Eyjafjalla: Art futures

The Scream a result of Krakatoa...Frankenstein a result of Mt. Tambora...

Table-talk of Parkus Grammaticus for February 25

I. ARG: With the passing of Robbe-Grillet, it's time to re-read Dizzyhead Bill's review of AR-G's Repetition, from the PTSNBN:

Repetition is the high concept that made Robbe-Grillet's reputation. In his first novel, The Erasers (1953), he devoted many paragraphs to a pointlessly repetitious description of the configuration of seeds in a slice of tomato. The equally redundant description of the rows of banana trees in 1957's Jealousy was such an outrage to conservative critics that it was read for laughs on French radio. These notorious passages have given Robbe-Grillet a reputation as a difficult author; in America, he is more known of than read. The actual effect of the repetitious passages is playfully hypnotic, roughly the way that Morton Feldman's music is. Long before the Internet, Robbe-Grillet recognized that we all live in a world of senseless and irrelevant information, one lacking grand narratives.

II. And speaking of bananas...

III. Realized this weekend that the books in my reading queue form a spinal narrative!
The Explosionist (J. Davidson)
The Flash Press (eds. Cohen, Gilfoyle, Horowitz)
Human Smoke (N. Baker)

The birds in your garden

Pulp fiction: Jarvis Cocker talks to artist and author Harland Miller, about HM's paintings inspired by old paperbacks.

Jarvis Cocker: So. You've got Penguin books, Pelican and Puffin, and then these lesser-known series, like Falcon and this Ptarmigan book, which I bought second-hand ages ago now, on How to Master the Game of Bridge - something I thought I'd learn to do when Pulp was on tour, so I could play it on the bus, while away the time between towns, gigs. I never did, and I guess I never will now, so you can have it if you want.

Harland Miller: Really? Thanks, that's great. You know, all the time I've spent trawling second-hand bookshops, I've never seen one of these Ptarmigans before.

JC: They're obviously fairly rare, quite like ptarmigans themselves, who hang out in Scottish mountains, according to Bill Oddie. But why would you choose ptarmigans? Do you know why they chose a penguin for Penguin books?

(Via Weekend Stubble)

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Charles McGrath looks at Philip K. Dick's entry into the Library of America. (In the print edition yesterday, the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was mysteriously shortened to Do Androids Dream? throughout.)

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Related?

Do electric toothbrushes really work better than regular ones?

The Fat Superboy

Weekend Stubble-ites have already seen this:



Dizzyhead Brent sends this paean to heft:


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Dizzyhead Douglas is eating every edible plant he hasn't yet eaten: "Cardoons look a bit like taller, wider celery, but they're actually part of the thistle family, and indeed their taste is not entirely unlike artichokes, if not in that neighborhood of divinity."

Via Paper Thin Walls, here's this great Elliott Smith cover site—my song of the day is "Care of Cell 44," but I also recommend the Big Star covers—check out "Nighttime," which I coincidentally (and spur-of-the-momentously) had named one of my top five songs of...forever last month! (Is that me or...Fat Superboy?)