Friday Links

Download a brand new Anti-Pop Consortium track for free!

Look at Abebooks most expensive sales for May...

Gape at the most expensive Thomas Pynchon title on Abebooks...

Read an already-old tribute to JG Ballard from Michael Moorcock (found while thinking about Stewart Home's comment that Moorcock is better than Ballard, anyway...)

Chortle with delight at Dilshan's bizarre but effective scoop shot (this is one for the cricket buffs).

Stare at Chris Ware.

Befriend Marcel Duchamp on Facebook (just don't think about it too hard...)

Watch "Please Say Something" by David O'Reilly, winner of the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival (stolen from Marginal Glossagain, but what the fuck? He should stop putting up such good stuff...)

The Discrete Lameness of the English Novel

Good post from Mr Gloss on Tim Lott's recent "Why-oh-why-are-English-novels-so-shit?" piece in the Independent. He is cleverer and younger and spends more time thinking than me (and Tim Lott) so I have nothing to add...

The Horrible Truth About (my) Blogging

I was asked today by another writer how I found the whole blogging thing and whether it was bringing the punters in. Below is a slightly revised and expanded version of what I wrote. I only post it up because I can't think of anything else to post, which kind of proves or at least reinforces my theory:

As for blogging, I'm not sure it does any good at all beyond the palliative effect of feeling like you are doing something. I guess I get about 4-500 people a month looking at my blog and probably less than ten of those people are actually there because they're interested in "Will Ashon". Most of them are interested in Roberto Bolano. A quite staggering amount are interested in dog sex (having a post with those words in definitely boosts your hits from Iran*).

Certainly, sales of my books support the idea that whether I blog or not makes no difference at all, but then I've only really done it seriously (i.e. frequent posting) since last September/October, by which time both of my published books were already dead in the water. I think overall I would say it's pretty pointless, but then that's how I feel about the whole book writing business at the moment. So I think the truth is that my attitudes to blogging mirror fairly accurately my attitudes to writing as a whole - or at least to that part of it which involves selling a book as opposed to making it.

In fact, overall, I think the internet is a perfect mirror. It doesn't create, it reflects, or perhaps, at best/worst, amplifies. If you have a big rep and people know who you are then your blog will probably be a great success. If you're as obscure as I am, then it will probably be a complete waste of time. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Which, once again, makes it very much like publishing.

So really, as I started by saying, the only reason to do it is to feel like you're doing something. It goes some way to filling those moments of panic when you can't write and no one seems to be interested in what you're doing and you can't imagine that any publisher will ever take on another of your books. Though, of course, with time, the blogging or the lack of blogging becomes part of the panic itself, only on a toned down, less abysmal level. A more manageable and slightly less painful form of panic, in fact, and hence, as a result, that lesser, misdirecting panic becomes a reason to do it (and not do it) in itself.



*I'm afraid this is true.

Marginal Gloss

I'm really liking this blog and not only because there was a very sympathetic write-up of "The Heritage" on there a few weeks ago (though that helped).

Random Links Galore

I'm not going to be posting for a wee while so I thought I would bombard you with a bunch of links to explore or ignore.

Check out Farafina, a Nigerian literary/cultural magazine, available to read online and with an interesting piece about Tayeb Salih, amongst other things.

Head to East London for a trip to Donlon Books for all your arty, political and theoretical needs (plus glass cases stuffed with rarities). They even have a rug on the floor.

If you read my post on Tony White's Science Musuem exploits, download Al Robertson's Pynchonian riffing on Mayan computing and then visit his blog for more.

Go to the Spill Festival, with highlights including Tim Etchells' That Night Follows Day.

Wait, barely daring to breath, for my new short story to appear on Dogmatika (if I remember to send it off.... And they still want it...)

Listen to random wibble on Spotify.

And that's it.

Post-Lasdun & Post-Apocalypse

So the next James Lasdun story on R4, "Totty," was a disappointment after the magnificence of "Annals of the Honorary Secretary". It was fine as a fairly conventional short story, I guess, but, unless I missed something, offered little more. Mind you, it was read by Greta Scacchi and she wasn't a patch on Bill Paterson's deadpan delivery, so maybe the comparison is unfair. Shame, I guess, but not the end of the world...

Incidentally (what a segue!), AbeBooks have just put up a mini-feature on post-apocalyptic fiction. What larks!

Empty Woolworths

Irving Brecher and the Brothers Marx

There was a fantastic (if that's the right word in the circumstances) obituary of Irving Brecher in yesterday's Guardian. Along with many, many other jokes he was the sole writer on two Marx Brothers pictures, "At The Circus" and "Go West!" The latter included this cracking line for Groucho: "Lulubelle, it's you! I didn't recognise you standing up."

Twitter for Depressives

My dear old friend Nymal kindly introduced me to the joys of FML aka fuckmylife.com, a site dedicated to the confessions of Americans whose lives are going down the pan in short, sharp bursts of humiliation and stupidity. A kind of Twitter for depressives, every terrible incident is relayed in a sentence or two, with the sign off "FML" at the end - an Amen for fuck-ups: "Today, at the dentist, I was getting my teeth cleaned. Looking up at his nose, I saw runny snot dripping onto his lip. I tried to slowly move away. He told me 'Stop!' The movement of his lips caused the snot to fall right into my mouth. FML." At first it's very funny and also formally rather beautiful, as if Perec has been reincarnated as a fat girl somewhere in the Mid-West who can't get a date for the prom. After a few pages, though, it begins to make you feel a bit queasy. Everyone has terrible body image and their insecurity is constantly being reinforced by friends and family. Everyone's boyfriend is cheating on them, usually with their best friend. On the other hand, it is kind of great. "Today, a creepy man on the subway said he liked my eyeballs. It was the best compliment I've received in months. FML."

Uncrushed, Non-recyclable (and still angry..)

I've been really surprised and pleased by the reaction to the download of "The Heritage". Thanks to all the people out there who have linked to it, to all those who have downloaded it and even to those who have complained about the formatting. I hope those of you who can cope with A4 pages enjoy reading it, too... And if not, well, it's free innit??! What have you lost?

I've particularly enjoyed all the "shame on you, Faber" stuff, mainly because it's so funny. Come on, people, what are you all so surprised about? The book didn't sell so they decided not to waste more money on trying to build me an audience. What would you have done if it was your money? And if you feel like that now, wait until you've read it...

What else? Have been on a break from the crime books, instead reading Pankaj Mishra's "An End to Suffering," "A Handful of Dust" by Mr Waugh (came highly recommended, don't ya know?) and something else which I seem to have forgotten. Ooops. I expect it was very good, anyway. Meanwhile, have been listening to "Checkmate Savage" by the Phantom Band, a promo of the superb Micachu album and Ornette Coleman's "Complete Science Fiction Sessions," the last courtesy of Spotify. Oh, and I finished a first draft of a new book, which, as I haven't sat down and re-read it, I'm still very pleased with. And now I'm listening to the new record from Juice Aleem, one of the true veterans of Big Dada. Pure pleasure. So don't worry, my friends, I am not crushed!

Random Blither - McBain, Simenon,Walser, Esser and the horror of "Have Your Say"

So I gave up on Ed McBain. Partly it was the film star description thing. Partly I thought I'd be better off watching "The Wire". Partly it was an example of false economy - I bought an edition with three novels in which was then too big to fit in my pocket when I went out. As a result I switched to reading more Simenon last week - "The Blue Room," which while not as good as "Dirty Snow" was still pretty remarkable.

I've been wondering how to find out what to read next by him (I'm less interested in the Maigret side of things, though this could be because I was made to read a short story for EngLit "O" level many many years ago) and in the process stumbled across an essay about him by Paul Theroux, which has endeared the man to me even more. Anyway, I finished "The Blue room" and started on "Jakob Von Gunten" by Robert Walser, which a friend gave me 13 years ago but which I've never got round to reading (very poor...). It's commonly called "Institute Benjamenta" now, which confused me enough to ask someone to buy it for my birthday. Have only read Walser's short fiction in the past and not all that much of that. But it's great, even if, after Simenon et al, I'm reading it as a murder mystery without a murder. In between finishing "The Blue Room" on the train, I saw a band called Esser performing on a freezing cold bandstand on Sunday. I liked them enough to Google them, hence the video above. Last but not least, my worthy constituent Jimmy Cash sent me a link to spEak You’re bRanes, a website devoted to ripping the piss out of idiotic, xenophobic and dumb posts on the BBC's "Have Your Say" forums. Very funny.

Spotify

As someone who works in the music business (on some level, anyway) I'm not sure I should be recommending Spotify, but there you are. It's one of these new music streaming services, there's no buffering, it's free in return for listening to a crappy advert every half hour or so and the catalogue on there is pretty remarkable. Not perfect, but not bad at all. Was talking to a computer-literate friend and he says it's The Cloud. I say it's the shit. Anyway, don't take my word for it: click. Apparently it won't work if you're in the US. Sorry. Least you got Baz...

Gore Vidal versus David Dimbleby

Can we say Gore Vidal is an extremely cantankerous old fellow? Yes we can.

My (weakest) Link Contributions To The US Presidential Election

I'm not American so I have no idea whether the Huffington Post is a Good or a Bad thing but I enjoyed this post from Larry David. And for US election commentary combined with major conceptual art figures and bad German pop, go here. Yes, that's Joseph Beuys on Ronald Reagan. Dancing. And check out this Grauniad analysis of the Presidential "Bend Sinister". Don't say you never learn anything here...

"QUEEN'S WASPS OF HATE SEIZED"

What could give a Londoner more pleasure more simply than a selection of random cut-ups of lurid Evening Standard billboard headlines? Other than Boris Johnson being crushed to death beneath the collected works of Pliny, of course...

Holy Roll-Outs

And just in case you're reeling from the sheer artiness of yesterday's post, here's a YouTube classic - much Christian ecstatic dancing cut to a d&b soundtrack. "Somebody make some nooiiiiise!" (With thanks to Infinite Livez for the link...).

Beyond Our Ken

And while I'm going YouTube crazy, here is the marvellous and sadly deceased Ken Campbell on the Big Bang. Long may he haunt the internet...
Oh, and check this one, too. It's about Jackie Chan, eventually (part 3, I think). Aren't they all?

Darkness Returns

I've abandoned my ill-advised flirtation with a red, gold and green website at least until Jah contacts me personally. The moral of this story is - customisation is for buffoons.

Brightness Falls

As you can see, I've fallen foul of the urge to "customise" my blog, with the result that it looks fucking horrible. Whoops.

Andrew Holmes has started the Secret Santa mixtape exchange festivities again. The first couple of reviews suggest an authorial bloodsport. It's not pretty. Neither my review or the review of my cd has yet been posted. Gulp.

Their Office, no.2

"I've got my visualiser coming in next week."