The three books up for discussion this week are all, to one extent or another, abrasive. These are not always pleasant reads: whether recounting actual events or delving into the world of fiction, there are scenes to be found that can only be described as harrowing. Sean Madigan Hoen first landed on my radar over a decade ago, when I was editing a zine and reviewing a whole lot of hardcore records. His band at the time, Thoughts of Ionesco, […]
“Part of the slowness of this book was my reaction to technology. Things have sped up, in a way, with all our connectedness. Now if you want to reach a friend or relative, you can in 20 seconds. When you correspond by letter, you only have the other person’s letters, unless you’re crazy and keep copies of your own. So you always need the other person, their memory, to complete it.” Royal Young talked with Ben Greenman about his new […]
I was born in upstate New York. Eleven months later, my parents moved to the middle of New Jersey, where I came of age. I went to college in Manhattan, moved back to New Jersey for a couple of months, and then moved to Brooklyn. I’m not proud to say this, but the longest stretch of time I’ve spent outside of the New York metropolitan area has been two weeks in the late summer of 2006. Sometimes, when I’m at […]