Blake Butler speaks forcefully. Unfortunately he does not advise of these ustream readings beforehand. That’s a pity. You see, he speaks with such force you’d think he missed his calling as a preacher. Well, I’m not sure how many preachers drink Diet Cherry 7UP with Gin, but that’s irrelevant. Seeing his reading is a bit inspiring. Despite going on for over two hours, he refused to slow down or even ‘skim’ most poems. It was out of a basic desire to share some of the books he’d been reading that started it. What it ended up being was a marathon reading, moving so fast I could barely keep with what kept on flashing past my eyes and ears.
For those of you unfamiliar with Blake, he heads up the venerable institution “HTML Giant”. He’s published a few books. Known for interviewing others, known for his readings, he’s a powerful force out of Atlanta, Georgia. This particular reading showed his passion for literature. Even his living quarters, darkly lit with piles and piles of books, gave off the aurora of a chaotic brilliance. Watching the reading only confirmed this belief.
“CEOs” was great. Apparently the writer did not care for CEOs at all. The CEOs were not appreciated by the protagonist. I found it pretty giant. Not just the 10,000 words of the poem, but the sprawling feel of it. Constantly it grew larger and larger. “Every CEO got three babies” one particular line stated. Watching the main character interact with the richer fans he had was funny. Rich fans (the CEOs children) asked him to mess up their fathers. As the protagonist wanted to do only that, it was a perfect circle of want and admiration.
“Today & Tomorrow” has Bill Murray’s face on the cover. Written by Ofelia Hunt, it is out next week. In the poem she apologizes to the TV for not using it. NPR may get more attention from her in the future. The amount of details is obscene. Chapter 6 of “Today & Tomorrow” got read as well. Blake discussed his thoughts briefly about Bill Murray and Steve Martin during the in-between time, saying how they are good people with a lousy product.
"The Buddhist" by Dodie Bellamy got called ‘intense’. Apparently love requires for nothing to be glossed over. “Geeky in photos he’s handsome in person” had to be one of my favorite lines of the whole thing. Guess if I wanted to be conceited I’d say that line could be me, as I look awkward in online photos, hugging you for all it’s worth. It has an additional meaning as you sit in a chat room with countless others, many of whom you’ll never meet in person. Love hurts.
How to end such a large reading? Well, how about reading an entire novella. The novella, called “Dies: A Sentence” was written by Vanessa Place. As I realized he was going to try and read this entire twisting thing, I sat in disbelief. Even watching him was amazing. People ducked out as they understood Blake would not stop. Religion, property purchases, war, sex, blisters, marzipan, liberal magazines and countless other topics got filtered in and out. When a rhythm came along “out in” in particular, you really felt the sheer size of what Vanessa accomplished with the work. Occasionally the work itself mocked him, like the line “We had to keep reading”.
Drama came in the form of internet connectivity. Blake remained determined even as his internet connection showed hesitation. Perhaps the internet found the sweat pouring down his brow to be a bit much. It worried about Blake when it had no right. As it continued, I felt near lost in the huge pile of words. This reading made me wish I had the book ahead of time. I wanted to follow his reading in the book. Some followers were. Quickly the early hours of the day arrived. Guilt washed over me as I realized I could not possibly stay until the end. Whoever was lucky enough to last until the end had more determination than I did.
Everything felt epic. The length was epic. He has a personal blog which shows his development arc. Beginning in 2007, he moved forward, becoming better and better with each piece. In the early posts, you see the interaction and movement towards writing books. Seeing the comments from people like Tao Lin, I am filled with a slight amount of inspiration. I’m glad Blake Butler did this reading. Blake Butler is the boss you face on the highest levels of this great game called ‘life’.