Blake Butler, Kristina Born, and Shane Jones discuss Year Of The Liquidator and the first release, One Hour Of Television.
J.A.T: Which came first, Year Of The Liquidator or One Hour Of Television?
B.B: The want to have a press came first. One Hour Of Television was the instigator to turn that from a want into a thing. It made me realize the time was now. I’m still excited we got to make it
J.A.T: How did the first draft of One Hour Of Television end up in your hands?
B.B: Kristina submitted to the print mag I do with Ken Baumann, nocolony, and we loved the piece, but before we got to write and say we wanted it, Unsaid Magazine took it. Fair enough, Unsaid wins, as they should. Anyway, I wrote her back and asked her if she had anything else we could look at for the issue, and she said yeah, she had this novella-length manuscript, and I said please send it to me, and she did, and I read it immediately, and got XX eyes. Shane and I had already been batting the idea of doing a press together around, so I sent it over to him, and he loved as well, and pretty much just spur of the moment we decided to move ahead.
J.A.T: Do you and Shane Jones collaborate on all aspects of this new press?
B.B: I designed the book, Shane does more web promo contact stuff, we both gave Kristina comments on the manuscripts on our own time, and we both proofread, etc. So yeah, it’s a perfect collaboration in that we both do whatever comes naturally. You don’t have to have your life taken over by starting a press, it can just be the want of putting something nice into the world on your own terms.
J.A.T: What was it about Born’s book that made it the right first release from Year Of The Liquidator?
B.B: I can’t think of any other book like it, and it made me laugh or think on every page. Kristina talks in a way that both entertains, has sound and music, odd composition, and is a pleasure rather than work to read. That is rare. It also has the air of an other world placed over our world, not dystopia or fantasy, but dreamlike and syntax-assaulting. If there is one thing that will characterize the books we do outside of design, I believe it will be that it turns this kind of view: world on a head.
J.A.T: In One Hour Of Television, is Born doing something new, something different, something unique?
B.B: I think she is. But it’s also just great writing. You can want to be unique all you want, but what matters first is that it is great writing. Persona comes from saying things your way, not intentionally innovating. Kristina is a natural.
J.A.T: One Hour Of Television is written in flash segments, scattered and broken apart—do you think it would work as well if it were solid text without the fragmentation of flash or micro-fiction?
B.B: I like white space a lot. Especially where you have graphs and sentences working this hard, I think it gives a lot of breathing room to a book. So, I do prefer it that way, for these words. Not all words can stand alone so well, and seeing them stand this way seems integral. It allows hangings of resonance and mulling space and a kind of even narrative mapping to go on, where with one long set of graphs it is much different. That said, it would be interesting to see how it reads as a continuous object, I imagine it would come on very different and create a whole other sort of effect.
J.A.T: Though word has it that Year Of The Liquidator is going to be a casual endeavor, are there plans yet for other releases, a timeline, a future schedule?
B.B: Up in the air for now. We’re both kind of wanting to take this as it comes, and not overplan. When I make plans far ahead, I often break them, because I like to feel free. This press is free.
J.A.T: How long did it take from first draft start to publication for One Hour Of Television to be born?
K.B: The first draft was finished in October 2007, and it was published in November of this year, so almost exactly two years. Which really doesn’t seem that long to me, considering I assumed it would never be published at all.
J.A.T: How was your working relationship with Blake at Shane at Year Of The Liquidator? and as editors, how did they help shape / form the final version of the book?
K.B: Blake and Shane were fantastic editors. They were always very clear that they liked One Hour Of Television enough to publish it as-was, that I would absolutely not be required to make edits I didn’t agree with. But I would have been crazy to ignore their suggestions. I had resigned myself to certain problems with the book, and they pushed me to find solutions. I’m very grateful for that.
J.A.T: One Hour Of Television is built entirely of micro-fiction / flash—do you always write this way? and did you intend One Hour Of Television to have such white space, such ‘breathing room’ as Blake termed it in his interview with us?
K.B: I never thought of it as ‘breathing room’—I did want to slow down the reading time, but I wanted the space to be not so much roomy as monotonous, stilted, syrupy. I think form can definitely inform tone, and I wanted the book to have a very flat affect. That’s also why I tried to keep each paragraph at about the same size, where possible.
If I were more dedicated, they would be uniform to the word.
I started writing in sections in university. The final project for my creative writing class was a 10-page story and I freaked out the whole year because I knew I couldn’t do it. I had never written anything longer than two and a half pages before. So it was something I developed to try and get over that. I’m one of those overly analytical people who get suspicious when things are too easy, so maybe that explains why it works for me.
Also I really like titles. If you have lots of sections, you can have lots of titles.
J.A.T: Do you think One Hour Of Television would work as well if it were solid text without the fragmentation of the flash or micro-fiction structure?
K.B: I think it would be confusing as hell. I mean, it would LOOK less confusing to someone who was just picking it up, but if your form and your intent are at odds, people will get lost. It doesn’t feel right.
J.A.T: What is next for you? what are you working on, what are you publishing, where can we read more / buy more of your work?
K.B: I’m working on a short novel tentatively entitled The Village, inspired by a parlor game of the same name. I went through a long dry spell after One Hour Of Television, so it’s really satisfying to have a new project.
Most recently, you can check out Jack Twig Is the Evil Pulse of Canada in DIAGRAM 9.4 and What Is Allowed in Unsaid 4.
J.A.T: What drew you to Kristina Born’s One Hour Of Television, back when Year Of The Liquidator was still perhaps just a thought, an idea?
S.J: It came on high recommendation from Blake—so I was initially very excited to read it. And then when I did read it, I just had a gut reaction that this was something wonderful. Most books I really enjoy give me this feeling after the first few pages. We were lucky to be able to publish it.
J.A.T: As an editor, what was your involvement in taking Born’s initial manuscript to its finalized form?
S.J: I made my own edits and Blake made his. I talked with Blake a lot on the edits. For the most part, we left it up to Kristina on what she wanted the book to be. It is after all, her book. Blake’s done most of the leg-work on the book with the layout and printing.
J.A.T: What do you think is different or unique about Born’s writing style in general or about One Hour Of Television specifically?
S.J: It feels exciting to me. I don’t think it’s that different or unique. It’s a strange book. It’s a fun book. It’s dark, it’s funny, it’s full of amazing images and movement. It’s a new writer with a lot of talent. There’s just a ton of stuff to enjoy in this little book.
J.A.T: What do you think would happen to One Hour Of Television if it were solid text without the fragmentation / splatter of the micro-fiction structure?
S.J: It would completely lose its speed and energy—two things the book relies on a lot.
J.A.T: How do you envision Year Of The Liquidator taking shape over the next year, the next five years, the next decade?
S.J: When me and Blake started this press, we placed a large emphasis on just having fun and keeping this thing small. We want to put out really good books in limited runs and hopefully it feels special to people. We’ll continue to search out new authors.
J.A. Tyler reviews books and things for Rumble Magazine. He is also founding editor of mud luscious / ml press. He is a terminator.