Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places
Jagged, flowing in spurts, sometimes fragmented -- Charles Blackstone's narrative flows
more like the Rio Grande than the Mississippi. In Blackstone's debut novel The Week
You Weren't Here, readers attempt to unravel the jagged, skewed thoughts of Hunter
Flanagan. This novel is like a cross-pollinated kumquat -- derived from a new crop of
experimental fruit -- difficult to taste and sometimes hard to chew. Blackstone uses no
punctuation other than the period and an occasional paragraph indent or dash. As the
reader gets farther and farther into the book, one of two things will happen. Either the
rambling incoherent phrases will begin to congeal and become an apparent whole or they
will just keep going on and on in an endless progression leading nowhere.
Hunter Flanagan is looking for true love. It eludes him. He examines everything. His e-
mails, t-shirts, and conversations. His dreams. Hunter is a mass of contradictions his
thoughts are contradictions of loathing and affection laughing and living of what is called
a juggernaut of a young life.
As a critic, I have to confess, I got nowhere. I tried three times to get farther into
Blackstone's book than the first 60 pages but honestly, I could not. To tell you otherwise
would be pandering. That said -- in the hands of another critic, perhaps a fan of
experimental fiction, or a devotee whose taste include writers who go for typographical
and linguistic tricks, and perhaps a bit of non-linear storytelling -- this book might just
rock. Critics must be fair in their evaluation of a book and they must explain their
disappointment or their joy. They should, from time to time, recommend that others give
a book a try -- that their analysis is not the final word. This is my take on Charles
Blackstone's The Week You Weren't Here. I challenge some of you (just some,
because it is not for everyone) to order this book and try it. To find the thread of
conversation and follow it through to its conclusion. And for those not convinced they
should try, a sample:
What he did in fact tell her in the dream was that he had something really
important to say and that he hadn't told anyone yet and that wasn't a lie.
What she asked gently probing her in her sort of insistent charming sort of way.
I don't want to say it's embarrassing he said.
You can tell me she said so fucking persuasive practically detasseling his stupid pride
right there and wait he thought maybe she'll want to sleep with me ditch the slab if I tell.
She'll be so fucking moved by how totally depressing sad ruined dejected trampled upon
I am that she'll want to -- no she'll definitely think what a loser couldn't even didn't have
what it took to --.
And by reading Blackstone's book, you will follow the mind of Hunter Flanagan "on his
journey from living in side his head into the outside world." Or, to quote the book jacket,
"Through postmodern prose that unravels jaggedly like a spool of live wire, the narrative
seeks to make sense out of his landscape, as it reveals it to be a fragmented, overlapping,
entangled juggernaut of a young life" and maybe you, the reader, is that someone out
there who can unravel it. It's worth trying.
About the publisher:
Like Altoids, Matthew Ward and his new Flame Books publishing company are curiously
strong. This new small press in the UK offers its authors 10% of the book sales, a direct
contract with no agent needed, and promises to premiere books by "new" writers every
two months. Titles are sold through the publisher's website. And it's not just the publisher and the author
who benefit from sales -- a portion of the proceeds go to various literary and human
rights causes.
What sort of causes would a publisher support? Well, The "Living Rights: The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Stories and Poems for one. Flame Books,
in association with PeaceLit, will "publish a three-volume collection where each article of
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) will be illustrated by a piece of
creative writing. By presenting the Declaration in a variety of artistic forms we not only
want to create a beautiful work of art but also hope to draw attention to, support and
highlight Human Rights." Another project, the magazine "Who Cares? A National
Magazine for Young People in the Care System" is centered on the improving public care
for children in foster homes or separated from their families, and is written for 10 - 18
year old readers. Flame Books is currently sponsoring a creative contest to help raise
funds for Who Cares?.
Ethical publishing. In a recent email conversation with Ward, I asked him about his
vision for Flame Books and the ideas behind his unique publishing company.
Ward told me ethical means Flame publishes new writers, offers them fair
contracts and supported various causes through their books sales. "So, on the one side we
don't see any point in working against authors, i.e. by offering a strangling and unfair
contract -- they are the creators of the work after all! On the other hand, we want to
support creativity at all levels by putting money into various projects after sales on the
site," he said.
When asked why Flame sold their titles only through their website and not a mega-store
like Amazon or Barnes and Nobles he responded, "By selling on the Internet, we are
trying to shorten the long chain in book distribution, not just transferring a normal
business model onto the Internet as most companies do. By creating a new relationship
between reader-writer, the reader gets great new fiction from talented new writers and the
author gets higher royalties (at least 10% of the RRP). We can also put some money aside
for different projects after every sale. As the sales increase, we hope to publish more
writers and create projects of our own -- fingers crossed!"
Virtual companies seem commonplace in 2003. Writers meet online, administrators
administrate from far away offices, never really having a face-to-face. I've been writing
for PopMatters since the beginning, working with literally hundreds of writers who
contribute to the site, and I've yet to meet anyone personally. Matthew Ward's attempt to
create a publishing company through the Internet, not of e-books but of paper and print,
is in keeping with what we have come to expect from business. One of the biggest
problems, as I see it, is the office party. I asked Ward how he planned to have everyone
get together for the holidays. "Good question! It's very hard as everybody is in different
places! -- for example, I live in Stockholm, our designer in Italy, and the authors in the
UK, Spain and Chicago! So although the parties are postponed for the moment, once we
sell a few books and win a few prizes, everybody will be flown in for one big party!"
So, looks like we'll have to wait a while for the throw-down, but hopefully Flame Books
and its authors will get together soon. An amazing new attempt at collaboration --
publisher and author -- and no one in between. Another interesting Internet experiment.
— 21 January 2004
