HILOBROW 1Q2023
By:
March 30, 2023
Here’s what HILOBROW published during January, February, and March 2023!
HILOBROW editor Josh Glenn is very grateful to our many stalwart contributors, as well as to newcomers Steacy Easton, Annie Zaleski, Elizabeth Nelson, Francesca Royster, Amanda Martinez, Erin Osmon, David Warner, Will Groff, Natalie Weiner, Nadine Hubbs, Jada Watson, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Alan Scherstuhl, and Alex Brook Lynn.
BEST OF HILOBROW: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 1Q2024 | 2Q2024 SNEAK PEEK | 2Q2024.
Also see: HYPOCRITE IDLER 1Q2023.
During 1Q2023, we published the series DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Twenty-five (plus two) HILOBROW friends, regulars, and newcomers waxed enthusiastic about favorite country songs from the Sixties (1964–1973, in HILOBROW’s periodization). Here’s the DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM lineup:
INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | David Cantwell on Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton’s WE FOUND IT | Lucy Sante on Johnny & June Carter Cash’s JACKSON | Mimi Lipson on George Jones’s WALK THROUGH THIS WORLD WITH ME | Steacy Easton on Olivia Newton-John’s LET ME BE THERE | Annie Zaleski on Tammy Wynette’s D-I-V-O-R-C-E | Carl Wilson on Tom T. Hall’s THAT’S HOW I GOT TO MEMPHIS | Josh Glenn on Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen’s BACK TO TENNESSEE | Elizabeth Nelson on Skeeter Davis’s I DIDN’T CRY TODAY | Carlo Rotella on Buck Owens’ TOGETHER AGAIN | Lynn Peril on Roger Miller’s THE MOON IS HIGH | Erik Davis on Kris Kristofferson’s SUNDAY MORNIN’ COMIN’ DOWN | Francesca Royster on Linda Martell’s BAD CASE OF THE BLUES | Amanda Martinez on Bobbie Gentry’s FANCY | Erin Osmon on John Prine’s PARADISE | Douglas Wolk on The Byrds’ DRUG STORE TRUCK DRIVIN’ MAN | David Warner on Willie Nelson’s WHISKEY RIVER | Will Groff on Tanya Tucker’s DELTA DAWN | Natalie Weiner on Dolly Parton’s IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS (WHEN TIMES WERE BAD) | Charlie Mitchell on Stonewall Jackson’s I WASHED MY HANDS IN MUDDY WATER | Nadine Hubbs on Dolly Parton’s COAT OF MANY COLORS | Jada Watson on Loretta Lynn’s DON’T COME HOME A DRINKIN’ (WITH LOVIN’ ON YOUR MIND) | Adam McGovern on Johnny Cash’s THE MAN IN BLACK | Stephen Thomas Erlewine on Dick Curless’s A TOMBSTONE EVERY MILE | Alan Scherstuhl on Waylon Jennings’s GOOD HEARTED WOMAN | Alex Brook Lynn on Bobby Bare’s THE WINNER. PLUS: Peter Doyle on Jerry Reed’s GUITAR MAN | Brian Berger on Charley Pride’s IS ANYBODY GOING TO SAN ANTONE.
Josh is the DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM series editor. He is very grateful to the series’ contributors, many of whom donated their honoraria to Covenant House, which provides housing and supportive services to youth facing homelessness. He is also grateful to David Cantwell, who helped us recruit all-star music writers and scholars.
Adam McGovern continued to deliver over-the-transom, on-tangent essays, dialogues and subjective scholarship via his monthly-ish series OFF-TOPIC. Here’s the 1Q2023 OFF-TOPIC lineup:
ANGELS’ TREAD: Observing boundaries and splitting differences down the middle of America, circa 2023 | PASSION PROJECT: Endless summer of soul — talking cosmic surfers and Black resurrection with JOHN JENNINGS | FEELING THE STRAIN: Q&A with Dean Haspiel about COVID COP….
During 1Q2023 HILOBROW friend and stalwart contributor Tom Nealon returned with CONDIMENT ABECEDARIUM, an apophenic food-history series.
Here’s the 1Q2023 lineup:
SERIES INTRODUCTION | AIOLI / ANCHOVIES | BANANA KETCHUP / BALSAMIC VINEGAR | CHIMICHURRI / CAMELINE SAUCE | DELAL / DIP | ENCURTIDO / EXTRACT OF MEAT | FURIKAKE / FINA’DENNE’ | & more to come.
During 1Q2023, we kicked off HERMENAUTICA, a new series presenting pages scanned from back issues of Hermenaut, the DIY intellectual zine/journal that Josh edited and published from 1992–2001. Along with some commentary.
HILOBROW friend (and brother-in-law) Lawry Hutcheson returned with a third year’s worth of gorgeous linocut calendar art — via the series LINOCUT 2022.
As we have done every year since 2013, on January 18th we celebrated MICAWBER DAY — the only holiday for idlers. Remember… SOMETHING WILL TURN UP!
The series 49TH PARALLEL is a 20,000-word epistolary exchange — between Josh and University of Toronto philosopher Mark Kingwell — about real-world and fictional adventures. The series title references not only their cross-border collaboration but one of their favorite WWII movies.
Here’s the 49th PARALLEL lineup:
FULL OF BEANS | DERRING-DO | ON THE BEAM | A WIZARD DODGE | RURITANIA | ROBINSONADE | CAMARADERIE | WISH I WERE HERE | PICARESQUE | TILTING AT WINDMILLS | PLUCK | SKOOKUM | SAGAMAN | HOT-SHOT | CUT AND RUN | THE WORST ANGELS OF OUR NATURE | ACUMEN | APOPHENIA | ESCAPADE | I AM NOT A NUMBER | HEAD-SHOT CIRCUS | 86 | GAMBIT | PLAY THE GAME | HAYWIRE | REPETITION.
TEN STAGES OF MAN is a post featuring Josh’s (culturally and temporally specific) theory of humankind’s life-stages.
TL;DR: Here’s the breakdown.
CHILDHOOD
00–03: PROTO-CHILDHOOD
04–13: EARLY & MID-CHILDHOOD
14–23: MID- & LATE CHILDHOOD / “TEENS”
ADULTHOOD
24–33: EARLY ADULTHOOD / “TWENTIES”
34–43: MID-ADULTHOOD / “THIRTIES”
44–53: LATE ADULTHOOD / “FORTIES”
MIDDLE AGE
54–63: EARLY MIDDLE AGE / “FIFTIES”
64–73: MID-MIDDLE AGE / “SIXTIES”
74–83: LATE MIDDLE AGE / “SEVENTIES”
OLD AGE
84 & up: OLD AGE / “EIGHTIES” & up
We’ll publish more on this theory later this year…
SCHEMATIZING is a new series via which Josh attempts to depict the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema.
In LOST OBJECTS news, on February 1 we announced that the book (“soft-launched” late last year) is now available in bookstores — and thus, it is officially “hard-launched.” Yay!
This post also includes a handful of new or overlooked LO mentions that we’ve encountered since posting the LO 2022 roundup.
We continued to publish installments in HADRON AGE SF — a weekly series via which Josh aims to identify his 75 favorite sf adventures published between 2004 and 2023. The list in progress is here. Here’s the 1Q2023 lineup:
Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart, and Todd Klein’s BLACK HAMMER | Becky Chambers’s A CLOSED AND COMMON ORBIT | Nisi Shawl’s EVERFAIR | Tade Thompson’s ROSEWATER | Kameron Hurley’s THE STARS ARE LEGION | P. Djèlí Clark’s A MASTER OF DJINN | Lydia Millet’s PILLS AND STARSHIPS | Neal Stephenson’s SEVENEVES | S.L. Huang’s ZERO SUM GAME | Yoon Ha Lee’s NINEFOX GAMBIT | Ann Leckie’s PROVENANCE | Charlie Jane Anders’s THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT | Margaret Atwood’s THE TESTAMENTS.
During 1Q2023, the MIT Press’s RADIUM AGE series, a proto-sf reissue project founded and edited by HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn, published the following titles:
- Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD AND THE POISON BELT (1912–1913), with a new introduction by Conor Reid and a new afterword by Josh Glenn. Cover illustration by Seth. “The Lost World and The Poison Belt is a wonderful snapshot of the Edwardian scientific mind, both its virtues and its defects.” — Katherine Addison, author of The Angel of the Crows.
- Cicely Hamilton’s THEODORE SAVAGE (1922), with a new introduction by Susan R. Grayzel. Cover illustration by Seth. “Challenging last century’s assumptions about the invulnerability of imperial civilization, Cicely Hamilton’s 1922 novel is a grim, swift read — and an argument for pacifism as the first principle of survival.” — Nisi Shawl, author of Everfair.
For 1Q2023 RADIUM AGE series publicity, please check out this post’s GOOD VIBRATIONS section. Also check out these updates: 2022 | 1Q2023. FULL SERIES INFO.
Meanwhile, here at HILOBROW we continued to serialize some of Josh’s favorite Radium Age proto-sf. Here’s the 1Q2023 lineup:
- Max Brand’s The Untamed (1919).
- Gertrude M. Barrows’s “The Curious Experience of Thomas Dunbar” (1904)
- Robert W. Chambers’s “The Harbor-Master” (1904)
- An excerpt from George Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (dictated 1924–1927; intended to be the first section of All and Everything)
HILOBROW also published further installments in the series RADIUM AGE POETRY. Here’s the 1Q2023 lineup:
D.H. Lawrence’s FUTURE WAR | Laurence Binyon’s NUMBERS | Frederik Pohl’s ELEGY TO A DEAD PLANET: LUNA | F.V. Branford’s FAREWELL TO MATHEMATICS | D.H. Lawrence’s THE EVENING LAND | Carl Sandburg’s MANUAL SYSTEM | Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE | D.H. Lawrence’s THE REVOLUTIONARY | Blaise Cendrar’s ORION | Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG | Charles Buxton Going’s THE SONG OF STEEL | D.H. Lawrence’s UNDERNEATH | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” | Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… | Louis Untermeyer’s PORTRAIT OF A MACHINE.
During 1Q2023, we wrapped up the eighth installment of the series 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE, which cross-posts installments from Josh and Rob Walker’s 2009–2010 anthropological-literary experiment SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS.
Here are the SO stories that posted in January:
Sarah Rainone on IRELAND COW PLATE | Stephen Elliott on HAWAIIAN UTENSILS | Ben Ehrenreich on JAR OF MARBLES | Glen David Gold on KNEELING MAN FIGURINE | Lizzie Skurnick on PEN STAND.
On to 2Q2023…