Comments for Known Forms

Comment on I’m so over you, New York by stark

stark — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:59:59 +0000

Hey, you’re up and running! I thought for some reason this blog was down. ::makes note:: I totally feel you on New York. I don’t think she’s doing that great without you, though, or me, or any of the rest of the queers who had to take off when things on the East got a whole lot more conservative. Honestly, i feel more alive in Toronto these days than I have in New York for the past half a decade. Maybe that’s me settling, or maybe it’s me looking with open eyes at what actually exists under the legend.

Not to say I don’t enjoy a periodic visit…

Comment on Ali Smith by known forms » rec, hospitals

known forms » rec, hospitals — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:35:20 +0000

[...] I’ve raved about Smith’s work before, but I stumbled on this (sadly, out of print) novel and put it above my monitor so I could stare at it longingly while I wrote papers on neo-liberalism and (groan) Foucault. It was more than worth the tortuous wait. As I raved before Ali Smith is a fucking master of language and she uses that mastery to construct characters as fluid as her prose. Nothing (and no one) is as it seems in Like. The first section, Amy, seems at first to be told from the POV of Amy, an apparently dyslexic (or simply illiterate) working class, young mother of 8 year-old Kate, but the POV shifts dizzyingly from Amy to Kate to minor characters Smith manages to construct whole and gleaming from the literary equivalent of thin air. The second and final section is Ash’s ’story’ and the reader must unravel their connection like a complex murder mystery (with no murder) because the characters are not much help with the big picture. Then again, what ‘character’ is? Or could be? Smith leaves ‘clues’ scattered throughout (I found myself thumbing back to some obscure ‘description repeatedly to make sure), but they’re not the kind of clues you’re used to and they point someplace so heartbreakingly clear yet elusive. Impossible. Like looking up to the sun for answers. But, like the best mysteries, you can’t help but look. [...]

Comment on elemental logic by Not a journal. (Except, now it is.)

Not a journal. (Except, now it is.) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:01:27 +0000

[...] And it got me to wondering: who is reading Water Logic?A quick search finds the following: See Light, Coffee & Ink, Heather (tea still TK, Sorry!), Meghan, Plaid Adder, Liz Henry, and a Melissa. [...]

Comment on Ali Smith by francofou

francofou — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 22:36:30 +0000

As for Hotel World, I agreee entirely. Terrific book. What else do you recommend?

Comment on not the post I meant to write by knownform

knownform — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:51:19 +0000

Yes, I did something, but I wish I hadn’t! I haven’t even managed to reply to her assistant’s email yet. such a loser I am.

Comment on not the post I meant to write by gwenda

gwenda — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:30:51 +0000

You are such a bitch! You actually DID SOMETHING!

Now I must sink back into my existential despair…

Comment on lucky star by knownform

knownform — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 01:06:21 +0000

*g* yay!!!! congratulations on your new cutie. this is the same dog in the pics you sent, right? such a cutie.

Comment on lucky star by gwenda

gwenda — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 13:49:48 +0000

Just wait until you meet Miss Emma the Dog!

Comment on I’m not going to tell you about the dream I had last night. by Diane

Diane — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 20:44:51 +0000

I dream I’m someone else all the time. Last night I was a black
Rastafarian man in Bagdad running from the feds.

Comment on righter by Gwenda

Gwenda — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:26:52 +0000

Ha! See I don’t think any of us believe in making a living from writing anymore. Do we? Only on mad days.