Long version:

The form

The contents

The visitor experience

The support for the artist

• The form of Bird and Ocean dot com: A new and never-before-seen-nor-imagined genre of literature.
  • The bombast’s for fun. I’ve got no illusions about the claim I’m making. My job’s to swing the bat as the ball flies by and my plan’s to knock that sweet baby out the park, is what. Yet framed by birth and death and with infinite time both behind and forward, failure’s no shame, success no glory. “Fun”, “love”, and “helpful” are better key words, better touchstones by far.

   

  • On the other hand, what if it’s true? What if this website is a new genre of literature? And what if this form were the basis of a new kind of literary journal or magazine? Like this:
    • This genre of literature, the Bird and Ocean kind of website-thing, Minimum Essential Elements of the genre are:
      • Several works
      • By a single writer
      • Presented visually and textually online
      • Forming a whole of some kind:
        • A whole introduction to a writer
        • A whole year’s production (or half a year, or whatever)
        • A whole tour of a single theme or project within a writer’s work
        • A whole cohesive experience for visitors to the site
        • etc.
      • Now imagine a literary magazine showcasing this genre:
        • Each issue would be, instead of a single work by a wide range of writers, a more substantial intro or experience of a handful of writers.
        • Each issue would be like an art gallery which features the work of 3-5 artists at a time, simultaneous solo exhibitions, or exhibitions grouped thematically. Literature would be presented in a manner less fragmented, as substantial encounters with individual visions of life and art. Each writer would gain opportunities to more fully present their work, their styles, their range, their evolution as an artist.
        • Maybe something similar’s already being done – but are they really or only superficially similar? The kind of literary magazine I’m describing is not a collection of one or two works by a range of writers. It is:
          • a curated experience of
          • a substantial quantity of works by
          • a small number of writers,
          • each presented in its own website or webspace within the magazine website, and
          • so i think quite different from any literary journals currently being published.
        • Past issues of the magazine would become permanent archives of individual writers’ work-displays, preserved portfolios, giving writers fresh options and opportunities for showing and sharing their work.
        • (If you’re interested in producing or supporting such a literary magazine, let me know LINK and I’ll do my best to help)

   

  • But wait, what about Bird and Ocean dot com? What is this website? Is it a Seasonal self-publishing Multimedia Online Kinetic Experience?
    • Seasonal self-publishing. Each year’s season is 4-6 weeks in late summer-early autumn.
    • Multi-media. Images, texts, videos, music, that kind of stuff.
    • Online, obviously.
    • Kinetic: Provides the “K” for the acronym SMOKE. And, I mean, you know, there’s a little kinesis there happening when you click those mouse buttons, so … anyway.
    • Experience: you’re soaking in it.
    • and mirrors. Lots and lots of mirrors.

   

  • Let’s try again. What is seasonal self-publishing, and how did the idea come about?
    • I’ve been writing for over half a century and published a bit in literary journals but had a rough time in that experience, so finally decided on self-publishing.
    • But self-publishing presented its own puzzles. How to do anything new?
    • This idea of “seasonal self-publishing” came in a flash, in a moment of resentment and shame, rejection and defiance: “I’ll show ’em what fer!” That was June 2024.
    • I worked on the seasonal self-publishing idea for 9 months, thinking I’d hire a web development agency to put the thing into its final online form. That didn’t work out (LINK TO BLOG POST). For one thing, only a few agencies answered my queries.
    • I asked ChatGPT to help me refine my query email.
      • (Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis …)
    • and the AI (respondebat illa) replied:
      • “You can do this yourself, you know.”
      • “Get out of here,” I scoffed.
      • “Really. You got this. I’ll help you,” replied the bot.
      • Good bot.
        • (Αλλά μπορείς να πεθάνεις?)
      • So I built this site myself with templates (from HTML 5 Up, and Jevelin), VS Code, Local by Flywheel, WordPress, and AI guidance – and now here it is. So shantih. Bitches.

   

  • But what is this thing, this Bird and Ocean website? How is it a new and never-before-seen-nor-imagined genre of literature that combines elements from many other forms of literature?
    • It’s a writer’s website: but quite different from most.
    • With a seasonal rhythm inspired by British television sitcom or panel show production:
      • During a 4-6 week “in-season” period the site will be very active. I’ll publish at least one full-length book along with many shorter pieces, and hopefully also participate in online discussions and activities.
      • During the rest of the year, there may be a few special events to keep interest fresh, but mostly the site will be static (still with much to enjoy, though) while I continue writing and working behind the scenes to produce the next season’s contents and experiences.
    • It’s like a record album in this way: the site becomes a seasonal record of an artist’s yearly work.
    • And a coffee table book: I’m hoping to publish each year’s seasonal website – the texts, images, discussions – in physical form at some point.
    • And a literary magazine: the site includes full-length books, long and short articles, also ephemeral posts on a variety of topics. All together this creates a body of work that’s enjoyable to explore, similarly to a magazine. Maybe akin to zines of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
    • It’s autobiography: The site records a process of individual life and work.
    • With elements of performance piece or studio- theatre: I mean the spurious bits, the momentish fillagree (sic), touches of graffiti sprayed over one’s own work – the ref’s to Eliot above, for example, the AI/sybil comparison, and that “So shantih. Bitches.” I mean, what the hell is that? I’m really ashamed I put that in, now, and I’ll remove it later but … it does have something. It strikes a bell, a small tin bell the size of a thimble that protects your thumb from the prick of a needle, the kind of wound which draws a single drop of crimson blood: “So shantih (that’s the drop of blood). Bitches (that’s the ‘ouch!’).”
      • In a studio-turned-theatre stuff like that can be left in, for a while anyway, then later removed. Or better yet archived. Absent from the polished now-public version but still present in the archived rough, graffitied version. Present and gone, asserted and denied, affirmeth and yet nothing. Is that possible in any other genre?
    • In the Bird and Ocean website are there elements of other genres?
      • Could be. I’ll keep thinkin’ on it.

• The contents, 50 years of accumulated work, plus fresh and ongoing productions:
  • Fiction and non-fiction
  • Short, medium, and long
  • Literary and critical (I enjoy playing with theory)
  • Intensely crafted, and spur-of-the-moment
  • Light and heavy and in-between
  • Visual and aural and textual

• The Experience: How can/do/should/might you experience this new and never-before-seen-nor-imagined genre of literature?
  • The way a bird dives into water for fish. Like that.
  • Or the way you might approach the chalkboard menu on the wall behind the barista at a really good coffee shop. That could work.
  • Or like lying in bed a night hoping to fall asleep because you love dreaming. Maybe.

• The support for the artist: If you enjoy the website, the books, the writing, the art, the ideas, the experience, consider supporting my work. Here’s more info (LINK TO SUPPORT).

• (About the image: Splendor Solis, plate 13, page 37)