Double Helix

by Jay Millar

Double Helix is a new genetic-literary hybrid. Using the structure of DNA (which has its own language using paired molecules) as a model, Stephen Cain and Jay MillAr's new book employs a sequence of speak and respond pieces to read and write their way through the alphabet and discuss everything from the geography of Southern Ontario to why Ezra Pound is the true author of American Psycho. Living in different cities for a year, the two authors kept their ongoing conversations about poetics, relationships, and culture in the early 21st century alive by writing a collaborative project through correspondence, based on a simple alphabetic constraint. The result is Double Helix, a series of 52 micro-fictions, in which each writer meditates on a word beginning with a set letter of the alphabet. Molecular strands of concepts, arguments, and narratives twist about each other, yet also match, much like the double helix of human DNA. The final text mixes two lives, two writing styles, and two consciousnesses, that come to resemble a third mind--an act of literary meme-splicing.

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2006

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that it was given to me free when I ordered another, much, smaller pressed book. It's pretty good. Stephen Cain is the better writer. Thanks for the book, and tbc they bother are good. Ie. I'm very well read, and yes write. Not so much these days. It's difficult to care enough. As my friend Mike said, "They are out there." Yes they are.

[Sandra]

[image error]

Offered for FREE from the M/M Romance Group, Hot Summer Days event.