{"id":30115,"date":"2018-06-19T10:24:20","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T14:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=30115"},"modified":"2018-06-21T18:29:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T22:29:05","slug":"celebrating-carl-weissner-buk-and-burroughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2018\/06\/celebrating-carl-weissner-buk-and-burroughs.html","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Carl Weissner, Buk, and Burroughs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center>They say Berlin is the place to be. Since I can&#8217;t be there myself, here&#8217;s the next best thing . . .<\/center><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30118\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Cody-Carl-Signe-1000.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30118\" data-attachment-id=\"30118\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2018\/06\/celebrating-carl-weissner-buk-and-burroughs.html\/cody-carl-signe-640\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Cody-Carl-Signe-640.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,433\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"In Berlin, LuxusBar presents &amp;#8230;\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;From left:&lt;\/em&gt; &amp;nbsp; Christine Sohn, William Cody Maher, Signe Mahler&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Cody-Carl-Signe-640-300x203.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Cody-Carl-Signe-640.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Cody-Carl-Signe-640.jpg\" alt title=\"From left: Christine Sohn, William Cody Maher, Signe M\u00e4hler. CLICK TO ENLARGE.\" width=\"640\" height=\"433\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Cody-Carl-Signe-640.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Cody-Carl-Signe-640-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-30118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&nbsp;  <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><center><strong>This is the Maher-M\u00e4hler film about Carl that will be screened as part of the celebration:<\/strong> <\/center><br \/>\n<center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rrXGTy8NuYc\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><strong><font size=5>Always These Nightmares!<\/strong><\/font><\/center><\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_30151\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Death-Paris-Carl-Weissner\/dp\/0615631932\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1529603224&#038;sr=1-1-catcorr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30151\" data-attachment-id=\"30151\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?attachment_id=30151\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Death-in-Paris-200.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"200,321\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"DEATH IN PARIS\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size=2&gt;realitystudio, 2007&lt;font&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Death-in-Paris-200-187x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Death-in-Paris-200.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Death-in-Paris-200.jpg\" alt title=\"Click to purchase.\" width=\"200\" height=\"321\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Death-in-Paris-200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Death-in-Paris-200-187x300.jpg 187w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-30151\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><font size=2>2007 <a href=\"http:\/\/realitystudio.org\/html\/carl-weissner\/death-in-paris.html\">online<\/a>, 2012 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Death-Paris-Carl-Weissner\/dp\/0615631932\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1529603224&#038;sr=1-1-catcorr\">paperback<\/a><\/font><\/p><\/div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Toward the end of his life Carl was a writer on a rampage. He wrote three books \u2014 one in English, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Death-Paris-Carl-Weissner\/dp\/0615631932\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1529603224&#038;sr=1-1-catcorr\">Death in Paris<\/a>,<\/em> which he described as \u201cDoomsday Lit,\u201d and two in German, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.milena-verlag.at\/index.php?item=beastie_books&#038;show_details=5\">Manhattan Muffdiver<\/a><\/em>&nbsp; and <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.milena-verlag.at\/index.php?item=beastie_books&#038;show_details=154\">Die Abenteuer von Trashman<\/a>,<\/em> whose biting satirical humor he called \u201cvulgo-cynicism.\u201d All three books are filled with rattling black laughter.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<em>Death in Paris<\/em> (posted online in 2007 and published posthumously in 2012, the year he died) is the blackest. You can see why from its first paragraph:  the main character &#8212; a serial killer, who happens to write books and who travels with a lifesize sex doll &#8212; wakes up at three in the morning in a dimly lit hotel room. \u201cI should have killed myself when it still made sense,\u201d he thinks. If you don\u2019t find that mordantly funny &#8212; if it doesn\u2019t make you laugh out loud &#8212; then <em>Death in Paris<\/em> may not be the book for you.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;What did Carl mean by \u201cvulgo-cynicism\u201d?  Here\u2019s an illustration. It\u2019s a scene from <em>Manhattan Muffdiver,<\/em> which started off as emails he sent from New York, when he was visiting me, to his friends in Heidelberg, the poet Cody Maher and the filmmaker Signe M\u00e4hler. It reads like a diary. But Carl embroidered the facts and turned them into prescient fiction. For example, I had taken him to a little caf\u00e9 called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Edgars-cafe-2-e1529619817145.png\">Edgar\u2019s Caf\u00e9<\/a> on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side. It catered to old biddies. Very haute bourgeois. But the caf\u00e9 served great espresso in truly Italian style, which Carl relished, and it had a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/edgars-cafe-1-1200-e1529619632608.jpg\">large painting of Edgar Allan Poe on the wall<\/a>. Here\u2019s what Carl turned that into:<\/p>\n<p><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;I have a new hangout a street behind the Edgar Allan Poe Caf\u00e9. It\u2019s called NO PORK ON MY FORK because it\u2019s an Islamic joint. I waltz in and say: \u201cHey towel heads. I\u2019m an agent provocateur with the FBI. I have an idea for you. We should blow Trump Tower to smithereens. What do you think, huh?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_30154\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.milena-verlag.at\/index.php?item=beastie_books&#038;show_details=5\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30154\" data-attachment-id=\"30154\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?attachment_id=30154\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Muffdiver-200.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"200,286\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"MANHATTAN MUFFDIVER\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size=2&gt;Milena Verlag, 2010&lt;\/font&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Muffdiver-200.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Muffdiver-200.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Muffdiver-200.jpg\" alt title=\"Click to purchase.\" width=\"200\" height=\"286\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30154\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-30154\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><font size=2><a href=\"http:\/\/www.milena-verlag.at\/index.php?item=beastie_books&#038;show_details=5\">Milena Verlag, 2010<\/a><\/font><\/p><\/div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The book was published in 2010, eight years before the Trump presidency. Now understand, Carl was no bleeding-heart liberal. This is how the scene continues.<\/p>\n<p><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;\u201cYou can\u2019t be serious,\u201d a long beard protests.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;\u201cMaybe if you\u2019d learn to shove all that falafel into your filthy mouth instead of your ears,\u201d I say . . . and in the next instant there is the sound of breaking glass and crashing furniture and a chorus of  \u2018Kill that motherfucker! Al-Hamdulillah!\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The scene ends with the narrator saying: <em>Always these nightmares!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Carl exploited the collage technique of \u201ccut-ups\u201d and \u201cfold-ins\u201d in all his fiction writing.  All three of those end-of-life books, while not strictly cut-up texts, make use of the technique as an organizing principle &#8212; and it\u2019s worth recalling what William Burroughs, who collaborated with Carl on various cut-up experiments, said about the technique: \u201cWhen you experiment with cut-ups over a period of time you find that some of the cut and re-arranged texts seem to refer to future events.\u201d<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_30156\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.milena-verlag.at\/index.php?item=beastie_books&#038;show_details=154\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30156\" data-attachment-id=\"30156\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?attachment_id=30156\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Trashman-200.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"200,286\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"DIE ABENTEUER VON TRASHMAN\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size=2&gt;Milena Verlag, 2012&lt;\/font&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Trashman-200.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Trashman-200.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Trashman-200.jpg\" alt title=\"Click to purchase.\" width=\"200\" height=\"286\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30156\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-30156\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><font size=2><a href=\"http:\/\/www.milena-verlag.at\/index.php?item=beastie_books&#038;show_details=154\">Milena Verlag, 2011<\/a><\/font><\/p><\/div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;If you don\u2019t believe that, consider this. <em>Death in Paris<\/em> describes the victims of a fictional terrorist attack at Notre Dame like so: \u201cAbout 130 of them were dead before they hit the ground.\u201d Eight years later, on Nov. 13, 2015,  an actual terrorist attack on the Bataclan concert hall and several cafes in Paris resulted in an official death toll of  exactly 130. \u201cDoomday Lit\u201d indeed.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;A last thought about Carl\u2019s \u201cvulgo-cynicism\u201d &#8212; and I hope nobody takes offense at the LuxusBar, where I\u2019m told this text will be presented as part of the celebration.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;When Carl was promoting <em>Manhattan Muffdiver,<\/em> he did readings and TV interviews in Germany and Austria. But when the time came to promote <em>Die Abenteuer von Trashman,<\/em> he told me he planned to do all his readings \u201cin Austria and Switzerland, and skip the federal republic <em>in toto<\/em>. North of the Danube,\u201d he said, \u201cnobody understands my type of humor &#8212; and <em>en plus<\/em> the fatherland is overrun by hacks who are fighting tooth and claw over reading venues that will seat 12. In Switzerland you get your own hash dealer. <em>Selah.<\/em>\u201d <strong><em>&#8212; JH<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They say Berlin is the place to be. Since I can&#8217;t be there myself, here&#8217;s the next best thing . . . This is the Maher-M\u00e4hler film about Carl that will be screened as part of the celebration: Always These Nightmares! &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Toward the end of his life Carl was a writer on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,18,4,20,21,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-literature","9":"category-main","10":"category-media","11":"category-movies","12":"category-news","13":"category-political-culture","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Carl-Weissner-foto-by-Michael-Montfort-200-e1506434584640.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-7PJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30115"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30193,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30115\/revisions\/30193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}