Hello! I recently visited St Mark's Bookshop, with the thought of picking up a thing or two, but of course found several tasty items. Steven Zultanski is featured amongst bona-fide dinosaurs of mostly renowned stature in the newest issue of Shiny. In what is perhaps the highest-profile Lil'Norton appearance to date (feel free to correct me on this, anyone) Steve shines among favorites such as Steve Benson, Lyn Hejinian, Lisa Jarnot, Clark Coolidge, Michael Gizzi & Stephen Rodefer.
from Peaces
Bentley
Rolls
BMW
all over you
*
Touch the magic eye
book cover. Hold
it up to your face.
*
Skip class
and go
to the open mic.
*
Riven
coos
women
love Riven
play
Riven
Riven
*
Peace or Battle
PC or Mac
*
American Radicalism,
etc.
*
State Repression,
etc.
*
Movies
I've seen half of
Dune
The poem continues, getting even better in the second half, featuring mentions of both Patch Adams AND Waterworld. The Coolidge work seems to fall right in line with the recently published Counting on Planet Zero from Fewer & Further Press, tho the 4 poems in this issue of Shiny are dated like so much of his other work--a simultaneous minor/major feature to Coolidge's work foregrounding the improvisational qualities. These works feature a style similar to the two On the Nameways volumes (of which there are thousands of unpublished poems) with several key differences, namely one of style which usually finds a tab-sized gap in the middle of each of many lines, which complicates the idea of how many units of language we are encountering, or how they fit together, which is all an interesting counterpart to the relative accessibility of the newer work. There are fewer pronouns than ever, along with some nice 1 (or 2) liners & puns: "come back you/gas eater", "oh hell/a lumbertruck", "a room with a screw" & "franks and brains". It's always interesting to see where Coolidge goes, so seeing these 'new' works, almost 2 years old themselves, is a nice treat for those still following Clark closely, which frankly should be more readers, but what's new.
The Rodefer piece is sadly one that has been available on his website for a while, Lang Gaz Verlangen, though it is nice to see the work, as expected, in print. The rest of the issue is undoubtedly as rich as the portions I've already read, so far just a glance at the favorites. Friedman continues to deliver what is probably the best magazine at the moment.
Another excerpt, then followed by a list, to end this before it gets way too long. When I saw a new edition of Apollinaire's Les Onze Mille Verges I was definitely going to get it, but who knew what insane joys awaited inside? Glancing at this, the first uncensored version in English, for the first time, I randomly opened to p.32:
--Go on, shit! cried Mony.
Soon a small fragment of crap appeared, pointed and insignificant, which showed its head and immediately returned to its cavern. After that it reappeared, followed slowly and majestically by the rest of the sausage which constituted one of the fines turds a large intestine ever produced.
The shit slid unctuous and uninterrupted, ran out unruffled as a ship's cable. It dangled gracefully between the pretty buttocks which were spreading wider and wider. Soon it was swinging more markedly. The arse dilated still more, shook itself a bit and the shit fell, all hot and reeking, into Mony's hands which were held out to receive it. Then he cried: 'Stay like that!' and, leaning over, he licked her arsehole thoroughly while rolling he turd in his hands. Next he squeezed it voluptuously and smeared it all over his body. Culculine was undressing, following the example of Alexine who was stark naked and showing Mony the fat, transparent arse of a blonde. 'Shit on me!' he cried to Alexine, stretching himself out on the floor. She squatted above him, but not wholly, so he could enjoy the spectacle presented by her backside. Her first efforts resulted in forcing out a small quantity of spunk Mony had put there; then came the shit, yellow and soft, which fell in several instalments and, while she was laughing and wriggling, the shit was falling here and there all over the body of Mony, whose belly was soon adorned with several of these odoriferous slugs.
So the book entirely earns it's "For Adult Readers Only" tagline, at first glance: one-handed reading indeed. Later, a mute gets a cigarette extinguished on her nipple. The impression that I get is that, while Apollinaire is totally joking, there is joy in it, something beyond the condescension of simply writing a pornobook for dough. A must-read.
Other acquisitions include the following items:
The Sienese Shredder #2 (no need for this to be $35, btw: $25 was already plenty)
Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, by Fredric Jameson, published by Duke
Swoon Noir, from Bruce Andrews, published by Chax, 2007
glad stone children from Edmund Berrigan, from farfalla press, 2008 (a signed copy)
An Air Force, by Laura Moriarty, a cute chap from hooke press, 2007
A Test of Poetry, Louis Zukofsky, Wesleyan (not really sure why I didn't already have this)
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