Warhol Days

[ocvictor]

The new issue of AntiMuse, with my poem Warhol Days, is up. Interestingly, they presented "Warhol Days" as fiction, rather than poetry. Admittedly, I've had to question that distinction myself a few times with the piece. In my head it's a poem, but given its lack of line breaks and its use of self-contained, disparate narratives, I can fully understand why someone would come to the conclusion that it's actually fiction.

In truth, I find myself somewhat disinterested in the distinction.

***

Reading Johnny Too Bad: Stories by John Dufresne, and I have to say I'm enjoying it immensely. Bought the book after seeing the author read at a library benefit, but then got distracted and forgot about it for a while. Very glad to have found it again. The book is strange, haunting and poetic.

Also, it gave me my literary quote of the week: "Sometimes we're better than ourselves when we write." Oh yes.

Comments

[going-not-gone.livejournal.com]

I like the poem. Or story. Distinction irrelevant; words good.

[ocvictor.livejournal.com]

Gracias!

[sassenach1970.livejournal.com]

I like it a lot. Maybe they think it is fiction because it has "characters." But all narrative poems have characters. It works either way.

[ocvictor.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[celindra.livejournal.com]

AntiMuse editor here.

I thought it was fiction because of its structure. In his query letter, Vincent classified "Warhol Days" as poetry. However, it was fundamentally different from a poem. First off, it had no meter, rhythm or cadence. If this piece were read aloud, it would sound like a fiction piece. Secondly, it used complex sentence structures commonly found in prose:

She can’t repress a smile each time she sees the lens on the corner of her vision, because it’s in these moments she knows this is America, and in America, someone’s always watching.

If that's not prose, then I'm in the wrong business.

Finally, I felt it just worked better in the "Fiction" section of the magazine, and, ultimately, I think everyone felt good about it appearing in that section.

[ocvictor.livejournal.com]

Howdy! Pleased to meet you in LJ land!

You certainly make a point, and when I'm purposely dancing on the line between the two there, I'm certainly not going to complain. It does look good there.

[zadriana.livejournal.com]

We spend about ten hours a day every day in the nonfiction program arguing about whether or not the "lyric essay" belongs to a genre. So, rage on, lyric essayist!

[ocvictor.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'd been wanting a new genrefication!