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    Writing Surfaces: Selected Fiction of John Riddell
    Writing Surfaces: Selected Fiction of John Riddell
    Writing Surfaces: Selected Fiction of John Riddell
    Ebook143 pages8 minutes

    Writing Surfaces: Selected Fiction of John Riddell

    By John Riddell

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    About this ebook

    John Riddell is best known for “H” and “Pope Leo, El ELoPE,” a pair of graphic fictions written in collaboration with, or dedicated to, bpNichol, but his work moves well beyond comic strips into a series of radical fictions. In Writing Surfaces, derek beaulieu and Lori Emerson present “Pope Leo, El ELoPE” and many other works in a collection that showcases Riddell’s remarkable mix of largely typewriter-based concrete poetry mixed with fiction and drawings.

    Riddell’s work embraces game play, unreadability and illegibility, procedural work, non-representational narrative, photocopy degeneration, collage, handwritten texts, and gestural work. His self-aware and meta-textual short fiction challenges the limits of machine-based composition and his reception as a media-based poet.

    Riddell’s oeuvre fell out of popular attention, but it has recently garnered interest among poets and critics engaged in media studies (especially studies of the typewriter) and experimental writing. As media studies increasingly turns to “media archaeology” and the reading and study of antiquated, analogue-based modes of composition (typified by the photocopier and the fax machine as well as the typewriter), Riddell is a perfect candidate for renewed appreciation and study by new generations of readers, authors, and scholars.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilfrid Laurier University Press
    Release dateJun 24, 2013
    ISBN9781554588534
    Writing Surfaces: Selected Fiction of John Riddell
    Author

    John Riddell

    Born in Giffnock, John Riddell became interested in the Clyde, shipping and engineering from a young age. He worked as a civil engineer before becoming a senior lecturer and reader in water engineering at the University of Strathclyde. He has lived in Fairlie since 1972, and in retirement has continued to pursue his interest in the Clyde, ships and local history.

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      Book preview

      Writing Surfaces - John Riddell

      Writing Surfaces

      Writing Surfaces

      Selected Fiction of

      John Riddell

      derek beaulieu and

      Lori Emerson, editors

      Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Riddell, John, 1942–

      Writing surfaces : selected fiction of John Riddell / Derek Beaulieu and Lori Emerson, editors.

      A collection of John Riddell’s poems and short stories.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      Issued also in electronic formats.

      ISBN 978-1-55458-828-2

      I. Beaulieu, D. A. (Derek Alexander), 1973– II. Emerson, Lori III. Title.

      PS8585.I4A6 2013              C818’.54            C2012-907180-3

      ———

      Electronic monograph in multiple formats.

      Issued also in print format.

      ISBN 978-1-55458-852-7 (PDF).—ISBN 978-1-55458-853-4 (EPUB)

      I. Beaulieu, D. A. (Derek Alexander), 1973– II. Emerson, Lori III. Title.

      PS8585.I4A6 2013               C818’.54              C2012-907181-1

      Cover image by John Riddell: à deux, from Transitions (Aya Press, Toronto), 1980.

      Text design by Daiva Villa, Chris Rowat Design.

      © 2013 Wilfrid Laurier University Press

      Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

      www.wlupress.wlu.ca

      This book is printed on FSC recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from 100% post-consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy.

      Printed

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