{"product_id":"the-importance-of-being-iceland-eileen-myles-9781584350668","title":"The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art","description":"\u003cb\u003eA poet and post-punk heroine writes on subjects ranging from Bj rk to Robert Smithson, from traveling in Iceland to walking in Thoreau's footsteps on Cape Cod\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003ePoet and post-punk heroine Eileen Myles has always operated in the art, writing, and queer performance scenes as a kind of observant flaneur. Like Baudelaire's gentleman stroller, Myles travels the city--wandering on garbage-strewn New York streets in the heat of summer, drifting though the antiseptic malls of La Jolla, and riding in the van with Sister Spit--seeing it with a poet's eye for detail and with the consciousness that writing about art and culture has always been a social gesture. Culled by the poet from twenty years of art writing, the essays in \u003ci\u003eThe Importance of Being Iceland\u003c\/i\u003e make a lush document of her--and our--lives in these contemporary crowds. Framed by Myles's account of her travels in Iceland, these essays posit inbetweenness as the most vital position from which to perceive culture as a whole, and a fluidity in national identity as the best model for writing and thinking about art and culture. The essays include fresh takes on Thoreau's Cape Cod walk, working class speech, James Schulyer and Bj rk, queer Russia and Robert Smithson; how-tos on writing an avant-garde poem and driving a battered Japanese car that resembles a menopausal body; and opinions on such widely ranging subjects as filmmaker Sadie Benning, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Ted Berrigan's Sonnets, and flossing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Eileen Myles\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1584350660\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781584350668\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Semiotext(e)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 5.90w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eVillage Voice\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/02\/2009 pg. 30","brand":"Eileen Myles","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44044064162047,"sku":"9781584350668","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_128173d0-62e6-4b20-9898-681da8d19f5d.jpg?v=1684970723","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-importance-of-being-iceland-eileen-myles-9781584350668","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}