BAUMANNBLOG

‘Metastasis’ shouldn’t mean what it does.

Reading: Closer by Dennis Cooper. Dennis is a friend of mine, and I’ve only read God Jr. Correcting this. Halfway through Closer, and it’s a stunningly compact text. There are these logical leaps, held in fantasy, throughout that are just wowing me. I don’t think I can respect Dennis more than I already do, but here’s a toast–to heaping! (clink) Also, still and unstill with Finnegans Wake. This is a year of improved reading: I want to read more and better, and I’ve been doing that so far. I wrote my first considerable review. That felt great.

Watching: Last movie to become a landmark was The Thin Red Line. Now I’ve got Malick to catch up on. Malick seems to truly be a philosopher king: studied under Cavell at Harvard, graduated summa cum laude, went on to study as a Rhodes Scholar and almost get a doctorate–apparently he got into it with his advisor about the content of his thesis (the concept of the world in Kierkegaard, Heidegger & Wittgenstein–this is a thesis I want to read). (!!!) So, yes, a philosopher king; a film director. What I wouldn’t give to see that mind at work on set.

Novel: Over 20,000 words. I cannot grasp it.

EDIT: And a couple of people at different publishing companies have asked about Interim, my first novel. It’s nice to feel solicited.

Days Ahead: So much. A Big Thing will be announced this month. Someone told me that you can watch The Secret Life on Hulu. That will be handy for ‘Huh?’ conversations.

The great dam is about to be lifted away, into air.