Soliloquy [Paperback]

Kenneth Goldsmith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2001

Description: Soliloquy is a written record of every word (good, bad and indifferent), spoken by New York artist Kenneth Goldsmith during one week. The work originated as a gallery installation in 1997. "Confronted with the clutter of 'real' speech...we realize that we all sound a bit like George Bush." Gordon Tipper, zingmagazine

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Goldsmith, schooled as a sculptor, here continues his project of exposing language as a phenomenally excessive material extension of consciousness, culture and commerce. Language stands in the same relation to his work as, say, landscape does to the work of Robert Smithson or silence in the compositions of John Cage a once-familiar "substance" made strange by its totalizing presence when foregrounded. But Goldsmith is also funny. Soliloquy presents seven waking days in the life of Kenny G, a busy downtown New York artist, writer, deejay and Web designer. With Warholian zeal for quotidian routine, Goldsmith captures on tape every word he utters in the course of a week in 1996, presenting his side of conversations with cabbies, deli men, his wife, his dog, his conscience and strangers, as well as with recognizable figures such as literary critic Marjorie Perloff, with whom he has an alcohol-addled lunch at MoMA, and Language poetry granddaddy Bruce Andrews. The book achieves a surprising groundedness over time, as the reader is forced to extrapolate from language snippets to a larger context "Wait, there's another one coming" puts any New Yorker on a street corner looking for a cab, and the exercise is a model lesson in reading strategy. Fortunately, Goldsmith is fun company, gossiping, riffing, worrying and doing business as an artist trying to make ends and means meet in New York. The downtown art-and-lit set will enjoy guessing the identity of the author's silenced interlocutors, whose words are not recorded. As in his earlier "text art" efforts (Fidget and No. 111 2.7.93 10.20.96), Goldsmith shows how "cheap language is," due to its overabundance. But unlike his earlier work, Soliloquy leaves the reader with a convinced sense that language, no matter how un-artful, does the heavy lifting in our lives, and has encoded the entire registry of our being.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Kennith Goldsmith's most recent book, "FIDGET" (Coach House Books, 2000), records every moment his body made on Bloomsday 1997. He is also the author of "No. 111 2.7.93-10.20.96" (The Figures, 1997) and "73 Poems" (Permanent Press, 1993), a collaboration with vocalist Joan La Barbara. Goldsmith is the editor of UbuWeb Visual, Concrete + Sound Poetry (ubu.com) and a DJ on NYC-based Freeform Radio WFMU. His visual artworks are represnted by Gorney, Bravin + Lee, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Granary Books (October 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887123539
• ISBN-13: 978-1887123532
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,821,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars pretentious, June 13, 2008

By 

P. Straub (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soliloquy (Paperback)

A book no one is actually intended to read. A work of stupefying boredom. A book, its author supposes, meant only to be considered, thought about, discussed. A conceptual novel. Well, there goes everything interesting in literature. And Goldsmith knows it, and what's worse, he's happy about it. I think Karen Bergvall would really love this book.One can say no more.