The Reenactments: A Memoir Page 14

  (Note: I just found the image online, and it seems I’ve misremembered, all these years—both the entry and the exit of the bullet do significant damage to the apple.)

  —Rebecca Solnit, “The Annihilation of Time and Space,” River of Shadows, Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West.

  THIRTEEN

  —Dr. Jim O’Connell, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

  —Sorites Paradox, The paradox of the grandfather’s axe, the Ship of Theseus, the paradox of the heap—I was directed into these paradoxes by Tad Flynn, and all contain some information culled from Wikipedia.

  —Someday, son, this awl will be yours: from a New Yorker cartoon (provenance lost).

  —like a tree learns to swallow barbed wire: from a poem (provenance lost).

  FIFTEEN

  —Radiolab, “The Bus Stop,” 2010.

  —Barry Schwabsky, “Gillian Wearing,” Artforum, September 2000.

  —Grain upon grain: Beckett, Endgame.

  SIXTEEN

  —I dream only of the orifices of the body: Jean Genet, A Thief’s Journal.

  —if his story were pure enough: a riff (of course) on the Kunitz poem “King of the River” (If the water were clear enough).

  —Damasio, Self Comes to Mind.

  SEVENTEEN

  —AIDS Service Center New York is an empowerment agency for formerly homeless drug addicts.

  —Note: during one take while shooting the next-to-last scene De Niro improvised a rant about “pedophilic priests”—it is this take that makes it into the film.

  NINETEEN

  —Attention must be paid: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman.

  —The first human being captured: Solnit, ibid.

  TWENTY

  —The practical application of the Glass Flowers: Frances Richard, “Great Vitreous Tact,” Cabinet, 2002.

  —Any day now I’ll make a knife: W. S. Merwin, “October.”

  —Remember, no matter what: from a taped tour of the Glass Flowers.

  —Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself.”

  —Dew Harrison, “Christopher Williams, Angola to Vietnam.”

  —Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost.

  TWENTY-ONE

  —Note: Edoardo got in touch with me shortly after I wrote that passage.

  —Of god, the Kabbalah asserts: Annie Dillard, ibid.

  —Jana Prikryl, “The Genius of Buster,” New York Review of Books, 9 June 2011.

  —Kristin Prevallet, .

  TWENTY-TWO

  —Ragin’ (Full-On) is (of course) the title of the first fIREHOSE album.

  TWENTY-THREE

  —Please do not lean on the cases: a sign in the Glass Flowers exhibit.

  —The moment one gives close attention: Henry Miller.

  —See the white powdery stuff on the leaves: Rossi-Wilcox, ibid.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  —René Clair, Paris Qui Dort (1924).

  —Damon Gaugh, aka Badly Drawn Boy.

  —Damasio, Self Comes to Mind.

  —The whole great enterprise of life: Robert Frost, discussing “Kitty Hawk.”

  — If you possess the image: Carl Jung, The Red Book.

  —Aristotle, Poetics.

  —Maggie Nelson, The Art of Cruelty.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  —“Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe,” Dennis Overbye, New York Times, 4 July 2012.

  —Eagleman, ibid.

  —Alix Lambert, Crime.

  —Let’s return to the scene: NF, “Jesus Knew.”

  [DEBTS]

  IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT lili taylor jill bialosky bill clegg tad flynn paul dano liam broggy julianne moore olivia thirlby james schamus jane rosenthal michael costigan andrew miano dan balgoyan joan sobel ofe yi caroline baron renee foley burke aude bronson-howard rufino colon sarah knowles joyce myricks helen boben monica ruiz-ziegler joseph prioleau ryan webb robert andrews annie tan christo morse badly drawn boy edwin rivera declan quinn gerard sava thomas hoffman r.i.p. joey boots devin donegan stephen williams sharen duke jessica greer morris aids service center nyc susan perlman casey madigan tom conway ryan heck jerry decarlo teamsters/catering/cast/crew being flynn focus features radioman radiohead radiolab occupy wall street yes men andy bichelbaum julian assange wikipedia wikileaks alison granucci alison liss shaun dolan kapo amos ng nancy palmquist bill rusin dave cole w. w. norton jim frost atlantic center for the arts jim harithas station museum bronfman center zack zook rebecca schultz chad bunning rubin museum brainwave william hirst housing first housing works eileen o’brien elders living at home lyndia downey pine street inn eddie devereaux r.i.p. richard booton r.i.p. ivan hubbard r.i.p. st. francis house sam tsemberis jamie taylor pathways to housing arturo bendixen aids foundation of chicago bowery mission doug montgomery mel chin hubert sauper cordia villacarlos mark adams tom johnston joyce linehan sophie klahr dean wareham stephen elliott tony swofford debra gitterman thich nhat hanh karen farber kelle groom nina douglas eduordo di angelis d. boon r.i.p. kathleen schmieder walter white j kasteley anastacia michael stipe sam cole alex lemon brooklyn writers space captain mike rebecca wadlinger todd tupper tunnel city coffee guy maddin beth bachman buster keaton mark conway william middleton jesse pinkman david eagleman michael jamieson russ aharonian spiritualized samuel beckett roscommon ronnie yates austin havican david shields john d’agata eula biss anne carson rebecca solnit eric fair marie howe jim shepard karen shepard carolyn forché maeve lulu taylor flynn IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT

  About the Author

  NICK FLYNN has worked as a ship’s captain, an electrician, and as a caseworker with folks who found themselves without a fixed address for a period of time (see note below). His film credits include field poet and artistic collaborator on Darwin’s Nightmare (which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006), and executive producer (collaborator) on Being Flynn (2012). Each spring he teaches poetry, nonfiction, and collaboration at the University of Houston—the rest of the year he is in, or near, Brooklyn.

  note: I used to say I worked as a caseworker with the homeless, but I’ve come to believe that the term homeless has a stereotype (and therefore violence) built into it. From now on I’m going to try to use either the working poor or folks who found themselves without a fixed address (the French use the term SDF—sans domicile fixe) for a period of time.

  Advance Praise for The Reenactments

  “Flynn’s determination to better understand his life through the act of writing and remembering has yielded a truly insightful, original work.”

  —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

  “Eloquent, precise, intense and profoundly moving, The Reenactments is a powerful and beautiful story about grief, survival, and making art.”

  —Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion

  “Some words we associate with good memoirs (‘moving’; ‘brave’). And there are some—even with the best memoirs—we just don’t (‘intellectually challenging’; ‘formally adventurous’). Nick Flynn’s The Reenactments is all these things, it is sui generis, it will make you cry. I read this book in a very short time. I won’t stop thinking about it for a very long time.”

  —Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life

  “Maybe only poets should be allowed to write memoirs, because they know that our perception is partial, our recollection is worse, and the world is made of shards and fragments that make patterns but leave gaps and sharp edges. Nick Flynn’s excellent new memoir embraces the unknown and unknowable as the very core of our experience.”

  —Rebecca Solnit, author of

  A Field Guide to Getting Lost

  “Not only are films themselves composed of interiors and exteriors, but their creations are as well. I’ve never read a book that has captured this fact so precisely, so movingly. The familiar hierarchies are reordered. Flynn has by now fashioned his own world of language, within which he can perform feat after revelatory feat.”

  —Joshua Cody, autho
r of [sic]

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2013 by Nick Flynn

  All rights reserved

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Edition

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,

  write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,

  500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

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  W. W. Norton Special Sales at specialsales@wwnorton.com or 800-233-4830

  Manufacturing by Courier Westford

  Book design by Daniel Lagin

  Production manager: Julia Druskin

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Flynn, Nick, 1960–

  The reenactments / Nick Flynn. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-393-34435-6 (pbk.)

  ISBN 978-0-393-34464-6 (ebook)

  1. Flynn, Nick, 1960– 2. Poets, American—Biography. 3. Motion pictures—

  Production and direction—Biography. 4. American literature—Adaptations.

  5. Flynn, Nick, 1960– Another bullshit night in Suck City. I. Title.

  PS3556.L894Z467 2013

  811'.54—dc23

  [B]

  2012036597

  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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