cuttyspot: [words on SCOTT MCCLANAHAN’s THE COLLECTED WORKS VOL. 1] * * * I just finished Scott McClanahan’s Collected Stories Vol. 1 this book is released by ‘lazy fascist’ it begins w/ a ‘Foreword’ by Blake Butler probably my favorite thing I’ve read from BB it closes w/ an ‘Afterword’ by Sam Pink love Sam Pink I met Scott McClanahan at a reading in San Francisco @ ‘press: works on paper’ on the corner of 22nd & Dolores he wore a suit & spoke w/ a deeply southern accent I know this has become a common thing to say about Scott I mention it because these are the first things I noticed I am from the ‘South’, so as w/ any time I come across a ‘southerner’ in San Francisco, I got a little happy Scott was very friendly & his reading made a lasting impression on me obviously, he is ‘in’ w/ the htmlgiant crowd & although there’s not necessarily a singular ‘aesthetic’ in this crowd Scott undoubtedly stands as an individual w/ a comparatively unique style he played an old country song on a little sound recorder during his reading to accompany a part in the story when the characters listen to an old country song in a car in the story, if I remember correctly, the grandmother makes ”peanut butter fudge’ ‘peanut butter fudge’ serves as a symbol in the story a symbol perhaps for enjoying this ephemeral life in the face of death much of the story takes place in a graveyard in West Virginia (I think) definitely in ‘the South’ the ‘voice’ in his stories reminds me of a Raymond Carver reincarnated in the ‘Gothic’ South w/ an even more keen preoccupation w/ questions of the ‘human condition’ SM’s work has a lack of pretense he works in a very ‘minimal’ mode he uses his own name to modify the ‘I’ in each story I don’t know if he considers his stories ‘fiction’ or ‘creative nonfiction’ who rly cares I must say this is my favorite short story book I’ve read in a long time he explores themes of something like ‘situational ethics’ the ‘Scott’ in the stories seems to have a great mother ‘Scott’ is very preoccupied w/ death - in an extremely ‘moving’ way ‘Scott’ is ‘devastatingly frank’ (a phrase from Margaret Fuller to Ralph Waldo Emerson) ‘Scott’ often reveals extreme vulnerability but also seems to ‘believe in’ or ‘engender’ a dark ‘magic’ a type of ‘magic’ somewhat characteristic of ‘Gothic’ lit or cultures shaped by the ‘oral tradition’ bottom line, he’s a wonderful, honest story teller I forgot to mention that he handed out a box of ‘peanut butter fudge’ to the SF crowd I couldn’t help but to think of the word ‘religious’ or at least ‘spiritual’ when hearing him read or reading his work but he seems to approach the ‘metaphysical’ both w/ reverence & ‘postmodern’ playfulness he expresses ‘paradoxical’ type truths he explores the ‘grotesque’ & seeming ‘hypocrisy’ in ‘KIDNEY STONE’ ‘Scott’ has a vision & hears ‘Surely this is the TRUE Son of God in whom I’m well pleased. Arise now and awake the new prophet of the Lord’ what to make of this? at the end of the book the stories are called ‘fables’ when I hear ‘fable’ I subjectively think of Russell Edson (possibly my favorite poet) but although Edson’s ‘poems’ (proems) read somewhat like ‘fables’ he refuses to call them ‘fables’ because he claims they are not ‘moral’ in natureSM explicitly calls his ‘fables’ but these ‘fables’ are not the least bit ‘cheesy’ I wrote ‘ballsy’ next to the first ‘fable’ title they have moments of ‘tongue in cheek’ & are altogether coarse (I say this as a ‘good’ thing) SM ‘breaks the fourth wall’ a lot directly addressing the reader directly making the reader aware that the speaker is aware that this is a ‘story’ but also drawing attention to the power of this relationship between ‘reader’ & ‘writer’ SM seems to want his content to have a strong ‘impact’ on the reader, unlike a lot of writers today SM ends the book w/ 3 ‘short shorts’ or ‘prose poems’ this makes me very happy, as I am a strong advocate for brevity these last 3 poems emphasize retreating from our convenient & addictive technology into wilderness he tells the reader to ‘Flush that cell phone down the toilet [… &] break into blossom’ this reminds me of James Wright: ‘Suddenly I realize / That if I stepped out of my body I would break / Into blossom’ the last piece is reminiscent of Walt Whitman, especially Whitman’s claim that ‘If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles’  which SM references in this book, in the story ‘THE LAST TIME I STOLE WALT WHITMAN’S SOLE’ in his last piece, SM writes, ‘And if I’m far away and gone and you want to find me, go to Rainelle, WV on any given night’ my favorite moments from the book: ‘I stood there and wanted to say something that was memorable for him’ ‘I reminded myself that I was a good person, and I was never going to do another nice thing for as long as I lived’ ‘He wasn’t crying or complaining or screaming or puking or praying to God, but for the first time in his life he felt something’ ‘We talked about how hard it was to meet somebody in this world who you can connect with, and even sometimes when you think you found someone you really haven’t found the person, but just the idea of the person’ ‘And sometimes I used to sit out in the woods and just listen to the mountains. And sometimes I even imagined how the mountains became the mountains. I saw how the land used to be flat once and there as only the river and the giants. Then one day all of the giants grew tired and they decided to sit down and sleep. And they slept a sleep of a million years. The dirt and the rocks covered them up like graces and they were there now beneath the mountains. And one day they were going to wake and walk away and there would be no more mountains and we could be able to see past all of the hollers and the valleys and the rivers—all the way to the ocean’ ‘Nothing human is alien to me’ ‘I saw my mother’s eyes fill full of tears, and I thought to myself that this was my mother’ Sam Pink’s last sentences of his ‘Afterword’ (& the last sentences of the whole book): ‘I support it fully. And I really don’t care about much. But Scott is an author of American Genius’ Thank you, Matthew.

cuttyspot:

[words on SCOTT MCCLANAHAN’s THE COLLECTED WORKS VOL. 1]

* * *

I just finished Scott McClanahan’s Collected Stories Vol. 1

this book is released by ‘lazy fascist’

it begins w/ a ‘Foreword’ by Blake Butler

probably my favorite thing I’ve read from BB

it closes w/ an ‘Afterword’ by Sam Pink

love Sam Pink

I met Scott McClanahan at a reading in San Francisco

@ ‘press: works on paper’ on the corner of 22nd & Dolores

he wore a suit & spoke w/ a deeply southern accent

I know this has become a common thing to say about Scott

I mention it because these are the first things I noticed

I am from the ‘South’, so as w/ any time I come across a ‘southerner’ in San Francisco, I got a little happy

Scott was very friendly

& his reading made a lasting impression on me

obviously, he is ‘in’ w/ the htmlgiant crowd

& although there’s not necessarily a singular ‘aesthetic’ in this crowd

Scott undoubtedly stands as an individual w/ a comparatively unique style

he played an old country song on a little sound recorder during his reading to accompany a part in the story when the characters listen to an old country song in a car

in the story, if I remember correctly, the grandmother makes ”peanut butter fudge’

‘peanut butter fudge’ serves as a symbol in the story

a symbol perhaps for enjoying this ephemeral life in the face of death

much of the story takes place in a graveyard

in West Virginia (I think)

definitely in ‘the South’

the ‘voice’ in his stories reminds me of a Raymond Carver reincarnated in the ‘Gothic’ South

w/ an even more keen preoccupation w/ questions of the ‘human condition’

SM’s work has a lack of pretense

he works in a very ‘minimal’ mode

he uses his own name to modify the ‘I’ in each story

I don’t know if he considers his stories ‘fiction’ or ‘creative nonfiction’

who rly cares

I must say this is my favorite short story book I’ve read in a long time

he explores themes of something like ‘situational ethics’

the ‘Scott’ in the stories seems to have a great mother

‘Scott’ is very preoccupied w/ death - in an extremely ‘moving’ way

‘Scott’ is ‘devastatingly frank’ (a phrase from Margaret Fuller to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

‘Scott’ often reveals extreme vulnerability

but also seems to ‘believe in’ or ‘engender’ a dark ‘magic’

a type of ‘magic’ somewhat characteristic of ‘Gothic’ lit or cultures shaped by the ‘oral tradition’

bottom line, he’s a wonderful, honest story teller

I forgot to mention that he handed out a box of ‘peanut butter fudge’ to the SF crowd

I couldn’t help but to think of the word ‘religious’ or at least ‘spiritual’ when hearing him read or reading his work

but he seems to approach the ‘metaphysical’ both w/ reverence & ‘postmodern’ playfulness

he expresses ‘paradoxical’ type truths

he explores the ‘grotesque’ & seeming ‘hypocrisy’

in ‘KIDNEY STONE’ ‘Scott’ has a vision & hears ‘Surely this is the TRUE Son of God in whom I’m well pleased. Arise now and awake the new prophet of the Lord’

what to make of this?

at the end of the book the stories are called ‘fables’

when I hear ‘fable’ I subjectively think of Russell Edson (possibly my favorite poet)

but although Edson’s ‘poems’ (proems) read somewhat like ‘fables’ he refuses to call them ‘fables’ because he claims they are not ‘moral’ in nature

SM explicitly calls his ‘fables’ but these ‘fables’ are not the least bit ‘cheesy’

I wrote ‘ballsy’ next to the first ‘fable’ title

they have moments of ‘tongue in cheek’ & are altogether coarse (I say this as a ‘good’ thing)

SM ‘breaks the fourth wall’ a lot

directly addressing the reader

directly making the reader aware that the speaker is aware that this is a ‘story’

but also drawing attention to the power of this relationship between ‘reader’ & ‘writer’

SM seems to want his content to have a strong ‘impact’ on the reader, unlike a lot of writers today

SM ends the book w/ 3 ‘short shorts’ or ‘prose poems’

this makes me very happy, as I am a strong advocate for brevity

these last 3 poems emphasize retreating from our convenient & addictive technology into wilderness

he tells the reader to ‘Flush that cell phone down the toilet [… &] break into blossom’

this reminds me of James Wright: ‘Suddenly I realize / That if I stepped out of my body I would break / Into blossom’

the last piece is reminiscent of Walt Whitman, especially Whitman’s claim that ‘If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles’ 

which SM references in this book, in the story ‘THE LAST TIME I STOLE WALT WHITMAN’S SOLE’

in his last piece, SM writes, ‘And if I’m far away and gone and you want to find me, go to Rainelle, WV on any given night’

my favorite moments from the book:

‘I stood there and wanted to say something that was memorable for him’

‘I reminded myself that I was a good person, and I was never going to do another nice thing for as long as I lived’

‘He wasn’t crying or complaining or screaming or puking or praying to God, but for the first time in his life he felt something’

‘We talked about how hard it was to meet somebody in this world who you can connect with, and even sometimes when you think you found someone you really haven’t found the person, but just the idea of the person’

‘And sometimes I used to sit out in the woods and just listen to the mountains. And sometimes I even imagined how the mountains became the mountains. I saw how the land used to be flat once and there as only the river and the giants. Then one day all of the giants grew tired and they decided to sit down and sleep. And they slept a sleep of a million years. The dirt and the rocks covered them up like graces and they were there now beneath the mountains. And one day they were going to wake and walk away and there would be no more mountains and we could be able to see past all of the hollers and the valleys and the rivers—all the way to the ocean’

‘Nothing human is alien to me’

‘I saw my mother’s eyes fill full of tears, and I thought to myself that this was my mother’

Sam Pink’s last sentences of his ‘Afterword’ (& the last sentences of the whole book):

‘I support it fully. And I really don’t care about much. But Scott is an author of American Genius’

Thank you, Matthew.