George > Recent Status Updates

syruptitious

I feel like a monk hunched over an illuminated manuscript while reading this rarest of tomes. Truly an objet d'art nonpareil.

And of course it’s true that any number of these books were penned in lieu of burning down the world—which was their author’s true desire. But the real question is are we few the last of a lineage? Will children yet to come harbor a longing for a thing they cannot even name?

…by the time you got [a mirror] home from the store, it had already seen enough. By the time you got the thing mounted…it was hardly the most reliable instrument for self-inspection. You had to take into account its exhaustion after having had to catch and then throw back and endorse so much overparticularized difference in passersby.

among the McDonald's aristocracy of dementia and despair, those crustaceous golden-agers, who, having been flushed out of their oubliettes and dovecotes and cocklofts for the afternoon, bivouac in booths and cup their chins in their palms. Hollow-eyed and cherry-nosed, they marinate in their gastric juices, hourly renewing vengeful vows and occasionally stirring to buy a soft-serve cone or petition for a cup of ice.

My private life is so private, even I myself am never privy to all that much of it.

I’m honored to have appeared on the Anthony Burgess Foundation’s 99 Novels Podcast. It’s a show in which the host brings on experts to discuss the novels from Burgess’ Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939. We talked about Darconville’s Cat by Alexander Theroux. All relevant links and info here: https://www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-p...

Thank you to Eleventh Volume for featuring me in his Books That Made Me interview series. You can read the exchange here: https://eleventhvolume.substack.com/p...

I started a Discord for a very casual group read of Invidicum by Michael Brodsky. All are welcome to join: https://discord.gg/nzkgjxyAb3

…they not only responded to what was clearly a megadose but responded all too well. That is to say, they ended up completely cured not just of their Envy, but of themselves—of everything within and without they’d come to treasure as uniquely and inviolably them. […] So the most lunatic among the lunatic fringe decided to bring, claiming ID theft, a class-action lawsuit against Warner-Metro…

I have an online bookstore where you can buy rare, signed, and first-edition books. Check it out: https://www.instagram.com/collidescop...

"Art in collusion with suffering--art as an unspeakable affront to unspeakable suffering--that’s the way it's always been and always will be."

“The writing down's both a remedy against not remembering and a solidified poison that gets in the way of the only remembering worth the effort—to wit, remembering that doesn't know what it's going to collide with on the way back—on the not always rocky enough road—to remembering. In short, writing's a pharmakon, says a voice he doesn't recognize.”

“Words are parasites and once they get a whiff of his anguish it becomes the engine of their own ever-expanding flow in directions he never dreamed he could want to go. For their expansion is his expansion. And once they've sucked the anguish dry, after dragging it through all sorts of byways and arteries and dead ends he finds himself saddled with thoughts he never dreamed he could father.”

Such a pleasure making my first TV appearance on Junia Doan’s The Spark. You can now watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_Puyw7c2B3o?si=kPGtd...

We discuss my debut novel, The Collidescope, my muse, and more. ✨

Junia has interviewed many different guests over the years. Other featured writers include André Aciman and Ken Follett. Junia was a warm and welcoming host with great questions.

Do you believe books are better than their movies? Listen to this and think again. 😉

For those who prefer it, my de la Serna's Movieland discussion with dear friend Matt is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR05d...