It's a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty situation. On the frothy beverage side, I have a new piece up on Filthy Gorgeous Things. On the stark airy side, it's not free. But the Maraschino cherry is that the piece is only $.99. You can, therefore, buy said article as you would download a song by Lady Gaga and thus show Filthy Gorgeous Things how very worthy you find my writing. You can also buy a whole subscription to FGT and show the mag how very worthy you find the totality of their endeavors. Your choice, really.
This piece, which I've entitled "On a Grammatology of Fucking," centers on the convergence of two of my favorite things: syntax and sex. Here's an excerpt from the middle of it:
I suppose I’m drawn to the rules of language for the same reasons that I’m drawn to sex that has ropes, blindfolds, the sting of floggers and the sweet smell of submission. I like rules because I like to break them. I like structure because I enjoy subverting it. I like structure, and structure is narrative, and just as I pretty much abhor free-form poetry, I pretty much abhor lyrical fucking, that rose-petal-strewn-bed, Sarah McLaughlin saccharine flavor lovemaking—that kind of sex that abides by conventional Hallmark syntax and doesn't allow for nips, bites, wicked attenuations, or short declarative sentences of pneumatic fucking.
There's more on either side, and if you do indeed buy the piece, you may learn a thing or two about commas and passive voice. Oh, yes, things may be learned if this article is bought.
And if you find in this wintry economic climate that you'd enjoy some free stuff after all, here are a some links to older posts I've written on grammar: one, two and three. Because I'm not merely independent, I'm a rebel with a clause.
UPDATE: The piece is now open, free, unlocked and available for your slightly NSFW reading. Enjoy the glorious cost-free reading, and then please let me know what you think in comments below.
Do as the London Review of Books does and follow me on Twitter. My meandering mind many times a day.
