Thomas M. Disch has died.

I wish it were more widely known what a great loss that is.

I wish New York would have a big quiet scary parade and say SORRY.

Thanks for the stories.

more, more, more

This is from near the end of 334 by Thomas M. Disch. The speaker is resting at Bellevue, after having thrown herself onto a bonfire of furniture at the building where her family was being evicted.

“And anyhow the world doesn’t end. Even though it may try to, even though you wish to hell it would—it can’t. There’s always some poor jerk who thinks he needs something he hasn’t got, and there goes five years, ten years, getting it. And then it’ll be something else. It’s another day and you’re still waiting for the world to end.

“Oh, sometimes, you know, I have to laugh. When I think— Like the first time you’re really in love and you say to yourself, Hey! I’m really in love! Now I know what it’s about. And then he leaves you and you can’t believe it. Or worse than that you gradually lose sight of it. Just gradually. You’re in love, only it isn’t as wonderful as it used to be. Maybe you’re not even in love, maybe you just want to be. And maybe you don’t even want to be. You stop bothering about songs on the radio and there’s nothing you want to do but sleep. Do you know? But you can only sleep for so long and then it’s tomorrow. The icebox is empty and you have to think who haven’t you borrowed any money from and the room smells and you get up just in time to see the most terrific sunset. So it wasn’t the end of the world after all, it’s just another day.

”You know, when I came here, there was a part of me that was so happy. Like the first day of school, though maybe that was terrifying, I can’t remember. Anyhow. I was so happy because I thought, here I am, this is the bottom. At last! The end of the world, right? And then, it was only the next day, I was up on the veranda and there it was again, this perfectly gorgeous sunset, with Brooklyn all big and mysterious, and the river. And then it was as though I could take a step back from myself, like when you’re sitting across from someone in the subway and they don’t know you’re watching them, I could see myself like that. And I thought, Why you dope! You’ve only been here one day, and here you are enjoying a goddamned sunset."

Terry Gross on Fresh Air remembers Thomas Disch, and replays a 1988 interview where his lighter side took over for a while.

“I think everybody... especially towards their toaster, regards them as personal. I mean, electricity... is... is like blood, it’s a living fluid. And it’s hard not to think of appliances as having independent existences... because they do things. They make noises. Radios talk to us. Toasters are kind to us. They reflect our faces. Uh... sit down in the morning, if you live by yourself, and the first positive relationship of your day is going to be with your toaster.”

“There’s a certain vein... uh, false innocence is not the right word, because that suggests that it’s false, and it isn’t, it’s quite sincere... the point is that there’s a certain attitude that makes a story a children’s story. And it’s basically the Brave Little Toaster’s attitude, that everything is basically nice in the world, and that you only have to smile and other people will get along with you. .... Well, it’s the opposite attitude to most adult literature, I mean, life is more complicated than that. But I think that it’s... it’s a reasonable attitude to inculcate in children. I mean, a large part of the world will work on that assumption just fine."

Do you like folded pieces of paper with marks on them?

Do you like cartoons and buttons and the cheap-ass arts?

Then you will be doing yourself and us all a solid if you go this weekend to the

San Francisco Zine Fest

Saturday-Sunday, July 19-20
County Fair Building at 9th & Lincoln
[the same place where they do the Anarchist Book Fair]

Saturday 11am-8pm, Sunday 11am-7pm

Admission = FREE. Books = NOT FREE. Coolness we will bestow on you = PRICELESS.

I’ll be managing, or trying to manage, two tables. One is little, and it’s me (a.k.a. Hob) and my friend Zac Martin (a.k.a. Persona Non Grata Press) making his chapbook debut. The other is the big nifty table for Global Hobo Comics Distribution, the Bay Area self-published comics outlet that I have somehow ended up running as of this month. Yes, I’m now not just a manufacturer but a pusher; I’m glad to be helping to get some ridiculously good mini-books out into the world, and I’m having fun so far playing store.

Also!

Thursday, July 17, 6-8pm
Oakland Public Library, 125 14th St.
Jason Shiga: Bookhunter

Shiga is a mad genius and a very funny guy, Bookhunter is the only book he’s done so far that you could actually write a high-concept pitch for (“C.S.I. meets book arts in the ’70s”), and he just got nominated for an Eisner Award for it. He’ll be reading along with Trevor Alixopulos and Hellen Jo. Go see this.

Friday, July 18, 7-9pm
Cartoon Art Museum
From the Horse’s Mouth: Comics Read by Their Creators

Readings by Andy Hartzell, Calvin Wong, Lark Pien, Joey Sayers, Justin Hall, MariNaomi, Minty Lewis, Peter Conrad, Rina Ayuyang and Renee French. Good God y’all.