Abecedarium [Paperback]

D. Schneiderman (Author), C. Hernandez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2007

Two writers decide to write a book together. They sit in the same room, nose-wrinklingly close, writing, trading pages, expanding each other's stories. But it doesn't take long before they start cutting up, mashing up and purposefully destroying each other's prose. They dodge and parry, gouge and eyeballs, bite. In moments of tenderness, they pet each other in the wounded night. Their narrative grows increasingly chaotic, linked only by harum-scarum leitmotifs and a mounting scatological lexicon. Still, just as when the universe cooled, matter solidified, so too did order emerge from the pandemonium of their prose. A single, unifying entity was born unto their pages. God? You wish. Instead Let There Be Fex: the time-jamming, history-tripping, Everydick who saves the Vichy Republic from the Nazis, vivisects the world's only talking dog, and unravels and reravels the Code of Life with the frenetic bravura of Colonel Clink possessed by the ectoplasmic demiurge of Moses Maimonides.

Product Details

• Paperback: 98 pages
• Publisher: Chiasmus Press (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978549988
• ISBN-13: 978-0978549985
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,618,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Davis Schneiderman is a multimedia artist and writer whose works include the current or forthcoming novels Drain (Triquarterly/Northwestern), Blank: a novel (Jaded Ibis), Multifesto: A Henri d'Mescan Reader (Spuyten Duyvil), DIS (BlazeVox) and Abecedarium (Chiasmus, w/Carlos Hernandez); the co-edited collections Retaking the Universe: Williams S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization (Pluto) and The Exquisite Corpse: Chance and Collaboration in Surrealism's Parlor Game (Nebraska, 2009); and the audiocollage Memorials to Future Catastrophes (Jaded Ibis). His creative work has been accepted by numerous publications including Fiction International, The Chicago Tribune, The Iowa Review, and Exquisite Corpse. He is Director of Lake Forest College Press/&NOW Books (lakeforest.edu/press), where he co-edits the series The &NOW AWARDS: The Best Innovative Writing; he also directs the NEH-funded Virtual Burnham Initiative (vbi.lakeforest.edu).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Each word he utters is mutilated...", January 21, 2008

By 

Gwyn Dolce Easton "Gwyn Dolce Easton" (The Factory) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abecedarium (Paperback)

Abecedarium, the epic short experimental novel deftly executed, autopsied, and cremated by two talented post-modern dissectors of the English language (Schneiderman & Hernandez), will blow your mind, rewire your brain, and then short circuit the whole organ. Across differing styles and numerous genres, the novel is held together by Fex, one killer multi-tasking anti-character who bends space, time, and traditional structure like a genetically-minded and militaristic Lord Orlando on a science fiction acid trip with Burroughs at his side. A delight for the literary adventurer, Abecedarium leaves you at a loss for words while you struggle with too many. Slick. Cluttered. Jarring. Fine. Dandy. Ugly. Magnetic. Sensational. Deliberate. Rewarding. Undoubtedly Awesome. Experience it for yourself, there is no other way.

3.0 out of 5 stars More Art Project, December 29, 2011

By 

Michael (NEW BERN, New Caledonia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Abecedarium (Paperback)

I don't like it.
I understand the concept,
Burroughs 3rd mind tweaked a bit.
"Fex" is neither individual writer
as each preceding "draft" (I guess you could say) overlap, cut into revision, revised revision, etc. etc. of the other writers edit, that new construct (The revised edited revision of the revised edited revision is not writer A nor writer B but an independent 3rd identity. Fex.
Clever concept.
Practical application doesnt work well.
Prolix, runs off almost like postmodern philosophy about nothing.
I think in a way, this book was more for the writers themselves. They were their target audience.
Concept, Yes. Book, No.
Better classified as art project