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paraverse
press
new books
reviews
errata glosses
paraversing haiku
robin d. gill
japanese page
welcome
links
new
year greeting
art one-string experiment P A R A V E R S E . O R G
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Time will tell what will come to and from PARAVERSE.ORG, or simply “the paraverse” as I think of this, my first website. At present our priority is publishing, for the emergence of economical POD printing allows quality work too innovative for large publishers to bet on (with offset, the publisher must print large runs to bring the price down) to be published at a decent price for the first time in history. Soon, publishing will become a free world, with authors calling the shots, as it should be. As our own publishers, we do not need to tour, when we – at least, I – would prefer to save our limited global resources and stay home to write. We can put our books out into the world and prove they have a readership without relying upon the chance encounter with the right agent or editor. And we are free to produce books in English liberally strewn with Chinese characters or boasting delightful (rather than academic) footnotes taking the lion’s share of the text, without being over-ruled by a gutless publisher who cannot imagine readers liking such things. In short, we may target bright readers without submitting to academic or market tyranny. Publishing is only a few years behind music. (After a year in business, we, or, I -- for "we" are still a one-man operation -- feel that lag. Despite a rave review for one book by the top person in the field, the mass media, including NPR(!) have yet to introduce, much yet review my books. If you (like me) are disgusted with the crap on the NYT nonfiction best-seller's list, please do not assume (as I once did) that the problem is a lack of good books. Unless I am an exception (though I believe in my work, my ego is not big enough to accept this!), there are any number of truly creative books out there. We do not know about them because the review establishment is either too lazy to read and select books for themselves, so they leave it up to their connections, or they are, like their radio counterparts, happy with being wined, dined and, perhaps worse: on the payolla. (Maybe I exaggerate and the only problem is that I do not spend much time doing publicity. My question to true book-lovers is this: Should one have to do much publicity? Don't book review editors have a responsibility to introduce good books to their readers, whether or not publishers court them?) Paraverse Press hopes it will soon prove to be the rule rather than the exception, that self-publishing will be seen in the same light that self-producing other forms of art are viewed: rather than considered an exercise in vanity. Please visit paraverse press, the place for all who seek creative non-fiction that is not journalism, and participate in the POD revolution. PARAVERSINGPARAVERSINGPARAVERSINGPARAVERSING So, where does the word paraverse come from? Almost a quarter century ago, I tried to put a piece of prose into poetry and found that I could not settle on any single version as “the best.” The prose in question came from Japan’s Records of Ancient Matters, the line where the male deity observes that he has a part in excess and nowhere to put it, while the female deity observes she has the opposite dilemma. I thought of my dozen or so poems as paraverses, and only came to use the verb "to paraverse" years later. The variations on the single 6-character sentence from the Tao Te Ching found on the Welcome page were also done about this time, and show that this art need not confine itself to verse. After paraversing scores of ancient Japanese poems for fun, I began to translate haiku in earnest and this, finally, taught me that paraversing was not mere play but, surprisingly often, the only way to bring out the multi-faceted meanings of the original, without losing the wit through excessive explanation. (Googling teaches us that the common(?) paraverse was born in science fiction, but i did not know that when I first coined the term. Luckily, The Paraverse has room enough for all of us.) Unlike most games, where a solution once achieved is worthless, a good paraverse is true literature, a keeper. Follow the paraversing link to learn more and, if you wish to do so, participate.
This coconut was eaten by someone in Crandon Park on Key Biscayne, Florida. Now it is named Daruma.
Paraverse Press please e-mail the author-publisher info AT paraverse DOT org, or at uncoolwabin AT hotmail DOT com for any good reason yoroshiku
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For the most recent book with 1,300 dirty senryu, see the New Books Page. There is a surprise, so I could not put the title here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Description of this book with almost 2,000 haiku about 20 themesis the first to introduce the New Year Season (shinnenbu) of haiku. 468 pgs. $28. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, etc. have it
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 740
pgs, $39.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. have it.
TOPSY-TURVY 1585 740
pgs, $33.33.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc. have it. 232 pgs, $15. Description here. Sample here. Reviews here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Professors of comparative culture, translation and sociolinguistics, as well as all language-lovers, please take note!
180 pgs. $12. Our First Book, First Edition. RISE,
YE
SEA
SLUGS! by robin d. gill was published on October 31, 2003. The sudden appearance of this 1,100,000 character, 480 page book ($25), with 1000 haiku in Japanese and 2000+ translations in English, may well be the premiere creative nonfiction event of that year (in English). Rise, Ye Sea Slugs! should interest readers who appreciate essays, haiku and other poetry, natural history, biology, things Japanese, cultural anthropology, translation theory, metaphor and much more. (Gill, who grew up on Key Biscayne, Florida is a well-known author in Japan, where he had 7 books published by top Japanese presses, including Chikuma Shobo, Hakusuisha and Kousakusha, but this was his first book in his native tongue. ) Pre-publication comments From Haiku: “Keigu (the author’s haiku name) is not interested in making yet another collection of masterpiece haiku. He would create an exhibition of sea cucumber [namako] and haiku or, to put it another way, a museum of poetic language.” – Saibara Tenki, host of informal on-line haiku “pub” Ukimidō. (Publisher’s note: The book includes a full explanation of why poetry demanded “sea cucumbers” become “sea slugs,” and, to compensate, some information on the nudibranch! ) From Literature: “Uke Namako (the Japanese title) is the most touching, fun, erudite, and altogether enjoyable thing I have read in ages. It is also the most intelligent approach to Japanese poetry I think I have ever seen. – Liza Dalby, anthropologist and author of Tale of Murasaki (and other fine Japan-related fiction and nonfiction, including Kimono and Geisha) From Science: “It's amazing; I absolutely love it. I've spent many years studying my little friends and have always felt that they have been unkindly maligned or forgotten. The contrast between Japanese and European literature on cukes [sea cucumbers] couldn’t be greater . . . Alas, the divide between science and literature, even in terminology much less in theory, is quite vast at points and I admire your blending of the two in a deep and satisfying way.” – Dr. Alexander Kerr, habitat evolution biologist, James Cook University). If you think this is something, see the Reviews!
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