The Man Who Ate His House is now available from Black Scat Books and available on Amazon!

For this curious little volume, Derek Pell and I selected plots from the cautionary writer’s manual 101 Plots Used and Abused (James N. Young, 1945), modified and combined them in various ways, and fed them to ChatGPT. The sixteen stories that resulted are funny, surprising, and not quite human. A.I. might never replace human literature, but we’re proud of our robot pal’s efforts.

A few reactions:

“A brilliant concept: A bot writes stories based on tried-and-true tropes (that are ostensibly to be avoided under the guidance of the 1945 manual: 101 Plots Used & Abused). The stories in The Man Who Ate His House run the gamut of laugh out loud humorous, sardonic, tear-jerking, and engaging—often ending with a moral to ponder. There is a thread that runs through each story that points directly to the algorithmic life experience of the bot. As a short story writer, I am not sure whether to view A.I. as a fraud to be outed, or as a viable contender in the literary world. One thing that I do know is that if A.I. is ever given a soul, we are all doomed.” —Amy Kurman

“These delightful entertainments are funny, smart, and slick.” —D. Harlan Wilson

“You’ve heard about A.I., but have you ever read sixteen A.I. generated stories? The result will surprise and delight.” —Adrienne Auvray

“This book is a lifejacket for those who fear artificial intelligence.”—Paul Rosheim

“A tour de force of inanity.” —Tom Whalen

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

There have been many card games that direct the players to collect panels from a comic strip. The earliest I’ve seen is this miniature deck featuring Richard Outcault’s popular characters Buster Brown and Tige. The cards can also be used as a regular deck, no doubt inspiring new stories. The back is also quite nice.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Typo #2 is now out and ready to be read!

This sporadic periodical calls itself a “Journal of Lettrism, Surrealist Semantics, and Constrained Design.” I contributed brief articles on alien alphabets and the principles of double talk, the score for my musical transcription of “lorem ipsum dolor,” and translations of Guillaume Apollinaire, Pierre Albert-Birot, and Gaston de Pawlowski, The editor and designer is Norman Conquest (aka Derek Pell); the other contributors are Mark Axelrod-Sokolov, Tom Barrett, Allan Bealy, Miggs Burroughs, Jahan Cader, Janina Ciezadlo, Farewell Debut, R J Dent, Karen Eliot, Paul Éluard, Paul Forristal, Ryan Forsythe, Jesse Glass, Rick Henry, Rhys Hughes, Rory Hughes, Alfred Jarry, Richard Koman, Márton Koppány, Amy Kurman, Peter F. Murphy, Pata-No UN LTD, Harry Polkinhorn, Tom Prime, Jason E. Rolfe, Ded Rysel, Giovanni Antonio Tagliente, Félix Vallotton, Andrew C. Wenaus, Adolphe Willette, Carla Wilson, and William Wordsworth.

Available, like so many things, on Amazon.

An Afternoon in the Arboretum is now available on Bandcamp! This album contains solely instrumental music, mostly for keyboard, from as early as 1976 to as late as 2022. All selections were composed and performed by Doug Skinner, and recorded and mixed by Brian Dewan:

An Afternoon in the Arboretum (2020)
Radio Valentine (1976)
Ulterior Misgivings (2020)
Twinge (2021)
Stint (2012)
Nocturne (2012)
The Gateway to the Getaway (2022)
Aftermath (2020)
Spillover (2017)
Gilding the Pyrite (2001)
Under the Weather (1983)
A Slot Machine for Wooden Nickels (2022)
On a Theme by Lewis Carroll (1994)
Lorem Ipsum Dolor (2010)

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Let’s Not Hit Each Other is now available from Black Scat Books!

This collection by the incomparable Alphonse Allais includes a flying whale, an inflatable colonel, telepathic snails, a summer crime, the insularization of France, missionary parrots, an amphibious herring, twin cousins, and proposals for billboard dogs, deodorized urine, calming the sea with varnish, and crossing the English Channel with swings. You will also meet Mr. Fish, who travels with capsules of American air, presaging Duchamp’s “Paris Air” by decades. This is the first English translation of this remarkable volume, first published in 1900.

Translated, annotated, and introduced by Doug Skinner, and designed by Norman Conquest. This edition includes an original portrait of Allais by Corinne Taunay.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

“The Game of Don’ts and Old Maid” was published in 1905 by McLoughlin. Players are instructed to collect pairs of cards showing wretched specimens of humanity, thereby teaching them (the players) not to be stupid, hoggish, silly, proud, untidy, a crank, a scold, etc. One of the things not to be is an old maid, so one of the cards can be removed to play Old Maid. This is our 33rd Old Maid, and here she is. You can’t read it on this scan, but the book she’s carrying is The Novels of Irving Bacheller:

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

If you’ve ever wondered how Santa Claus operates, here’s the answer. This illustration is taken from Flying Saucers Close Up, by John W. Dean, published in 1969 by Saucerian Books. Please click on it to see it better. Happy Holidays!

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Winter is here, and the birds are flying south. This steel engraving by George Cruikshank is taken from The George Cruikshank Table-Book, Bell and Daldy, London, 1869. Please click to enlarge.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The apparently tireless Norman Conquest (aka Derek Pell) has started a new magazine. It’s called TYPO, which he describes as a “Journal of Lettrism, Surrealist Semantics, and Constrained Design.” He and farewell debut are the editors, and I’m on the masthead for “Special Collections.” I contributed a stereoscopic word ladder, as well as brief articles on Masonic cipher rituals, mnemonic alphabets, and monograms from the Italian Renaissance. You’ll also find delightful material on asemic poetry, French graffiti, summantics, Dada typography, and other topics from Marc-Alain Barbot, Tom Barrett, Michael Betancourt, Isabelle B.L, Restif de la Bretonne, Mamie Caton, Caroline Crépiat, Art Dandy, Ange Degheest, Jean-Pierre Duffour, Luc Fierens, Jack Granath, Isidore Isou, Amy Kurman, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Giambattista Palatino, Raymond Queneau, Reese Saxment, Karen Shaw, Corinne Taunay, John J. Trause, Tristan Tzara, Cal Wenby, and Femke van der Wijk.

And you can find it on Amazon!

There’s an interview with Derek Pell here, and a review here.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

I had the honor of translating Corinne Taunay’s booklet Marcel Duchamp: Paris Air in New York, now available from Black Scat Books on Amazon.

Marcel Duchamp‘s exile in New York, in 1915-1917, brought him sudden fame and changed the course of his career. Corinne Taunay’s lively and witty study describes the scandals of Nude Descending a Staircase and Fountain, the creation of the first readymades, and the evolution of Duchamp’s artistic strategies. With 19 illustrations in black and white and in color.

Corinne Taunay is a visual artist and art historian who has contributed to many publications in Europe and the US.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)