I plan on getting around to this book this year or next, but I’m really rooting for its success. If Substack can prove a healthy enough environment for works with this level of ambition to find success, that could mean great things for the future of American literature. Many cheers for Mr. Pistelli for daring to write such an ambitious tome despite a market that offers no reward for it, and to Mr. Barkan for covering these things. I hope the world recognizes you both one days for the great men of letters you are.
Will definitely get this! His work was already on my radar, but this book seems irresistible. I greatly appreciate this newsletter's attention to and amplification of self-published/small press work. I'm sure the current reading list is towering, but I'd also like to recommend the (self-published) work of Jadi Campbell, a good friend but also one of the best writers I know. My favorite of hers is "The Trail Back Out" a collection of short stories that recently won a prize. Keep these great pieces coming!
>ripping off someone's real suicide for a cheap hook (yikers island)
>"professional managerial class"
>"gender identity"
>hacked-up tradcath dark academia vibe
A novel for our time, indeed, in the worst way.
>Simon Magnus achieves acclaim and infamy for writing a series of graphic novels that are a bit like Batman and Superman, only far darker and more violent (and, arguably, more imaginative.) The Fool, the Joker stand-in, even rapes Sparrow (the Robin stand-in) in Simon’s most notorious graphic novel. How do comics and literature intersect for you? How do each, in your view, shape American culture? Why decide to reinvent the Batman mythos?
Not an original idea in his head, huh? There's a term for this kind of stuff -- "2edgy4me"
>Moore’s Watchmen, in particular, still stands as one of the greatest literary works of its era, not notably inferior to comparable fiction by DeLillo or Pynchon. When writing Major Arcana, however, and despite the novel’s several reflections on how comics can portray time more adeptly than any other medium by turning it into the gridded space of the paneled page,
I have a tip for this guy -- make one friend who can draw. Then he can have a comic too! Also, Pynchon is....bad. Don't insult Watchmen like that.
I read John’s pandemic novella Quarantine of St Sebastian House and really enjoyed it. He also writes a fantastic weekly sort of roundup of what he’s been reading and probably in a sane world he’d write for the NYRB or something. Actually found him through Katherine Dee the internet historian mentioned. Definitely looking forward to Major Arcana!
I hope that I can spare the limited time I have to read this well introduced and intriguing novel. When magic comes into play in the literature of a secular age, I look for certain perennial themes (notably the Faust theme which has retained its explosive power from Bulgakov’s Master and Marguerita to T. C. Boyle’s If the River was Whiskey). Since I doubt that Pistelli is preaching superstition, I am curious about his use the occult.
I plan on getting around to this book this year or next, but I’m really rooting for its success. If Substack can prove a healthy enough environment for works with this level of ambition to find success, that could mean great things for the future of American literature. Many cheers for Mr. Pistelli for daring to write such an ambitious tome despite a market that offers no reward for it, and to Mr. Barkan for covering these things. I hope the world recognizes you both one days for the great men of letters you are.
Will definitely get this! His work was already on my radar, but this book seems irresistible. I greatly appreciate this newsletter's attention to and amplification of self-published/small press work. I'm sure the current reading list is towering, but I'd also like to recommend the (self-published) work of Jadi Campbell, a good friend but also one of the best writers I know. My favorite of hers is "The Trail Back Out" a collection of short stories that recently won a prize. Keep these great pieces coming!
>suicide as a cheap hook (yikes)
>ripping off someone's real suicide for a cheap hook (yikers island)
>"professional managerial class"
>"gender identity"
>hacked-up tradcath dark academia vibe
A novel for our time, indeed, in the worst way.
>Simon Magnus achieves acclaim and infamy for writing a series of graphic novels that are a bit like Batman and Superman, only far darker and more violent (and, arguably, more imaginative.) The Fool, the Joker stand-in, even rapes Sparrow (the Robin stand-in) in Simon’s most notorious graphic novel. How do comics and literature intersect for you? How do each, in your view, shape American culture? Why decide to reinvent the Batman mythos?
Not an original idea in his head, huh? There's a term for this kind of stuff -- "2edgy4me"
>Moore’s Watchmen, in particular, still stands as one of the greatest literary works of its era, not notably inferior to comparable fiction by DeLillo or Pynchon. When writing Major Arcana, however, and despite the novel’s several reflections on how comics can portray time more adeptly than any other medium by turning it into the gridded space of the paneled page,
I have a tip for this guy -- make one friend who can draw. Then he can have a comic too! Also, Pynchon is....bad. Don't insult Watchmen like that.
I read John’s pandemic novella Quarantine of St Sebastian House and really enjoyed it. He also writes a fantastic weekly sort of roundup of what he’s been reading and probably in a sane world he’d write for the NYRB or something. Actually found him through Katherine Dee the internet historian mentioned. Definitely looking forward to Major Arcana!
I hope that I can spare the limited time I have to read this well introduced and intriguing novel. When magic comes into play in the literature of a secular age, I look for certain perennial themes (notably the Faust theme which has retained its explosive power from Bulgakov’s Master and Marguerita to T. C. Boyle’s If the River was Whiskey). Since I doubt that Pistelli is preaching superstition, I am curious about his use the occult.