SCOTT MACLEOD

 September Postcard from Scott MacLeod:

I’m delighted to receive this card from Scott MacLeod whose projects I really love… including his new book, TWO SMOALTERS, a book of email correspondence over two years between him and Jim Leftwich. I consider the book’s text to be perfect for someone wanting to do a major erasure poetry project. It's not because any of the text warrants erasure. It's because every sentence, phrase, word are so high-energy one wants to lift samples for epigraphic fuel to move to a more divine state of consciousness. The effect is even more impressive as the email texts are collapsed into a single narrative without breaks that, say, could have been provided by each email's date. The writing, thus, stands on itself and it's charismatic. Example: "all life is suicide" which is not exactly a downer so much as a philosophical if not medical reality. Erasure also is an approach that befits what the two back cover blurbers say, especially Alison Knowles: "If I can open soya beans into a tray, it opens the possibility for anyone to make their own array of sounds. It's not necessary to organize them into a symphony." Yes, Reader, the symphony is yours to make!

 

I show the book against "S.S. Kevin Killian" that Scott made and generously gave to me (bless you, Kevin, I miss you). I also recommend—for the first time ever as I more likely counsel against the practice to focus on the writing themselves!—reading the bios. There's a bit of performance art going on in there (gotta admit, Scott had me until the point of his 64,000-acre ranch.) Finally and paradoxically, I recommend reading this book in one sitting. This book is so enjoyable on many levels.