p.s. Hey. I'm quite excited that the blog gets to host this first English language leak of Robbe-Grillet's last novel. As a huge R-G fan with only the paltriest grasp of French, it's been really disheartening to me that no American or British press has shown any interest in translating and publishing 'Un Roman Sentimental' despite the efforts of Catherine Robbe-Grillet and his French publishing house Fayard. The wonderful translator and d.l. Dorna Khazeni has taken it upon herself to bring the novel in English, and hopefully, if all goes well, with the support of a grant from the French government. I'm enormously grateful to her for allowing the first piece to appear in/on this humble abode, and, of course, I hope you out there will enjoy it. Otherwise, I believe I'm finally on the mend, health-wise, but I say that with some uncertainty and a lot of caution. ** Esther Planas, Hey, Esther! Always a joy to see you, my pal. I'm excited for you and for us/me about your new project, and I hope there'll be some evidence online or somewhere so we can luxuriate in whatever it ends up being. Lots of love. ** Renaud Cerqueux, Yeah, poor Ron. No one seems to rooting for him re: Hermione. I guess I am. So, how are you doing? I really loved your new comic. Here's a deep bow from me. We should meet up sometime for a coffee or something, no? ** Borderboys San Diego, Hey, welcome, and thanks a lot. Nice blog you've got there, sir. Come back any old time, and take care. ** Sanjay, Hm, how did you get in here? Blogger's spam filter has been weirdly porous lately. Uh-oh. ** Nerstes, Hey, man. Hm, well, the only advice I can think of is to ween your current reading diet of conventional fiction as much as possible, and try to outweigh the old influences with new, unconventional ones, but, really, the main advice is to allow yourself the confidence and courage to experiment wildly. I mean, it could be that you end up relying on narrative because that's a natural part of your particular talent. Maybe you shouldn't try to fight your tendency to tell stories. Maybe you should embrace that, and, if they're too soap opera-ish for your tastes, let that concern go for now and then remove/fix the cheesy aspects in the editing, rewriting, refining phase. That's what I'd probably do. It's a tough one. It would be easiest for me to give you advice if we dialogued about the problem here. Talk back and forth about it, get to the problem's root. So I suggest we do that. Next time, give me an example of, say, one fiction piece that you're finding to be a problem. Tell me about it, and tell me what you think is wrong. If you want, we could put a piece of yours up here on the blog in the context of the Writers Workshop series and get the ideas, critique, opinions of the fine people around here. That might be an idea. In any case, I'm happy to help if I can, and try to enjoy Istanbul as much as you're able, man. ** Chris (British), If I had to pick, it'd be Ron. Strange. Don't know why. It doesn't fit my usual thing, but what can you do. Awesome about the links/day. Gracias. No, no Easter plans at all. Not a thing. I haven't given it the slightest thought. I might buy a French chocolate Easter bunny or egg or something if I can find really scrumptious looking one. ** Joseph, Dude, no, thank you, seriously, so awesome! Any Rumpus response? You good? Easter? ** Alan, Greetings, A. ** David Ehrenstein, Yeah, I get that from/in Polanski's films, and, when it works, it's amazing, sure, but he doesn't always make it work as far as I'm concerned, and, in the case of 'TGW', the resolution as an act and read out of a deep irresolution was exercisey and uninteresting to me. My loss, no doubt. That new James Ivory film sounds pretty interesting indeed. Hell of a cast too. I'll definitely stay peeled for that. And, oh, lucky so lucky New Yorkers to get that Pierre Clementi retrospective. They'd better taken full advantage of God being in their town, as it were. Thanks much, sir. ** Ken Baumann, I'm kind of maybe better or rather getting better, I think. During my ill/downtime, I've been strategizing re: Carrie, and I think I have the right approach figured out, so, yes, launch time is imminent, and news to you on the sly when I know any at all. Oh, yeah, the Roxanne Gay/C. Higgs/ you thing has been really top, man. I've been engrossed. HTMLG at its finest. Hm, maybe I'll alert these folks. Yeah, good idea, Dennis. Everyone, if you don't already haunt HTMLGIANT every day like, say, I do, then I recommend checking out a recent and presumably ongoing dialogue over there re: storytelling vs. (?) experimental fiction. (That's a reductive characterization for space's sake.) The main posts/threads in the discussion so far have been, first, Roxanne Gay's 'A Rambling On and An Appreciation of Good Stories', followed by Christopher Higgs' 'Against Good Stories: A Rebuttal', and then our buddy Ken Baumann's 'Against Dualism: Yes That Is a Joke: A Response'. Really fascinating stuff. Very highly recommended. Oh, and Ken, while we're still on the subject of HTMLG, can I tell you how great I thought your 'Second Mess Section' post was too? It was. Glad to hear the writing is going. I'd say mine is too, and that's about it. Going, period. Take care, K. ** Sypha, Yeah, that's what I figured re: the 'modern' church. I know there are some stunning modernist churches out there, but most of them seem so counterproductive and dated looking and blah. I've never seen the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County. I'd like to see that. ** Christopher/Mark, Nice thoughts to little foal, man. That's wild and so interesting about you and Margaret Drabble. I think I've decided I need to read her. I never have, I don't think. I'll seek out the jigsaw book, or, if I can't find it, another. Thanks for the well wishes. I think I'm improving. We'll see. It's so hard to tell sometimes. ** Bernard Welt, Any thoughts or gossip about Jeremy Strick and or his hiring? He sure didn't do Moca/Art Center many favors, but maybe the Corcoran is a better fit? ** Statictick, Next time I get on a plane, I think I'm going to go all Japanese tourist-slash- Michael Jackson just in case. That art show sounds pretty interesting, yeah. Was it? ** Kier, Oh, ugh about the meds withdrawals. I sure hope they've passed you by now, my pal. Well, yeah, like I think Math said, presumably you could do what it takes to get the high school pass thing. I think in the US you just take a test or something. Is it the same there? Hopefully, you can do that and then move on like you want to easily. Anyway, I'm so sorry your day was a bad one. Is today an upwardly mobile one? I'm angling for one of those myself. Let's do happiness as a team, okay? And, awesome, your book, it's real! Obviously, I'd still love a related launch post for here if you feel like doing one. In the meantime ... Everyone, a new book of visual works by the great artist and d.l. Kier is now available to us via 38th Street Publishers, and you can check it out a little and buy it here, and, oh, you so should. I'm going to grab my copy today. Fantastic! Tons of love and respect to you, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, Have the greatest time tonight, Ben. Wish I could be there tapping my toe to your arcane playlist. Can't wait for the thing itself! Oh, and let me pass on your Sotos tip. Everyone, here's _Black_Acrylic: '@ any DCers with a liking for the writings of Peter Sotos: I finished Selfish, Little the other night and later found an interesting post in something called the I Read Odd Books blog. There's also a nice mini-discussion to be found near the end.' ** Steevee, Ha ha, very nice add, man. Everyone, Steevee adds this to thefanfiction festivities of yesterday, and check it out. ** Stan_cz, Hey there, Stan! Yeah, I'm back in the old country and feeling kind of older too, ha ha. The weather's pretty nice, early spring, warm but with a mild underlying chill, not bad at all. Nothing else much is new since I've been sick since the second week of my LA visit until today. Oh, dude, a belated happy birthday to you, man! 21, the big time, ha ha. ** No more teenagekicks, Oh, wow, 90% done! That's even better than I had hoped. Chomp chomp chomp. Seriously, chomp. But I'm a relatively patient man, at least when it comes to others' unfinished works. No, I don't think the finished 'SiH' books are real yet, just the galleys. Yeah, I still get a charge. Maybe not so much with this non-fiction book 'cos I don't have big hopes for it or anything. Truly, fuck all assignments and finish that novel instead. Now you're thinking. ** Flit, Hey. What's up? What's going on? What's wrong? Tell me, pal. You should post here whether you're feeling alright or not. I don't mean that in a dictatorial sense or anything. Seriously, man, what's causing you to say such unfair, dark things about your amazing self? Tell me. I'm all wide open ears and wide shoulders and anxious to know. ** Misanthrope, I've never read a Harry Potter book, and I never will. I loved the last four or so of the movies though. Damn, man, re: your grandma. Mine got really loopy too at the end, but it was a post-stroke loopiness, which is a pretty different thing apparently. Scary stares interrupted by odd, surreal witticisms, basically. No displays of showmanship like your grandma. Yeah, man, that's harsh, but, you know, I'm glad you're writing. ** Creative Massacre, Oh, nice about the Tegan and Sara show, pal. Score. Cool that you've found a possible France/summer buddy. I so hope that works out, and, yeah, I'll show you all the Parisian culinary stuff I can think of. Where does the schooling take place? I mean, in what French town or city, do you know? ** Justin, Are sewing machines really pricey these days? I mean, I don't know anything about this stuff, but I'm guessing maybe older sewing machines might be cheap-ish in the way that old stereo systems and turntables and stuff are nowadays? I didn't do any April Fools pranks, no. I was alone all day and night, so I would have had to either prank myself or you guys. ** Math, Oh, shit, about the student loans monsters finding you. America sucks. America should go take a fucking hike. Wow, that was kind of a broad statement. I just look around at everybody over here in France who had a great education and paid nothing or almost nothing for it, and, you, know ... what the fuck, America?! ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey, man. Uh, yeah, a bunch of interviews lately, almost all of them for things or places in Britain, a country where no one will publish my books, which is, I don't know, ironic or something, I guess. Gosh, I thought your day report was one the most beautiful, beautifully written and told of your day reports ever. I made me feel like a stoned fly on the wall in a really good way. It was dreamy, melancholy, sensual, tender, and full your great chiseling precision. Really, a beauty of a day report and a beauty of day itself too, don't you think? I think the feeling that it was depressing was only just due to you coming off the hydrocodone, yeah. Wow, my day report is so crap comparatively. Uh, let's see. I wrote a little, or, rather, refined my novel a little. Around, oh, 5 pm, I started thinking that maybe I was feeling a little better. But I didn't push it. Yesterday I said that my friends Scott and Paul were away, but it turns out they're here, and I was just tripping. But they're busy until Sunday, so they might as well not be here yet. I can't remember what I did for most of the day. I must have written emails and searched the internet or something. Suddenly, it was dark, and I was hungry. I ate the usual. I watched some TV. I think it was a newsmagazine kind of show about the fast growing health food industry in France and then about how cruelly walruses torture penguins to death before they eat them. That was disturbing. Then I slept, and, phew, didn't wake up coughing. A nothing kind of day. Today might be nothing too. I'll try to prevent that, though. How's Friday treating you? ** L@rstonovich, At the Dresden Room! That's right by my LA apartment. Sucks for me. Anyway, you're gone by now, I think, so I hope you're having or had the most splendid time down there, pal. ** David, Hm, 'The Ice Age' sounds pretty good. Maybe I'll try that one. ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, Hey, Nick. Oh, 'Bleed' is really nice, yeah. I remember that. Are you doing anything for or against or astride Easter? ** Blendin, I suddenly had a coughing fit right before I got to your comment, so maybe I'm not as 'better' as I thought. Grr. I really want to see 'Hot Tub Time Machine'. It has me in its grip. Great news about the new inspiration re: art making! I knew that had to happen any second. Thinking about it is so important, right? When your head is a mobile studio, I mean? Does that make sense? Man, I wish I hadn't just had that coughing fit. Now I'm confused. ** Bollo, I only know that one tattooing show from America. I can't remember its name. It takes place at some tattoo parlor in West Hollywood or somewhere. If my TV had more than 4 or sometimes 5 channels, I'd be a total addict of the hoarders shows. That's my new opium for the masses. ** That's all of you, I think. I'm going to go deal with whatever this sudden coughing fit I just had means. 'Deal with' meaning 'stress out' about it, I guess. Again, I hope you like my blog's coup re: the new Robbe-Grillet novel thanks to the saintly Dorna Khazeni. That's it. Bye until tomorrow.