links for 2005-10-20

• e-closure: documenting break ups, anonymously online...
  people's bad spelling and grammar aside, quite interesting.
• So You Want to Be a Poet, I Mean Rock Star, I Mean Poet - New York Times
  interview with David Berman -- of the silver jews and author of the beloved "Actual Air"
• self portrait at 28
  my favorite poem by David Berman
• The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels
  debatable, but i was pleased that The Corrections was included along with more obvious, well-aged choices.

Comments

[Paige]

God I love David Berman. He spoke at our graduation ceremony and read "advice to the graduate". amazing.

He's fun to drink beer with, though I was only on the outskirts, intimidated by his then-girlfriend, I heard him dazzle many on-lookers with several devastating one-liners.

Love that guy, thanks for reminding me how much so.

[other sweetney]

re the Berman poem... I think is THE poem in Actual Air (which is saying a lot considering the motherload of quality throughout that book)...

But what is freaky is that I had intended to read this at my reading the other night, read it the night before, had the book with me at the reading, but couldn't pick a section to read (the whole thing being pretty long).

What brought it up, lady? Did the little'un read my mind (again) and tell you about what I was thinking (again)?

[other sweetney]

Paige -- which town were you in when the Berman hanging occured? Not Cville?

[styro]

Oh man, I am filled with commentary about the "Complete 100 best novels of all time" list (Zadie Smith's White Teeth? Are they joking, or stoned, or both?) but I'm going to say here, publicly, that although I agree that Watchmen is brilliant, it's not the best comic novel they could've put on that list. In fact, since Watchmen was originally published as a comic series, I would argue that it's not really a novel at all, but a serialized comic, bound into a book. (and, to be honest, I thought V for Vendetta would be a better choice--although there's no movie coming out for V, so I suppose the choice makes itself, non?) They should've chosen Art Speigleman's Maus to fill the comic void, as it is, historically, the comic that broke the book boundary---It was the first "comic novel" that people took seriously, read widely and studied: as both a historical biographical text and as a bound, mass-produced, work of art.

God, I am such a nerd, seriously, somebody should kill me dead.

[robyn]

styro, i came to the comments page to say the same thing: "white teeth? are they serious?" the list is questionable, but still fun to read. ahh, to be a nerd!

[David]

Defective Yeti's Matthew Baldwin had a funny contribution to the Morning News about the Time's Top 100.

The whole concept of a single Top 100 novels is absurd though. (Unless it was something like "Top 100 Influential Novels" instead). I think the real purpose is for Time to get publicity. ...But hopefully it also stimulates discussion and interest in some great old novels. Ideally, I'd like to see it inspire folks to make their own lists to share. There are a lot of bloggers who I would trust for book recommendations...particularly if I saw some books that I already liked on their lists.

[styro]

I am hereby embarrassed by my earlier comment because it shows a level of nerditude I was not yet ready to share with the world.