Here's the thing about Lady Tyrant, though--putting together an all-woman issue at some point in the past doesn't exempt you from including women in the future. It's almost weirder to me that a magazine would do an all-woman issue and then move on to other issues where the gender balance is so insanely skewed--3 out of 31 is really, really not a good balance-- it almost seems like throwing a sop to these concerns and not actually addressing them. I enjoyed the content a great deal, but like Mike, there was a strong awareness of this problem in the back of my mind as I read. It just seems like it shouldn't be happening anymore, especially not in our most cutting-edge litmags. --- On Sun, 10/31/10, Marcelle Heath <marcel...@yahoo.com> wrote: |
I’ll stick my neck out and say that I think 31 men writers and 3 women writers seems pretty out of balance. Unless the intended audience is men, but I don’t see any sign of that. I enjoyed reading the issue, but also thought the works were very male oriented, but I like male-oriented fiction, too.
Some of you seem to know who the editors are there, but I don’t, and I couldn’t find a masthead when I looked. I also couldn’t find anything out about this when I poked around on the internet, except this, which might indicate all the editors are male: http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Tyrant-Vol-No/dp/B001K8RJVY Unless I’m reading it wrong.
Some female editors on board might lead to at least some of the editors having a more female sensibility, though I would hope that both male and female readers and writers are open to both sensibilities.
Like Patricia, I feel like a “Lady Tyrant” isn’t really solving the problem but implies female writers can’t fit into the magazine on their own.
Well, it’s a great magazine and I enjoyed reading it. This one thing did bother me as I was reading it, though.
Owen,
I didn’t realize you were an editor there. Shows how out of the loop I am.
I did want to say that I especially liked Bradford Tice’s “How to Become an American Boy.” I really wanted to write a rebuttal to the long review it received early on HTML Giant, but then the weekend was over. The only time I have to write this sort of thing is on the weekend because of a heavy teaching load.
Anyway, I thought the story was beautiful and moving and I loved the dry humor. I’m open to second-person, though I don’t always think it works in something this long. I thought this worked, though. I loved the voice and what the narrator had to tell us. Really liked lots of the other stories, too.
I’m trying to figure this all out more. I’m not even sure if this is where we’re supposed to write notes about works, but I’ll get on it faster next time.
Thanks for making NY Tyrant available for this. Are you the person that mentioned we could buy them at Faras Bookstore on 30th, or was that somebody else. You’re probably in NY.
Best,
Bonnie
One more question. Do you think there's possibly an inverse relationship between a publications fame and the quality of its slush pile? For instance, The Atlantic Monthly probably gets submissions from anyone in America with a typewriter, so tons and tons of stories by middle-aged amateurs about their "struggle with depression" and roman a clefs by octogenarians about their World War II experiences, penned in retirement? Whereas smaller places are less well known but known by the readers and writers and slush submitters who are right for them. Does this make sense or does it sound like total bullshit?
Xian
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 8:38 PM, Alyson Berman <abe...@gm.slc.edu> wrote:
While I loved the issue, I was also troubled by the lack of women writers. I find that it's a problem in nearly every lit mag I read. I really appreciate that it's being talked about here.
The skewed ratios certainly aren't limited to fiction. One just has to go to a museum or count the numbers in Congress to see that women are underrepresented in nearly every group. Talking about that fact brings attention to it. And hopefully that attention will make editors, readers and writers more aware and ask the hard questions.
I'm a woman and I'm even guilty. I've certainly read more books by men than by women. And the majority of those books have been by Caucasian American men. Knowing that fact and that most of the books I was assigned in school were by that group of people, I actively try and spread the love. Too often work by anyone other than that group (at least in this country) is put in its own little category. As Roxane noted, "women's writing" is an example.
I've never felt discriminated against as a woman when submitting my work, but it doesn't take a genius to look at the numbers and know that something is wrong. It starts with the books we are assigned in grade school and continues through college and grad programs and into the publishing world.
Alyson
�
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 8:00 PM, Roxane Gay <rga...@gmail.com> wrote:
I actually don't feel like my gender (or any other aspect of who I am) is an issue where my writing career is concerned. In fact, I would go so far as to say I know my gender is not an issue in terms of my success (relatively speaking) as a writer. When my writing is rejected, I know it isn't the right story for a given market for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with gender. Only once have I ever felt like a story was rejected because I'm a woman and well, shit happens. I know not to send my work to that magazine anymore. I care about this issue because I believe I'm one of the lucky ones, and an exception to the rule. I also think that a lot of my writing is aesthetically such that it can find placement in magazines that are traditionally skewed toward male writers. I do think many women are excluded because of the style or tone of their writing and that's why this subject keeps coming up.
We can definitely ask GIan about this during the chat which will be happening on Wednesday. I'll be sending a note about this on Monday, which is tomorrow.
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 6:42 PM, Robb Todd <ro...@robbtodd.com> wrote:
I would love to hear what Gian has to say about this when he does his interview/chat/whatever-it-is. I guess the reason the imbalance in this issue doesn't really get my hair up is because I don't think Gian would ever exclude someone based on gender. If I did think that, I wouldn't read the magazine.
I just want to read writing I like and that's it, and if the ratio was reversed and I liked the issue as much, I wouldn't care. Also, so many of my favorite writers who happen to be women don't seem to have much trouble getting published, people like xTx and Doc Rox, for example. (Yes, I know what the title of your blog is.) I have never heard xTx tell me that she feels discriminated against. Or am I wrong about this? Do you think you have ever been rejected by a magazine because you are a woman? See, that would piss me off quite bit.
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 7:19 PM, Roxane Gay <rga...@gmail.com> wrote:
I absolutely think people can disagree about this topic. I look at what Matt said, for example, and disagree about some parts of what he said but still respect his comments, and absolutely understand where they are coming from, particularly being an editor myself. It's nearly impossible to edit for balance. I wouldn't even try to do something like that. �My comment wasn't intended to shut down disagreement but it seems a little offensive to immediately go to the extreme that Christian went to. Maybe that's just me. I've also noticed that there are three general brands of response to this topic and I was speaking more to that than anything else.�
I do think the quality of the magazine is outstanding. I didn't love everything but man, so many stories just blew my head open. I didn't think about the gender imbalance while reading, but when I was done, I happened to be looking at the TOC and �I did notice there were only three women writers and I wondered why that was the case. I guess I wonder why everyone isn't concerned about such things but that isn't the same as saying other perspectives aren't as valid as mine or that this is about ignoring disagreement. �
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 6:05 PM, Robb Todd <ro...@robbtodd.com> wrote:
If the imbalance is that important, how can you say the quality of the magazine is outstanding? Just asking, not trying to be defensive of derisive, although I guess I also wonder why someone can't disagree on this topic without being lumped into some category that seems dismissive of their opinion. What's wrong with a defense of aesthetic? Sure, Xian was mocking but he is making a point, too. Can't we be inclusive of the way other people express themselves? Again, I'm not trying to be a dick (that's not something I have to try to do), I just wonder how, exactly, we are allowed to disagree.
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 6:44 PM, Roxane Gay <rga...@gmail.com> wrote:
I find it fascinating that whenever gender imbalance in publishing is raised as a concern, there is a response of defensiveness or a defense of aesthetic is launched or there is mocking and derision. I think that the gender imbalance of this issue of NY Tyrant, (3/31 is an imbalance no matter how you look at it) is an important topic for discussion. It has nothing to do with the outstanding quality of the magazine. It is not a negative statement about Tyrant's outstanding editor. It's an observation. How did this happen? Why does this continue to happen in so many magazines?�
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 5:37 PM, Christian Lorentzen <clore...@gmail.com> wrote:
I suggest the imposition on our national literature of the following rules and penalties.
1. Every issue of every American lit mag should have an even number of contributions, half of which should be written by males the other half by females.
2. At the completion of every issue, the number of male-written words and female-written words should be totalled up. The difference between the to totals should be determined, and then whatever gender-written words are overrepresented should be cut accordingly such that there are an equal number of male- and female-written words.
3. Every issue should have an equal number of male and female characters in its stories and poems. Any imbalance can simply be fixed by changing certain characters' genders.
4. To ensure that a piece of writing isn't secretly hypermale or hyperfemale, all stories and poems should be translated into Latin and the genders of all the resultant nouns should be quantified. Any story or poem whose words are more than 40% masculine, feminine, or neuter should never be published.
5. Any publication that violates the above rules should have its funding seized and redistributed to other litmags that abide by them.
6. All editors should undergo annual gender reassignment procedures, so that like Tiresias, they know how feels both ways around.
Xian
Owen,
�
I didn�t realize you were an editor there. Shows how out of the loop I am.
�
I did want to say that I especially liked Bradford Tice�s �How to Become an American Boy.� I really wanted to write a rebuttal to the long review it received early on HTML Giant, but then the weekend was over. The only time I have to write this sort of thing is on the weekend because of a heavy teaching load.
�
Anyway, I thought the story was beautiful and moving and I loved the dry humor. I�m open to second-person, though I don�t always think it works in something this long. I thought this worked, though. I loved the voice and what the narrator had to tell us. Really liked lots of the other stories, too.
�
I�m trying to figure this all out more. I�m not even sure if this is where we�re supposed to write notes about works, but I�ll get on it faster next time.
�
Thanks for making NY Tyrant available for this. Are you the person that mentioned we could buy them at Faras Bookstore on 30th, or was that somebody else. You�re probably in NY.
�
Best,
Bonnie
�
From: litma...@googlegroups.com [mailto:litma...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Owen Kaelin
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 2:08 PM
�
With the readership -> submitting pool corollary thing, I was sort of trying to simplify things by assuming that the percentage of female readers who submit and the percentage of male readers who submit would be approximately equal. If women are less likely to submit overall than men are, then that can explain a lot. Lots of people like to quote statistics suggesting that women read more than men . . . not that this gives me any idea of how many women vs. men read NYTyrant... . I've never been a fan of statistics, anyhow.
Honestly, though, I've never been comfortable with blanket characterizations of men or women . . . these statements are neither helpful nor fair; too often they aren't accurate at all. Humanity is just too complicated. In the end, I think I prefer to concentrate on the words rather than the name, all problems considered. Full disclosure: Gone Lawn comes out tomorrow with 4 women & 9 men, not including the presentation art (by the excellent Tantra Bensko)... I noticed this only rather late in the process, at which point I'd chosen only 2 women while all the rest were men... and it really bothered me; it still bothers me. I haven't analyzed how many women have submitted vs. how many men have submitted. In the end, while hoping I could find more women to lessen the disparity, my allegiance was to the voices, not the names. I had made a couple of concessions to voices I was less enamored with but still wanted to share because I thought them interesting, but I didn't want to make concessions based on gender. I do not think that this was a poor decision, because the editor's first responsibility, I feel, is to the presentation.
I know that if I wanted to I could also make an argument that an editor's responsibility -- in putting out a public work -- is to the readership. But... I'm one of those people who believes in sticking to one's aesthetic, hoping that an audience will follow. I've never believed that art should court an audience. I know that this does not address the problem of disparity, but . . . in addressing that problem, are we not affecting the work and a perhaps comparatively problematic way?
I guess I'll leave it at that before I've thought this through enough to actually make more sense . . . or something.
One last thing: I agree with Bonnie on the male+female masthead scenario . . . not the case here, unfortunately. Well, you know... I did ask... sigh... .
Oh: truly-last thing. The only way to reasonably address this problem, if you're running at radically tilted ratio in favor of male writers, is to solicit female writers you like. That's actually why GL's first issue is majority female, not that the female-skew was deliberate. I didn't do that for this one.
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 4:56 PM, Bonnie ZoBell <bzob...@gmail.com> wrote:
I�ll stick my neck out and say that I think 31 men writers and 3 women writers seems pretty out of balance. Unless the intended audience is men, but I don�t see any sign of that. I enjoyed reading the issue, but also thought the works were very male oriented, but I like male-oriented fiction, too.
�
Some of you seem to know who the editors are there, but I don�t, and I couldn�t find a masthead when I looked. I also couldn�t find anything out about this when I poked around on the internet, except this, which might indicate all the editors are male:� http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Tyrant-Vol-No/dp/B001K8RJVY� Unless I�m reading it wrong.
�
Some female editors on board might lead to at least some of the editors having a more female sensibility, though I would hope that both male and female readers and writers are open to both sensibilities.
�
Like Patricia, I feel like a �Lady Tyrant� isn�t really solving the problem but implies female writers can�t fit into the magazine on their own.
�
Well, it�s a great magazine and I enjoyed reading it. This one thing did bother me as I was reading it, though.
�
�
�
From: litma...@googlegroups.com [mailto:litma...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Patricia Lockwood
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 1:42 PM
To: litma...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [LMC] New York Tyrant
�
Here's the thing about�Lady Tyrant, though--putting together an all-woman issue at some point in the past doesn't exempt you from including women in the future. It's almost weirder to me that a magazine would do an all-woman issue and then move on to other issues where the gender balance is so insanely skewed--3 out of 31 is really, really not a good balance-- it almost seems like throwing a sop to these concerns and not actually addressing them.�
�
I enjoyed the content a great deal, but like Mike, there was a strong awareness of this problem in the back of my mind as I read. It just seems like it shouldn't be happening anymore, especially not in our most cutting-edge litmags.
--- On Sun, 10/31/10, Marcelle Heath <marcel...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Marcelle Heath <marcel...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [LMC] New York Tyrant
To: litma...@googlegroups.com
Date: Sunday, October 31, 2010, 3:49 PM
I agree with Amber here about the number of women submitting vs men (It's highly likely women feel daunted by the landscape) and with many points everyone has made - Matt, I completely concur that gender is much more complicated than female/male and did not mean to attest otherwise. Mike, I really appreciate your comments about gender inequality in publishing. I'd also like to point out that in terms of aesthetics, it is problematic to categorize and/or distinguish female and male writers aesthetic sensibilities. Women writers are devalued because they are women, not because their work is different/lesser than/other etc. from male writers. Or rather, there is a belief that because they are women, their work is therefore x, y, and z and therefore not as good.��
I appreciate the thoughtful and engaging comments here.
Marcelle
�
From: Amber Sparks <anoell...@gmail.com>
To: litma...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sun, October 31, 2010 12:35:04 PM
Subject: Re: [LMC] New York Tyrant
I wouldn't say, though, that submissions reflect the readership, necessarily. Just because you read a magazine doesn't mean you'll submit to it, too. I mean, realistically I understand that a lot of the people who read any given lit mag are probably its submitters, too--but there are certainly a lot of people that read lit mags but never submit, may not even be writers or don't think that particular mag fits their asthetic. (For example: I love NOON--it's one of my favorite magazines and I buy it every year--but I'd never submit because I know my style is one hundred percent wrong for them.) Also, for many, many reasons, I suspect but can't prove that women submit a lot less than men do in general, not just to certain mags. I think that's the larger problem, really--much larger than any ideas I have about how to fix such things.
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Owen Kaelin <owenk...@gmail.com> wrote:
I suppose if, say, 20% of the submissions to a given journal are from men, then that suggests that a journal's readership is 20% male and 80% female . . . if we're assuming that the great majority of readers are writers... so in that context I suppose it only makes sense that the content reflect this. The problem, of course, is that the readers aren't likely to know the male/female stats on the journal's readership.
Maybe we need a male/female meter for each issue, eh? This season we received... .
...Sorry... .
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Mike Meginnis <mike.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
Okay -- it looks like I misread you. What you're saying is more interesting than what I read, but it also seems (and keep in mind here, Matt, that I respect you tremendously as a writer and as an editor, as I'm sure you know) potentially more troubling in its implications.
�
I mean ultimately I agree with you that probably what happened here was that there were a lot of submissions by men and by women, and then the way it happened to work out was that many, many more of the submissions by men happened to fit the aesthetic of the magazine better than did those submissions by women. I actually think this is the case in the vast majority of publications that tend to favor work by men: it's not that they're sexist, it's that their aesthetic is more often attempted and successfully executed by men than by women.
�
But why would we, as a culture, tend to favor forms and styles where men are more frequently successful, or where women feel in some way discouraged from participation?
�
Or, in other words, if we find ourselves excluding women for purely aesthetic or stylistic reasons, doesn't that suggest that there is something wrong with our aesthetics or stylistic preferences?�
�
�
mike
�
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 1:06 PM, Matt Bell <mdbe...@gmail.com> wrote:
"NYT isn't the poster-boy for this problem and it's not the definitive discussion to have about this issue, but at the same time waving it away as being entirely an issue of quality control necessarily implies that women aren't good writers, which I know you don't mean to say."
Mike I didn't say that, and I don't appreciate the suggestion that I did. I never implied it was an issue of quality, but of aesthetics. Here's what I said: " I'd rather have editors who focused on putting out the strongest issues they can, based on their own aesthetic..."
That's not the same thing as what you're suggesting, and as an editor yourself you know it's not. It's entirely possible to have a story that you would publish in your magazine that I wouldn't in mine, and that have nothing to do with the "quality" of the piece, but rather what kind of writing I want to publish and what kinds I don't, based on qualities completely separate from "good" or "bad" writing. There are stories that are very accomplished that we could all name that wouldn't fit in Tyrant, and Tyrant stories that wouldn't fit in other magazines. Aesthetics and "quality control"--a phrase I would never use to describe the editing process, as if I'm building automobile parts--are completely different issues.
�
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Mike Meginnis <mike.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
Matt, I agree with you, and of course you can't be treating things like a check list, especially when things are usually pretty complicated and difficult/somewhat pointless to suss out. (Good luck figuring out which of your contributors are black, gay, disabled, etc. in a way that doesn't seem ugly and stupid.)
�
But obviously if we're focusing exclusively on putting together the strongest issues we can, and there are significant gender imbalances in the resulting issues, it follows that either a)�we have tastes that somehow exclude large portions of one of two genders, b)�we haven't looked far enough beyond the obvious sources for contributors, or c)�women aren't as good at writing as are men.
�
In this case I suspect it's a combination of a and b, which I think is true of most literary magazines in the US. We also skew upper class, educated, white, etc. (The discomfort in discussions at my school where I allude to how poor I grew up, or the conditions in which my family lived up until very recently, like for instance the days I lived on small bowls of vanilla yogurt, is pretty incredible.) Presumably this isn't because upper-class educated white people do most of the best writing. NYT isn't the poster-boy for this problem and it's not the definitive discussion to have about this issue, but at the same time waving it away as being entirely an issue of quality control necessarily implies that women aren't good writers, which I know you don't mean to say. The truth is more boring and more difficult at the same time: yes, we have a sexist literary culture that devalues the work of women across the board, and no, no one magazine can be blamed for it, or solve the problem. You do what you can, you apologize for what you can't, you keep working.
�
�
mike
�
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 12:45 PM, Matt Bell <mdbe...@gmail.com> wrote:
Personally, I'd rather have editors who focused on putting out the strongest issues they can, based on their own aesthetic rather than outside standards of fairness and representation. I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think that should be the editor's goal when selecting an issue. Also, gender is a lot more complicated than male/female, as are all the other categories one might want to look at "in terms of representation," and I think any attempt at deliberate balancing is going to be wrong-headed at some level, and certainly it's not going to be focused on the art, which is where the editor's time and efforts should be going. As long as Gian and the rest of the staff aren't doing anything to suggest they're purposely excluding certain groups, or making the magazine unfriendly to those groups, then I don't think there's an issue.
Yhanks for hearing me out, and for voicing your own opinion on the matter.
Best,
Matt
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 2:31 PM, Marcelle Heath <marcel...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Thanks for your comment, Matt. I appreciate that NYT has actually done an all women issue and has a track-record for inclusive content. I don't want to categorically judge a journal for one issue that is male-heavy, but since new readers may be unfamiliar with their history, it is editors responsibility to look at what they are putting out there in terms of representation.
From: Matt Bell <mdbe...@gmail.com>
To: litma...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sun, October 31, 2010 11:04:18 AM
Subject: Re: [LMC] New York Tyrant
Tyrant has, in the past, done a "Lady Tyrant" issue, which was incredibly well-received and full of very strong work by female writers. So I don't think there's an all-male vibe there, and I don't think women should feel discouraged from submitting by Gian's aesthetic and his editorial style. I think he's represented himself well in this way in the past, even if the current issue seems male-heavy to new readers.
Best,
Matt
www.mdbell.com
How They Were Found
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 2:01 PM, Marcelle Heath <marcel...@yahoo.com> wrote:
I agree that editors don't have control over who ends up sending them work. I also feel that editors, if they so choose, can be proactive in how they represent themselves in terms of diversity and inclusion. I certainly don't want to undermine the writers who are represented here, whose work I greatly admire.
�
From: Owen Kaelin <owenk...@gmail.com>
To: litma...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sun, October 31, 2010 8:02:49 AM
Subject: Re: [LMC] New York Tyrant
Sometimes stuff like that just happens. I'm sure the editors' first interest is publishing what they consider to be the best / most interesting material, and the matter of who ends up sending you their work is not something the editors can control.On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 9:36 PM, Marcelle Heath <lunapar...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm loving this issue - My favorite stories thus far are Dark Matter,
The State, and These are Broken, Funny Days. The writing is inventive,
smart, bombastic. What I'm definitely not loving is the fact that
there are only 3 women out of 31 contributors.
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
--
Roxane Gay :: http://www.roxanegay.com
Co-Editor, PANK :: http://www.pankmagazine.com
http://www.indiepublishingwiki.com
--
Roxane Gay :: http://www.roxanegay.com
Co-Editor, PANK :: http://www.pankmagazine.com
http://www.indiepublishingwiki.com
--
Roxane Gay :: http://www.roxanegay.com
Co-Editor, PANK :: http://www.pankmagazine.com
http://www.indiepublishingwiki.com
Hi Paul, I'll take a stab at this, because I've been thinking about it lately. Devine's stuff, what little of it I've read, seems to be most interesting in its approach. The idea of tackling narrative a single word at a time is taken literally. It's so methodical and organized that it's actually a mess. I can't even imagine how difficult it would be to put something like together, but then again, I've never tried anything even remotely similar to what he's doing. What strikes me when I'm reading Devine is the way I fill in the gaps while following the alphabetized order of words, how certain words pop out and hint at deeper story (something I'm most likely projecting all on my own) while others go unnoticed. There's a new flux every time I approach one of his pieces. A delving or exploration of story or form or character. The words he chooses, when strung together, mean nothing. Individually they all mean something. Where the reader goes from there depends entirely on their imagination and their willingness to get lost. When it comes to readers and writers "owing" each other something. I wouldn't go down that route. The reader owes the writer nothing, and vice versa--unless it's genre fiction and the rules are clearly laid out. I've never read or parsed through or interpreted an Andy Devine story for more than five minutes, yet I've gotten more mental stimulation out of it than almost anything else printed in the Tyrant. But it's interesting to think of readers owing something to the writer. I know I feel that way when I read Gary Lutz and William Gass, like I owe it to them to read slowly, to re-cover passages over and over, because clearly they put a lot of effort into it. --- On Wed, 11/3/10, paul griner <paul....@gmail.com> wrote: |
While being much different, and much more narrative, and much much much more emotionally relevant, Ken Sparling's "what can the world do for elrond" has a few similarities. Not an index, its sentences and paragraphs do seem to stand alone. The same sort of clientside processing is required from the reader to make the story storylike.
Sent from my iPhonee
Sent from my iPhone
Gian, You should simply tell Bell you'll never publish him in NYT until he sends you a better story! Then email me right after you accept one so I know to be excited about a story better than that one coming soon. Dan Wickett --- On Thu, 11/4/10, giancarlo ditrapano <ditr...@nytyrant.com> wrote: |
Do you think it makes a difference if this was a once-conventional
story that was then alphabetized (or ripped through with software, as
Alex says) or if it was actually written alphabetically (as Devine
said in that big other interview Travis linked to)?
More than with other kinds of experimental stories, when I read it I
get a sense of loss. From the feeling that there once was a story that
the author had to destroy to make this alphabetical list, and the
whole meaning was irretrievably destroyed along with it.
Everyone may have already picked up on this, but I feel like he wants
us to figure out bits of it. I can guess that the story took place in
New York in the days after the 2003 blackout (35x; 16th of August) or
at least after some summer blackout. It takes place or has something
to do with clothes (127x), maybe a clothing store (54x). I also think
it revolves around a family (22x) rather than romance (zero) or love
(zero) or sex (zero). But I can't make much more headway than that.
It made me think of, on the one hand, ancient poetry fragments, which
from today's POV are all about lost meaning, and on the other David
Markson, since it feels like you're doing detective work with index
cards.