Articles by Blake Butler
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Michael Kimball’s Enormous Death-Eye
Michael Kimball has an uncanny ability to parse the most strange and painful parts of being a person into something most anyone could comprehend. Whether he’s writing about suicidal weathermen or an elderly couple on the cusp of death, Kimball’s balance of tone, humor, and beautifully tweaked simplicity allows him to create narratives that in lesser hands would seem morbid, or insane. Full story
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A Chat with David Byrne About 'How Music Works'
If you’ve never read any of David Byrne’s books, his newest, 'How Music Works,' might be the best place to start. The book is an encyclopedic compendium of mini-essays spanning a huge range of musical subjects from the history of venue architecture to his career with the Talking… Full story
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Emily Dickinson Was So Horny and Ready to Die
Paul Legault's new book, 'The Emily Dickinson Reader,' offers greatly condensed and often aphorism-like statements, termed here 'English-to-English' translations, each based on the 1,789 poems Dickinson produced in her lifetime. One by one he entirely reconstitutes, or at least r… Full story
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Pimp C and Raisin Brain Crunch Are Inextricable Parts of Reality
I don’t know how many people could pull off writing stories about R. Kelly and a guy cleaning up cat shit in the same book, but I do know that no one could do it with a more definitive style and poise than Timothy Sanders. Full story
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The Putrid Voyeurisms of Peter Sotos
It’s not exactly easy to get your hands on the work of Peter Sotos. Most people probably wouldn’t even want to. His work traffics in a range of subjects that most average readers—even those who fancy themselves to have transgressive tastes—would find viscerally repellent… Full story
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The Juggalo Summer Reading List
Yeah, Juggalos read books. They actually probably read more than you do, whoever you are reading this. I spent a while the other day going through Juggalo profiles on Myspace, OKCupid, and Wicked Nation (the terrifying Juggalo-only Myspace knock off) to drum up this sweet top ten… Full story
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Fifty Shades of Chick-fil-A: My Polyamorous Chick-fil-A Fan Porn
His dick itself was just a head, a carbuncle buried in a mass of reddish pubes and dickne. “That’s a teeny schlong,” I pointed out. Matthew smirked and humped the air. “Chick-fil-A serves no beef,” he said, “but Jesus loves us as we are.” Full story
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Shane Jones's Fantasies Shit on the 'Real World'
Shane Jone's new novel was released this week. It's full of brain-consuming storms and jacked-up teeth and mysterious tigers and breakfast at McDonald's. Expect a fun freakshow. Full story
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Books About Death by People Who Committed Suicide
Writers off themselves all the time. They are a moody bunch, often fighting all sorts of internal battles with drugs, depression, booze, etc. Three of them have killed themselves since you began reading this blog post. Sometimes they even write about death before heading willingl… Full story
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Masturbating Over Ghosts
"Slow Slidings" bills itself as a book that should be filed in stores under “Architecture / Bodies or Objects / Landscape,” but you could just as easily find it in “Haunted Death Sex / Sadist VHS Mystery / Wet Nightmares for Freaks.” Taking equal cues from messed up foreign psych… Full story
The Wizard of the Saddle Rides Again
The Dark Specter of History in Memphis 
Hung Like a Gastropod
The Rigors of a Snail-Genital Illustrator 
Austerity's Drug of Choice
Sisa Is Nasty Shit 
This Is What Winning Looks Like
Chaos and Corruption in Afghanistan 
The Fat Farms of Mauritania
Pack on Those Pounds, Ladies 
Jerks Are Exploiting Cambodia's Orphans
Get It Together, People 
