July 9, 2010
-
The_Church_of_Fat
John Lindensmith, notorious on Xanga as The_Church_of_Fat, is the author of Mystery Man, the story of a brilliant surgeon transformed by a gunshot wound into a vicious serial killer.
He’s written a review for Xangans, the paperback showcasing authors from the Xangan community, and I’m reproducing most of his review below
A collection of short stories, essays, and poems from the Xanga blogging community. The collection offers a mosaic of human experience: tragedy, anger, alienation, joy, religion, and politics.
Dan the Theologian, one of Xanga’s most popular writers, sums up the blogging community best in his introduction: “We came together to share our pain, addictions and struggles with someone that would read them. So many days, I cried while reading a post only to find myself laughing and celebrating with the next entry I read.”
XANGANS is a collection of truly unique voices: Cynthia Craig is a writer to look out for. She creates beautiful minimalist stories and poems that cut to the bone. My favorites, “Reading Lolita,” “The Picture of Miscommunication,” and “The Girl Walking,” deal with sex and relationships. Lost-In-Reverie, in her article “Because I want to Believe; Or, why I Am Sometimes Jealous of People with Faith,” chronicles her loss of belief in religion and God. On the opposite spectrum, Tukha Al-Jibouri offers a humorous and informative essay about why she wears “The Veil.” If politics is your thing, Jon Nelson’s essay “Television and the Debasement of Political Discourse” explains how TV has turned America into a bunch of blind sheep who accept anything they see on the noise box. Toni, in her essay “Things I Rarely Talk About Anymore,” offers a heart-wrenching story about how her hand was damaged in a car accident. Pervy Penguin, in a brave essay entitled “I Will Never Understand,” is blatantly honest about a unique condition: asexuality. If poetry is your thing, Scott Christian offers riveting verse, especially in his poem “Pane.”
My own story, “Another Night on the Town” is included in the collection. It chronicles the wasteland and boredom of the teenage social scene, narrated by a homicidal youth. Graham Worthington, the editor and compiler of Xangans, includes segments from his novels Wake of the Raven and Zorn, not to mention some very vivid and powerful poetry. Xangans offers a plethora of voices, styles, and interpretations of our world through the eyes of a blogging community. This book wouldn’t be possible without the unique advantages technology and social networks offer us in this day and age. The collection isn’t just for members of Xanga; it’s for anyone who wants to read about the human condition from the perspectives of many unique individuals.
-John Lindensmith.
Xangans is now available on amazon in the USA, Canada and the UK.
Comments (11)
John Lindensmith I miss him. I showed up at the end of his productive period on xanga. Though we used to banter back a forth a bit, he only had about 10 more entries left in him by the end of 06. Sadly the creative writers all seem to run out of passion eventually. The ranters like me just keep going, but with far lower quality stuff. One of these days one of you guys will hit it big and we can all say I remember him on xanga. Oh yeah he was a jerk then as well
lol that above comment explained a lot for me… i was wondering how he could be notorious if i had never seen him on xanga ever.
“a writer to look out for.” That made me so happy. lol.I’m ordering my copy now… I didn’t order it right away because I didn’t have money to spend till now…. I’m excited.
@trunthepaige - I’ve noticed a few times with the younger bloggers that transiting from high school to college causes a ceasation of their blogging. It’s to be expected; going out into a bigger world, the RL can get more complex or interesting.
@trunthepaige - plus college is probably the last chance to get whatever letters after your name you’re ever going to get.And…. is it my imagination, or is the quality of ranters and ravers in general going down? Your ranting usually has some purpose. I don’t always agree with it, but at least it has a point. We now have an infestaation of trolls who not only haave nothing to say, but worse, say their nothing repeatedly.
@ScarletMoth - a couple of years is a long time on Xanga.
@Alyxandri - Yessum. I think you hold the “Xangans” record for number of pieces with nine. I found them very handy. Short, usually with something to say, and not overstated. Be sure to do a review; reviews are all important in the long run. I’ve been keeping mainly low key in the last few weeks; I had to catch up on my IRL stufff, which had been too, too neglected.
he picture reminds me of my brother =P
@wolvenchic - He is a dangerous man, but fear not; I will protect you.
I’ll have to look him up!
@nidan - He has retreated to a hidden cave in the Himalayas, or North Dakota, a place I understand is much the same, where he now plots world domination.