When I lived in Paris, my French 'brother' Guillaume -- the son in the family I was living with -- liked to spend time teaching me the most 'complicated' words he knew. Many of them have English corollaries -- such as casuistic and dialectic -- that I was unaware of at the time. We had had a lot of fun roaming around the city, inverting the common scenario in which I, as a beginner in French, would instead of asking strangers to speak 'slower and simpler' ask them to please speak plus vite et plus compliqué: faster and more complicated. We were not even twenty years old, so this was endlessly amusing to us.
There is, of course, a long tradition in France of complicated or complex writing, both in fiction and philosophy (and probably many other areas with which I'm less familiar); it's not unusual for sentences to be broken up with asides and digressions -- often inserted between em-dashes -- (see how I just did that lol?) and semicolons. Anybody who's spent even a few minutes with Proust or Huysmans, or probably even Le Monde, knows what I'm talking about. Unlike English, which is very concrete language -- you might say a language of business or even capitalism -- French is a language that lends itself to the discussion of ideas and emotions, many of which are too complicated to be expressed in five or six words. German literature and philosophy (at least in my experience) are very similar, as you know if you've ever tackled say, Thomas Mann or Arthur Schopenhauer.
All of which I mention because I often detect resistance or even disdain among American readers and writers for any writing that doesn't 'get to the point.' Which I think is unfortunate, not because I think all writing needs to meander or wander, but because I think writing that does meander or wander -- and perhaps even uses a 'bigger' word where a smaller one 'will suffice' -- is sometimes appropriate and even better than the alternative. After all, not everything needs to read like a business letter. Writing is like food; sure you can survive on the same bland meals over and over, but really, why would you want to?
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February 2011
02/20/2011
02/19/2011
A Short Play about Three Cats in a Winter Garden
Enter three cats (Dante, Elektra, and Zephyr) into the winter garden.
Dante: What's up with this plant that looks like a metal pole?
Elektra: Lol, that's the sprinkler.
Dante: Wtf is a 'sprinkler'?
Elektra: It's an automatic watering system that gives plants water in the summer, when it's hot.
Zephyr: Elektra thinks she's sooooooooo smart. Who does she think she is, anyway?
Dante: No kidding. Just because I didn't know what a sprinkler is.
Elektra: You better be careful, buddy!
Dante (to self): Elektra probably knows what this cold clear slippery stuff on the ground is too, but like I'm going to ask her now? No way.
Zephyr: See you guys later, I have to go buy a lotto ticket!
THE END.
02/18/2011
A Short Story about a Fish
One day a blue fish arrived in the city, where he saw lots of yellow fish. "Can anyone tell me how to get to Bleecker Street?" he asked. "I'm supposed to meet someone there in less than twenty minutes."
All of the yellow fish laughed and one of them said, "I don't know where you think you are, but there's no 'Bleecker Street' here."
The blue fish sighed and went away. All of the yellow fish watched him leave and returned to their desks, where they resumed working on an important report that was due in less than an hour.
02/17/2011
A Short Story about a Rock, the Water, and the Light
One day the rock said to the water, "I like you, but you're always hanging around. Can't you give me a break?"
The water was taken aback. "I thought we would always be together."
"That's what I used to think, too," said the rock. "But as you can see, I'm disappearing. All of my friends tell me that you're wearing me down."
"Fine," said the water, who was sad but decided to call up a friend, the light. "I've missed you," said the water to the light. The light nodded: "How's that stupid rock friend of yours doing anyway?"
02/16/2011
A Short Story about a Fish
"Sometimes I get annoyed living here," said one fish to the other as he looked for something to eat between the same rocks he had known all of his life. "I want to live somewhere exciting." Soon the fish said goodbye to his friends and family and began his long journey to New York City.
After traveling for a day he thought about his decision. "I wish I could turn around," he said to himself. "I was happier before I left."
02/15/2011
A Short Story about the Land and the Sea
Years passed, until one day the sea grew tired of waiting. "I'm ready to leave now," said the sea to the nearby land.
The land nodded but didn't say anything for a few more years. "I've been waiting since before you were even alive," the land finally said to the sea.
"I suppose that's true," said the sea, who continued to churn, "but it doesn't make me any happier."
02/14/2011
Recently I Took a Trip to the Ends of the Flat Earth
We arrived in the heat of the afternoon, when the sun had turned the ocean into a silver plane.
As I looked at the flat horizon, it wasn't difficult to understand why people used to think that the earth was flat.
There was a part of me that still believed it, in fact.
02/13/2011
Notes on the Metropolis Case: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Back from Vacation)
Hi everyone: I'm back from vacation -- see above pic taken by yours truly with my favorite new toy (an underwater camera), with more shots to come. I'm exhausted from a long day of traveling, but wanted to point out some 'sweet linkage' from the past week:
Nice review of The Metropolis Case in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Like the opera, this is a large story. Mr. Gallaway writes epically, with multiple points of view, multiple stories. Historical and profound, he handles everything beautifully. He is a rich storyteller, and an evocative writer; the complexity of his characters, the rich scenes and the lyrical prose all make it hard to believe that this is his first novel."
A piece I wrote on David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress for McNally Jackson.
And finally, a chat about Katerine Dunn's Geek Love with Edith Zimmerman for Pin Reads: Books We Forgot We Loved.
02/05/2011
The Matthew Gallaway Project: Blog Vacation!
Hi everyone -- it's been a crazy month, and I need to take a blog vacation! I'll be back on February 14th. In the meantime, if you're stopping by because you <3ed or h8ed the The Metropolis Case (and I know there are plenty of ppl in both camps), I hope you'll consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads or wherever else. Express yourself to the world! xoxo MG
02/04/2011
Notes on the Metropolis Case: Lambda Literary Interview
I recently did a 'free-wheeling' interview with Antonio Gonzalez Cerna, the editor of Lambda Literary, which as the name implies is a site dedicated to the promotion of literature by and about nonheterosexuals: click through to read the whole thing!
ORDER HERE
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.