Black Clock 18

Black Clock #18

by Steve Erickson (Editor), Ophelia Chong (Design)

In an age that defies the definitive, Black Clock 18 offers its version of the cinematic "director's cut." Most authors have buried in their cyber-catacombs the book that got away, or the less compromised version of the published magnum opus stained with the blood of those darlings every writer learns must be killed; this edition of Black Clock is filled with those cherished artistic detours that finally were abandoned for the sake of the whole. From an alternate version of Brian Evenson's The Open Curtain to an excised chapter of Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake to a deleted excerpt from Greil Marcus' The Shape of Things to Come to a newly reconsidered version of a Jonathan Lethem story that originally appeared in another journal to Rick Moody's "Thirteen Stories" that turned into another book entirely to Joanna Scott's "Untelling" of her upcoming novel, Black Clock 18 either represents the resurrection or provides the final resting place of editorial decisions regretted, rued and reconciled.

232 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2014

About the author

Steve Erickson is a distinguished American novelist known for a visionary, dream-fueled style that blends European modernism with American pulp and postmodernism. Raised in Los Angeles, he studied film and political philosophy at UCLA, influences that permeate celebrated works such as Days Between Stations, Tours of the Black Clock, and Zeroville. Critics, including Greil Marcus, have labeled him "the only authentic American surrealist," placing him in the lineage of Pynchon and DeLillo. His most acclaimed novel, Shadowbahn, was hailed as a masterpiece even prior to its release and was later adapted for BBC Radio. A "writer’s writer," Erickson has published ten novels translated into over a dozen languages, consistently appearing on best-of-the-year lists for The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He is the recipient of the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters award. Erickson served for fourteen years as the founding editor of the journal Black Clock and is currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Riverside.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourite author is, by far, Steve Erickson. I border weirdo fangirl status: I know what newspaper columns he writes, buy books exclusively because he's written the introduction/foreword, and have even considered applying to Caltech just to study in his proximity. So the fact that he edits a literary journal? Well, it was only a matter of time before I got my starry...fingered? little hands on it.

And -- while this issue was uneven -- it was more than enough to make me positive: I am totally friggin subscribing to Black Clock.


The premise of the issue destines it to be a difficult read. Every piece is an "author's cut" (in the style of a director's cut) -- stories that were altered intensely for publication while the author held tight to (or, in many cases, went in a different direction than) their original vision. So -- for those excerpts from novels you haven't already read -- it can be frustrating. The quality, too, runs from jaw-droppingly good (Geoff Nicholson, where have you been all my life?!) to pretentiously bad (Rick Moody and Diana Wagman's offerings in particular). As, I suppose, would be true of any literary journal.

The highlight, aside from Nicholson's amazing descriptions of martinis in New York (no lie: so good I actually had to make myself one to accompany the rest of the story), was Janet Fitch's piece: a fragment from the excellent Paint It Black (which is the only work I've actually read in its final state). Apparently, Fitch had a different narrative structure in mind when she started working on it: writing not just from Josie's perspective, but also Michael's. Reading through his eyes lent an amazing new dimension to an already awesome novel -- and really clinched the purpose of a collection like this for me.

So, half of the stories weren't great -- but really, what can you realistically hope for when reading a collection of mostly unknown authors?
Moments of brilliance, familiar territory retread, and a new author to salivate over. All this and a Steve Erickson introduction ---- I'm happy. Can't wait for the next issue.