Tuesday, May 31, 2016

B(oo)K!

Demeter, nurse and mother of my art, 
Let me be worthy of thy Mysteries.
-- Aeschylus from Frogs, Aristophanes 

                              http://www.conorwalton.com/images/new_images/new_rogerdepiles.jpg

It may appear that I'm spacing on this blog. That's partly true. My schedule has taken a manic turn and I don't have the time I'd like to devote to my writing here. It would be wonderful to be at this full time, but there is likely even less support out there for writers and artists than there was back when Ezra Pound was slowly drifting towards alternative economics and ultimately fascism in the hope of solving the problem of funding the arts. Pound failed in his mission, and I'm not anywhere near about to go fascist.

I am up to something, though. Several people have been prodding me for quite a while to get my blog, or parts of it, out in book form. And that's what I'm working on. I'm not sure when the actual tome will be available, but it's presently in the pipes. The main reason for doing this is to have something tangible, something to hold. I've been doing this blog for almost four years and it still seems abstract to me. It'd be nice to see it as a single, colourful object that I could cart with me to the toilet or on the train.

When I recently squeezed all of this onto a single word file, without the images, I was amazed to find that it was over 800 pages. That's a ton of work, although it doesn't seem like it to me, for an effort that could just vanish into the ether with one peck at a key. And if an event like that did happen I don't know what would happen at this end.

But can a blog be a book? Pound, again, said somewhere to never present a work in one medium that could be better expressed in another. I hope that this venture will not be a case study of this. Yet this blog is already bookish, I guess, and maybe a book can be bloggish. And so far the transition seems to be going smoothly.

And it won't be 800 pages, maybe 500 tops, but I'll try to strip it down as much as I can. I'm selecting a bunch of "posts" from the past few years and squeezing and tweaking them into "chapters." The book will also likely have three new unblogged, wholly booked, pieces: an introduction, one chapter on time and a final chapter on sex. These three will round out the book, complete or tie together a whack of themes, and hopefully provide enough of a draw for people to bother reading a book full of stuff that they might have already seen, or could see, in a blog.  

Anyway, it would be nice to hear from you about this. I keep wavering back and forth on whether this is a good idea or not. I mean, I'm going to do it anyway, but some feedback would be wonderful and a welcome spur to action. The present post has the same purpose. Fire on the ass, as one wise woman put it.

You know, I don't normally have these kind of dear reader, state of the union, posts. I usually just begin in the thick of it without much explanation or commentary, but I felt like I should at least make an appearance. Thanks for reading and commenting and challenging. I don't know exactly who I'm writing to, but I'm awfully grateful that there is anyone at all.

22 comments:

  1. I think it's a good idea and I'm hoping you do it. I have been wanting to go back through the blog and read some of the pieces I have missed; organizing it in a logical fashion, with an introduction, would really give me a chance to focus on your writing.

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  2. Sounds like a wonderful venture and I'll be happy to support it. Look forward to it!

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  3. If anyone can write a interesting, spirit filled book it is you. Look forward to reading said book. Dennis

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    1. Finally out, Dennis. Hope you're still interested after the long wait.

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  4. I would love to see your writing in print!

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    1. It's out, Doodler. Are you still going strong yourself?

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    2. Somewhat... I did receive my copy the other day. Magnificent!

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  5. I'd like to read you in book form too. Please do it! All of your stuff is good.

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    1. I finally did it. Apologies for the long wait, Michael.

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  6. I'm really thankful of the comments and suggestions, guys. This keeps me going.

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  7. I always have assumed this blog was going to be a book someday.

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  8. I've loved reading your posts, though much has been beyond me for I hadn't the patience to read Ulysses. I would still most deffo be interested in a book.

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  9. Now I won't feel like I was scheming when I was quoting you in school essays

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  12. Many of these posts are definitely ideal book chapters. I would love to read this material in book form.

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  13. I discovered your blog in 2014, and I have found it so insightful, erudite yet also intuitive, with an incredibly acute sense of creative interpretation surrounding the modern alternative scenes and, of course, the mystery itself that I actually printed off half of your blog into which I have assembled in a large binder, ordered by date, of your writings.

    However, the majority of your posts came in 2012 and 2013, and I have not had the ability to print off the sheer volume that exists within those years. I would find a book/essay compendium to be most useful and something I would certainly invest in if it were to manifest.

    Either way, thank you for your hard work and creative drive as your ability to articulate the unspeakable has helped me remember why I first ventured down the alternative road, but helped me to see it for what it was. So many of your descriptions were intuitions unmanifest in my own psyche; your work has been a healing journey for me of sorts.

    Thank you!

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    1. Hey Tony, it's out at last. I'd love to get your always insightful feedback on it.

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  14. Repeater books (used to be zero books) specialise in publishing books made out of blogs. A lot of the people in my 'blog circle' of ten years ago have put out books with them. I even signed a contract with them myself but we didn't like each other and nothing came of it.

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  15. ginger@mail.postmanllc.net

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  16. My Expression
    thanks for the blog very interesting
    I think it's a good idea and I'm hoping you do it. I have been wanting to go back through the blog and read some of the pieces I have missed; organizing it in a logical fashion, with an introduction, would really give me a chance to focus on your writing.
    thanks you!

    www.golden-slot.com
    gclub

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