RECENTLY I did an interview with Wred Fright for Patrick King and the Mugwump Corporation. Much scattered thoughts about some crazy times, a slice of literary history.
With gigantic monopolistic corporations more powerful than ever-- dominating the culture-- alternative voices and ideas are more important than they've ever been. Needed: credible indie scenes, of the kind the Underground Literary Alliance once so capably represented. Culture belongs to everybody!
A reminder that, when I’m slow at posting new material here, the best source for my thoughts on today’s literature is my collection of five ebooks.
-The most recent of the group, The McSweeneys Gang, while part satire and part mystery story, also contains many opinions and observations about the current literary world, and about the direction of American literature.
-My e-novel The Tower, an examination of a protest, contains a more subtle array of observations (though much of the plot is over the top). Included, for instance, is a chapter about a cultural hipster.
-One of the tales in the trilogy Mood Detroit contains a scene set at a literary reading. Another story, about two female rock musicians, could be seen as an analogy to the lit world.
-Crime City USA is a pulpish novella about a corrupt city. What’s more corrupt than today’s literary world? Is not “Fake Face” a recognizable character?
-Ten Pop Stories contains an array of new approaches to the American short story, which in the hands of workshop scribblers has, as an art form, been stuck at a dead end the past fifty years. New approaches are demanded.
The great thing about these five ebooks is they’re available at Nook Books or the Kindle Store, or on associated apps. The five ebooks are also ridiculously affordable. There’s no excuse for not having them in your ebook collection—representatives of a tiny corner of literary dissent. Read them before they’re taken down! In style and thought they’re unlike anything being published on-line or off.
