In the elevator today, we were asked by an acquaintance what book we were reading, and in response displayed Emile Zola's Nana. Noting his blank expression, we elaborated: "It's an old French novel." "Is it good?" Not wanting to digress into our true reasons for reading the book -- namely, to better understand the context out of which the great JK Huysmans arose -- we answered truthfully that we had only reached page two -- still too early to judge -- at which point the elevator doors opened and the conversation was mercifully terminated. Still, as we reflected in the seconds afterward, we reconsidered the following facts, which we had just read in an introduction to our paperback edition: on February 15, 1880, when Nana was first published by Charpentier, a first edition of 55,000 copies sold out -- an unprecedented number -- following the largest publicity campaign ever mounted for a novel. According to Henry Ceard in a letter written to Zola at the time, "[Nana] is being repeated ad infinitum over all the walls of Paris. It is becoming an obsession and a nightmare." Having just lived through the publicity frenzy and commercial triumph of this week's release of Halo 3 by Microsoft, we understand completely. Described in Friday's Times as "the video-game phenomenon of the year," with over $170 million in opening-day sales, Halo 3 made more money than any "blockbuster" movie ever has in a single weekend. We don't bring this up to belittle our interlocutor's lack of familiarity with Zola, a fading titan of 19th-century French literature; in fact, our own opinion of Zola's writing remains decidedly mixed (though we will never hesitate to express our unqualified admiration for his defense of The Truth in L'Affaire Dreyfus). Still, as we peered into the deep fog at the infinite future, we could not help but be consoled by the thought that every entity -- whether living or not -- will eventually be relegated to the trivial and unknown.
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09/29/2007
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A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.
Praise for #gods
“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch
“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World
'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'
-- The New York Times
Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine
Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.
Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past
Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.
Video: The Chaos Detective
The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.
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