Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Tag: Richard Brautigan

April 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

April was a good month for acquiring books from independent publishers.

April was an okay month for reading. My work-life balance was, yet again, significantly tipped toward the work side of things, which took from me much of my reading time, and left me unable to focus for what little time remained.

I suspect in the coming months I will be acquiring fewer books, due to supply-chain disruption and the inevitable recession and increased inflation.

Acquisitions

Books which arrived at my house in the month of April 2025.

  1. Our Dust Earth (Air and Nothingness Press)  [2025.04.07] – Acquired through a Kickstarter campaign run by Air and Nothingness Press
  2. Gerald Murnane, Barley Patch (And Other Stories) [2025.04.14] – The latest arrival from my subscription to And Other Stories.
  3. Kateřina Čupová (Julie Nováková, translator), R.U.R.: The Karel Čapek Classic (Rosarium Publishing) [2025.04.14] – Reward for a Kickstarter campaign run by the always-excellent Rosarium Publishing
  4. Lesley Connor and Jason Sizemore (editors), Robotic Ambitions (Apex Book Company) [2024.04.21]

Reading List

Books which I read in the month of April 2025.

Books

  1. China Miéville, The City and the City [2025.04.13]
  2. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America [2025.04.17]
  3. Richard Brautigan, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster [2025.04.20]
  4. Richard Brautigan, In Watermelon Sugar [2025.04.23]

Short Prose

  1. Robin McLean, “But for Herr Hitler”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.04.24]
  2. Robin McLean, “Pterodactyl”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.04.25]

Weekly Round-up, April 19, 2025

John Winkelman

A bumblebee sunning itself on a sandstone block.

[A bumblebee sunning itself on one of our steps, after presumably being drenched in a recent thunderstorm.]

The particular insanity has sublimated into my life and become indistinguishable from the general insanity which permeates society like background radiation or herpes.

Reading

Having finished The City and the City, I am now focused on Frantz Fanon‘s The Wretched of the Earth during the day, and Richard Brautigan‘s Trout Fishing in America in the evening. I finished Trout Fishing in America, which is the first of three volumes in my only book of Brautigan. Next up therein is the poetry collection The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. After that is his surrealist text In Watermelon Sugar.

The first poem in The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster is “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”. I think we can safely say at this point that the machines watching over us are doing so with neither love nor grace.

Writing

I have so far this month written around seven poems and poem fragments, which is outstanding considering *gestures at the world*.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Dreams, Addiction
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Horror

Listening

“Butterfly Wings” by Machines of Loving Grace, from their 1993 album Concentration. Seemed appropriate.

Interesting Links

March 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

At long last, I feel like I am back into the reading groove. Work is, well, just as busy, but less chaotic, and therefore I have the mental energy necessary to focus on quiet things like reading. That is not to say that I am reading quiet books.

I am very happy with my book interactions this month. The five books which arrived are a mind-blowing mix. And the reading was a genuine delight.

Acquisitions

Books which arrived at my house in the month of March, 2025.

  1. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures (Grand River Poetry Collective) [2025.03.14] – Received as a gift from the Grand River Poetry Collective
  2. LeRoi Jones, Home: Social Essays [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  3. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  4. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar [2025.03.24] – Purchased from City Lights Books
  5. Jean Baudrillard (Sheila Faria Glaser, translator), Simulacra and Simulation (University of Michigan Press) [2025.03.28] – Purchased from the publisher

Reading List

Books I finished reading in March 2025.

Books

  1. Barney Rosset, Dick Seaver, Fred Jordan, Mike Topp (editors), The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  2. Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings [2025.03.16]
  3. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures [2025.03.16]
  4. Maria Judite de Carvalho (Margaret Jull Costa, translator), Empty Wardrobes [2025.03.21]

Short Prose

  1. LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), “Cuba Libre”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  2. Kenneth Koch, “Bertha”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  3. Arrabel (James Hewitt, translator), “Picnic on the Battlefield”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  4. Robert Stromberg, “A Talk with Louis-Ferdinand Céline”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  5. Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara, “How to Proceed in the Arts”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  6. William S. Burroughs, “from Naked Lunch“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  7. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Carla Colter and Alison Scott, translators), “The Tunnel”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  8. Ahmed Yacoubi (Paul Bowles and Mohammed Larbi Djilali, translators), “The Night Before Thinking”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  9. Brendan Behan, “The Big House”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.05]
  10. Heinreich Böll (Richard and Clara Winston, translators), “In This Country of Ours”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  11. Günter Grass (Ralph Manheim, translator), “The Wide Skirt”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  12. Samuel Beckett (Richard Seaver, translator), “The Expelled”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.08]
  13. Robert Coover, “The Square-Shooter and the Saint”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  14. Robert Gover, “from One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  15. Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (Paul Bowles, translator), “from A Life Full of Holes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  16. Jakov Lind (Ralph Manheim, translator), “Resurrection”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  17. Sławomir Mrożek (Konrad Syrop, translator), “Three Polish Tales”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  18. Pauline Réage (Sabine d’Estrée, translator), “from Story of O“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  19. Richard Brautigan, “from Trout Fishing in America“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  20. Hubert Selby, Jr., “from Last Exit to Brooklyn“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.11]
  21. Georges Bataille (Austryn Wainhouse, translator), “Madame Edwarda”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  22. Michael Rumaker, “Gringos”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  23. Witold Gombrowicz (Richard Seaver, translator), “On the Back Stair”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  24. Chester Himes, “from Pinktoes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  25. Kenzaburō Ōe (John Nathan, translator), “Lavish Are the Dead”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  26. Henry Miller, “George Grosz’ Ecce Homo“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  27. Curzio Malaparte (Rex Benedict, translator), “Mamma Marcia”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]