Interview with Mark Z. Danielewski

Metromix has posted this interview with Mark Z. Danielewski. In part, the interview explores his unusual way of relating the story:

Sam and Hailey, two teenage lovers, race through history and across America, while their distinct voices gather in a geographic fashion on different parts of the book’s pages, forcing the reader to turn the book, quite literally, upside-down and sideways to keep up. What to make of it? We spoke with Danielewski—who reads at Skylight Books on Thursday—during a recent sweltering afternoon in Los Angeles.

You’ve spoken about the “wonderful analogue qualities of paper, especially paper that is bound together in book form.”
Definitely. A book, I maintain, is still the most efficacious way of communicating and translating information. There’s an enormous amount of information available from a book. Images provide a certain type of information, but it tends to be just static information. You can see what Iraq looks like to no end in sight, but when you’re reading a book on the Iraq war, you’re getting a far denser amount of information.

There is some interesting stuff on Only Revolutions.

My First DNF for this Challenge - Wendy's non-review of Only Revolutions

There are very few books I do not finish. Mark Danielewski's Only Revolutions is one of them. Unfortunately I bought this book off of Amazon before going to the bookstore and thumbing through it (my usual routine). Had I read even one page, I never would have wasted my money. I've never read a Danielewski book before so I don't know if this novel is representative of his usual style...or if he was just tripping on LSD when he sat down to write it. I couldn't make any sense of the book - there are multiple threads of writing (both forwards and backwards and in the margins) and it is just a jumble of words. Why this book was chosen as a NYT Most Notable is beyond me. I can't even imagine anyone actually reading the whole thing. What a disappointment. Now I have to decide what to do with it - any suggestions?

Only Revolutions - kookiejar's review

I actually tried this one before the Challenge was announced. I took one look at the first page and decided to skip it. But, I thought it would only be fair for me to try to do an actual review of it for the forum, so I tried again.

Here's what I could gleen from my second attempt...Sam is 16 and lives during the Civil War. Hailey is 16 and lives in the early 60's just after President Kennedy was assassinated. They meet and interact even through the gap in their timelines.

Time marches on as evidenced by the dates and historical footnotes on the margins of each page, but Sam and Hailey's story moves along as if months aren't zipping by as they talk.

The book is supposed to be read 8 pages at a time (for Sam's story) and then flipped over for the next 8 pages (for Hailey's story), so half the print on each page is upside down. It is written in free verse with copious, well-researched footnotes. However, punctuation, grammar and spelling rules are flagrantly disregarded. The author makes up words to suit his purposes (which is not unprecedented in literature), and for some reason all the o's are a different color from the rest of the text. I found it incredibly annoying. In fact, it may well be the most annoying book I've ever picked up.

Here I've recreated one page from Hailey's story (including the odd colored o's, nonsensical bold face type and capitalizations and made up words). I'll give a cookie to anyone who can make any sense of it...

When Renverse to bole, hundred
ringed, with Frightened Crown.
Oddly roped for hacks
by savage frown:

-O here. Now. Let me go. Please.

Shirpbawkelay!

Strong Pith. Tall Phloem.
Great Heartwood, Oily Barked with
comes of Ever Dust. Perfumes
trampled by Diesel Trucks, chain
sawed, and clear cut
for that SNIDEY CLYDE:

-You cain't own
what you cain't end.


Notching and atimbering. I dash,
murdering gaps to gum his axe
hacking at my Tree.
Tall Pith. Warm Heart
creeing just to stay
a little longer except
by violent do's
allready removed.

Yeah, I didn't think so. I'd love to know who decided which books made the NYT list and how that was decided, because this book isn't worth the paper it was printed on.