Story idea
This article on a "new art form" makes me want to create a story that's entirely built of fictitious reviews of a fictitious collection of poetry. It's only a small step from other things I've done, stories that incorporate poetry as part of the secondary world the story is set in. It wouldn't necessarily be seen as especially original, but more of a variation on/homage to Borges. In fact I seem to remember reading a short story (perhaps from Farrago's Wainscot?) that was very similar, though I'm not sure what the reviews in that story were of. [Edit: They were reviews of a book: "Praise and Criticism for M. Rekling's The Bottle" by Alex Dally MacFarlane] But even so, it's the type of thing I would find very fun, imagining not only the snippets of poetry but the reactions of many to that poetry, letting those reactions reveal the way people in an imagined city think about such things as poetry and art and...really everything.
I'm not planning to write this story at the moment. It's such a bare bones concept now that it's hardly even a story idea. Maybe a story ghost. But if it keeps haunting me in the coming months, maybe I'll try to turn it into something fun.
This article on a "new art form" makes me want to create a story that's entirely built of fictitious reviews of a fictitious collection of poetry. It's only a small step from other things I've done, stories that incorporate poetry as part of the secondary world the story is set in. It wouldn't necessarily be seen as especially original, but more of a variation on/homage to Borges. In fact I seem to remember reading a short story (perhaps from Farrago's Wainscot?) that was very similar, though I'm not sure what the reviews in that story were of. [Edit: They were reviews of a book: "Praise and Criticism for M. Rekling's The Bottle" by Alex Dally MacFarlane] But even so, it's the type of thing I would find very fun, imagining not only the snippets of poetry but the reactions of many to that poetry, letting those reactions reveal the way people in an imagined city think about such things as poetry and art and...really everything.
I'm not planning to write this story at the moment. It's such a bare bones concept now that it's hardly even a story idea. Maybe a story ghost. But if it keeps haunting me in the coming months, maybe I'll try to turn it into something fun.
Comments
It's an edit of a scholarly documentary of an indy film that has never existed. It's also a horror story, filled with puzzles, winding text, deviations, half-truths...
Ultimately, it's about a man who creates a documentary about how his house keeps expanding from the inside. It starts with the house being only a few inches longer from the inside than the outside. Then a closet appears, a hallway, and then a labyrinth that won't stop growing.
It's... interesting. Something of an intellectual horror.
Eliza, that book has been on my to-read list for a long time, but it's always checked out of the library, often with a hold or two, so clearly it's a popular as well as experimental. Danielewski also has a book called Just Revolutions, which I've glanced at but haven't read.