The blog of author Dennis Cooper

DC’s Writers Workshop #10: Math Tinder ‘Decorator’

—-
Welcome back to DC’s Writers Workshop. This is the tenth in a series of days on the blog where writers who are part of the blog’s community will present work-in-progress in search of the opinions, responses, advice, and critiques of both readers who don’t normally post comments here and local inhabitants of this place. I ask everyone to please read these works with the same attention you give the normal brand of posts here and respond in some way in the comments section below. Obviously, the closer your attention and the more you’re able and willing to say to the writer the better. But any kind of related comment is welcome, even a simple sentence or two indicating you read the piece of writing and felt something or other about it would be helpful. The only guideline I’m going to give out regarding comments is that any response, whether lengthy or brief, praise filled or critical or anywhere inbetween, should be presented in a spirit of helping the writer in question. I’ll be responding to the work too in the Comments section towards the end of the weekend. So, I guess all of that is probably clear. Giving support to the artists of different kinds who read and post on the blog has always been a very important aspect of this project, but this workshop series represents one of the first times that aspect has been made formal. This weekend’s features Math Tinder — writer, artist, author, blog/site proprietor, and one of this blog’s longtime distinguished locals. She asks for any thoughts, support, or criticism you can give her. I thank her greatly for entrusting her work-in-progress to us, and I thank you all in advance for your kind participation. — D.C.

*

Decorator
by Math Tinder

You’re onto something and you fully expect it to be visually rich. Why struggle when your time is so important? You already read A and still face the same problems. First Place Patterns knows how you feel. With our different and more realistic 2.0 paddle designs, you can find yourself solidly on your own team.

Still, this isn’t simple. Did you try a book? You want the latest research learned by those who support your own code (and impress cocktail party guests). Our solution will load patterns into your sounds. You will see how the factory designs problems and better science. Why learn theory when you can look ‘in the wild’?

You want to learn about a paddle design pattern.
You want to learn how First Place Patterns finished.
You want to learn the complex.
You want in a way that makes you alone.

At any given moment, we can help adapt. With First Place Patterns, access paddle designs in a way that will stick. As for the experience of others, try First Place Book. You also want to learn about patterns with others (to impress cocktail party guests). So often this wish is misunderstood. With First Place Book, you know the techniques that you’ll learn will work immediately.

Also want to learn why your friend casually mentions ‘real 2.0 design principles’? Don’t be fooled. Here you risk looking to design in a way that makes you up a creek without. The next time you will have to find what to do instead. Your time is too valuable.

About the inheritance you might have: you know you don’t desire something in the world, so why bother? You want to learn complex design problems (and impress cocktail party guests). Words, in the real word, will load patterns into your own clever use of their command. All in their native look: all ‘in the wild’.

Your boss told you about the struggles with the prior format. Why? Time is so important, and this is more complex, like the Trading Spaces show. A book? But you want something compatible with the paddle design pattern.

You want design problems used in a paddle that is visually rich.
You want to know how First Place Patterns started.
You want in a way that lets you put these problems elsewhere.
In other want: to see how.

You know the next time–well, someone who struggles is so often misunderstood. When to use A? How to use it? In what environment?

Real world 2.0 design problems are the only answer, but if you are not careful they can and will hold you up a creek without. If you read A, you will have the same problems. Decorator is different because it is something from.
—-

*

p.s. Hey. Even though it’s mostly a coincidence, a writers workshop seems like a really good way to get this place restarted properly. And Math’s piece is probably the shortest work we’ve ever featured in the workshop context, which makes the plunge a relatively gentle one, which somehow seems appropriate too. So, please do dive in and give Math your feedback on her piece over the weekend. Much appreciated by her, of course, and by me too. I’ll add the two cents of my response late in the weekend. Thanks, Math, and thank you in advance, everyone! Yeah, I’m back in Paris and kind of spaced out and feeling curiously rusty via a vis this p.s. writing business. I’m not used to sitting down much less typing. I’ll do my best, but, yeah, expect a spacey p.s. today, and sorry. The vacation was pretty great, even if I think we stayed in each place about a day and a half too long, but, nonetheless, it was definitely a vacation, and I’ll be parading a slideshow of trip pix here on Monday for better or worse. Anyway, I’ll start catching up from where I left off last time. ** Pre-Thursday ** Polter, Thanks for laying out how you found my stuff. Its trippy and very Xmas-y reading that. ** Bollo, The worst was a 9 euro double espresso. The pizza was or is much, much better in Rome than in Firenze. I don’t know if it’s the local style or whatever, but every pizza we ate in Firenze was just a dry, burnt crust with a sloppy soup of barely cooked ingredients and sauce poured atop it. Oh, shit, about the reference. I was barely internetted while in Italy, so, ugh, sorry for the bad timing on my part. ** Little foal, To be a looky-loo, what you wrote to Polter was great. Harmony Korine, yes! Agreed, of course. Oh, your liking of Von Trier doesn’t bother me. I liked ‘The Idiots’ except for the last fifteen or so minutes. And Yury likes ‘Dancer in the Dark’. It takes all kinds or whatever they say and whatever that means. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. Wow, Jim Nabors, that’s a name I haven’t heard or come across in a long, long time. And thanks a lot for the Lynne Tillman link. ** Jax, I got my second wind in Firenze. It lasted a couple of days. I think my legs are probably kind of muscular by my standards. Yury is someone who hates sitting still. Hence, my improved if sore as shit legs. But it is on amazon.co.uk. Sorry about the price. I muttered quite a whoa when I saw the asking price. Art plus CD books, what can you do. ** Misanthrope, Do a lot of characters die at the ends of my books? Hm, I guess in, uh, ‘Closer’. And … ‘My Loose Thread’. And if video game death counts, in ‘God Jr’, but I think that’s all? I mean if you mean death with a capital D. Hm. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hi, man! So nice to see you and your unfolding days again! Yeah, where did Kier go? I liked your day report squib, of course. The blueberry vodka and the ‘Hoarders’ marathon particularly. Envy on the latter, yuck on the former. Well, I have too many days full of too many things to report. It’s a blur, and I’m a very spaced out me this morning. I’ll just do yesterday, is that okay? Even though it was a blah day and not representative or anything. So, let’s see … we woke up in Hotel Fiorini in Firenze/ Florence, which is where we stayed. I thought the hotel was okay bordering on not so hot but doable, and Yury thought it was depressing. I had the hotel’s free breakfast, which was kind of really bad — instant coffee, store-bought cake thing, dry rolls, butter — but free. Then Yury woke up, and we packed and checked out and left our stuff and walked around for a couple of hours. We’d pretty much seen everything there was to see by then (photos on Monday), and we were both kind of tired and ready to go home, so we ended up having double espressos at a cafe on the Republicca and watching other tourists walk around. I would say the breakdown on the tourist population while we were in Firenze would be, oh, 70% Italians, 10% Americans, 10% Russians, 5% French, 5% Japanese. Then we got a taxi to the airport. Firenze has the smallest airport for a fairly big city I’ve ever seen. There’s just one tiny, packed terminal that you have to kind of herd your way through shoulder to shoulder with everyone else and very slowly. It was more weird and interesting than awful, though. The flight was 90 minutes. I read magazines and Yury took pictures out the window of the plane with his iPhone. He took so many photos on our vacation — over 4000 — that his iPhone kept crashing, but it’s okay now. Paris was kind of gray when we got here. It looked very French and good, though, after all that Italian everything. I mean, the Italian everything was really nice, but we both decided we like French everything better, not that it’s a contest or anything. So, we got back here. There was some mail including an invite to Oscar B and Kiddiepunk’s wedding. And a couple of books. I plugged in my computer and enjoyed having the internet as second nature again, and Yury went shopping, and then we ate and stuff, and I fell asleep early ‘cos I was pooped, and I’m still pooped right now, but I think I’ll be normal-ish in a day or so. That’s logical. Okay, man, how was your weekend? ** Tender Prey, Hi, Marc! I’m back on the horse and everything, I think, and I’ll get on you-know-what pretty straight away. ** Math, Hi, M! It’s your weekend, pal. Hope it goes great. I think it will. Thanks for being in the spotlight. ** Colin, Hi, Colin. Thanks for saying how you found my stuff. It’s really cool to know how that worked. It’s strange and a privilege. Oh, Kevin sent me you-know-what while I was away, so I’ll get on that imminently. ** David, Greetings, sir. ** Sypha, Yeah, I think not having sex helps one write about sex or write well about sex or … something. Spaced out, sorry. Nice to see you! ** Steevee, Hey. ** Alan, That’s between me and my hairdresser. Oh, well, then I’m very pleased to have a avoided that Crypt. No, seriously, I feel like an idiot for missing that. I blame the sun. ** Thursday ** David Ehrenstein, Hi again. Oh, I can see that my gayness is interesting, sure, and I would guess my not being that interested in my being gay is part of what makes it interesting. And, of course, like you, I’m quite thrilled that my gayness helps preclude my ‘fitting in’, and I count my lucky stars for that, although, yes, having basic rights is beyond worth fighting for. So, yes. Thanks a lot for the link to the thing about Tim Dlugos. I remember that whole situation with Philip and the Gray Gallery’s chickening out very well. I so hope to get the chance to see the finally completed collaboration. Lovely. ** Bernard Welt, You like them mouthy. That’s interesting. Me too, I think, sometimes. ** Squeaky, Yep, Math fiction, and there it is. It’s great that you guys shared your works and that you met Scott. Oh, yes, that anti-drug and anti-sexual adventure thing is so boring and self-indicting. I get that a lot with reactions to my books and almost always and only from middle-aged gay guys. All that nose wrinkling and holier than thou moralism and blah blah. It’s shocking, really. Or maybe shockingly not shocking? ** Bill, Thank you, Bill. About my slaves. We’ll have to compare notes about Italy. Any further Recollets news or reason for me to query them on your behalf or anything? ** Sypha, I’ll finally get a my first decent look at my Facebook wall today. Cool if Melissa posted there. Thanks for the alert. Interesting and unfortunate about the new Current 93 album, or about the recent ones. Sounds kind of like he’s doing what Coil/Peter C. did in that project’s later phase, releasing and rereleasing a lot of so-so stuff and treading water for income or something? ** Math, Great response to the slaves, my pal. I loved that. Thank you! ** Alter Clef Records, Well, hey there, Nick! I’m kind of tired out and spaced. Italy was very cool, though. Worth the come down. Yes, a little kiddie told me you might be at the wedding thingeroony in July with a musical instrument of some sort in tow. I’ll be there too. Whoo-hoo! Very cool about all the new projects and product. I can’t wait to hear or read or both all of them. Talk soon, yeah, and love to you too, pal. ** Allesfliesst, Hey, man. Dresden, interesting. My only knowledge of it has to do with the Nazi era stuff. Oh, and that band Dresden Dolls. Sounds, you know, really nice and luxurious. Dude, I’ve been doing almost nothing but art appreciation for ten days, not to mention the large quantity of Madonnas involved, so my nerdiness makes yours, uh, whatever. Less nerdy at the very least. But I bet I’m more tan than you are. ** Syreearmwellion, Hey. That was the only picture of magnet4haters. Makes you wonder, right? Makes you suspicious too. Well, if you can get a satellite cable thing that gets MTV Italy, you’ll get a bunch of rugby, but it’s like a reality show thing where, I think, Italian teens are sent if they’re bad or get arrested or something. It was hard to figure out. That Gold Panda vid/song was nice. Thanks for that. ** Steevee, Thank you kindly for that. Steve. There’s a new Burzum album? Like new new? I didn’t know that. I’ll definitely get it post-haste, of course. What do you think of it? ** Jax, Legs feels like I’m walking in a lake but without the cold and getting wet part. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Yes, thank you, wonderful, thank you! You made my imagination feel like home again. I would say a lot more if my brain wasn’t so strangely tired. And my arms too. I don’t know why my arms are tired.Oh, wait, from carrying my busted backpack and laptop all over the place, of course. You are super-okay! That is awesome news! ** Casey McKinney, Hey, Casey! What a pleasure and a treasure! Oh, I’m back where the internet is almost free now. Yes indeed, about Blake Butler’s new novel, right? Well, you read my blurb, and I meant it. Killer novel. If the earth doesn’t shake before it, the earth is dead. You personally are reviewing it for Fanzine? If so, wow, cool! Yeah, sure, when there’s a galley or whatever of my novel, I’ll make sure they send you one. Awesome to see you, man. When is your kiddo going to be old enough to allow that long promised trip to Paris? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi again, Ben. Can’t wait for the new YnY. The event looks cool and trippy. What’s that fish thing? Everyone, courtesy of _B_A, pix from the launch of event of the imminently forthcoming issue of Yuck ‘n’ Yum are here. ** Creative Massacre, Hey, pal! Thanks, yeah, the trip was pretty good. How have you been? ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Yury really liked the trip for the most part except for the hotel in Firenze and the, in his opinion, utter lack of stylishness and unacceptable hair cuts and colors of the Italian people he came across. Hm, I would say a willing slave is far more interesting than an unwilling one, but remember I’m a anarchist, dude. Oh, yeah? How about, just off the top of my head: ‘Now, I’m gonna love you / Till the heavens stop the rain / I’m gonna love you / Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I’? Defend that. ** Okay, now, please oh please give your attention to Math’s work this weekend and leave respective comments between now and Monday. Thank you so much! I will go try to wake up or readjust to life or something now, and I will see you in the comments area come later Sunday, and I will see you back here on Monday.

48 Comments

  1. math

    yo people
    be vicious
    i want it

    xmath+

  2. DavidEhrenstein

    We'll try, math.

  3. Chris Cochrane

    welcome back – hope you both had a great trip – I look forward to being together to discuss some strategies about promoting THEM – I think we need a set fee- if we keep slipping and sliding – word may get out that – we are slipping and sliding. you might know a bit more about such things. Maybe I am out of my mind. My thought at this point is that I just want people to see the work, almost whatever that takes…anyway I would rather have a conversation than write here.

    around helping with my kickstarter campaign to raise money for the THEM CD. If you could post the link on your blog, when it's up (april 10th or so) and promote it a bit that would be great. PS122 will do that as well and I will ask Ben to. It sounds amazing so far.
    Just bought Thrill Jockey's cd that benefit's some charities in Japan – it's great – sorry for the long message – again welcome back hope you ate some great food

    Chris

  4. steevee

    The Burzum album is called FALLEN. It hasn't been officially released yet. I think it comes out later this month or May. I'm embarrassed to admit I fell asleep when I listened to it last night. I will give it another listen while fully conscious today.

  5. Christopher/Mark

    Welcome back, Dennis and Yury. Just back from the beach here – it's nice and hot in Miami Beach.

  6. Richard

    Hi Dennis, would love to send you a copy of the Lynne Tillman book. This is Richard Nash, ex-Soft Skull. Also, soon enough, I'll be able to offer all your readers the chance to access the book (a story collection called Someday This Will Be Funny) online…and comment on it!

  7. the Dreadful Flying Glove

    About the inheritance you might have: you know you don't desire something in the world, so why bother? You want to learn complex design problems (and impress cocktail party guests). Words, in the real word, will load patterns into your own clever use of their command. All in their native look: all 'in the wild'.

    Hey Math,
    Thanks for sharing your work with us this weekend. I'm immediately sympathetic to what I think's going on in this piece. As a reluctant CompSci guy and full-time arty-farty bullshit merchant, I've been fascinated with design patterns for a long time. Never had the time to read Christopher Alexander's stuff yet, but it's been on my to-read list for about ten fucking years by this point.

    I mostly enjoy the instability of tone. You seem to be working something between the permanent-daylight chittering of new-tech/economy Doctorow-type personalities and something more insidious. The phraseology of modern-day spam, somewhere between explicit come-on and personality mining, apparently trying to push some kind of ugly NLP technique. ("You want in a way that makes you alone," indeed.) I felt a little like I was getting the FourSquare version of the montage from The Parallax View. which is obviously a pretty cool thing. And I'm well into those themes. I like. And the coherence between NLP shittiness and the decorator pattern is nice.

    I think, however. I think. What do I think. I think the piece may be a little won-over with its simulated spamminess. Unless I'm entirely missing some really inventive formal invention here, in which case I'm sorry but I'd also consider whether that's what's called for here. I presume that in writing a piece like this there is a purpose to inspire deep unease, to coerce the reader. that didn't quite happen for me here. Is this supposed to read: "Words, in the real word, will load patterns…", not "in the real world"?

    I think the length of the piece is about right. I badly want to need a shower after reading it, but, I don't, yet. Thank you again. It's interesting and feels necessary.

    Hey Dennis,
    super-okay is about right. I'm going to put my head down for the next few days because I need to bust out a bunch of stuff for my master's project. Which is where I've been for most of the last couple weeks. I've always liked "Touch Me". I suspect part of JM revelled in positively hamming the fuck up, and somehow in about 1989 that song was my formal introduction to proper R&B; saxophone, for which I'll always be grateful. I like the Doors the most when they're a couple of bennies away from basically being a Monkees. The pretensions to heavvvvy blues et al are always where I get off, although the first two minutes of When The Music's Over are pretty cosmic. Too bad about the next ten minutes.

    Julian & Dorian Cope have this deep conviction that Jim Morrison's songwriting represents an unjustly demeaned body of writing, which I'd love to hear them clearly articulate sometime – Julian is almost always right about things. Since I've recently formally and forever surrendered my assumed right to hold judgment on anybody's poetry, for my own modest defence, I'd like to propose all 2'34" of The Crystal Ship, which always puts me in mind of Glen Campbell if spiked with a slow-acting neurotoxin. And the glory of "Before you slip into unconsciousness" as a first line is only trumped by the chutzpah of having "When we get back, I'll chop a line." as the last. That's what I think, anyway.

    "Love Her Madly" sucks big ones, though. Welcome back. Kiss kiss.

  8. James

    Dennis,

    Welcome back. I'm glad you survived your vacation… vacations can be a lot of work, can't they? I also wanted to thank you for the current Slaves post, it's weird because the boy known as "poshjoshy, 23" looks like my BF, as in almost a dead ringer for him, but that's impossible, right? I've always been fascinated by the idea that every person on the Earth has a doppelgänger somewhere in the world.

    Speaking of which, me & the wife saw an excellent horror movie last night, it's called "Insidious." It was most excellent, very entertaining, and it was the first time in say, I don't know, 15 years since I've really been scared by a horror film. Last time that happened was in 1995, when I saw the flick Se7en in at theatre at night, then had to drive myself home and go to sleep in a single bed with only my single head for company. My BF Angelo is a horror film fanatic and he really enjoyed "Insidious" … so if you can see it there in Paris, Dennis, I highly recommend it. You & Yury can cuddle up in the dark and be scared together! The kid in a coma who plays the main character kind of looks like a cross between an 11 year old Justin Beiber and a 31 year old Ben Gibbard, if that's possible, with kind of the bowl haircut to match… Creepy, scary stuff, and intelligently written, which is super rare for Hollywood these days…

    So Dennis, when is your interview in The Paris Review coming out? I'm looking forward to reading it… Now that there are only two Borders stores left in my shithole town, it should prove somewhat interesting to try and hunt down a copy… Isn't it sad that Borders had to close so many stores? I'm telling you, this digital shit will be the Death of Us All.

    Much love to you, Dennis, and Happy Monday.

    XOXO,
    James

  9. Quailty

    Wayne Koestenbaum calls Andy Fitch's sentences "sweetly Oulipian" on the back of TEN WALKS. "Decorator" feels Oulipian, maybe not so sweetly. What I mean is its feels like a formal constraint is at play: sentences were written and then instead of being edited for sense, they were edited for – not nonsense, but not sense either.

    I've been reading TENDER BUTTONS and there's this feeling there, too: that what you're reading are perfectly rational sentences, that the descriptions and paragraphs are actually perfectly cogent arguments that before publication were subjected to some sort of intense linguistic process.

    Is this what they talk about when they talk about Art Damage?

    In any case, I like this combination, your blending of this familiar defamiliarization of language (is that what "Experimental Literature" is?) with the familiarly unfamiliar Web2.0 jargon. It's a flavor I hadn't tried before, one I'm glad you invented. I'm glad this is fiction, I'm glad I read it.

  10. syreearmwellion

    @math – i really like how nice and detached it is about the dehumanizing. the word choice for the business products is far too good for what they usually try to sell with similar processes, but i think as writing, it helps make the poison easier to swallow, in so many poor words on my part. instead of picturing a scene of a corporate desk office and listings of stats and figures, i was actually taken in by what was promised, almost unconsciously. i like how you're selling the idea since no one really needs more stuff anyway, and that enables a nice separation from what is being justly mocked.

    though, i've been thinking about getting a canoeing license again recently, so that part of brain was highly susceptible to such dexterous use of paddles as 'product'.

    as criticism, i was thrown off by the trading spaces reference. but again, my interest was piqued by the decorator and such satire made me think i wasn't supposed to be.

    that's it though. good work. i like the length. i hope you can post more work in this vein because you're good at it.

    @dennis – rugby as punishment? it kinda sounds like a male version of "but i'm a cheerleader…" and john waters would nail that movie. obviously it probably didn't look like that. but re-telling is the best way often to hear of things.

  11. Chris Cochrane

    ok I take it back thrill jockey download sucks – cuz it refuses to down load on my computer – finally finishing lonely christopher book – great – eileen myles book was the best book I've read in long while

  12. Sypha

    Dennis, well, bear in mind my initial report on the new Current 93 was just that: my knee-jerk first reaction. I'll have to give it a few more listens before I make a final judgment. But the Current is notorious for re-releasing old albums (there have to be at least four versions of "Thunder Perfect Mind" that have come out over the years, for example). Granted, often times it's because the older album is out of print, but not always. Still, Tibet has had phases in the past where he's released subpar material before getting his act together and doing something great, so I'm not giving up hope. And even subpar Current 93 is still better than a lot of other stuff out there.

    But my reaction may also be due to the fact that, whenever I do a day for this blog about one of my obsessions, I find that the obsession kind of lessens for me after I get the appreciation out of my system, you know what I mean? The same thing happened to me after I did my days for Whitehouse and American Psycho… a weird kind of disillusionment that lingered for awhile before I regained my appreciation for the artist in question. Weird.

    Recently I've been listening to a lot of Sonic Youth. The only major albums of theirs I don't own are Experimental Jet Set, Trash (and something), A Thousand Leaves, NYC Ghosts and Flowers & Rather Ripped, so I ordered those at work recently. I'm also trying to get my hands on some of the early albums that Yoko Ono did with John Lennon, George Harrison's dabbling with Indian music, that kind of thing. I hope that doesn't sound pretentious!

  13. Sypha

    Math, I won't pretend to understand your piece but I kind of find that intriguing. I like the repetition/hectoring of the word "You" which reminds me of latter-day Whitehouse lyrics. Is the "A" supposed to be a reference to the Warhol book? I wish I could offer more, but I'm notoriously uninspired when it comes to literary criticism. I do admire the brevity of it though. Is this part of a larger piece or is it self-contained?

  14. steevee

    I saw an excellent Greek film called ATTENBERG earlier today. The director was one of the producers of DOGTOOTH. Her style shows great formal rigor, but the most impressive thing about ATTENBERG is its combination of an irreverent sense of humor and a quietly moving treatment of mortality. To sum up the plot in a sentence, it's about a 23-year-old woman who experiments sexually while taking care of her dying father. That doesn't express the weirdness of the film, though, which incorporates exceprts from Sir David Attenborough's nature films, uses Suicide and Françoise Hardy for its soundtrack, and shows the protagonist and her best friend walking down the street in choreographed steps. Somehow, none of this ever becomes suffocatingly quirky or takes away from the more serious aspects. Strand has just picked it up, so expect a US release later this year.

  15. Casey McKinney

    Hey Dennis, good to check back in. Yeah that's the plan, to personally review the Butler book for Fanzine. Am nervous, kind of out of practice and away from other books to reference (Artaud for example) except for what I have on my kindle, but maybe that's for the best. And I often find his writing more like film anyway, or what film could do (I guess Lynch is the obvious comparison, for starters) and art, sculpture (has some semblance of what you do with structure). Someone at Bookforum apparently complained that nothing happens in the book…jeez, whereas, to me, there is so much happening at once that I am doing a veeery slow re-read).

    But yes Paris this summer! Really want to make that work. We'll have to figure some dates via email (but I'm gonna keep you on facebook too.. ok?: your fan page is gonna be a smash). We're going to Serbia too, so maybe we can fly to Paris first. Or after. Something. And yes Rowan is running these days, so he'll love walking Paris. XO Casey

  16. Hyrule Dungeon

    Math, what I can say about the work is that it felt like a knot that tightened at the last paragraph. I'm not trying to understand how its pieces fit, but the the idea of 'looking in the wild' is how I made sense of these terse conjoined ideas. The phrase "Impressing people at cocktail parties" isn't claustrophobic enough, by which I mean that if I understand the intentions of the piece, of its construction, it wants to withhold something that I need, that would let me breathe. But what is it?

    Hi Dennis, check your e-mail.

  17. math

    everyone- hey! happy saturday evening.

    i am going to reply to all the comments individually in the comments for monday's post. thank you so very much everyone who has commented so far, literally everyone who has spoken has said something super helpful. i am really blown away by the acuity of a couple of things that have been said. wow!

    i will answer questions as they come up..

    sypha- it's not part of a larger piece, at least not yet, cos i cant think of anything else to do with it. everything i write is short, actually. A is a reference to the warhol book def, but not the 'only meaning' of that blahblah.

    dennis- hey thank you again friend. italy trip sounds really marvelous, and i look forward to the photos.

    i just came back from a dual reading by the great Kevin Killian and Dodie Bellamy. incredibly impressive!

    xxmath+

  18. math

    oh! and i totally met Marcus Ewert at the reading, too! so cool.

    xm+

  19. alan

    math, Wow, this is certainly nothing like what I was expecting. But cool to see you trying something so literary. Seems like other people here picked up more of the references than I did. I didn’t see anyone mention bad English/machine translation, though I guess that’s covered under spamminess? Pretty sure that was the intention behind the word/world “typo.” I was going to say this is perfect for what it is, but looking back over it I had a couple of minor doubts that I’m going to pass along for whatever they may be worth. I wonder whether “impress cocktail party guests” is too openly jokey or satirical and kind of tips your hand too much or too soon. The other thing I wondered is whether this isn’t about twice as long as it needs to be. Somewhere in the middle I felt like I knew what was happening, more or less, and while the rest of it continued to be fun it didn’t necessarily add anything as far as I could tell. But I don’t know how strongly I feel about either of those points. Definitely looking forward to hearing you answer some of these comments and talk more about what you’re doing here. I agree with Black_Acrylic that “You want in a way that makes you alone” is a total standout line. I also thought the last line was a great last line.

  20. alan

    MIsanthrope: “The west is the best.”

  21. cap'm

    This sounds like when you are in the kitchen and you have the TV on, and you are getting into a groove making something.

    Also we can hear our own echo rebounding out of China in a way that's carefully crafted but also junk: the unreliable narrator of export tech-texts. Will this make my child cry? –Phyllis

  22. Paul Curran

    Math, I thought it had a great kind of hypnotic rhythm that was really suited. And I really liked the balance between what felt like a parody of old instruction manuals with some harsh points underneath it that the language and structure seemed to cut away at to reveal in part. Thought that balance was something you might want to think about if you extend the piece. I like the tech/translation/spam ideas too, reminds me a bit of what Steward Home did in his last book Blood Rites of the Bourgeoisie. Yeah, I expected something different, having read some of your other pieces, but you're really onto something here. Some great readings of it in the comments too. Sorry, that wasn't very vicious.

    Dennis, glad you had a good holiday break. I'm making a slow c pox recovery. Kind of plateaued at a not too bad but not right level that feels like it might last a while. Got a lot of good writing done though. Up to where I wanted to be by the end of March and hope to get a tentative whole draft down by end of this month. Have to sort out changes to Japan/Aus trip too. Leaving 3 May. Probably straight through to Aus. Also, the new Lies/Isle is up and has a lot of great stuff as well a collaboration I did with Bill Hsu.

  23. allesfliesst

    math, i really liked your text. the way you work with words reminds me a little of sue tompkins' (life without buildings) lyrics, as they also seemed to have a kind of double reality – you could read them/listen to them like a poem or story, but also look at them like a piece of visual art while reading/listening. your text has a similar quality for me. love to hear it read by you – is the feeling i'm left with.

    dennis, no i certainly can't compete with your tan. i'm pale and dresden didn't do much to change that. i have a question: a while ago we talked about participation in theater and performance, because i'm editing this journal issue on 'participation and synchronization.' you mentioned a performance where you and the other spectators were kind of fettered to the stage with only your heads peeping out, and the performers acted between your heads or something. do you remember the name of the group or title of the performance? we're still looking for a cover picture – they usually have something a little ironic, and i thought this might be something.

  24. miles

    math… cool!

  25. Jax

    Math, I love this – it's Dick-esque for me (Philip K, that is) in that it conjures a world more than anything else. It sounds like an futuristic info-mercial. I wanted to read more – I kind of wanted it to go on like that for ages and for a story slowly emerge. That's a book I'd read. Right now, this is like a blurb for a book. You say everything you write is short – is that cos you want to write short or cos you find writing longer more daunting?

    This really hooked me. You plunge right in and that always grabs me. It's active and quite pacey. Poetic in parts too.

    Is the phrase 'in the real word' a typo for 'world' or a lovely kind of Videodrome / Cronenberg 'word made flesh' kind of idea?

    Anyway, I love this. Did I say that already? Up to you where you take it next, obviously, but I'm certainly intrigued, drawn in and wanna know more. So give us more:)

    Dennis, that's great the Jerk compendium is on amazon.uk now – when I looked last, it wasn't. I hear you, re the price – but hey, as the ads say, you're worth it.

  26. DavidEhrenstein

    Interesting, math, but I need more to get an idea of where this might be going. Assigning a character to the reader is good mode to work in. Donald barthelme did it frequently with great results.

  27. DavidEhrenstein

    "The Crystal Ship" is of course all about heroin. See also Phillip Garrel's Le Berceau du Cristal starrign Nico.

  28. Wolf

    Math
    Dude, i loved it. Sorry. No viciousness there. I'm a complete sci-fi geek so that hits home, it really reminded me of Ubik actually, the little bits at the beginning of each chapter that go on about how Ubik is just, well, fucking everything. And everywhere. Don't know whether you're read it. Anyway.
    ( Also, for some obscure and random reason my default font for typing this on blogger's window has suddenly become fucking COURIER, which is one of my favorite fonts because i'm a sucker for retro tech shit like that. It seems to fit right in. I'm a serif kinda critter.)
    I like how you (i) still don't really know what the fuck you're on about once i've read it, but still kinda get enough of an idea for it to be worth it.
    Maybe you should add some first or third person bits interlaced with that, that would give another angle on the whole thing, some kind of mindfucked character to whom your "you" could be addressed. That would make an awesome novel, or short story. I guess that's my only criticism, that it's so short and has so much potential; i'd say, go fucking wild with it, you know? It's unique and brilliant. Knock yourself out.

    Dennis, dude! So you're back? Feel refreshed? Yeah, Italy's great. Looking forward to be there in July, and with you too, how awesome! That's exciting. That and the other, uh, thing.
    Ok, so, serif or sans-serif?

  29. Kiddiepunk

    Math – I like your piece very much. I think it has a really great rhythm and I love the repetitions, which make the prose feel kind of cyclical, circular. Is this part of a larger work?

  30. squeaky

    Hi Math.
    I promised I would read this with a mean red pen, mostly because you were scared everyone would let you off too easy. Having read it now, as well as the criticism backstage, I feel my pen has only a few things to add.
    I agree most strongly with the Dreadful Flying Glove's remarks. I think the thing that is needed to give it a stronger hook (and nudge the shower scene DFG is looking for) are some passages that break from the sort of poetic structure, and venture down a hint of narrative.
    You start to do this several times and pull back. I think those teases would be stronger, if in fact there was at least one place where a chunk of story actually floated to the surface? You know? I mean, in a way, you are giving us a type of electronic/corporate crime scene, where the bits and pieces of some unnamed violence or corruption has taken place (is trying to take place?), and what I need as a reader is amongst all these fractal clues to find one big clear sign of systematic foul play: a severed finger ring, the address of a mistress.
    Not literally those things, but I mean I want in this prose poem a place that anchors it. Right now it is mostly confetti on water: lovely, but I sense you are trying for something darker, no?
    Oh,
    and I also agree with the comment about "impress your cocktail guests." It stands out as too much effort. The sort of kitsch and datedness of a cocktail party interrupts the otherwise 21st century business motif, in a way that is awkward in such a short piece. Maybe better: "impress your clients"??
    There.
    That was kind of rough, right? I mean, for me anyway.

  31. FreeFox

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  32. FreeFox

    I've read your piece now maybe half a dozen times and each times it annoys me more. Or… frustrates me. It's like my brain just refuses to let the words come in. Or they just slide through my grey cells like hot shrapnel slivers leaving these cauterized dead spots. What IS that? Aargh.
    Of course I totally lack both the cultural background most of the folks here have (A, book, Warhol, huh?), and the technical knowledge. When I googled paddle design patterns (and I still have no idea what that is), I found this blog post. Is there any relationship between your piece and the spam mentioned in the post? Because it sounds strangely similar, esp. the "in the wild"/"impress cocktail party guests" phrases. Or is that something to be expected to crop up in this context?
    Anyway, I really want an explanation. Cliff notes. Subtitles. Something. Please. ^_^

  33. david

    Math, I ought to read the piece again before voicing opinions but I will say it's disturbing and disquieting in a way I can't quite define, like a monologue delivered by a pc.

    does the wv refer to a sporting event?
    brastost

  34. Dennis Cooper

    Math, Hey. I'm going to have to give you my thoughts on your piece in tomorrow morning's p.s. Yury's been really sick all day, throwing up and stuff. He's feeling a little better now, but it's been a long day, and I'm feeling too burnt out to do your work justice with my thoughts or words tonight. My apologies. Please carry on, everyone.

  35. _Black_Acrylic

    @ math, I came to your text *after* reading other people's comments first, which is probably a silly way of doing it. Although it wasn't me that first picked up on “You want in a way that makes you alone”, I do indeed like that sentence a whole lot.

    The literary form of web-2.0-speech and spam emails is really promising and evocative to me. I find there's something inherently tragic about it. Poetic too, sometimes.

    Maybe the text could get too work-specific at times, but the relationships with the 'friend' and 'boss' characters were intriguing and I'd have liked them to be developed a little further.

    @ James, Insidious is showing here in a couple of weeks as part of a horror festival called 'Dundead'. Some students are holding it at Dundee's DCA. I'll try and catch this when it rolls around, along with a few old favourites that are on such as Suspiria and The Beyond.

    @ Dennis, the fish at the Yuck 'n Yum launch was the Salmon of Knowledge. It read people's fortunes. My own reading said "jealous", and it means either I'm jealous of someone else, or someone else is jealous of me. I'm not the jealous type, though. Maybe the rumours about the salmon being just a girl wearing a prosthetic fish head were true after all…?

  36. steevee

    I hope Yury is feeling better. It sounds like food poisoning, but obviously, I'm no doctor. How does health care work in France for non-citizen residents, if he needs to see one?

  37. Bill

    Math, I like how the "basis" for your text keeps shifting, and resists being pinned down. Somebody said it was "frustrating"; well I like this kind of frustration. Some aspects of the repetition reminds me of Burroughs.

    Dennis, hope Yury is feeling better when you read this. Sonia sent me various forms to fill out for Recollets, so it looks like things are set for July. Hmm, any plans to do something in the gallery while I'm there?

    Bill

  38. MANCY

    math – don't feel I fully understood your piece, but that never stops me from liking something. I enjoyed the feel of it, and the way you co-opted different language styles. Making me think of J.G. Ballard…

  39. inthemostpeculiarway

    Math, well, I feel stupid, but I don't really understand your piece. I like how it sounds but that's not really helpful, I don't think.

    Hey Dennis,

    I've had those kinds of free breakfasts before. And your 'free' is usually the last thought after I've washed everything down with watered down orange juice and then continue on my own way.

    Oh, people watching. That's always fun. And I didn't know iPhones could crash from taking so many pictures. But that does make sense, now that I think about it.

    It always seems like the end of every vacation is mostly anticipation to be back home. For some reason that's usually the first thing I think about whenever I think about vacations. But that's good that you like France more.

    My weekend:

    Saturday, wake up, shower, stretch, pop things, etc. Didn't do much all day, really, except try to read. Everytime I would pick my book up the phone would go off, so I'd answer it and then set it back down, when it would go off again. I tried ignoring it but that only made it worse, so I just gave up and read Entertainment Weekly because I don't mind being interrupted during that.

    Later, around midnight ish, went on a walk. I saw a car coming and for some reason decided it would be a good idea to dart into the woods, maybe because it would probably be strange to see somebody walking in the middle of the night. As soon as I did it I realized that just made me seem suspicious, and as the car understandably backed up to figure out what they had seen I went further to avoid the awkward conversation that surely would've ensued. I thought about that recent video of Bigfoot and so kept going and after many turns to avoid low hanging branches and thorns ended up in a clearing, which is whenever I realized I was (of course) lost. I went different ways and came to several different clearings of various sizes, most of which had no light at all due to the trees overhead but a few did, so that was good. After about an hour I saw an opening, so I slid through the trees and saw, very far away, a road. I had to wade through very tall grass and once I got to the edge of the road I fell, but landed in the grass, so it was fine. Or better than landing on the road.

    Eventually made my way back, loving the feeling of concrete, ate a cookie, watched Vanilla Sky. I liked it, even though they glossed over a few things that I thought they should've maybe done a bit more with, but oh well. The only thing I even remembered about the plotline was a commercial for it I saw a long time ago with Cruise in the mask, so knowing/expecting nothing probably helped.

    Sleep, wake up, shower. It was my grandfather's birthday, so I went over there, thinking that only two other people would be there. It turned out that my grandparents, their girlfriend, my grandmother's parents, her brother and his wife, their five daughters, the boy who knocked one of them up who now lives with them, and somebody else who also lives with them. I'm still not really sure who she was. The daughters all walked around for a while in their similar looking sundresses with a far away look in their too made up eyes, and would give you a small smile if you tried to talk to them before they all found their way outside. Two ended up in the hot tub, one on the hammock, one just stood on the grass and the other one disappeared for a while. I tried to talk to everybody else, but everytime somebody left the room everybody else would lean in and talk about how much they hate them, what a bitch/asshole they were, etc., so I just gave up and spent most of the time listening and nodding, occasionally asking 'why?'.

    Came back, slept, woke up, my head and ears hurt and I feel kind of sick, so that's why this report is so 'blah' and comma heavy (maybe it's the just the above sentence but I don't know) and mostly yeah. But how was your weekend, Dennis? And I hope Yury's feeling better now.

    My word verification is worms. How strange.

  40. Misanthrope

    Math, I like it! It's really funny and kind of scary in very subtle ways. Sort of like 2001: A Space Oddity and Hal are subtly funny and scary. Also, it speaks to the reader on a couple different levels, two of which being a. As an by an almost self-aware and cunning computer; and b. as a sort of fucked up Dear Abby-style piece of advice on one's life…but by an almost self-aware, cunning computer that's consumed in its own coming into being.

    The thing with a piece like this is -because I'm not that familiar with most of the references, me being a computer illiterate in all but the most basic elements of computing- that I don't know what's intentional and what's not. So I guess that's on me.

    Like this sentence: "You want the latest research learned by those who support your own code (and impress cocktail party guests)." That bit at the end doesn't make sense to me. There's also the bit where it seems the word "word" should be "world." But a mistake like that -a mistake that a spell-check could never catch- is understandable if it's intentional.

    I'm wondering if the piece isn't too esoteric. Well, for someone like me at least (see my statement about my computer illiterateness just above). I'm also wondering if it wouldn't work better as just one piece of a larger whole, say, surrounded by other pieces that build it and build on it.

    Just my two cents. But I enjoyed it. And I liked that I had to read parts of it a few times, including starting over a couple times. It grabbed me and made me give it more effort than, say, a See Spot Run book. Which, in my world, is a good thing.

  41. Misanthrope

    Dennis, Hahaha, yeah, I got my latter and former mixed up in that sentence. I meant that in my own fiction, I like everyone killed off at the end; in yours, I like that nothing changes. Makes a little more sense, eh?

    That Yury! Haha, that's funny. He's incorrigible. But cutely and funnily so. Hell, I like incorrigible of any kind myself. But that's the best kind. ;D

    I suppose with the willing slave there's that whole Romanticism with one who wants to destroy himself, which I find attractive sometimes, except when it's for real with drugs and stuff like that. Also, with the willing slave, there's the challenge of finding something that he totally doesn't want to do and pushing him beyond his limits. That could be fun.

    My defense of those lyrics is that Robby Krieger wrote them. 😀 Jim never wrote a bad lyric in his life. And please do not quote the toad line in "Riders on the Storm." Hehehehehe. ;D

    Oh, watched Wrestlemania XXVII tonight. My mom splurged on her credit card and got it (mainly because SHE wanted to see it!). The Undertaker's 19-0 at Wrestlemania now. And The Rock put the beatdown on some monkey asses. (Btw, I haven't read any other comments because this is a Writer's Workshop day and I never do on those days. So forgive me if Creative Massacre's already told you this.)

  42. math

    dennis, no hurry whatsoever. best thoughts to yury and i hope he's feeling much better.

    xxmath+

  43. Pascal

    Hey, Math, Thank you for your piece which I thought was quite beautiful really. Reading it reminded me of how I've felt reading Susan Howe or, sometimes, John Ashbery. I suppoe I mean something to with rhythm, how it carries the reader into unfamiliar territory, almost like setting off on a ride at a funfair. I was also reminded of Steve Spence's book 'Curious shipwreck' which uses the same collage(?) approach but manages a whole book because it has a piracy theme. I suppose I'm saying that some types of poems can end up as desert islands and maybe we, as poets, need to think more in terms of archilpelagos. Hope this makes sense. (I'm not mentioning other writers because I thought it was in some way boringly derivative. It helps me to look at how my writing sits with other writing). So, yep, thanks.

    @ Dennis. Hope Yury's doing ok now. Hope you're good too. Things here fine. Pascal

  44. cap'm

    Thnx D for the kind intro. We've always admired your work & lifestyle. Cap'm

  45. http://www.kreditvonprivat.pw/

    Hey, you’re the goto expert. Thanks for hanging out here.

  46. http://www./

    a5156d1Et les banques, elles provisionnent et passent en perte tout cela, histoire de ne pas trop payer d’IS. Heureusement qu’il nous reste les élections pour changer notre monde…ou pas !!!347b745

  47. Si tous les seniors qui occupent actuellement des postes (parce qu'ils n'ont pas leur nombre de trimestres requis, des femmes le plus souvent) pouvaient libérer leurs places, ça ferait de l'emploi pour les jeunes, non ?Oui, les temps ont bien changés ! et ceux qui se sont battus pour acquérir les droits sociaux qui sont en train d'être démantelés doivent se retourner dans leur tombe !

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2025 DC's

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑