In our weekend reading: thoughts on Juan Martinez’s new novel, fiction by John Madera, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Roxane Gay on 2022, Braniac’s Return, Anna Badkhen’s Latest, and More
In our afternoon reading: Roxane Gay recommends books, talking with Pete’s Reading Series, and more.
Morning Bites: Cole Pulice’s Music, Books as Monuments, John Langan’s Fiction, and More
In our morning reading: exploring Cole Pulice’s ambient jazz, revisiting a novel by John Langan, and more.
Who Writes “The Writer”? Mallory Smart, That’s Who.
When I first heard about the AI program, ChatGPT, I didn’t think too much of it. You type in a question, and it gives you an answer. You give it commands and it responds in kind. I assumed it would be a hyped-up program that would be trendy for a bit then fizzle out, like the AI profile pics I had been seeing. I was wrong, as I often have been about these kind of things (I didn’t think Facebook or Netflix would last very long). Then I saw people posting whole essays written by the program. During a conversation with my brother-in-law, I suddenly saw the potential for writers to use this as a creative new tool. I could write a book much faster. I put that thought on the backburner. Maybe it would be a project for a rainy day. But I knew that this program wasn’t going to fizzle out. Then shortly before the start of the new year, Mallory Smart tweeted that she would be releasing a human/AI collaboration book on New Year’s Eve. My first thought was that the literary world is about to change. My second thought was, I need to talk to Mallory about this.
Édouard Levé and Absence
Sometimes it’s the absent things that affect me most. But then, what does absence mean? As I write this, I’m alone in my apartment, surrounded by absence, and yet a whole array of nominally absent people, places, and things preoccupy my mind. Some are friends and family I spoke with yesterday; others are spaces that have long since been demolished. Maybe, then, this is the key: the line between presence and absence is no line at all. It’s a matter of perception, or of definition.
Morning Bites: Revisiting Kathy Acker, Eric LaRocca Interviewed, Joe Vallese on Horror, and More
In our morning reading: revisiting Kathy Acker’s work, an interview with Eric LaRocca, and more.
Skulls, Detectives, and the Texas Surreal: Robert Freeman Wexler on Writing “The Silverberg Business”
There’s a point early on in Robert Freeman Wexler‘s novel The Silverberg Business where you might have an idea of where things are heading. Protagonist Shannon is on the trail of a man who disappeared with money intended to benefit Jewish refugees in 1880s Texas. A detective, hot on the trail of an elusive target — it’s the stuff of classic private detective fiction, right? And then a group of skull-headed people show up and, as the saying goes, things get weird. After reading the novel, I was immediately intrigued and sought out Wexler to learn more about the book’s origins — and the music and art that helped inspire it.
Morning Bites: Meg Baird Interviewed, Reading Rituals, Walter Mosley’s Language, and More
In our morning reading: an interview with Meg Baird, thoughts on reading rituals, and more.