The Elegant Variation: THE ELEGANT VERMIN'S BIG BAD LIST OF GOOD THINGS THAT COME IN SMALL PACKAGES

TEV DEFINED

The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

May 16, 2008

THE ELEGANT VERMIN'S BIG BAD LIST OF GOOD THINGS THAT COME IN SMALL PACKAGES

All Blacked Out & Nowhere to Go by Bucky Sinister from Gorsky Press: This combines Sinister's sold-out book of poetry Whiskey & Robots with an epic poem about a San Francisco squat. The son of an Arkansas preacher, Sinister brings brimstone and belly laughs to the foibles of the human condition.

All Over by Roy Kesey from Dzanc Books: One of the most gifted, hard-working, and diverse short story writers working today. There was a time when Roy Kesey's greatness was a secret known to a handful of admirers, but those days are all over.

Bear Parade: An odd collection of e-books from poets. From Michael Earl Craig's "Seahorse": "...someday / I will get it all together, / and not drift so blindly / like the seahorse with his throat slit, / leaking a dark scarf across / his moonlit corral homeland."

Big Lonesome by Jim Ruland from Gorsky Press: You didn't think I'd go five days without plugging my own book of short stories did you? The stories aren't really all that short, but the book itself is only 6.8 x 5 inches. Puny, really.

Bill's Formal Complaint by Dan Kaplan from The National Poetry Review Press: An eclectic chapbook of linked poems in various forms and (dis)guises centered around a hapless, hopeful and all-too-human everyman.

Duck and Herring Field Guide: A quirky, seasonal literary magazine out of Atlanta that fits in your pocket.

A Field Guide to the American Family by Garth Risk Hallberg from Mark Batty Publisher: With it's mish-mash of styles, the book resembles a photography house's overdesigned annual, but the illustrated novella-in-flash is unexpectedly astute. Perfect for road trips with people you hate.

Flasks: A flask is like a good dog or a sturdy walking stick in that every writer ought to have one, but flasks are better because they're filled with whiskey and won't piss on the floor.

Future Tense Books: A "micro-press" run by acclaimed indie author and bookseller Kevin Sampsell that has published Gary Lutz, Myriam Gurba, and Elizabeth Ellen.

Hotel Crystal by Olivier Rolin from Dalkey Archive: 43 descriptions of hotel rooms from around the world scribbled on post cards, end papers, and odd bits of scrap by someone who may or may not be a spy but most certainly is a rogue.

Howl by Allen Ginsberg from City Lights: #4 in the Pocket Poets Series. Intro by William Carlos Williams. 57 pages. Has there ever been a more important pocket paperback in the West?

It Was Like My Trying to Have a Tender-Hearted Nature by Diane Williams from FC2: This master minimalist is at the height of her powers and somehow manages to be screamingly funny even when it's not obvious what the hell is going on.

J&L Illustrated: Extremely irregular literary and art journal with odd stories and black and white illustrations. One of my all-time favorite short stories was published in the first volume but, alas, it's out of print.

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock: There are few sympathetic characters in these very short stories and a catalog of their sins would read like a season in hillbilly hell. I disagree with just about every review I've read: there's nothing resilient or redemptive about the people of Knockemstiff, OH, but Pollock goes into a story like gangbusters, making this an unputdownable collection.

Letters from Wendy's by Joe Wenderoth from Verse Press: Have you ever sat in a fast-food restaurant late at night and thought about writing a long-ass letter to its fictional figurehead on the backs of hundreds of customer comment cards? Wenderoth: did it. You: ordered fries.

The Musical Illusionist and Other Tales by Alex Rose from Hotel St. George Press: A compendium of fake maps, incomprehensible diagrams, and fantastic libraries, The Musical Illusionist displays the Victorian compulsion toward taxonomy and love of a good hoax. Turning its pages is like taking a visit to The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Sailor's Holiday by Barry Gifford: Four short novels about Sailor Ripley and Lulu Pace Fortune of which Wild at Heart is the first. The novels are episodic and made up of short bursts of prose that are both hilarious and intense. Smartly written crime fiction from a vastly underappreciated American writer.

Seashells. You find them on the beach. They're pretty to look at. They whisper in your ear. You put them in your pocket. Years later, waves of nostalgia.

Smokelong Quarterly: An online literary magazine devoted to short short fiction, i.e. stories one can read during the course of a cigarette. Each issue is shepherded by a new guest editor.

The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy from Turtle Point Press: There's something endearingly outre about the protagonists of these short short stories that I can't quite put my finger on. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to discover they were written 40 years ago by a Belgium philosopher who was last seen on the back of a camel somewhere in the Sahara.

Posted by Lazy Mick at 01:17 AM in Guest Bloggers | Permalink

Comments

This is one of the biggest, baddest lists of awesome things in small packages that I've ever seen! It should be printed on little notecards or flyers and given to all writers. Or, something like that.

Posted by: aaron | May 16, 2008 at 06:36 AM

Very cool list.

Posted by: Paul Sweeney | May 16, 2008 at 02:37 PM

I agree about the Van Booy stories. No trace of irony here; they're downright earnest. Which makes the book some strange avant garde.

Posted by: patrick | May 16, 2008 at 04:38 PM

Thanks for the Future Tense mention, Jim. You had a pretty awesome run here at TEV. You've covered or reviewed/interviewed many of my recent faves: Simmons, Rose Metal Press, Kim Chinquee (Kim and the RMP book are my staff picks at Powell's this month), Donald Ray Pollack, Diane Williams. It's like you have ESP! Will you marry me?

Posted by: KevinS | May 16, 2008 at 10:59 PM

Indeed. It actually makes me wish you had a lit blog of your own. Ever thought of starting one up?

Posted by: Shya | May 17, 2008 at 09:08 AM

exactly my thoughts, jim...

Posted by: elizabeth ellen | May 18, 2008 at 07:10 PM

Thanks, everyone!

Paul: I'm very interested in checking out the recommendation on FromBostontoBerlin of Paul Muldoon's essay collection.

Patrick: Avant garde yet accessible. An odd combination. Based on Good Reads reviews people either love him or are left cold.

Kevin: Sorry, I'm spoken for, but we definitely have to work something out Vermin-wise the nest time you're in L.A.!

Shya & Ellen: I appreciate your kind words. I work full-time and travel to LA from San Diego several times a month so updating a blog daily is out of the question, but you've inspired me to push myself and do more with the Vermin blog. Perhaps I could make interviews with upcoming readers a regular feature.

Posted by: Jim | May 19, 2008 at 12:07 PM

Thanks for the mention, Jim!

Posted by: Dave Clapper | May 21, 2008 at 02:38 PM

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May 16, 2008