Table-talk of Parkus Grammaticus for March 24, 2008

I. Dizzyhead Alex and other youngbloods have started a rather dazzling new online journal called Triple Canopy. (Not the least of its charms is the delightful navigation device.) Wayne Koestenbaum, Sheila Heti, and Diane Williams are among the marquee names. I don't quite know what the title means. The introduction is nicely inscrutable. I look forward to clicking the "+" sign repeatedly!

II. I finished a book! A book I didn't have to review! The Soul Thief! Charles Baxter! (Fans of the radio show Bookworm should read this book.) I appreciated the Buffalo setting—and, arggg, he beat me to it: his characters visit a vertiginous work of visual art from my past, Lucas Samaras's Mirrored Room at the Albright-Knox art gallery. Check it out:



I still want to use it in my novel, The Dizzies. Is that OK? (Thanks to Dizzyhead Gautam for sending it my way.)

III. Dizzyhead Christine adds to the Ouroboric archive with her delightful egg:



IV. Will the weird tragedy of jumping ray help retire the phrase "jumping the shark"?