THINGS ABOUT THE THINGS OF THINGS

Here on a rainy morning and there is, as usual, too much interesting stuff to read on the Internet. Here on a rainy morning and that old feeling of not knowing what I am going to write. (Terrifying? Exhilirating? Dull and senseless? All of these?) I was just reading the latest installment of the HTMLGiant series “What Is Experimental Literature? {Five Questions}” (The latest post, as of the time of this writing, was with Eileen Myles.) Often in the answers to the questions there is some discussion of the label “experimental literature.” Eileen Myles seems the most suspicious of this term, saying that she “feel[s] like [she] is being asked to endorse a brand.”

And this discussion makes me wonder about that description of this press, up and over there in the sidebar --------------------------------------->

& I am always wondering about the “description” of what this “press” “does.”

Right now I am actually more concerned with the “literature” than I am with the “experimental.”

“Everything that was literature has fallen away from me.”

The reason that I call the term “literature” into question for use over there is because it connotes a finished and definable product, a thing, done, called “literature.” And there are of course a host of cultural qualifications that come along with that term. But emphasis on product is not really the whole point of what NewLights is up to. We make things, yes, but those things are dynamic, (hopefully) enacting processes in and outside of themselves.

So what do we use instead of “literature?” How about “writing?” That helps to transfer the emphasis to process. And maybe the “experimental” will be enough to say “writing not like writing.” Things, made & making.

Perhaps I will change the description tomorrow, but tomorrow how knows what will change?

[UPDATE: The word was changed to "writing" on 06/23/11.]