Watch for my new... book?
An obvious point of contention with me going to live in Iceland is the supposition that it isn't going to be very lucrative for me in terms of career or finances. This may--or may not--be true.
Part of the rush of this whole trip is that I'm going to be hard pressed to figure out how to survive -- even if things like concocting an honest self-affirmation and justification will come second-nature. As such, I've had to stretch my creative thought quite a bit, so that I might figure out how to see some direct return-on-investment with this whole thing.
One possible outlet I've found is here:
Here on Lulu.com, you can create digital books. You write the content, you choose the format, the binding... but when you're ready to let your adoring public (or at least your wife) buy a hard copy, they handle all that, too, down to the little detail. The great thing is that you pay them nothing: if the base price for a particular configuration of a book is $20, your profit thereafter is whatever markup you choose. So, if I create a book based on a $20 format, and I decide to charge $28 -- I get to keep $8.
I suppose I could spend months creating an academic treatise detailing my unique views on video games -- and I could probably sell a few copies, and it would probably contain more compelling content than some of the others out there. Or, at least, more runaway prose.
Well. I have an idea: since, as you might gather from the name of this blog, I will be living in Iceland with a good deal of daylight. This still scrambles my brain, as my main memories of Iceland prior are contextualized by moonlight.
But then again, so are many of my memories of Japan... and I'll be going there shortly.
I think during both of my respective trips, I will be trying to focus on a night/day dichotomy: Japan as if in allusion to Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows, and on Iceland's daytime splendor in spite of its frequent association with eternal night and northern lights.
So, I thought, why not assemble a nice coffee-table book consisting of minor essays, poems, stream-of-consciousness design, and photographs taken on various different instruments of both locales? I'm sure my design sensibilities will produce an artifact worth admiring.
Hopefully, though, I can infuse it with a more informed body of discourse, especially in the Icelandic portion. I guess that's what living there for a year is for. ;)
I think if I focus on some more intelligentsia-approved, gallery-relevant thematic memes, I might even try to shop it to art museums and what have you. Worth a shot, at least.
Y'all're gonna buy one, right?
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Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
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