"Because" (excerpt)

by Joseph Riippi, Michael Seidlinger (Introduction)

"When I first received Joseph Riippi’s manuscript, Because, I ended up reading it front to back in one night," writes Michael Seidlinger, Publisher-in-Chief of Civil Coping Mechanisms, in his introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading. "I dove right in and was lost in the yearning and desire of the book’s short, punctual chapters. I think it was the novel’s structural device—a list of sorts—that made it impossible to stop. In the same vein of Joe Brainard’s I Remember, every line of the book begins with a declaration. Riippi’s declaration functions as bold and brutally honest 'I want.' Using these two simple words as refrain, Joseph Riippi cuts down to the core of the narrative. From the novel’s opening preface, he offers us an explanation, 'Because I wanted to make something beautiful and figure things out. Because I wanted to write fiction, but I’m not sure that I did.' You see, the novel is just It’s a transcript of a personal search. It’s as much about understanding as it is an exploration of trying to be understood.

"I want to know beforehand that this excerpt will register in every reader the same sort of enthusiasm it did to me. I want to watch Joseph Riippi’s novel age with time, becoming its own antidote to life’s often strange and unexpected choices. I want you to read this."

About the
Joseph Riippi's latest novel is Because, published by Civil Coping Mechanisms in February 2014. CCM will also release Riippi's next, Research (A novel for performance), in October. A chapbook (with illustrations by Edward Mullany) called Puyallup, Washington (an interrogation) is forthcoming later this year from Publishing Genius. He lives with his wife in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. For more, visit josephriippi.com.

About the Guest
Civil Coping Mechanisms (CCM) is a DIY kind of press. We take the same level of angst as our brethren in shunning those that would be in the immediate position of neglecting our efforts as artisans. We take the sentiment of doing it ourselves while stating to the tired publishing process, “To hell with it.” Why not do it our way? What only Offering a space for the innovation so sorely shamed and disregarded as unmarketable by the major and indie presses too busy selling the next celebrity memoir, paper-thin creative nonfiction spine of lies, the wax-intellectual pursuits of yet-again the same vision wrapped in newer trim, or the same regurgitated genre-fiction and prose you’d expect would have become stale by now. Oh yes, we rant. This is our place. We’ll do as we damn well please.

About the
Electric Literature is an independent publisher working to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction, accompanied by a Single Sentence Animation. Single Sentence Animations are creative the author chooses a favorite sentence and we commission an artist to interpret it. Stay connected with us through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and find previous Electric Literature picks in the Recommended Reading archives.

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2014

About the author

Joseph Riippi is the author of 5 books, including RESEARCH: A NOVEL FOR PERFORMANCE and BECAUSE. He lives with his wife in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.