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p.s. Hey. ** Armando, Hi. Yeah, very sad: Lemmy. Mm, I wouldn't say Mark's writing is much like Zac German's, no. When you read it, you'll see. It's very distinct. Well, it would be great if you ever want to guest-host a post here. It doesn't matter if people here are familiar with what you make a post about or not. Sometimes familiarity creates a golden chance for people to talk about something they already know, which can be as cool as getting introduced to something or someone new. So, yes, please do make a post about whatever you want whenever you want. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. You are obviously not alone in your preferences. I like 'End of the Road' a lot. I think of it as his 'Dubliners' in a way. The 'EotR' film was interesting, yeah. I had forgotten all about it. ** James, Hi. Same thing happened to me when I turned 60. It felt like the end of the world to me, but no one I knew thought it was the death sentence I thought it was, which was kind of good ultimately. I ain't broke up. No sweat. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Wow, what an incredible and rich 2015 favorites list/post! Amazing. Nice looking new blog there too. Nicely named as well. I only read your reflections quickly due to the obvious p.s. concentration requirements, but I'll go back and pore and make notes when I'm outta here. Thank you kindly for including 'ZHH' and 'ZCP'. Have you talked to Chris Goode lately? I haven't heard a peep from him since before the 'Weaklings' show happened. I'm wondering how all of that was for him and stuff. Anyway, ... Everyone, Serious treat in store because Thomas Moronic has put up his favorite stuff of 2015, and it's super rich and instructive and even very pretty looking. Checking it out is a must. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. You sound like you're feeling better, awesome. Silverblatt is a massive John Barth fan and, I think, studied under Barth when he was in university. I haven't talked to Jim lately, but I think the Jim-Scripted 'Sot-Weed Factor' mini-series is still in the works. Although it does seem like Soderbergh ends up doing about 1/4 of the stuff he says he's going to do. Oh, yeah, eerily, I guess, I too fear that Gass, Gaddis, Markson, and on and on are way too tough and complex for anyone but the very most adventurous readers at the moment. Or that's my sense, for sure. Even the 'less difficult' writers of that sort like Hawkes, Coover, etc. seem to have been very marginalized by readers. They still get taken seriously in the NYT and NYRB, etc., but that coverage doesn't translate into readership like it used to. It's weird to think/remember that Barth, Gass, Gaddis, others were all best-selling authors at one point. I mean, evolving tastes are what they are, and ultimately the shift in fiction tastes amongst brainy readers towards books that are up-front entertaining and quirky/edgy rather than serious/complicated is interesting and informational, but it's not the future that I imagined when I was young and learning and reading hard. ** MANCY, Hey, pal! How's it? ** Jeremy McFarland, Oh, hey, cool. You came back. Oh, I will try to write back to you if you write to me. I get these periods where I can do it, but, if I don't, well, I'm always here, if nothing else, and I always respond here. Oh, cool, about 'Courtyard' being published. I'll make a beeline to that one first. Well, I'm like you in that my first 'being published' thing was in my high school literary journal. Poems, I think. And then I started sending out to magazines, and every once in a rare while one or two poems got accepted. It took me forever to get my fiction good tough to submit to places, and it took forever for magazines to agree with me that it was good enough, ha ha. What are you working on now? Are you sending your work out to magazines and stuff? Do you mostly write short fiction? It's great to get to talk with you! ** Liquoredgoat, Hey, D! Interesting. Yeah, during my relatively short period of concentrating on Chaos Magick, it was totally for writing, to find ways to structure the writing and create layering meaning and hidden solvable/unsolvable secrets and things like that. I don't think I ever worked with it to, like, make someone fall in love with me or sleep with me or anything, although my friends who were into it at the time did use it ritually for things like that. Interesting, Anger's idea/usage of magick in his art making, for sure. I was really fascinated by that too. With Burroughs, somehow I never really believed that he believed in that aspect of his process. I don't know why. Really interesting. We should have another Skype sometime. I would love to hear more about how you use it in your work. ** S., Hey. I hear Budapest is interesting. I'm curious to go there too. Hm, interesting: 'the GIF as art of the Death Drive'. I'm gonna to think about that. I don't think I totally get it, but I want to. ** Steevee, Ah, a fellow Barth fan. High five! I wonder if his work can be made cool again in the way that things seem to need to be in order to accrue serious younger book readers. Being in charge of the revival of wider spread interest in Barth's work would be a very interesting, challenging gig. Yeah, I have a hard time with that stuff in Haneke's work too, obviously. I get that he probably does see using that as an attempted method to de-desensitize. I'm too sensitive already to know if it works. That Finnish erotica festival looks interesting, or at least the article about it does. Sounds like the Berlin Porn Film Festival that 'LCTG' got shown at, but less aggressively queer/trendy. ** _Black_Acrylic, Oh, dang. You got the holiday bug? It's going around, that's for sure. I just hope that, whatever state you're in today, there's fun to be had. ** Jeffrey Coleman, Hi, Jeff. Nice to see James's book on that list. ** Misanthrope, Hey. I remember there were kids and not-kids like you vis-à-vis 'Star Wars' merch and everything, but I never knew them. I just observed them with one raised eyebrow. Yeah, Barth was a best selling author at one point. People would buy his books and put them on their shelves because it made them feel and seem cultured and smart. I don't know if there's an equivalent at the moment. I remember when people did that with Umberto Eco's and Milan Kundera's books, but that was years ago now. The Eastern Shore sounds like a nice vacation spot. ** Rewritedept, Hi, Chris. Mm, no, I don't think I know what shotacon is unless I'm spacing at the moment. Yep, RIP John Bradbury. I don't think I ever saw the Specials live after he joined. I think I'd lost interest by the 'Ghost Town' era. I forgot all about that movie reference in 'Try'. I can't even remember what that movie is anymore. Lukas Haas rules. I saw 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,' but I don't remember the butt thing. All I remember is that it was so extremely well written (by Charlie Kaufman) and so uninterestingly directed by whoever. My yesterday was fairly busy, yes. Have fun with your friend if you didn't already. ** Right. I think today's post is probably the most something-or-other post ever, but I don't know what that something-or-other is. See you tomorrow.