Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir Book

This not-memoir has quite a bit to say about memoirs and their proliferation in today's world. As someone whose screened memoirs for a competition before, I appreciated many of Monson's rant(s) on the unmodified, un-crafted, solipsistic "I" that, yes, "one-on-one over a beer" is interesting, but not in book form. Don't just tell a story, craft it, have what Monson defines as an "awareness, a sense that the writer has reckoned with the self, the material, as well as what it means to reveal it." Amen.

There's something delightful in the way Monson is fascinated and often embraces new and obsolete technologies. This is not REALLY the popular stance among cultured people. There's a hipster sarcasm with which many people approach let's say/use Doritos. But you really get a sense that Monson has a genuine affection for their artificiality, their, as he puts it, "transubstantiation" in your mouth. There's no unsavory aftertaste (har har) of pretense here. And his website is good fun: www.otherelectricities.com

Favorite imagined scene: Monson interviewing Gary Snyder, the Buddhist nature poet, asking him if he "self-googles."