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OK, fine, you would have fought tooth and nail for the Gogurt line. Big whoop. You would have fought, and I would have just feigned respect until you came to your senses. (I'll never admit this to anyone, but I like your breaks of absurdity and the perfect pours of humor in all the right places.)If I were publishing this book, I wouldn't fuck with the text. I care about these poems. At some point while reading them, I felt absolutely safe, like nothing will ever be able to harm me. Wittgenstein had a similar experience, I've read. I might have encouraged you to write one really cruel poem. Have you ever written a truly cruel poem for an innocent, for someone who didn't even have it coming? Most poetry is the opposite of meanness, so it's refreshing to read something with hurtful intentions, something filled with hate that could send the targeted reader crying for a week. But that may have been a bad idea, and maybe we'd have just skipped it and stayed with what you got. PR-wise, you've got things handled. Having good taste is the most solid base for PR.
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Uh, that wasn't a question.We're supposed to be in such a conversational flow by now that you just respond by your own volition about why you like to publish books or something.
Oh, are we? I guess you arrived at this decision by yourself. That's independent. You're growing up.List me ten ways that you think writing will improve your life. Go![Days pass]God, don't overthink it.So presumptuous. I was doing things. There was a spider and I had to be really stressed out at it for a while. 1. Writing has helped me find my last four girlfriends.2. It has helped me find my last four breakups.3. It has helped me excuse my worst tendencies.4. Writing makes my dick look bigger.5. Writing, on other days, makes my dick look pathetic.6. It's easier than learning instruments or going to law school.
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OK, ask me some more shit about the book. I'm not 100 percent in love with the way you're trying to commandeer the direction of this interview. The idea is to do a backward interview where the author interviews the reader (me) about their reading experience. Now stick to the rules, piss-ant.That better be included. What were your honest expectations going into the thing? Seems fitting I need to be told to plug my book more.
I never read your bear book, so I hadn't really read anything by you except your tweets, which have been known to make my heart sing once or twice. I guess I can say I wasn't expecting it to be such a great collection, but wasn't surprised at all when I was wrong. We've only hung out a handful of times, but I have to say, I don’t think you are like what you write that you're like. You always seem happy. You laugh and are generally gregarious and warm to make people feel comfortable. So the shyness and loneliness I read about didn't match up with the physical Spencer. The one who lives in Brooklyn. The one who runs Sorry House. The one whose neck, after going for a jog, smells like sweet vidalia onions.
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I totally agree with and understand you on this. I was once in a bar with a fortune teller in the corner. I let her read my fortune because I was bored, and she then proceeded to describe my life to me in vivid detail. It was insane. But one thing that she really nailed was describing my life as a constant cocoon/butterfly/recocooning. She told me that when I go out socially, I am really "turned up" and gregarious and good at making people feel comfortable. But the reason for this is that when I am alone, I am sort of in a "recharging" state, or cocoon, which can feel like intense depression and sadness. She said to help me through these times, I should try thinking of it as "recharging," and I've done that and it kind of helps. Plus, I've always felt like it's extremely selfish to bring all of your sadness and baggage out into public and dump it all over people. There's nothing wrong with occasionally sharing it with a friend, but I keep my downs to myself. So, we're a lot alike, me and you. :)
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Sure, send them over.Let's play a game of This or That.This:




I like that first line: "I'm only as strong as my weakest page." Is that yours? No, your face wasn't in the back of my mind. My face was. Your poems are like these things that the reader feels like they are coming from within him. Like he is writing them as he reads them.
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OK. If that were the case I would blurb it as such: "Here I find myself hungry and naked, but as long as I have this book of Spencer Madsen's poetry with me, I discover that I need neither food nor clothes. It's true what they say: "You can live off of beauty."How is that for an ending? Too cheesy?Honestly, I like that. Seems sincere/vulnerable in a self-reflexive/ironic interview. I think it's great.
Oh, good. Guess we're done now. Hey, it's been real, babe. Thanks for participating and for being a good sport.Giancarlo DiTrapano is a longtime contributor to this website and publisher of Tyrant books, an independent literary press based out of Hell’s Kitchen. Follow him on Twitter.Follow Spencer Madsen on Twitter.