"list of people who eat raw things
list of people who dissolve
list of people that I see dancing with glass sycamores
list of people who cannot breathe
list of people who swallow entire friends
list of people interested in moths or birds
list of people with hearts but not legs
list of people who cannot swim in gelatin
list of people that I can meet
list of people who belong to tribes
list of people who consider themselves complete
list of people that I will see between now and then
list of people who eat only vegetable matter
list of people who serve other people
list of people with tragic family histories
list of people who make other people miserable
list of people that I see dancing with molten chimes
list of people who sleep regularly
list of people who speak English
list of people who read old scrolls about smelling salts
list of people who nap
list of people who eat their own pubic hairs
list of people who cannot sleep
list of people that I will meet
list of people older than I will be when I am mauled by a golden swan
list of people who twist their leg hairs into knots
list of people who slip
list of people that I will never meet
list of people who have lived
list of people without electricity
list of people who believe in one god
list of people who believe in two gods
list of people who believe in no gods
list of people who believe in three gods
list of people who believe in more than three gods
list of people who believe in one god, specifically themselves or their lovers
list of people who believe in animal sacrifices
list of people with 500,000 arms but only one leg
list of people who are guilty
list of people who are more innocent than they are guilty, but we are all guilty, right?
list of people who are not guilty, are not guilty and will never be
list of people with eating disorders
list of people with incurable diseases
list of people with frustrated artistic ambitions
list of people with frustrating artistic ambitions
list of people who still ache for redemption
list of people who translate languages into other languages
list of people that I see vomiting into pails
list of people who look outward, hoping to see the other side
list of people that I see through the window, but just their outlines
list of people with radiation poisoning
list of people that I see staring at my fingertips
list of people who will sink
list of people with hair longer than their arms
list of people with hair shorter than their necks
list of people with burning shoulder blades
list of people who will float
list of people that I know to be trustworthy
list of people who are not now known by their original, given name
list of people who read books
list of people that I can hear gulping down their medications
list of people who believe themselves to be in contact with more complicated beings
list of people who + when -
list of people who - when +
list of people who were knights of the round table
list of people who err on the side of sunlight
list of people who are motorized
list of people who eat raw things, but do not let their minds dwell upon the blood on their teeth, they just swallow it and move along."
- list of people, Ben Roylance
"everyone i've never had sex with" by Crispin Best
(read here:
http://www.shabbydollhouse.com/everyone-i-ve-never-had-sex-with)
I really really like this sort of frenzied writing about everything and nothing, just life, an outpouring of thoughts and little moments and worries and whatever. There's a sort of honesty and flow and childlike quality to these pieces of writing, emphasized by their disregard for punctuation (although that's less noticeable in a list). It's just like reading someone's diary, desperate and honest and human, and that's the appeal I think, for me. I was talking to someone the other day about the ways in which we write and I said I found it really hard to not write about me. I'll try to create a story or a character and it will just end up being me, or some facet of me, whatever. I don't want to fight that. If writing about myself is easiest then I should find a way to do that and make it compelling.
This sort of thing is really like looking into someone else's brain and I feel like I understand people, everything about people, everything about everything, reading these. And I suppose because they break conventions of writing it allows a certain freedom. There's a level of similarity between these pieces and work by David Shrigley, Jenny Holzer, Tracey Emin, and others who are ostensibly artists (whatever that means, eh?????). But what's the difference between writing and art that uses writing? Cultures of alt lit and zines are flourishing as part of internet culture and community now and it's weird and good. The internet can be such a lucky dip. People can throw their words out into the world. I want to do that too.
