Are we in agreement that really long book titles (more than four words) suck? Exceptions that don't suck?
Oh wait, I got one: THE BEDSIDE GUIDE TO NO TELL MOTEL -- but that's an anthology. Or maybe it does suck.
The one-two punch title -- vital?
posted by RL @ 11:31 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Are we limiting ourselves to poetry books? Or can we name fiction books too? In the latter case, I will add "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "Love in Time of Cholera," and ...
I'm talking poetry books -- but we don't have to limit ourselves to poetry book titles. Thanks.
Two long titles I love:
Paul Guest's The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World
Christopher Davis's The Tyrant of the Past and the Slave of the Future
Joshua Marie Wilkinson's "Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk"
Franz Wright's "The Night World and the Word Night"
Also Jen Tynes' "The End of Rude Handles" (or do "the" and "of" not technically count?)
How about Matthea Harvey's "Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form?"
my next question is, what constitutes a long title? where does one start? four words?
oh, and i like to add "what narcissism means to me"
Yes Jill, you started it -- all your fault.
No, I keep going back and forth and wanted to hear others' thoughts.
Thanks everyone -- I also like "My Brother is Getting Arrested Again" -- so much that I keep coming up with too similar sounding titles.
Yes, long titles suck. I personally hold in major contempt any poet who foists a title longer than ... oh, wait. Crap. Strike that.... :)
The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle
on my desk right now: this connection of everyone with lungs (j. spahr), some notes on my programming (a. berrigan), my brother is getting arrested again (d. fried), & some other kind of mission (l. jarnot).
the book on my desk with the shortest title, has a title so short, it's actually two words fused together: povel (g. kim)
i don't have any kind of arbitrary ideal length preference for titles. the titles shouldn't be impossible to remember, is all, and should at least stand up to the same kind of scrutiny as a poem title. something compelling enough to look interesting in a situation where the title is all you see, like on a shelf for a book, or a table of contents, for a poem. in those cases, the title is the only shot you've got.
i think pterodactyls soar again is fantastic title, btw.
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