J R by William Gaddis ( Read more... )

Europe Central by William Vollman ( Read more... )

I think these are sort of fun anecdotes as much for the contrast as anything else.

The first was a show at a local bar. The bar is pretty hip just on it's own merits - it's called Handlebar, it's a relatively new bar in my neighborhood (the itself pretty hip Kensington Market). It's got a beautiful little front patio, well-thought out interior ( Read more... )

My friend and I are the only two people sitting outside on this bar patio, and the bartender (a large, tattooed, ironically mustached, basically a pretty rock and roll kind of guy) ambles outside and says ( Read more... )

Worth a read.

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/further-materials-toward-a-theory-of-the-man-child/

if you've ever drunk absinthe, you'll understand what it's like to be weighed down by the drug almost to paralysis, and at the same time to exist within an invisible ball of consciousness which hovers precisely halfway between your body and the ceiling

-- Vollman Europe Central

I feel okay.

"Five years later, I know the world much better, but it's still almost always impossible for me to distinguish change from revelation." from The Instructions

Semi-distant reading.

The Instructions by Adam Levin ( Read more... )

"I have a sense that God is unfair and preferentially punishes his weak, his dumb, his fat, his lazy. I believe he takes more pleasure in his perfect creatures, and cheers them on like a brainless dad as they run roughshod over the rest of us. He gives us a need for love and no way to get any. He gives us a desire to be liked, and personal ( Read more... )

Intensely stressed about google reader ending service.