D&D or the Memory of Childhood

The Complete Review takes a look at Sean Manning's anthology Bound to Last, which features my piece on the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Among Park's observations: the influence of Appendix N, "Inspirational and Educational Reading", where: "Gygax lists 28 authors who had the biggest influence on the creation of D&D" -- many of whose books Park later sought out, though he notes: "The titles were enough. Playing D&D could create the adventures like the ones contained in those novels." (Amusingly, Park also notes he didn't actually play the game that much -- but that the book about it so fascinated him.)
Park also has a nice observation on the lingering influence of such influential works read in youth:

I keep meaning to read Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual. But I don't, maybe because I want it to be the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Crime A User's Manual

From Linksmeister General Thomas—this is playing on Monday at Film Forum:

SÉRIE NOIRE

(1979, Alain Corneau) Slang-slinging salesman Patrick Dewaere murders the aunt of his girlfriend (Jean-Louis’s doomed daughter, Marie Trintignant) to settle those pesky debts, but then itchily open-palmed Bernard Blier seems to know all too much about it. Adapted from Jim Thompson’s A Hell of a Woman by experimental novelist Georges Perec in a conversational style that mingles verlan (back slang), newly-liberated profanity, bits of English, and elements of almost too-classy French. Approx. 110 min.

Jim Thompson + Georges Perec?!

Dizzies Newsfeeds™ for September 5

New Believer is out!...Mediabistro has an article ("Scoring an Article at Your Dream Pub") about an article in this issue (Jason Boog's excellent "Skinning the Americans"), which I can't read, as it's behind a subscription wall; it possibly contains some quotes from me...who knows?!...Really cool piece on Borges by Gustavo Turner...Some Psychic activity...Alter-Ed has news of Nicholson Baker's upcoming book...(I guess you can't say he never does the same book twice—A Box of Matches and Room Temperature were perhaps variations on the strategy of The Mezzanine—but his range is impressive and I'm thinking about Perec these days and Baker might be one of the more Perecqian writers working today, in terms of appetite, range? This new book is "an 800-page opus"!...vs. the superslim Checkpoint, which really would work as a playlet)...("writers working today" = FormulaWatch™ would not be pleased!)...Want to inaugurate a new meme/contest via Jenny D but will do so next week...Sure, it's preaching to the converted, but this might be the hottest Atkinson blog post yet..."smirking Barbary ape"..."every limb-scattered intervention"..."teeters on the cliff-edge of nonsense"...This Poetry Foundation podcast is pretty great (listening to New Yorkers read aloud from those "Poetry in Motion" things on the subway)...

Chongqing Express — Georges Perec

Lawrence Weschler should do a "convergences" piece on these images, no? (Second one comes from this article.)

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"It is always the one against the many, with the enemy fungible and all the world a weapon: not just axes and arrows, the 3-Section Whip and the 8 Chop Swords, but fans and fabric shears, benches and banisters, rags and roofing and rope." —Parkus Grammaticus

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Dizzyhead Jason informs me: It's Georges Perec week over at Dennis Cooper's blog—some links:

1) A quick bio.
2) GP on the "infra-ordinary."
3) Some thoughts of his on the art of the crossword.
4) The amazing chess-move structure of his novel Life A User's Manual.
5) A sample of his lipogram in e, A Void.

There's much more, so check it out if you're interested...