Maybe It's Not That Hard

It’s got to be difficult being a parent. Of course there are the obvious responsibilities that caring for a human being entail. But what about the emotional challenge? My brother and I used to tease our mother about her antiquated mispronunciation of brand names; e.g., Coke-Cola and U-Haul-It. In retrospect, she was the correct one: Coke did have coke in it and one does haul “it” (and other things). Lately, we’ve had a good yet wincing laugh at the constant misinterpretation of The Great Gatsby, as exhibited by these costumes. Maybe misunderstanding is why novelists don’t like interviews. How do they feel about reviews? Here are two: journeying the Nile, which is not quite Conrad’s Congo, and Three Stations, which is not quite Gorky. Looks like nothing is quite as it seems, or sounds. — Andrew Geer

Blake Butler Lake Utler Ake Tler Ke Ler E Er R

– Ethel Rohan Thel Ohan Hel Han El An L N

Writing wise, where are you now? Where are you going?

I’m in this little box of Crisco where I end up every day when I eat too much which is every day. Food is bad for writing, I wish I could be a little body with no holes and just shoot the language through my stomachs and have a bunch of those. I’m not going anywhere I hope daily and overall I know I’m turning into a brass instrument.

What informs your creative process? How do you keep inspired?

Seeing dogs take shits on my front step with their owners pretending like they aren’t letting their dogs do that, and then hearing the dogs later through the walls: that all informs me pretty good. I get informed by watching other people come into the gym room where I do the run or bicycle and they come and get on their own machines and make grunt noise or sometimes talk on phone or to their half-dressed lover who came with them to work out too. I keep inspired by never being inspired by anything.

How do you feel about the label writer, really?

I think the label writer is doing a good job because I buy a lot of cereal and canned soup and I feel like pretty often I get what I asked for when I open the box, I am happy the people who write those labels are getting paid to tell me what I am going to put inside my body, that is the most important thing, I don’t know what books are.

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Edwin Morgan died this week. Not everyone likes poetry, and not everyone likes Scotland, but most everyone seems to like the Scottish poetry of Edwin Morgan. And for good reason.

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What you’ve just been subjected to is what our niece used to try and school us in popular music this weekend.

We’re seriously contemplating scratching her name off our family will now.

While we give our lawyers a call, please, do what we did: take a few deep breaths, purge your mind of what you’ve just seen, think of your favorite Eagles, Zeppelin, or Rush song, and relax.

Better? Good. Now you’re ready to sing to the tune of these.

– Robert Paul Moreira

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