Jim Hanas

"But whether you read “Rip Van Winkle” as a statement on politics, marital relations, or as a tale..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:59:37 -0400

“But whether you read “Rip Van Winkle” as a statement on politics, marital relations, or as a tale that binds history to nature – Van Winkle’s bowling partners are determined to be Hendrick Hudson’s crew, and summer thunder in the Catskills is taken to be the sound of their pins crashing – the fact remains: Rip Van Winkle does nothing and gets away with it.”

- I wrote a little thing about Rip Van Winkle for the Hudson Valley magazine Green Door.

I’ll be reading at a night of Say Anything fan fiction a...

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:46:20 -0400

I’ll be reading at a night of Say Anything fan fiction a week from Saturday at BookCourt. It’s a Brooklyn Writers Space event that’s part of Brooklyn’s Lit Crawl. I talk all about it at The Huffington Post.

Sam Anderson and David Rees auctioning off a copy of How to...

Sat, 05 May 2012 21:25:27 -0400

Sam Anderson and David Rees auctioning off a copy of How to Sharpen Pencils at Hudson Valley Auctioneers. (Taken with instagram)

At the Beacon Auction House, for comedy. (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 05 May 2012 20:21:18 -0400

At the Beacon Auction House, for comedy. (Taken with instagram)

Feels good to be back on the masthead at a newsweekly after all...

Thu, 03 May 2012 12:53:49 -0400

Feels good to be back on the masthead at a newsweekly after all these years.

"Do all your work as though you had a thousand years to live; and as you would if you knew you must..."

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:17:17 -0400

“Do all your work as though you had a thousand years to live; and as you would if you knew you must die to-morrow.”

- Mother Ann, founder of the Shakers. Heard this in an old Ken Burns doc last night and liked the paradox of it.

thesageofabsurd: ‎”I detest my own past and that of others. I...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:00:26 -0400

thesageofabsurd:

‎”I detest my own past and that of others. I detest resignation, patience, professional heroism and all those nice, obligatory sentiments. I also detest the decorative arts, folklore, publicity, the voice of speakers, aerodynamics, boy scouts, the smell of gasoline, topical matters and drunkards. I love subversive humour, freckles, knees, the long hair of women, the laugh of young children at liberty, a young girl running in the street. I wish for real love, the impossible and the utopian. I fear knowledge of my exact limits.”

René Magritte

Badlands (1973)dir. Terrence Malick8/10 What a poster.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:08:32 -0400

Badlands (1973)
dir. Terrence Malick
8/10

What a poster.

walkwhilereading: James Joyce Prescription for New Glasses

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:58:18 -0400

walkwhilereading:

James Joyce Prescription for New Glasses

Just gave away 19 copies of A Prayer for Owen Meany (plus one of...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:30:31 -0400

Just gave away 19 copies of A Prayer for Owen Meany (plus one of The History of Love) in 7 minutes and 36 seconds for World Book Night. So I guess that’s the time to beat, no?

nevver: “Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:36:20 -0400

nevver:

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.”
— William S. Burroughs

"Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep."

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 10:28:04 -0400

“Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep.”

- Fran Lebowitz (via iamblessed) (via quote-book) (via pinkeezy) (via libraryland)

Dialastar.com and the Future of Micro-Access

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:05:00 -0400

At first blush, dialastar.com appears to be a crass scheme by a former porn star to leverage the shameless desperation of attention-starved D-listers and the lower impulses of celebrity-crazed American dimwits and/or ironic potheads. And it is all that. Users pay up to $25/minute to speak to future trivia questions like Michael Lohan, Chris Crocker, and Angie Everhart.

But might it also be more?

While credible literary lights like Emerson, Dickens, and Twain supported themselves — in their day — via public appearances, something has always struck me as not quite right about returning to that model. For one thing, it will mean we have arrived at a point where each pole of the marketing magnet — the book and the tour — is supposed to pay for the other, with the result that both are given away. Plus, the idea of supporting modern media with something so 19th-century as a speaking tour is just a little too steam-punky, if you know what I mean.

But this dialastar.com, this makes sense. What Emerson, Dickens, and Twain were really selling — after all — was access. Writing was their advertisement, but proximity was their product. And for many writers, who make livings as academics, it still is. The paid speaking tour hasn’t gone away. We’ve just jacked up the price, extended it to two years, and dratically limited enrollment (although probably still not by enough.) We sell maxi-access to writers, in the form of MFAs. But what about micro-access? Where’s the model for that? Maybe it’s dialastar.com.

Imagine dialanauthor.com, a site where you can talk to Jonathan Franzen or Jennifer Egan or, gulp, David Patterson for $5/minute or $5/minute or $500/minute (respectively). Do you think people would call? Do you even doubt for a minute that they would? Can you imagine if Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon were on there?

Discuss.

nevver: The Photos Behind Robert Longo’s Iconic Charcoal...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:08:23 -0400

nevver:

The Photos Behind Robert Longo’s Iconic Charcoal Drawings

vol1brooklyn: Going to revisit this one for his...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:28:45 -0400

vol1brooklyn:

Going to revisit this one for his birthday: Drinking Like A Kingsley Amis Character.

What a crazy cover. Makes it look like an Elvis Presley vehicle.

apoetreflects: “How did it happen that [one] can write two bad...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:14:00 -0400

apoetreflects:

“How did it happen that [one] can write two bad novels and then a third which is a great deal better [one that is accepted by the first publisher to see it and then goes on to win the National Book Award for Fiction]?

This is an interesting question, one which, however, I do not pretend to be able to answer. I can only report that something did happen and it happened all of a sudden. Other writers have reported a similar experience. It is not like learning a skill or a game at which, with practice, one gradually improves. One works hard all right, but what comes, comes all of a sudden and as a breakthrough. One hits on something. What happens is a period of unsuccessful effort during which one works very hard—and fails. There follows a period of discouragement.

Then there comes a paradoxical moment of collapse-and-renewal in which one somehow breaks with the past and starts afresh. All past efforts are through into the wastebasket; all advice forgotten. The slate is wiped clean. It is almost as if the discouragement were necessary, that one has first to encounter despair before one is entitled to hope. Then a time comes when one takes a pencil and a fresh sheet of paper and begins. Begins, really for the first time.”

—Walker Percy, “From Facts to Fiction” in Signposts in a Strange Land, edited by Patrick Samway (The Noonday Press, 1991)

wordbrooklyn: There is a somewhat crazy number of boxes in our...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:56:39 -0400

wordbrooklyn:

There is a somewhat crazy number of boxes in our basement right now due to World Book Night, which is suddenly almost here!

(Don’t worry, they’ll be stashed behind the curtains before tonight’s event.)

I will be among the authors giving away books at this event next weekend at Word. Looking forward to it.

"Heaven have mercy on us all—Presbyterians and Pagans alike—for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked..."

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:37:51 -0400

“Heaven have mercy on us all—Presbyterians and Pagans alike—for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.”

- Herman Melville, Moby Dick

The Significant Objects book, to which I contributed, is now...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:12:41 -0400

The Significant Objects book, to which I contributed, is now available for pre-order.

"Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself..."

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:41:41 -0400

“Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive.”

- Ellery Channing to Thoreau, according to Wikipedia.