Monday, October 22, 2007

Web Death Anthology is Finished And Awesome

Yes, the anthology is finished and will be IS available at Bust Down The Door shortly NOW!

As I predicted, this anthology is A W E S O M E and extremely gnarly.

Also it appears that The New Absurdist will be back at some point, probably when we least expect it. Stay tuned for more rock n' roll.

4 Comments:

Blogger GX Jupitter-Larsen said...

Hu­mans’ clos­est ex­tinct rel­a­tives, the Ne­an­der­thals, pos­sessed a key gene var­i­ant be­lieved to be re­lat­ed to our abil­ity to speak, re­search­ers have found. The dis­co­very, they said, shows that this muta­t­ion arose much ear­li­er than sci­en­tists had sus­pected, and raises at least the pos­si­bil­ity that Ne­an­der­thals could talk...

October 22, 2007 at 2:55 PM  
Blogger Cake Earthhead said...

Some will remember me, some will not. Just as I remember some of you, and others have yet to know. But I have always been lurking here, just beyond the glass, looking in with wild eyed wonder at what could be.

Absurdism can be defined as the philosophical and literary doctrine that human beings live in essential isolation in a meaningless and irrational world. The New Absurdist (TNA) was a website defined by it's authors. Their words, ideas and creativity flowed freely and intermingled to form a sense of community that, though only connected through a forum and a few bits of short fiction, could be felt by anyone who visited it. TNA was just a website created by a guy who called himself polycarp. Yet, it was also something special. I believe the collected works in this anthology show that to the degree that they can. I also think it helps to understand something about the work and community.

The work showcased at The New Absurdist varied in length, style, and content. There was no over arching theme that could be laid down over top of them and formed into a solid category. There was no set genre, and aspects of many genres showed up over time. You couldn't even say they were all weird, though most certainly many were. I know for a fact all of mine were. And that was the beauty of it, surreal or absurd, a little odd or very crazy, the profound or humorous, it was all there for the sampling, and it was good too. The quality of the work at TNA, a nonpaying website that encouraged anyone and everyone to write, was surprising. Sure, it wasn't all great, but a lot of it was. Not to mention the freedom of the site, as well as the criticism it's community offered encouraged exploration and growth in all it's members. Many of the authors who came there, left better authors for the experience. The anthology covers just a fraction of the ground TNA covered, and yet still gives you a good idea of what was going on there.

The community of The New Absurdist has always been a little different. This general idea of writing interesting short fiction brought together people from all walks of life and backgrounds. It brought together novices who had an interest in writing with experts who were actually out there doing it. We were not all friends, but if you were respectful, you were treated respectfully. Ideas and experiments were encouraged and challenges were posed. I still remember writing my first duel author story there, and the things I learned from doing it. There were sudonyms and pen names, screen names and real names, and regular authors posting under new names. The forums often had actual helpful criticism for the works posted, or even the author themselves. In the later years, some of the comradery faded, but the site stayed alive and even as old authors went on to new things, new authors appeared to keep the site alive.

The anthology speaks volumes about what TNA was, and could be again. Wether it's the logical madness of K. L. Donihe or the warm and silly weirdness of Justynn Tyme. There is something here for everyone. Personally I rather liked it, and I'm not just saying that because I was in it. It's really quite good. Really. It was missing some bits, some of the loose screws who really made what it was to be a member of the TNA, but not many, and many of the players were right where they should have been. Best of all I think it shows why TNA was important to so many people, and why it will be sorely missed. Goodbye TNA, Be restless in peas.

October 22, 2007 at 7:36 PM  
Blogger headsfromspace said...

Cake : Very well said! Your comments are some of the most thoughtful ever posted here at the Temporary Absurdist. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for being a part of this anthology.

October 25, 2007 at 9:36 AM  
Blogger Mike Philbin said...

I kent see - hu da grave he pissin on?

April 21, 2008 at 3:40 PM  

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