Guida and Johnston, 9-24-09 Just put the first reading of a three-week marathon of readings to bed. Jim Guida and Devin Johnston were fantastic! Guida's a self-styled aphorist, a bright Australian, and, if the reaction of the female-heavy crowd is to be believed, something of a heartbreaker. There was some hooting. His wit encompasses the following:

"There's a ladder of social esteem which we begin as nonentities, and end by actually winning people's indifference."

"Too many novels boil down to either tourism or real estate."

"It's the gift of a certain type of person to detect tactlessness in anything."

"Awkwardness is collaborative."
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Johnston is the editor of Flood Editions and a supporter of The Danny's Reading Series when it was in its infancy. So good to see him again, and to hear him read from Creaturely, his new book of essays on the alienness of the natural world:

"Metaphor lies in wait, the world's hidden scaffolding; yet the living bird adapts and evades fixed associations."
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Next week! It's a reading for The Best of Fence. Got something of a dream team for this one: Alice Bradley, Macgregor Card, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Jennifer L. Knox, and Paul Killebrew  ¶ 3:40 PM