Thank You For Your Sperm

«Marcus Speh explores the tender side of absurdity with ‘Thank You for Your Sperm’. Though this is flash fiction it lingers in the mind for much longer. Entire histories are suggested in these small pieces. Not a word is wasted either. From the title to the last line Marcus Speh uses language economically. Words playfully jump across the page opening entirely new histories within histories. Geography is a key part of these stories as geography too can suggest a mood with a simple word or two. Berlin specifically gets rather affectionate treatment. How all of this comes together is quite impressive.»

I liked his style before this review, now I have a personal reason to love it. He points out how TYFYS «is absurdity done gently from a point of view that’s revealing and surprisingly personal.» I knew that several of my pieces had that “personal” feeling and origin but I didn’t know that the whole collection feels branded like a herd of Texas Longhorns.

Posted at 1:52pm and tagged with: alt lit, Beach Sloth, TYFYS, Thank You For Your Sperm, speh,.

Alt Lit icon Beach Sloth reviews “Thank You For Your Sperm”:

«Marcus Speh explores the tender side of absurdity with ‘Thank You for Your Sperm’. Though this is flash fiction it lingers in the mind for much longer. Entire histories are suggested in these small pieces. Not a word is wasted either. From the title to the last line Marcus Speh uses language economically. Words playfully jump across the page opening entirely new histories within histories. Geography is a key part of these stories as geography too can suggest a mood with a simple word or two. Berlin specifically gets rather affectionate treatment. How all of this comes together is quite impressive.»

I liked his style before this review, now I have a personal reason to love it. He points out how TYFYS «is absurdity done gently from a point of view that’s revealing and surprisingly personal.» I knew that several of my pieces had that “personal” feeling and origin but I didn’t know that the whole collection feels branded like a herd of Texas Longhorns.

July 23rd 2012

the berlin summer sucks but beach sloth scores while an american grandmother blows up a beautiful buick

6 notes |#

Beach Sloth said: «I really love your work. Will you ever do any readings here in America?» — i replied: «hi, i love your work, too! i always find it hard when my work is liked by someone whose work i find just so-so. i suppose that is a natural limit to the number of fans i can have. i think i have about 50 real fans now, while i have got no more than 3 really good, close friends. but i have 350+ facebook fans and 6000+ twitter followers. the numbers fry my crocodile brain. when i began, i wanted 100,000 readers from all over the world: my hope was that they would help me support myself—$1 per year from each of them would settle everything. now this thought strikes me as mad, crude and lacking in humbleness. it makes me want to write prose poems on shells, stones and bones again and thrust them into the ocean as artefacts, as unique as a scent or a squeaking chair in the room where i sit writing this, alone. i will turn this letter (is an e-mail even a letter?) into a blog post, knowing that i’m serving the triple-toed god of paradox when i do it, but it’ll also bring you more readers. in you last collection, «I want to YouTube down the Rivers of America», i especially like «American»:

Tastes like the tears of a collapsed 72 Buick | Right before the old grandmother takes out a shotgun and blows the car to hell | Yum | I got the stomach to be an American.

damn beach sloth, this is so good. best $5 i invested this week. do you think i should self-publish my penguin posts? thanks about asking about me reading in the US: i sure hope i’ll go there, mate. and you should all come to berlin. the weather sucks but the city’s hot like a clever gorgeous woman with yellow hair who hides herself in a thick smelly sweater.»

[#72/1000][Image: modified cover of Beach Sloth’s chapbook (I hope he won’t mind)][Beach Sloth about me][Beach Sloth is Alt Lit][View this at Nothing To Flawnt.][Frank Hinton’s comprehensive guide to Beach Sloth.]

Posted at 12:00am and tagged with: 100 days 2012, Beach Sloth, American, Buick, chapbook,.