Pornobongo, Mon Amour

January 30, 2013Leave a comment

…What’s that sound?…

The sound of Oulipo Pornobongo 2 stirring in the darkness?

Lunging, thumping, humping…

Yes, sequels are never subtle.

We will be publishing this sequel to the original Anthology of Erotic Wordplay later this year, and are currently searching for appropriate texts spiced with hot oulipian constraints.

Stay tuned.

If you’d like to view last year’s lovely pornobongo trailer, click here.

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A Note of Interest to Pornobongoids:

Tomorrow, New Directions will officially release the 65th anniversary
edition of Raymond Queneau‘s inspirational classic Exercises in Style, translated by the late-great Barbara Wright. This edition includes previously unpublished exercises as well as episodes composed in the author’s honor by Frederic Tuten, Lynne Tillman, Harry Mathews, and others.

A splendid treat, despite a typo on the copyright page that credits Stefan Themerson‘s memorable cover image to “Stephen.”

CLICK HERE to order

Brain Raves

January 23, 2013November 13, 2021Leave a comment

BRAIN

ADVANCE RAVES (BY ANTICIPATION) for COLD IN THE BRAIN:

“Nobody can add to the absurdity… nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect.”
—Mark Twain

“Not since Nabokov’s Pale Fire has there been…well, this.” —R. Queneau

“Gives bad poetry a bad name.”—Derek Pell

Cold in the Brain
Poems by Pedro Carolino
With annotations by Paul Forristal
Absurdist Texts & Documents No. 10

$10.00
5¼” x 8¼”, Perfect-Bound. Illustrated. 32 pp.
Limited to 69 copies.
Poetry / Unintentional Humor

SOLD OUT

Brain Drain

January 21, 2013Leave a comment

This lovely 18th century woodcut is but one of several illustrations included in Pedro Carolino‘s collection of poems, Cold in the Brain—just published in our Absurdist Texts & Documents series.

At first glance one might suspect that the image has been tampered with—(the subject appears to be wearing a headset)—but this is not the case. The illustration is simply that of a young, drooling poet in the throes of inspiration—wearing earmuffs to undoubtedly muffle distracting sounds while he listens to the voice of his muse.

Had the artist intended to create a headset, then we’d be admiring the work of a visionary artist far ahead of his time. Parenthetically, had Carolino been a poet “ahead of his time” (as opposed to a head of his time, which he probably was) we’d have chosen illustrations from the 20th century.

Pedro Carolino was a 19th century Portuguese poet and translator, best remembered (if at all) for his Portuguese-English phrase book, English as She Is Spoke (often falsely attributed to José da Fonseca). The book is a classic of unintentional humour since its author could not speak English. According to Wikipedia Carolino used a French-English dictionary “to translate an earlier Portuguese-French phrase book, O Novo guia da conversação em francês e português, written by José da Fonseca.” Without permission, Carolino added Fonseca’s name to the book in an attempt to cash in on that author’s successful work. As for Carolino’s poetry, it would never have seen publication but for an earthquake in Lisbon, during which a casket containing the manuscript was unearthed.

Paul Forristal is the former Jean Poquelin Distinguished Visiting Professor
of Carolino Studies at San Diego State University. He is the author of Ronan, the definitive biography of the Brazilian-born Equatoguinean football defender Ronan Carolino Falcão, which has been translated into four languages, including Portuguese, Spanish, and Equatoguinean Spanish. Paul is currently at work on a guidebook for Carolino Canyon, a 40-acre day-use facility nestled in the juniper-pinion forests near Albuquerque. He lives in the Illinois Valley of southern Oregon.

Black Scat’s deluxe, annotated edition of COLD IN THE BRAIN is limited
to 69 copies.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

The Man Who Walked On Air & other tales of innocence

January 17, 2013January 19, 2013Leave a comment

JUST PUBLISHED: A major new collection of short fiction by Alain Arias-Misson—a master of literary mischief. These fifteen “tales of innocence” are erotic, poetic, mysterious, funny, and always surprising.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE MAN WHO WALKED ON AIR & OTHER TALES OF INNOCENCE

“The title story of Arias-Misson’s The Man Who Walked on Air is emblematic of the fiction collection. Ruminative, cultivated, formally venturesome, smoothly (but not slickly) written, and erotic—a nuanced eroticism that takes deliciously improbable turns. A daring collection in its way, yet always engaging.”
–Harold Jaffe

“Augustus, Alain Arias-Misson’s alter ego in the book, levitates when he has an erection. Arias-Misson levitates when he writes. Take the hand he offers you. He will lead you above the coarseness and banality of much of contemporary writing to a delightfully innocent world of erotic fantasies.”
–Yuriy Tarnawsky, author of Short Tails

Order the book on Amazon

Our Man in Panama

January 17, 2013Leave a comment

The legendary literary maestro, Alain Arias-Misson, has disappeared from Paris. Well, no, that’s not quite accurate… he hasn’t vanished in the sense that, say, a CIA operative might suddenly leave the scene. No…Alain is basking in the balmy breezes in Panama. He and the lovely Karen avoid the nasty winters in France by disappearing (escaping) to their undisclosed hideout (is there any other kind?) on the Pacific. Actually, their hideout looks like a love-nest, oui?

At the Black Scat Books bunker in northern California, we’re all rather jealous of M. Arias-Misson since temperatures have dipped to 30-degrees! In other words we’re freezing our butts off but cannot afford to escape.

To make matters worse, Arias-Misson sends taunting emails from Panama wishing us warm regards, etc. We took revenge, however, and made certain his vacation was interrupted by a lot of work, i.e., we gave him stiff deadlines for compiling his collection of short stories: The Man Who Walked on Air & Other Tales of Innocence.

This, by the way, is a significant edition featuring 15 “innocent” tales, spanning 195 pages — experimental, erotic, poetic, passionate, obsessive, and hilarious. But that’s stating the obvious… damn it, the man is bloody brilliant and we’re honored to be unleashing the book any moment now. (No joke, check back here today.)

Why a winter pub date you ask?

Once the new book rears its head on Amazon in the U.S. and Europe, the author will head to New York where he’s always in demand for readings and performances.

And NYC is cold as hell in winter.

🙂

Have You Had Your Cami Today?

January 9, 2013Leave a comment

If not, here’s a taste from A CAMI SAMPLER.

Translated from the French by John Crombie

You can order the limited edition book right here.

BON APPETIT!

Laughter & Cheer for the New Year!

January 1, 2013Leave a comment

A Cami Sampler

We proudly present a New Year’s treat—#9 in our Absurdist Texts & Documents series: A CAMI SAMPLER, translated from the French by John Crombie in Paris. The collection includes 10 zany, Dadaesque microdramas by Pierre Henri Cami, plus nine pages of his rare drawings. This is the first collection of Cami’s mini plays to be published in the U.S.

From the introduction by John Crombie:

“Though blissfully ignored for most of his life by the
English-speaking public, Cami (Pierre Henri) remained
for four full decades one of France’s most prolific,
and acclaimed, comic authors. Hailed by his idol and
admirer Charlie Chaplin as ‘the greatest humorist in the
world,’ Cami was somewhat willfully omitted by André
Breton from his Anthologie de l’Humour Noir—no doubt
on account of his huge popular success—but admired
by other Surrealists. Between 1910, when he founded
Le Petit Corbillard Illustré, the ‘humorous organ of the
corporation of undertakers,’ and his death in 1958,
Cami published well over forty volumes of minidramas
and comic novels—notably The Memoirs of God-the-
Father, The Adventures of Loufock-Holmes, The Son of
the Three Musketeers, and the travels of his perhaps most
famous creation, Monsieur Rikiki and the Rikiki family—
as well as countless songs, strip cartoons, screenplays
and even operettas. Many of these he also illustrated.

But Cami was best known for his ‘dramatic fantasies,’
written mostly for La Vie Drôle, the humorous column
published weekly by Le Journal, where he had stepped,
somewhat belatedly, into the shoes of that column’s
immortal co-founder, Alphonse Allais. Self-styled
microdramas of everyday life, of legend, of history
(and even of geography), of true (and false) romance,
and more often than not of volupté, these screwball
skits look backward to the music hall and Alfred Jarry,
sideways to the Marx Brothers and forward to, in
England, the Goons and, in France, to the Theatre
of the Absurd.”

This edition is limited to 100 copies, so don’t miss out on the fun.

CLICK HERE to order