Connor Coyne

First, I’m pleased to announce a new contributor to the Hungry Rats project. Nick Carone, a screenwriter from Chicago, is putting together an original work of fiction set in Flint during the Ratman murders. I have put his photo and a short bio up on the website under “contributors.” While a number of artists, musicians, and designers have added their stamp to the project, Nick is the first person to do so through prose writing.

The mainstream press has neglected a whole area of work rich in potential. Dismissively branded as “fan fiction” or “derivative work,” Hungry Rats seeks to promote these inspired and often startlingly original works on equal footing with the novel itself. After all; every fiction establishs a universe that is wholly unique and self-contained. Why not explore it from the angles of film and music, photography and painting, poetry and prose, for as long as it is interesting?

If you are interested in collaborating on Hungry Rats (and don’t limit yourself; I’m interested in everything above, and everything else from biology to theater to sociology to journalism), please drop me a line and let me know what you’re thinking!

PROJECT NAME: Notes for Students

GROUP: Third Family.
FORMAT: Prose Novel.
STRUCTURE: Cups, Part I, Part II, Part III, Platter

ANTECEDENTS: William Burroughs (writer), Italo Calvino (writer), Anne Carson (writer), Cicero (writer), The Cure (band), Depeche Mode (band), Ladytron (band), Orbital (band), Smashing Pumpkins (band), Underworld (band).

CONCEPT: Still largely undefined as of 8/7/2007.
The novel is presented as a series of guides and advice columns recommending methods of study, exploration, experimentation, seduction, and abduction. As case studies, it follows a collection of students (of wide-ranging ages) through their first semester of enrollment at various schools in the neighborhood of West Wickersburg in an anonymous big city.

This project will attempt to address three abstract objectives.
First, to embody as completely as possible the themes and strategies of the Gothic Funk aesthetic. This is specifically a “practice round” for the next revision of Urbantasm.
Second, to push myself toward a greater prosodic experimentation than I’ve attempted before.
Third, to evoke the essence and appeal of the (inherently?) solipsistic student’s life.

SCHEDULE: Draft during 9-10/2007.