Update #1: New micro-saddle https://saddleblasters.com/records#twentysix

Update #2: I read another book by Houellebecq https://saddleblasters.com/trades/map

The Quiet American (´･ω･`) (i dont have an email, so feel free to ignore)

I love this idea but I'm too overwhelmed with long term projects and other books on my TBR pile to participate

@siqu Ok! In return I suggest Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald if you haven't read it. Your writing often has a similar feel to his narration.

Regarding the micro-saddle, I really enjoy what you said about indulging in the fantasy aspect and its role and disconnect it has from reality

"I’ve wrapped myself in an artifact of another person’s life" - i've always loved the feeling of wearing someone else's clothes, and i think this is a great way of putting it. my childish brain imagines it like an alternate costume for a video game character, or a superhero, or something; like when the black power ranger dons the green ranger's chestplate. it feels cool to adorn myself with a small part of my friends

I translated an interview with the noise musician Shu Ride: https://saddleblasters.com/translation/shuride

I took suboptimalism up on his book trade offer: https://saddleblasters.com/trades/elementary_particles

Also, in hopes of doing this again with someone else, I made a page for future book trades: https://saddleblasters.com/trades/

i've been called out... https://suboptimalism.neocities.org/secret/wang.xml

My plan to strong arm you into writing something worked! I will have to add Wang Xiaobo to your Murakami vs. Houellebecq analysis at some point and make a three way venn diagram out of them, since he also exhibits many similarities and interesting differences...

Also you might have read it already, but Vonnegut's Bluebeard is another meditation on "what is art?" that specifically focuses on Pollock. I like to pair it with his earlier novel Deadeye Dick, narrated by the son of a failed painter.

haven't read either of those but i have read the one that came out right in between the two, galapagos...

I really enjoyed reading ‘On Waking’ !

good shit bud

I wrote an essay about noise performances I saw last year and poems I wrote about them: https://saddleblasters.neocities.org/essays/noise_poetry

Chinese noise is crazy... i know about Merzbow, Masonna, Gerogerigegege, Les Rallizes Dénudés, ...but had not much clue about the Chinese noise scene.

I only really talked about the Shanghai scene in this essay. If you're curious about the Beijing scene, you can read Yan Jun's English language writing (though a lot of it is outdated): https://www.thewire.co.uk/about/contributors/yan-jun/yan-jun_which-hell-do-you-prefer_

Added a section for short pieces that don't fit what "records of a saddle" has come to represent.