatedslacker: It doesn't matter which one you start with. I'm reading Sam first the Hailey, and I feel the same way. Basically they're describing the same "events" (in quotes because I'm not sure anything that happens in this book can be accurately described as an event) from different perspectives. The only reason it seems to make sense the second time around is because it's somewhat familiar by then.

So far my most common feeling is "Gee, I wish I was reading HoL again." I am underwhelmed.
posted by rusty at 11:35 AM on September 22, 2006


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