The Poison Pie Publishing House presents:

2017: The Year of the Every-Day Magician
A Second-Hand Account of the Rise and Fall
of the Renegades of the American Muslim Registry
David J. Keffer
(link to main page of novel)

Forward

2017: The Year of the Every-Day Magician is a novel-length work of post-existential fantasy1 generated through a non-idiomatic improvisational creative process2,3. The author, David J. Keffer,4 studied the discipline of non-idiomatic improvisation as practiced by musicians of the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century5. He then transferred this practice from music to literature. To our knowledge, Keffer is the only practitioner working in the cultural margin known as a literature of non-idiomatic improvisation. Seemingly indifferent to a comprehensive absence of critical or popular reception, he remains compelled to employ this process, having generated dozens of novels6, illustrated books7 and prayer books8 for the Poison Pie Publishing House. He remains inspired by the example of those who practiced the art of non-idiomatic improvisation before him. He takes comfort in the words of the experimental American saxophonist, Ornette Coleman: "...I've tried to find a way to avoid feeling guilty for doing something that other people don't do."9

One passage from 2017: The Year of the Every-Day Magician will be generated for each day of the year, 2017, and will be posted on this site on that same day. There is no revision, with the exception of typographical errors that escape the author's notice. This policy attempts to imitate the oft-stated maxim of improvisers who eschew the polishing of a production studio: This music is heard as played. In this literary analog, this novel is read as written. There exists no outline for the narrative. In the best case, this approach imbues the narrative with both a daily rhythm as well as the unpredictability associated with the unexpected events that occur in any life. The intended audience for this novel is composed of the reader who possesses, in the words of the British guitarist, Derek Bailey, "an impatience with the gruesomely predictable."10

References

  1.  Post-Existential Fantasy: A Definition, International Journal of Exploratory Meta-Living, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 1-3, URL: http://www.poisonpie.com/IJEML/text/2015_04.html.
  2.  A Literature of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation, International Journal of Exploratory Meta-Living, Issue 5, 2015, pp. 1-21, URL: http://www.poisonpie.com/IJEML/text/2015_05.html.
  3.  A Literature of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation: A Condensed Statement, International Journal of Exploratory Meta-Living, Issue 6, 2015, p. 1, URL: http://www.poisonpie.com/IJEML/text/2015_06.html.
  4.  Biographical Sketch, Poison Pie Publishing House, URL: http://www.poisonpie.com/publishing/text/bio_djk.html.
  5.  The Golden Age of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation, (FYS 129) University of Tennessee, Knovxille, URL: http://utkstair.org/clausius/docs/fys129/index.html.
  6.  Catalog of Novels, Poison Pie Publishing House, URL: http://www.poisonpie.com/publishing/text/books.html#novels.
  7.  Catalog of Illustrated Books, Poison Pie Publishing House, URL: http://www.poisonpie.com/publishing/text/books.html#illustratedstories.
  8.  Catalog of Prayer Books, Poison Pie Publishing House, URL: http://www.poisonpie.com/publishing/text/books.html#poetry.
  9.  The Other's Language: Jacques Derrida Interviews Ornette Coleman, translated by Timothy S. Murphy, June 23, 1997, URL: http://www.ubu.com/papers/Derrida-Interviews-Coleman_1997.pdf.
  10.  Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation, Ben Watson, (1997 interview), Verso, London, 2004, p. 60.

This work is made available to the public, free of charge and on an anonymous basis. However, copyright remains with the author. Reproduction and distribution without the publisher's consent are prohibited. Links to the work should be made to the main page of the novel.

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