A Forsley Feuilleton: If Richard Yates Wrote A Novel Called Tao Lin. . . – Act One
[admin / September 6th, 2012 / Young Bright Things ]
Neon Glittery, Hannah Fantana, xTx, Crispin Best, Sam Pink, Guillaume Morissette, Yumbo Tuff, Gabby Gabby, Buffet Feline, Frank Hinton, Carnivorous Judy, Moon Tzu, Socrates Adams, Reginald Reginald, and Beach Sloth are all pseudonyms that belong to – as the high activity level of their corresponding social networking profiles suggest – living human beings. But these beings are neither, as I first assumed, writers behind an innovative movement in African American hip-hop nor writers behind a rebellious faction of American Indian story-tellers. They are writers. . . but they are writers behind a growing, internet-based literary movement called, by its participants, ‘Alt-Lit’ – as in Alternative Literature.
The writers of ‘Alt-Lit’ do share some similarities with African American rappers and American Indian story-tellers, and it’s not just their use of pseudonyms. The Puppet Masters – you know, those crusty old white men who control and pervert both the publishing industry and the academic institution – systematically ignore, and even segregate, all three of these literary groups and the writers behind them. They try to force African American writers to the projects, American Indian writers to the reservations, and ‘Alt-Lit’ writers to the internet. By isolating these three groups and the writing they produce, the Puppet Masters – those fuckers who won’t pass the pepper – hope the mainstream masses of America will, instead of getting exposed to these writers’ subversive ideas and dangerous perspectives, continue staring at the blinding brightness of their televisions.
I like the provocation and persuasiveness of the above paragraph. . . but it’s not entirely true. African American and American Indian writers are, generally, ignored and segregated by the publishing industry and the academic institution because of their race and religion. ‘Alt-Lit’ writers are ignored and segregated because, as I learned after reading the work of Marie Calloway, the movement’s self-appointed starlet, their writing is bad – not badass, just bad.  And I believe it’s because of the low-quality of their writing that the use of pseudonyms is so common among them. ‘Alt – Lit’ isn’t Alternative Literature. . . it’s Alternative To Literature.
Yes, it’s true: my opinion that the writers of ‘Alt – Lit’ produce bad, low-quality work is based solely on the writing of Marie Calloway – a pseudonym, of course – because when reading her stories I don’t feel like I’m reading literature. I feel like I’m reading a post on one of those ‘true-encounter-confession’ message boards that I visit when The Girlfriend is out-of-town and my stolen WiFi connection isn’t strong enough to download porn. Although all of Marie Calloway’s stories are clear and stimulating enough to keep me reading until they end, there is a never-ending supply of better written and more erotic stories across the internet, in old pulp-fiction bookstores, and even on the dirty walls of bathroom stalls.
It’s not fair, I know, to use one young, undeveloped – mentally, not physically – writer to judge all of ‘Alt – Lit,’ but that’s exactly what I did: Because of Marie Calloway, I dismissed ‘Alt – Lit’ as some kind of post-post-post modern, ego-boosting, stalemate of a literary movement populated by a handful of privileged, suburban-inhabiting teenagers that use the fancy tablet-computers and smart-phones their parents bought them to create ironic memes, transcribe Gmail chats, and document their organic avocado sushi and coconut water intake with invented words, simple sentences, and shallow characters. I agreed with the blogger, Andrea Coates, who, in ‘The Ultimate End All Alt Lit Essay,’ writes that the bland predominates ‘Alt – Lit,’ the writers behind it, and the work they produce.
And after I unfairly used Marie Calloway to dismiss ‘Alt – Lit’ as an Alternative To Literature, I went back to reading actual literature – those comforting and familiar books approved by the Puppet Masters, churned-out by the publishing industry, and endorsed by the academic institution – and I forgot a literary movement called ‘Alt – Lit’ ever existed. For me, all that existed were the dog shits I got paid to pickup, the Forsley Feuilletons I didn’t get paid to write, and the assassin I wish I paid to slit the old Filipino lady’s throat who lives next-door and distracts me, with her constant hacking-up of what can only be lung fragments, from writing more and writing better so that maybe, just maybe, I can someday stop picking up dog shit.
But right when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Specifically, it was Chris Dankland that encouraged me to take a second look at the phenomenon that is ‘Alt – Lit’ when he linked to some of my writing on his blog, Dankland, which acts as both a quality-filter and historical-record of this new literary movement. And there I was reading my own pieces over and over and over while cackling over and over and over with Patrick Bateman like narcissism that I noticed a post titled, “Lil B Invented Alt Lit. . .â€Â As a Bay Area resident and a hip-hop enthusiast, I was already aware of Lil B, his music, and his skinny pants. But I wasn’t aware of his influence on ‘Alt – Lit,’ or the influence he would have on my decision to reevaluate this new, internet-based literary movement.
To Be Continued . . .
guillaume morissette is my real name. I would come up with a much better pseudonym than, ‘guillaume morissette,’ something ppl can actually pronounce, like, ‘waffle house dungberry’ or something.
this my book (http://guillaumemorissette.com/I-AM-MY-OWN-BETRAYAL).
I view alt lit as a community and not a ‘literary movement.’ I don’t know if it can be defined by rules the same way hardboiled detective novels can. there’s very little connection between me and hannah fantana and xtx, other than I like their online presence.
alt lit has, I think, a shallow end of the pool – deep end of the pool kind of feel, in that works vary in complexity. some ppl get it into ‘casually’ and aren’t necessarily striving to one day publish a book (what I think you’re referring to when you say ‘bad.’) other ppl are determined to publish books and want to ruin themselves for literature, i.e. classic literary mindset. I personally work very hard on stuff and take criticism seriously.
‘traditional’ literary communities can be negative and kind of a walled garden. the m.o. for alt lit is usually to not take yourself seriously, which can lead to pseudonyms or gimmicks, people that are more characters than people the same way professional wrestlers are more characters than actual human beings, but the tone of ridiculousness is exactly what makes it, as a literary community, giving, caring and welcoming.
Awesome. Rad name. Thanks for the reply. I’ll be sure to read your work before finalizing this on-going, three or four part essay that’s, at the moment, still very exploratory and organic; I’m reading ‘Alt-Lit’ as I write about ‘Alt-Lit.’ Still not sure what conclusion I’ll come to. . . but It has been both interesting and entertaining so far, and I hope you read the acts to come.
i think i’m actually “alt-lit light”
While I was reading this I didn’t feel like I was reading literature.
Very interesting blog. I would suggest (though you already state your intention to do this) continuing to read more ‘alt lit’ by various writers. I think you’ll find that some of the writing is actually quite good, as some of the players do take it seriously, as Guillaume said. I think the reason you get a lot of writing that is undeveloped or immature is because many of the authors are very young, many just beginning to develop and improve their writing. Because the Internet makes it so easy to post your work and have it read by others, you also get a lot of work being ‘published’ that isn’t necessarily polished or revised very much. You also have to take it for what it is. And that is something different than traditional literature. I don’t think comparing it to traditional literature is necessarily useful. But I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts regarding your exploration into the community and work.
i might be alt lit. i don’t know if my writing is shit (no, it probably is a little garbage-y) but im 99% sure the editor of this website published a novel by me so maybe PANK IS ALT LIT???
xtx– u are ALT LIT HARDCORE BEEWBS
Right now I’m not reading anything and I still don’t feel like I’m reading literature.
What is happening?
You lost me when you cited Andrea Coates.
Pretty sure Crispin and soco’s names are their own too. Interesting read anyways man.
I wanted to make a comment on this piece. But it already does what it does so well. You will find people getting real defensive, really quick, but you know this will happen already. People will comment, having read (or not read) your essay and they will miss how you even found parts of your own writing in this space of Alternative Literature. This is because you were first bombarded with a particular type of Alternative Literature that is put to the forefront by particular members of this huge community of alternative artist types. Once that happens, you believe in the stereotype of Alt-lit (human nature), and then, at the prompting of a friend, began digging further into the alt-lit papers. [ This is a key element -- yes, you had an initial dislike or bias, but you moved past that (this essentially is one removing their own ego from the situation and looking beyind the *i* --- commendable, I feel). ] Which has shown you there are many others who are writing literature that is not necessarily like what is being pushed/termed “Alt Lit”, but is still far, only not close enough to be considered, (and I hate this distinction) “Traditional” literature.
The term alternative literature simply means a parallel to the mainstream publishing. Alt-lit is simply the result of indie publishing. The term independent publishing relates to the act of publishing, and all it entails, while alternative literature is, of course, the actual literature producing by indie publishing. This encompasses a huge variety of literary styles and movements and points of view. What I find a lot of people doing is narrowing the vision of Alternative Literature. While it is ok and pretty freaking fantastic for writers to stake claim in their ideas, if they do so with blinders on and without acknowledging the wide breadth of it all, they do literature a kind of dis-service. It becomes like when Gangsta rap was all you heard on the radio. Because it was the more popular alternative to other modes of music. Then rap began widening more to include (or echo back to) the original nature of the art. Writer’s really, really like being gangmembers. Only they aren’t call gangs. They’re called something else.
Good essay though.
seems like we’re ‘here,’ probably
not only am i not associated with alt lit, i am not even a writer
BuffetFeline isn’t a member of the alt lit community. He hates alt lit and also he’s a cat. Please hire an editor or do some research.
I don’t think I over reacted, but I will expand on my first thought by saying it’s very clear that AltLit is unfortunately a very polarizing term. There are certainly people who call themselves alt lit and write lofty verbose poems with little, if any intention, but there are also writers who are helping to revolutionize and reshape what we understand literature to be. As far as your comments about native and african americans, I’m not sure what the hell you’re talking about. The bottom line is, and the main reaction seems to be that you’re wrong for just calling people out like that, especially when you don’t even have anything to substantiate their inclusion in your (essay is it?).
I apologize if my lack of research offended anyone. This blog isn’t a journalist venture and I don’t even consider it nonfiction. Thanks for reading, but I would encourage you to read some of my past pieces – they’re farces – to get a proper context. Is it my brother’s Lil B illustration that’s bringing in so many readers?
I enjoyed this feuilleton. I like reading about writers that I know in as much as one can know anyone on the web. It’s a little like saying “this node is my friendâ€. Many of the old alt lit authors are like popular nodes of a network. Perhaps I’m a node, too. I love this word “node†way too much, I note. I node.
This inspired me to the creation of more ALT LIT GOSSIP: http://bit.ly/P1ucmO
Hello.
That is really all I have to say.
I just wanted to be part of this.
Although we have been truly find each other on the phone, nothing to see my blind date when we meet people, he said he did and spent the entire day talking about the woman how attractive he is and how constantly refusedhe asked me if I think he is ugly. I cut the date short, refused a second date, I think I was very clear when I never heard him a few days. Then, I received an e-mail, he said: not a word, just photos of his penis.
im a fat bb koala who would be eating eucalyptus leaves.. if it wasn’t for those damn alt lit kids and their dog
tldr ‘i read a single writer out of a hundreds, made snap judgments, then reconsidered but don’t have any conclusions, stay tuned’
“A long and allegedly tense day as
the world held its breath.
We have to learn how to use this complicated machine we’ve built,
even if it only gets us the bronze.”
an excerpt from Hey Mayans!
- “alt lit” standing for “online community of artistic creators”
- “community” being the primary term, it is what we are as a singular, first and foremost, any writing or influences thereupon come from interactions within the community of “alt lit”, but are not automatically ascribed by the abstract concept that is “alt lit”
- dismissing “alt lit” as in dismissing the writing by those in the community is a fallacy
- dismissing “alt lit” as in dismissing the community itself is a viable action and often times entirely warranted.
“- “alt lit†standing for “online community of artistic creators†“
“- dismissing “alt lit†as in dismissing the writing by those in the community is a fallacy”
A Fallacy is a deceptive thought process or perception (in this regard). Can you defend your position on how having an opinion regarding how dismissing the writing (the writing, not the writer’s) is somehow deceptive or misleading? I feel as if you’re misusing the word fallacy here…
maybe i did, i dont really care anymore
I think Guillame’s description of alt lit is the most accurate I’ve read; not a literary movement or a body of work, but a community, with a DIY ethos.