Gore Vidal, 1925-2012
“The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.”
R.I.P.
The body is something like a universe. The mind is something like the empty space holding it all together. The bank account is something like God.
Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Brian Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed. Dettmer manipulates the pages and spines to form the shape of his sculptures. He also folds, bends, rolls, and stacks multiple books to create completely original sculptural forms.
There is likely no other publisher beside McSweeney’s who would have touched this book. McSweeney’s fetishizes book design, and the nature of The Instructions necessitates the fetishization. It could have been released serially, as a three-or-four-part series, but throughout the book, Gurion refers to the book itself as Scripture. By virtue of that, the book must necessarily have the appearance of Scripture, though The Instructions has a heft bordering on concordance-level. However, unlike most scripture, The Instructions is compulsively readable and entertaining through-and-through. It’s like being in the potential Messiah’s head for 48 hours straight. It’s exhausting, but as it nears the climax, it’s invigorating and – to borrow a word – unputdownable.
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.
First, here’s a band you’ve never heard. It’s damn good rock and roll, which - as you may already know - is the Devil’s music.
Second, there are 15 days left for you to submit your writing to Anobium: Volume 2. Give us your poetry, your prose, and your dead.
- A
With 37 backers, we’ve raised $1,055 for our Sebastian’s Relativity Campaign.
This means, only 63 copies of Sebastian’s Relativity remain! Go here to pre-order yours now! You only have twenty more days. $10 earns you a copy (w/ FREE shipping) and your name on our website. Be famous. Read a good book.
(PS: We’re going to do a contest later this week… stay tuned.)
