Gilbert Sorrentino, 1927*-2006
Just saw the notice on Ron Silliman's blog.

Speaking of books that blew me away in college, Sorrentino's Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things was assigned for my Philosophy in Litearture class (taught by the dude in the guayabera rapping about the tower shooting in Slacker). I have read more of his fiction than his poetry. Will have to remedy that.

I like this quotation, from this interview (which Ron points to):

"An artist makes things. All else that he does, in his role as an artist, is incidental, accidental, or peripheral. If he worries about being an anachronism then he should quit writing and do something else."

*The Dalkey Archive site has his birth year as 1929.  4:18 PM Comment |