{"id":72697,"date":"2026-03-01T11:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=72697"},"modified":"2026-03-08T22:52:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T02:52:35","slug":"paul-zelevanskys-absurdist-tale-of-monkey-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2026\/03\/paul-zelevanskys-absurdist-tale-of-monkey-man.html","title":{"rendered":"Paul Zelevansky’s Absurdist Tale of ‘Monkey & Man’<\/em><\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Click to purchase.<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It began as a performance piece. That was a long time ago . . . 1985, to be precise, in Brooklyn. The author presented individual stories as performances and installations, and videotaped them. The texts also began appearing in little magazines. As they appeared, the author read them to his nine-year-old daughter, who “stood in as an ideal child-audience,” he says, “open-minded, critical, and enthusiastic.” <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelevansky is focused these days on his sculptures and assemblages. Have a look at some of them<\/a>. Meanwhile, here are two spreads from Monkey & Man<\/em> for a taste of the tale. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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What could be more absurd these days than reading a newspaper?<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Luckily, they were visiting the supermarket and the mall before the advent of Trumpscheisse’s ICE.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It began as a performance piece. That was a long time ago . . . 1985, to be precise, in Brooklyn. The author presented Individual stories as performances and installations. The texts also began appearing in little magazines.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":72554,"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":[19,26,18,4,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-72697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-books","9":"category-literature","10":"category-main","11":"category-news","12":"category-political-culture","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/zelevansky-240.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-iUx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72697","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=72697"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72884,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72697\/revisions\/72884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}