Crumlish/Asher: Writings From the Web Double Feature: Bill Ectric Interviews Christian Crumlish and Levi Asher

The ubiquitous Christian Crumlish is a writer  and consultant living in Oakland, California with his partner Briggs and his cat Fraidy. He calls himself  "xian"  for short. He is the co-editor of  Coffeehouse, Writings From the Web, the author of The Power of Many, and publisher  of the Mediajunkie blog network.

Levi Asher, a Web Developer for various corporations,  lives in Queens, New York. He created Literary Kicks, one of the oldest literary blogs on the internet. Besides co-editing Coffeehouse, Levi's credits include Action Poetry (an anthology) , Tiger's Milk (a poetry chapbook),  Summer of the Mets (a novel), and a primitive digital video, Notes From Underground.

Bill, to Xian: I've heard it said that self-publishing thru one of the print-on-demand   publishers, like Lulu or iUniverse, is bad because (they say) once you do   that, "a major publisher won't touch you." This sounds illogical. I would think that a major publisher would pick up any book they thought would sell,   just like the major music labels pick up indie CDs. What's the deal? Xian: I think it all depends. It's true that publishers and agents want to see fresh material and don't want to deal with copyright complications or issues of whether first serial rights are still available, but there are also many cases of books that sell many copies via self-publishing or print-on-demand services and then end up getting picked up by major publishers for second printings or second editions. Bill, to Xian: To a person who is new to blogging, the scene can be very confusing. I mean, some blogs are really collections of links to other blogs and/or websites, or collections of quotes, and then these quotes have clickable text that reference still another source - sometimes I don't even know who I'm replying to. Is this something one eventually gets used to? Xian: Yes, but it is truly confusing at first. One issue is that on the web, context is fluid and many people have trouble knowing "where" they "are." Add to this that many blogs use similar default templates and that blogs encourage that classic alpha-wave flow-state in-the-zone experience of free associating and drifting from an original path, and you have a recipe for confusion. But most of us learn to like it and if we don't then maybe blogs ain't for us. Bill, to Levi: I read your story about meeting Allen Ginsberg. At one point, you say, "I raised my hand and attempted to impress him by tying in Descartes' proof of the existence of God to one of Blake's lines, just for the hell of it, but Ginsberg didn't seem especially impressed." What was the line from Blake and how did it relate to Descartes? Levi: I wish I knew what his Blake quote had been. The book was "Songs of Experience/Songs of Innocence" -- a big ancient illustrated book that he laid out on a table in the center of the classroom.  I remember that the Descartes concept I was referring to was that it would be impossible to conceive of God if God didn't exist.  Blake must have said something similar to this.  I'm sure I was just trying to impress Ginsberg with the fact that I am smarter than the average Brooklyn College undergrad student (which is in fact questionable). Bill: Did you get the Moby Dick tattoo before or after you tried to impress Ginsberg with your knowledge of Melville? Levi: I got my Moby Dick tattoo on my 40th birthday, 11/18/2001. I took my three kids to the tattoo parlor with me, and it was quite a fun day.  So, this was several years after I met Ginsberg. I think he would have been impressed by the tattoo, but I also don't think his affection for Melville is as great as mine. He's more of a Whitman/Blake guy.  I'm more of a Melville/Dostoevsky guy. I think the photograph of a tattoo of a tiger on the cover of my poetry chapbook Tiger's Milk would have impressed him more, especially if I told him it was a "tyger" a la Blake.

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