The Next Big Thing
By FUPress
20th March 2013
THE NEXT BIG THING
Amy Sara Carroll
Questions:
What is are the working titles of the books?
I am in between two books. My second collection of poetry FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography (Fordham University Press) just appeared, so predictably it feels undone. I am completing my first critical monograph, âREMEX: Toward an Art History of the NAFTA Era.â I have not had to negotiate âREMEXââs title yet, but the final preparations of FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography taught me a lot about how a title can be âworking,â or not. Originally I struck through FANNIE + FREDDIE Ă la the Strike Debt Movement. Meta-data issues got in the way of
FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography being the volumeâs title though. According to Fordhamâs able staff, the strikethrough would have made it impossible for the press to register, distribute, and market the book. The result? I am haunted. I cannot not see the title as anything but under faux erasure. I mean, What does it mean to re-instate âFANNIE + FREDDIEâ? I enjoin active readers to âshare the labor, share the work.â Strike through the collectionâs title on your copy of the book!
Where did the ideas come from for the books? How long did it take you to write the first drafts of the manuscripts?
FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornographyâs idea and composition was palimpsestic. I rapidly wrote individual poems in the volume (roughly between the years 2001 and 2008) before ordering them into a collection. I then un-wrote or set out to âdestroyâ the pieces. I wanted to materialize indecision or ambivalence, in effect reconceptualizing the collection as a whole. The idea of âREMEXâ came in stages, too, as the last twenty years unfolded. I began researching âREMEXâ in 1999 as a dissertation project. At the time, I did not realize that I was writing about what economists now routinely refer to as the second phase of Mexicoâs neoliberal transition. The dissertation became something elseâthis book that I call âREMEXââaround 2008 when reviewing the official website of the North American Free Trade Agreement, I realized that NAFTA was implemented over a fifteen year period.
What genres does do your books fall under?
FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography is a compilation of some of my visual, concrete, and performance poetry. âREMEXâ is a work of creative critical writing, an experimental art history that incidentally I organized something like a collection of poetry, too. FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography and âREMEXâ are transdisciplinary, multi-mediated, feminist, queer⊠I hear the projects in garrulous conversation.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
For both books, the actors/actresses would have to be non-professional, ideally my friends, acquaintances, family (including those whom Iâve tagged hereâMicha CĂĄrdenas, Beth Frost, Bruna Mori, Rachel Price & Shambhavi Kaul, Brian Whitenerâand E.J. McAdams who tagged me). Consider this post an open call.
What is are the one sentence synopsis synopses of your books?
In FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography, I âundocumentâ the quotidianâs shades of gray/grey, the contingencies of post-Fordist relationality in the pre-Occupy window of time between September 11, 2001 and the 2008 Great Recession. In âREMEXâ I offer close readings of artworkâperformance, body art, conceptual art, installation, net art, video, cabaret-theater, experimental documentary and built environmentâthat are attentive to place âgreater Mexicoâ and period, the complete implementation of NAFTA (1994-2008).
Who or what inspired you to write this these books?
My six year old son CĂ©saire (ZĂ©) Carroll-DomĂnguezâthe artist responsible for FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornographyâs cover illustration âŰ”Ù۱۩ ŰčۧۊÙÙŰ©/Retrato de familia/Family Portraitââ(more than any other person) and the âatmosphere conditionsâ of the United States between September 11, 2001 and the 2008 Great Recession inspired me to write the collection. A critical mass of Mexico City- and Mexico-U.S. border-based artists and the âatmosphere conditionsâ associated with the neoliberal restructuring of the continent inspire me to finish âREMEX.â
What else about your books might pique the readerâs interest?
Filmmaker Vicky Funari once explained to me that she, her collaborator Sergio De La Torre, and the promotoras involved in the documentary Maquilapolisâs making did not intend to tell the tale of Tijuanaâs bust, but, life intervened: Funari had a baby, De La Torre began his MFA, De La Torre and she had to seek extra funding, 9/11 (2001) happened, the women of Maquilapolis were juggling their own work/life obligationsâeveryone took a break from filming mid-2002 through 2004. And, when Maquilapolisâs production resumed, the course of events in Tijuana redirected the film. Put differently, 2000-2001 became pivotal years for Maquilapolis because they were pivotal years for Tijuana; 2000 being the year when factory flight began, 2001 being the year when one could tally the evidence of the exodus. The fact that Funari and De La Torre took longer than theyâd anticipated to wrap up Maquilapolis facilitated an Other story: the apparent end of an era. Funariâs story has stuck with me because FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography âinterruptedâ âREMEX.â I finished the collection of poetry before I finished âREMEXâ in part because I had to deal with a series of âextreme weather eventsâ in my life and in the lives of those nearest and dearest to me. Still, since undergraduate school, I have âcode-switchedâ between poetry and criticism. The mediums cross-pollinate one another in my work. I cannot imagine my dissertation without my first collection of poetry Secession (Hyperbole Books, 2012). I cannot imagine FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography without âREMEXâ and a collaborative project that Iâve coproduced since 2008, the Transborder Immigrant Tool.
Will your books be self-published or represented by an agency?
Fordham University Press recently published FANNIE + FREDDIE/The Sentimentality of Post-9/11 Pornography. Another press is considering âREMEXâ for publication (fingers crossed).