More Than Mere Ambiguity?

Cleanth Brooks

Carter Kaplan and I had a humorous exchange of views on the meaning of poetry. He had offered a well-written, three-paragraph anecdote on talking with his father and Cleanth Brooks about poetry and lit-crit theory, to which I responded:

I like the way rhyme and alliteration transform ordinary observations into extraordinary observations, regardless of their truth value.

In short, I like beautiful lies.

Carter retorted: Well, there are values, and then there are virtues...

To which I inquired:

How am I to read the word "then" in Carter's retort?

"Well, there are values, and then there are virtues . . ."

Do I read it temporally (sequence)? Or logically (implication)? Or differentially (contrast)?

He didn't know, he admitted, but went on to make some quite interesting points . . .

There were echoes in there . . .

Carter's Invisible Tower

Volume 1

Carter Kaplan's Echoes has arrived, and its plural title "Echoes" makes me want to say "have" arrived, but I bend my will to the correct grammar and write "has."

It actually arrived some weeks ago, and I've been in a quandary about what to do with it, but don't say "read it" because I have -- in glorious bits and pieces over the past several years, as well as again, in part, since it arrived.

But what to do with it beyond reading is more the question, like, say, where to place it. It can't forever stand there like a tourist in the upcast shadow of Haruki Murakami's IQ84, hoping for that Japanese masterpiece -- situated just out of sight left of the lower-left corner -- to cast some good fortune over its way . . .

Carter Kaplan to Give a Talk on July 2 at the WAH

WAH Private Library

WAH Center

My friend Carter Kaplan has been invited by another friend of mine, Terrence Lindall, to present the following talk at the WAH Center:

"Illustrating the Visions: Alloys of Art, Poetry, Politics, and Philosophy"

The talk will take place on Sunday, July 2, 2017 from 2:00 till 3:00 for no admission fee (directions), but the luncheon from 12:30 to 1:30 will cost $25. Kaplan is a professor of literature and philosophy, an author of fiction and nonfiction, and a publisher of international writing through International Authors (IA), and one might therefore expect him to be an overly serious man, but consider the fact that he has suggested that a number of mannikans be invited to attend his talk.

But let's get serious!

On display before, during, and after the talk will be IA books and original illustrations by renowned artists. Kaplan has informed me that he will be discussing my books Radiant Snow and the Bottomless Bottle of Beer (BBB), among other things, and Lindall will have his copy of the initial BBB text (a hard copy that I didn't edit carefully enough) and his BBB illustrations as part of the items on display. Other publications and illustrations are in Emanations and in Tasso's Creation of the World. Bienvenido "Bones" Banez, Jr. will show illustrations for E6 and other illustrations he's done for Emanations, along with a Michael Moorcock drawing. Troy Frantz will provide an illustration that he made for E5.

As for International Authors, it is a consortium of writers, artists, architects, filmmakers, and critics, and it publishes works of outstanding literary merit. Dedicated to the advancement of an international culture in literature, primarily in English, the group seeks new members with an enthusiasm for creating unique artistic expressions. For instance, there is Emanations. This is an anthology series - and I'm borrowing most of Kaplan's terminology - featuring fiction, poetry, essays, manifestos, and reviews. The emphasis is on alternative narrative structures, new epistemologies, peculiar settings, esoteric themes, sharp breaks from reality, ecstatic revelations, and vivid and abundant hallucinations - preferably, those achieved through authentic, intensive meditation rather than the less authentic, drug-induced sort, but to echo Publius Terentius Afer, "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto."

The IA editors are interested in recognizable genres - science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, local color, romance, realism, surrealism, postmodernism - but the idea is to make something new, and along these lines the illusion of something new can be just as intriguing. If a story or poem makes someone say, "Yes, but what is it?" then it's right for Emanations. Essays should be exuberant, daring, and free of pedantry. Length is a consideration in making publication decisions, but in keeping with the spirit of the project, length is "open." Emanations is a continually shifting and evolving project, and contributors should see themselves as actively shaping our editorial vision and compass

The Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters is the program that has invited Kaplan to give this talk. This Circle - and I think I'm borrowing Lindall's words here, though perhaps as filtered through Kaplan - is a program of the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (WAH Center). The Circle serves as a hub for discussion of new ideas about diverse subject matters. It is especially keen to point up intersections in areas of study that on first glance appear to be contradictory, especially in the areas of art and literature. Observations on the human experience in a receptive individual can sometimes evoke intuitive leaps of creativity, bringing forth new ideas in science, philosophy, literature, and the arts. We hope to encourage this.

The Williamsburg Circle believes that a strong education in the classical humanities is a fundamental prerequisite for good citizenship, not only in Western countries, but in every country in the world today. What is "Classical Humanities"? It is nothing less than the spiritual, ethical, and intellectual foundation for Western culture. The classics form the vibrant, interdisciplinary field lying at the heart of the liberal arts. It is the lack of a common heritage and common values that gives rise to basic conflicts among peoples. A broad education in the classical humanities can bring about a common understanding and a common set of values. Engagement with non-Western classics is also necessary, of course, and is therefore to be encouraged.

Our outstanding members serve as inspiration to young scholars whose concepts are forming and who are or will be developing projects important to our 21st century civilization.

Or so is such said . . .

UPDATE: The talk is on July 2 (not July 4).

Huang Yong Ping: Wu Zei

Wu Zei
Huang Yong Ping, Artist
Photo by André Morin
Kamel Mennour Exhibitions

The scale of this giant octopus sculpture titled Wu Zei reminds me of The Swansong, a gigantic squid-like sculpture in Philip Murray-Lawson's story "Good Deed Day," which appears in the anthology Emanations: 2 + 2 = 5, edited by Carter Kaplan.

The story's well done, too.

Troy Frantz: Two Illustrations for "The Uncanny Story"

The Brooklyn-based artist Troy Frantz supplied my recently published tale, "The Uncanny Story," with two illustrations.

This upper image is an illustration of a Gawain Seminar taught by the protagonist early in the story, a tale of temptation to set the tone for what follows:

This lower image is an illustration showing the protagonist following Agashka - one of the several other characters in the story - on their way to see Emin Ence, with whom the protagonist will perhaps sign a contract:

Both illustrations are to be found on the website of the artist, Troy Frantz, at this link. The artist's main website address is here.

My tale, "The Uncanny Story,""can be found in the most recent of the anthology series edited by Carter Kaplan, namely, Emanations: 2 + 2 = 5, available on Amazon. (Carter Kaplan is also the guiding light for International Authors.)

But before reading "The Uncanny Story," you should read its 'prequel,' The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, also available on Amazon.

Andrew Singer Reviews Emanations: Foray into Forever in World Literature Today

Magazine Title

Andrew Singer - the driving force behind Trafika Europe - has written a positive review of Emanations IV in World Literature Today, from which I excerpt:

Emanations: Foray into Forever is a refreshingly focused collection - focused by staking out a particular frequency of literature to explore. This hefty volume is the fourth in the Emanations series, which seems to be groping toward a renewed, internationalized avant-garde. Series editor Carter Kaplan has assembled fine offerings, and what unifies the whole is the specific range of experiment it hosts - now slyly unruly, now intellectual, now delighted. This is an expression of the range of Kaplan himself, in the (correct) assessment that others of us will enjoy being invited along . . . . Given its inclination, the whole is notably readable. There is an effort to balance works with generous helpings of prose that push a bit against expected narrative frames, and poetry that pushes quite a bit more than that at times . . . . There are three sections: "Tales," "Verse," and a short collection of essays, "Themes," prefaced by a deft introduction by Kaplan, titled "Out of the Hermeneutic Captivity" . . . . There are more than enough high points to make this volume a worthwhile addition to any library - something to return to whenever the muck clears . . . . No piece in this collection is representative; each is a facet compelling us toward gratefulness for such pearls.

My contribution to this fourth literary anthology is a number of poems on pages 263 through 266, namely: "Crater Lake Blues," "Before the Storm," "Ozark Indian Mound," "Day Breakin'," "Souvenirs," "Ad Age," "Trail Home," and "Natural Philosophy." I hope you enjoy these bits of times humorous, times melancholy verse.

In the upcoming volume of Emanations - fifth in the series - there will be my second story, titled The Uncanny Story, which I will post on Amazon as an ebook sometime later after reworking a few parts, which will likely make the ebook version somewhat longer.

Incidentally, World Literature Today is the literary magazine that selected the translation that Sun-Ae and I did of Yi Kwang-su's novel The Soil as one of the top 75 translations for 2013.

Michael Butterworth Exhibition: International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester

Michael Butterworth

Prior Incarnation
The One on the Left
Photo by Ben Blackall

Savoy Office 1998

My friend Carter Kaplan - the intellectual and pragmatic force behind the Emanations anthology series - has informed me of a Michael Butterworth Exhibition of writings and art that is currently taking place in Britain and may even come to America. Moreover, the first volume of Emanations is also included and on display, as seen here, though I wasn't able to download a photo (which explains the 1998 photo above).

This exhibition is sponsored by The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, and is titled the Butterworth/Savoy Exhibition, with photos visitable here on Gareth Jackson's Flicker site.

Michael published an exceptionally impressive story - "Das Neue Leben," in the first of the Emanations anthologies - that plays upon old conspiracy theories in its portrayal of Hitler as having escaped the destruction that he had brought down upon Germany and living in genteel, though obscure comfort in his jungle mansion in South America, with a faithful German as 'lover' and an enormous, sinister serpent as pet.

"Enemy Nations" Calls for Submission!

Enemy Nations

Google Images

My friend Carter Kaplan has asked me to announce that "Enemy Nations" has called for submission!

Well, I - for one - intend never to submit to "Enemy Nations"! I call on all of us to stand firm against "Enemy Nations," and . . . Eh? What's that? Emanations? Oh. The anthology. Okay, that's all right, then.

My friend Carter Kaplan has asked me to announce that Emanations has called for submissions!

Emanations is an anthology series featuring fiction, poetry, essays, manifestos and reviews. The emphasis is on alternative narrative structures, new epistemologies, peculiar settings, esoteric themes, sharp breaks from reality, ecstatic revelations, and vivid and abundant hallucinations.

The editors are interested in recognizable genres - science fiction, fantasy, horror, political dystopia, satire, mystery, local color, romance, realism, surrealism, postmodernism - but the idea is to make something new, and along these lines the illusion of something new can be just as important. If a story or poem makes someone say, "Yes, but what is it?" then it's right for Emanations. Essays should be exuberant, daring, and free of pedantry. Length is a consideration in making publication decisions, but in keeping with the spirit of the project contributors should consider length to be "open."

The deadline is February 15, 2015, and submissions should be sent to Carter Kaplan at this email address:

IAsubmissions@hotmail.com

For more details, see this site.

Trafika Europe?

Logo

There's always something new, and I suppose that this one is part of the European project, albeit not part of the EU's top-heavy bureaucracy, I gather -- and, no, it's not some organization concerned about human trafficking in Europe, though I'm guessing (since I didn't find a definition) that the word "Trafika" means "traffic," as in trafficking in literature.

In fact, my literary friend Carter Kaplan introduced me to this site, Trafika Europe, which informs us that it is an "online literary site for great new writing from across Europe in fresh English translation" and that it is intended "to maintain a literate, creative space where writers, publishers, translators and readers can meet, share their work and interact, free of borders in the shared medium of English," but that its larger aim is "to help renew the role of literature in nudging along the European conversation in culture, introduce new voices, foster collaborations and create a kind of 'community of communities,'" with the "hope that a vision of greater cooperation, mutual regard and community in European letters will continue to grow of its own accord."

How serious is this? Well, they started as a printed literary journal and have published some big names:

Czeslaw Milosz, Tomaz Salamun, Natasza Goerke, Don DeLillo, Mohammed Choukri, Ales Debeljak, Anna Swir, Gyorgy Konrad, Peter Nadas, Denis Johnson, Uche Nduka, Eleni Sikelianos, Yusef Komunyakaa, Martin M. Simecka, Hanoch Levin, Tor Ulven, Ilona Lackova, and Javiar Marias.

Among others. I'll try to look into this further . . .

Acting Crazy?

Emanations: Foray into Forever
Amazon

Various contributors to Emanations: Foray into Forever contributed further to literary eminence through a dialogue of crazed characters, i.e., ourselves, beginning with praise for Carter Kaplan as the mind behind the Emanations series, and I therefore post a particular sequence from a longer list:

Elkie Riches: Congratulations Carter, you made it through another anthology without regaining your sanity.

Terrance Lindall: RIGHT ON ELKIE! Peter Dizozza and I had a contest recently: "Who's Craziest?"

Elkie Riches: That surely is a contest worth viewing. Unfortunately our general election is not until next year.

Terrance Lindall: Well Carter! We are all up to it next year! "CRAZY EMANATIONS!" Even Bien if he is not in the mental ward along with Dizozza. Maybe a theme 4+4=5??????

Vitasta Raina Shrinagesh: (2.236) Squared.

Horace Jeffery Hodges: Crazy Math? Hah! Just follow my reasoning:

1/0 = infinity.
Hence:
1 = 0(infinity)
and:
2/0 = infinity.
Hence:
2 = 0(infinity)
Therefore:
1=2
QED

Who says I can't divide by zero or multiply by infinity? Mr. Euclid said parallel lines never meet, but they do meet -- at infinity! As Mr. Noneuclid has shown! He was called crazy, too, but look how important Noneuclidean geometry is now! And if infinity worked for Mr. Noneuclid, it can work for me. And as for zero, why it's nothing, and how can anyone object to nothing?

Jeffery Hodges

PS One implication of my approach is that 2 + 2 = 5 .

Vitasta Raina Shrinagesh: Limits :)

Horace Jeffery Hodges: A calculated reply . . .

Vitasta Raina Shrinagesh: Yes sir, it was :)

Horace Jeffery Hodges: Still . . . what I said would be true if it weren't so funny!

Vitasta Raina Shrinagesh: It is true. It's the basis of string theory I think.

Horace Jeffery Hodges: Oops, I just realized I've been talking to you alone -- and all that time I was playing for the audience!

Well, string theory is beyond my ken. I can't even make decent jokes about it!

Vitasta Raina Shrinagesh: Oh. And I thought you were talking to me :(

Horace Jeffery Hodges: Fate decided that I was! One cannot evade the fortunes of fate!

Vitasta Raina Shrinagesh: Indeed.

My mistake was when I neglected to click "Reply All" -- clicking "Reply" only in response to Vitasta's response "Limits :)"! But given that fate brought us to converse, I asked Vitasta about her writing . . . but that topic would not fit today's theme: "Acting Crazy!" So, I'll stop here.

Emanations: Foray into Forever

Emanations: Foray into Forever
Editor - Carter Kaplan
Amazon

Carter Kaplan's Emanations Four anthology is now in print, and I see the title makes two puns on "Four"! Kaplan announced its publication in several ways, first by contacting the authors:

On behalf of the International Authors Board of Editorial Advisors, I am happy to announce that Emanations: Foray into Forever is now available on Amazon. Please pass the word . . .

Consider it passed! Kaplan also posted an announcement on the Milton List:

On behalf of the International Authors Board of Editorial Advisors, I am happy to announce that Emanations: Foray into Forever is now available.

There are several Milton connections. Foremost is the book's epigraph, which is taken from PL Book 2. The poetry selections include a dialogue between Adam and Satan from the libretto to the opera Paradise Found by Peter Dizozza, as well as a re-telling of a story from the Divine Comedy by frequent Milton List participant Dario Rivarossa. Jeffery Hodges also brings to bear a Miltonic perspective in many of the poems he has published in the anthology.

Miltonic? Me? Well, maybe in some poems I've written over the years, but the selection in this anthology? Not so much. Here's a sample of the sort to expect:

Crater Lake Blues

A blue, blue, blue Olympian eye;
The blue of arctic ice, refracted sky;
The blue of coolly burning distant love;
The blue in which all lonesome blues dissolve.

Long-time readers will likely recall this poem, which is with a selection of my poems linked to on my sidebar under "Poetry Breaks: Some of My Poems." For something Miltonic, the interested reader will need to check out my novella The Bottomless Bottle of Beer. Now back to Kaplan's Emanations announcement:

Elkie Riches has a story about people who carry their souls on their backs in wicker baskets, but when the baskets are opened . . . well. Again, it is something that Miltonists will especially appreciate. Otherwise, the descriptions in the volume of ancient gardens, chaos, cosmic space, the afterlife, psychological confusion, alienation, and other expressions of the human condition will certainly seem familiar to people who know Milton.

Please pass the word . . .

It's passed again! He also announced the anthology on his blog:

Emanations: Foray into Forever is now available . . .

And word passed . . .

Phillip Somozo on Emanations: Third Eye

My friend Terrance Lindall -- artist and provocateur -- forwarded a recent review by art and literary critic Phillip Somozo of last year's literary anthology Emanations: Third Eye, which in part is praise of the artist "Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr." and in part is praise of writer and literary critic Carter Kaplan, though also in part critique of them both! I will focus on the positive:

Book Review

Emanations: Third Eye anthology by International Authors introduces Surrealmageddon of Davao surrealist

By Phillip Somozo

Surrealmageddon (surreal + Armageddon), a term Banez coined to describe his phantasmagoric vision of the final battle between good and evil, was picked up by books author Carter Kaplan who used it as introductory title for his anthology Emanations: Third Eye, third of a series. This reviewer is motivated by Kaplan's reception of Banez's Surrealmageddon to scrutinize the former's introduction to Emanations: Third Eye.

Carter Kaplan is an American professor who had taught English and Philosophy for 30 years in many U.S. Colleges and in Scotland. He is a poet and had written a number of novels with philosophical and mythological themes.

Describing Banez as "pioneering philosopher of Surrealmageddon," Kaplan considers the Dabawenyo's vision of apocalyptic psychedelia as "a catalytic spec floating in the global crucible of morphing civilizations." What shapes the future, Kaplan rationalizes, is the global consumerist culture and he admits it doesn't seem very bright. Self-destruction, he elaborates, is built-in in the Homo s. sapiens because of greediness which, in the civilized world, is considered "not insanity." Kaplan's introduction, in effect, also concludes his interpretation of the anthology (subtitled Art of Ecstasy and the Ecstasy of Experiment) in the context of collective human thought deciding its own destiny. It is remarkable Kaplan corroborates Banez's cataclysmic semanticism.

The union of the terms surreal and Armageddon, a brilliant etymological updating, by Banez, modernized its semantic significance by redefining modernism's pinnacle to which society prophetically (and now affirmed by Kaplan's sound psychosocial arguments) is heading. The term could had been invented by Saint John the Apostle two millennia ago, if only John had knowledge of modern behavioral psychology and social dialectics. Bridging the gap between Prophet John and hermeneutic surrealist Bienvenido "Bones" Banez is artistic evolution.

Yet, I am sure not everyone agrees with Kaplan and Banez, not the inventors of artificial life-support systems (e.g. biotech, genetic engineering, transhumanism) who aim to perpetuate human life regardless if they have to alter nature, and the vested corporates who tweaked the nostril of the planetary Tao so that it has been desperately sniffing for the vanishing direction to its future since Modernism dawned.

There is more, much more, all of it somewhat obscure, though discernible with some effort, but I've received no website address, so I've nothing to link to. Part of my interest is that some of my poetry appears in the anthology, which can be ordered here.

I suppose this is less obscure for me than for some of my readers because I'm familiar with the individuals and their ideas -- and also because I've been reading a bit about "biotech, genetic engineering, [and] transhumanism" lately . . .

Carter Kaplan: Amazing Amazon Review of My Novella

A third review has appeared on my novella's Amazon site. Titled "Brilliant... and somewhat frightening," this one is by Carter Kaplan, who awards five stars and says, in his inimitable way:

Horace Jeffery Hodges' novella "The Bottomless Bottle of Beer" is many things: an entertaining fantasy and a romping good read, a post-postmodern meditation on contemporary culture, an excursion through the art of literary allusion (the use of Russian literature is particularly notable and ingenious), and a sophisticated (and seamless) philosophical examination of the complex interrelationships among legal philosophy, linguistics, theology, and the phenomenon of ethical choice. This latter is for me the most intriguing and the most frightening aspect of the story. Hodges very successfully argues that moral choice lies at the center of the problem of the human condition, and he drives home his point -- without metaphysics and without moralizing -- that our situation in the Cosmos is precarious indeed; and that recent progressive claims for the transformation of society and the human race through a postmodern revolution in consciousness are premature, naive, self-deluding, and very possibly self-destructive. But this is not to say that the story suffers from didacticism or a burden of turbid ethical arguments. The story is delightfully playful and entertaining. Hodges offers a richly-conceived world that is precisely (and superbly) rendered through plot, character and word-play. Fluent, canny and electric, Hodges is an expert story teller: here is a streaming fountain of amazing and poignant images that are haunted by astonishing and challenging ideas. Set in a world that is familiar but also slyly, vaguely and then suddenly fantastic, "The Bottomless Bottle of Beer" is suggestive of H.P. Lovecraft (who is subtlety alluded to in the story) in his arch and ironic mode. There is an odd darkness here, but rising up from beneath that darkness there is a humor that is as startling as it is amusing. Highly recommended.

I'm beginning to see a pattern to these reviews -- their authors are a lot smarter than I am, for they see more in my story than I realized was there! They're also all friends of mine, which might predispose them toward favorable reviews, but I don't think they'd be quite so favorable if they didn't mean what they say.

But I know I'm sure sometime to get some reviewers who don't like the story . . .

Emanations: Third Eye is almost ready . . .

Carter Kaplan has okayed a pre-official announcement of the upcoming Emanations release:

I am happy to report that Emanations: Third Eye is nearing completion. I hope to begin the process of making a proof copy next week. I have attached low res copies of Kai Robb's visionary cover art, which, I think you will agree, is wonderfully compelling and attractive. I hope everyone will join me in congratulating Kai for his great work! Please post the front cover image in your blogs, web sites, Facebook pages, and so on. An "official" announcement will go out when the book is available on Amazon. I think people are going to be happy with what we have produced. The writing in Emanations: Third Eye is truly outstanding.

Carter is absolutely correct about the writing in this year's issue of the Emanations anthology. The quality is superb, as I can confirm from the proofing that I just finished giving the four-hundred-page-plus manuscript. The illustrations are also excellent. Here's the front cover art by Kai Robb:

There's obviously a fantasy sci-fi aspect to this front cover. Let's check the back cover:

This back cover's more decidedly fantasy than sci-fi, but the writings within are both and more! For those readers who can't make out the blurb on the back, here it is:

Emanations

The Art of Ecstasy

We conceive three personae, all
drawing form and substance from
distant wells that gush forth as fleet
images and liquid myth, revealing
our manifold selves: First, the calculus
of mechanism in space. Second, living
breath drawn from the continuum of
eroding time-shifting principle of a
vegetating Cosmos. Finally, the third
self, the third I, the ocular stage upon
which we perceive this enfolding
process. Here all aspiration shall find
fulfillment in sentient manifestations.
Behold, a myriad of ancient shapes in
mathematical eternity, mental rebirth,
and furious sunbursts of curious
ambition: the audacious call of our deep,
assured, and long-echoing emanations.

Translated, that means we've published two volumes of this anthology already, and this is the third one, all three being called "emanations" because they flow from our authorial selves. Or something like that. I think.

I'll let readers know more when Carter clears the copy for official release . . .

Already Movie Talk?

Trailer

I daren't dream at this initial stage, but that's not stopping Terrance Lindall and Carter Kaplan, who are already talking "movie" -- as this post by Carter testifies:

There has been back channel discussion about making a film (possibly an animation) of Horace Jeffery Hodges' short novella, "The Bottomless Bottle of Beer", which was published in Emanations: Second Sight. At this point we need investors, then we'll hire a studio, animators, voice actors, and away we go . . .

I envy these two for their energy and practical skills. I'm just a writer, but they are both artistic and practical! If anybody can accomplish it, these two can!

But first, the novella . . .

UPDATE: In case Carter's link to the video isn't working, here's another, direct link to the video.

Carter Kaplan, "Patient Zero," Emanations: Second Sight

Carter Kaplan the Younger
Mountain State University
Beckley, West Virginia

The photo above is of my friend Carter Kaplan when he was elsewhere than where he now is, and both younger and smaller, as you can unclearly see. I'm currently reading his story "Patient Zero," in Emanations: Second Sight, which you can find at Amazon and search inside of. But here's a sample already:

Tower agents Bronson Bodine, Vitaly Yurchenko and Nabnak Tornasuk walked upside-down across the roof. Terrorists, perhaps? Quaint notion. To those drawing their life breath from the miasma of global espionage, they were something far more sinister. They crept along the wall, away from the roofs of the press boxes where they had been hiding since the afternoon. Bronson Bodine led the way, and as he moved forward, kicking his elaborate boots into the ceiling, he represented a kind of alternative Great Announcer commenting on their surroundings, now describing the chemistry of fuel mixtures, then speculating upon the identity of the Great Announcer, then explaining -- rather dryly and with that characteristic touch of winsome Bodine irony -- that the Silverdome was roofed-over with a flexible polymer derived from a quality GMO corn product formulated by the technology-of-tomorrow. Like their spirits, the roof floated on the air pressure inside the great arena. His friends grunted unevenly at his witticisms, their attention focused on their inverted situation and their walking gear. Barbed spikes mounted on the agents’ boots poked in and out of the fabric as they marched across the floor of the inverted world. They controlled the spikes with rubber squeeze bulbs hanging from the sleeves of their camouflage jumpsuits. Earlier they had taken ZR-7-12, a compound that lowered their blood pressure to prevent inversion narcosis and unconsciousness. Unfortunately, it also elevated the propensity of the human brain to construe allegorical associations -- not so much hallucinations as ideas, which are even worse because their reality is based on thought itself.

Something like science fiction, this passage from near the beginning would be clearer in its context, but just to help clarify, the three agents are on a mission to rescue their friend Eddie Allan, who has been tortured and is on display below so that the crowd can watch him die as the official Great Announcer relates those tortuous events taking place in the Silverdome.

Will our incipient heroes succeed in their rescue mission? Purchase the anthology and find out . . .

Leslie McMurtry, "The Revolutionary"

Snaggletooth

(Pug Dog)

Kay Wyne

I've borrowed this image from the Kay Wyne Fine Art Blog, which features the art of Kay Wyne, so click on over to see what you like. I needed an image of a pug for today's blog entry, and this particular one looked crafty enough for my purposes.

Those purposes relate to a clever short story by Leslie McMurtry, "The Revolutionary," published in Carter Kaplan's Emanations: Second Sight, and the story begins like this:

You might conjecture that, having attained a mode of life which gave me comfort and security, I would have declared myself satisfied. There is no doubt that this should have been the case, but I was always a little excessive in my own ambitions. They might have even been said to have been above my station, but when your height is as little as mine, you'll find little that isn't above you.

For example, when young Fanny Price came to Mansfield -- I was not much older than her then. At my point of vantage it was not difficult to see how she trembled, from fear and shyness, not from pettishness; from long study attained by my often motionless state, I could see how environment and not nature had made her physically deficient from her cousins, who had grown up with the advantage of clear air and sunshine unmitigated by city smoke. All this was a matter of note to me but merely from a clinical vantage point, as I was then a voracious reader and sought to make my tedious idle time more usefully employed by reading.

This was the start of it, as will not surprise you. It was deemed not natural for a person such as myself to have access to Sir Thomas' vast library, which Lady Bertram herself disdained and was not available to others of my sex, though even before the advent of Fanny, Tom and Edmund Bertram made full use of it. I therefore did not advertise my literacy to a soul. It had been hard enough to come by in the first place -- there was no governess nor even a parson to impart the alphabet to me. It would have been absurd to set a hornbook before me, so I contented myself with silent, secret study. But as misery loves company, so too does erudition wish to make itself known. There was a time, not long before Fanny's arrival, when I did attempt to voice my astonishment and try to share the wisdom I was imbibing -- with everyone -- the lower servants, the coachman, the bailiff, and even Sir Thomas. But as I was in this period reckoned Very Bad, and likely to be removed forever from Lady Bertram's favor if I did not resume my proper place, I learned to hold my tongue. (pages 28-29)

That ought to be sufficient to testify to the quality of this story (though one appreciates it even more if one's read Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park) and thus also to the quality of this year's Emanations anthology.

I won't give away the dire secret of the character relating the story, but every reader should know to beware the unreliability of first-person narrators.

Terrance Lindall: The Church of the Apostates!

Descending

The Church of the Apostates!
Terrance Lindall

My artist friend Terrance Lindall is being guided by the muse these days, a rather wild, amusing muse, for he's currently working on wondrous illustrations, like the one above, which presses upon the boundaries of my story, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer:

Again, unfinished, But gives you the idea. As I am doing these [illustrations], ideas pop up, I sort of thought that the place below [the shop] was Satan's church. The motto being "Lead us into temptation," as opposed to the Lord's Prayer "Lead us NOT into temptation." Here Em initiates the Apostates, as with the Naif with BEER!

Probably overstepping the bounds of your story? Am I getting too wild for you Jeffery?

I had no objections, quite the opposite, so I wrote back:

Terrance, it fits my story fine.

Add as many literary allusions to other Satanic stories and religious references dealing with the devil as you wish, e.g., in Dan Webster's library, which could contain all sorts of books, including Terrance Lindall's illustrated Paradise Lost, Carter Kaplan's Emanations 1, and Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors (which has the story "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" -- not yet read by Webster, so put it on a shelf of texts awaiting reading, along with such self-referential textual allusions as Emanations 2 and The Bottomless Bottle of Beer!).

I like the allusion to Mark Twain's story "The Mysterious Stranger" in the words "Lead us into temptation." I also like the Naif's obliviousness to Satan's church. Feel free to go hog wild! I like it! You might even set my imagination free for future stories!

Don't forget, however, that the left side of the path soon becomes a bottomless pit, but there are all sorts of artistic allusions possible with that, such as Dante descending into hell, or religious allusions, e.g., to the imagery in the "Book of Revelation."

Terrance liked these suggestions and took me up on my offer:

Hog wild it is! I did not have time to focus on your BBB until now. I will even stick Bob Wickenheiser, Banez and Kaplan in there!

In that case, put our two images in as well -- perhaps as passers-by on the street, or a couple of patrons in the Witch's Brew!

Carter Kaplan's Anthology Published: Emanations: Second Sight

Emanations: Second Sight

Amazon

The anthology Emanations: Second Sight, edited by the poet and novelist Carter Kaplan, is now in print and available through Amazon! Despite reaching about 400 pages, the price is only about 13 dollars!

Unfortunately, there's no "Look/Search Inside the Book" -- not yet anyway -- so the stories, poems, and essays can't be previewed before ordering . . . though that may change after I check with Carter.

I haven't seen the hard copy yet, but when I receive one, I'll perhaps say more. For the moment, I can affirm that it has the short story version of my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, with three illustrations by Terrance Lindall, just in case any reader is interested.

Dario Rivarossa -- a regular commentator here -- has contributed many illustrations to the anthology, including his reinterpretation of Paradise Lost. See his announcements, here and here.

Terrance Lindall Toasts The Bottomless Bottle of Beer

Toasting the Bottomless Bottle of Beer

WCIAL "Publishing for a New Age" Team

Avant garde surrealist artist Terrance Lindall recently convened a meeting of the WCIAL members committed to "Publishing for a New Age." As you see, they gathered in a restaurant where -- or so Terrance informs me in an email with the above photo attached -- they toasted my story The Bottomless Bottle of Beer (BBB). The published book will of course be as much Terrance's as mine since some fifty illustrations of his depicting the ten characters will appear therein, bringing the novella to over 100 pages.

Terrance is the distinguished-looking white-haired man in the near right of the photo, and therefore closest to the viewer. The other three members visible counterclockwise starting at Terrance's right are holographic artist Sam Moree, artist, musician, and filmmaker Peter Dizozza, and design artist Orin Buck. Also, in the lower left corner can be seen the aesthetic hand of electrifying painter and sculptor Bienvedo Bones Banez, a fifth member of the publishing team.

Neither I nor Carter Kaplan were able to make this meeting, nor were we expected to, but Carter is a strong supporter of my story and will be pre-publishing it soon in somewhat shorter form, with only four of Terrance's illustrations, in his IA anthology Emanations II. Here are Carter's recent remarks about the BBB in an email to Terrance (cc'd to me) concerning the story's potential appeal to readers:

BBB is a superb bit of work. I don't know if it is me -- and Jeffery and I have already discussed how the story affects people in different ways -- but, my goodness, if you go just below the surface and experience the story "out there" in imagination land, well, I find it very frightening. Isn't that curious? Anyway, as a piece of literary art, it covers all the bases.

That was satisfying to hear, and I hope that Carter's correct about its appeal (though I didn't realize the tale was "frightening"!). Readers will recall that I've posted a few brief selections from the story, but here's another passage that I think I've not previously posted, a scene that follows events on a city bus where the clownish Koroviev forcefully introduced himself and hurried our hapless 'hero' along to Café Griboyedov for cups of coffee and other, more mysterious things:

I caught a brief glimpse of a large red sign with golden Cyrillic script that must have read "Café Griboyedov," as Koroviev dragged me inside. The café was large, spacious, packed; my traveling companion seemed to know everyone as he grasped hands in greeting while we made our way to a table inexplicably free of patrons. I tried to focus on what the tall fellow was telling me about each individual he greeted but could scarcely hear above a loud, jazzed-up version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." And waiters! Griboyedov had waiters! Bearing trays laden with cups and saucers high above their heads, they pushed their way among the patrons, hoarsely shouting, "Izviní!" Dropping the ordered cakes and coffees down onto tables with a clunk, sweeping used cups, saucers, and silverware clattering onto their trays, dumping loads of used dish- and silverware roaring into sinks, shouting out orders for various coffees and cakes. In short, pandaemonium.

The story is intertextual, alluding to other works of literature, often quite directly, and readers who've read Mikhail Bulgakov's famous novel The Master and Margarita will recognize the inspiration for this scene (and I'm indebted to Meergul of Kyrgyzstan, a waitress in Seoul's Craftworks Taphouse, for the Russian word "izviní," which means something like "pardon."). Anyway, you can read the anthology version later this year in IA's Emanations II, as noted above. WCIAL's "Publishing for a New Age" version will take more time since Terrance will want to work on producing the finest of illustrations. His standards are high, and he intends to finish fifty images, at the least.

The book, therefore, might take another year or two . . .