Good Audio Makes the Ear an Eye

*A commentary update from the audio publisher regarding A Disorder Peculiar to the Country


Monkey Mind*

 Update: January 19, 2012
It is my understanding that Ken Kalfus has been at work on a new novel. Of course, anyone in publishing already knows this, but this blog is not written for the likes of publishers marketplace and publishers weekly, but for the lonely audiophiles who straggle on to this site in the wee morning hours. The traffic that comes to this site is mostly myselfto write, my mother to see what else I might have said about her, or my father, sister, or nephew; and audiophiles. The confusion, audioevolution.com versus audioevolution.org.

"Audio Evolution,. heh that sounds cool, I need some new stereo equipment."__audiojoe

Original post March 2007

Ken Kalfus's post 9/11 novel, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country was a 2006 National Book Award nominee. A sly satire (dark) black comedy of war, terrorism and conjugal strife. Audiobook Details Author Interview

I first read this novel in manuscript when I was still the acquisitions director for Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, now known as Macmillan Audio. Little did I know at the time how few the degrees of separation were between myself and the author, Ken Kalfus. I would come to find out later, that the book was dedicated (in part) to my wife's college roommate and that the two of them had attended NYU with the author. It is indeed "a small world after all." Published in contravention of all the accepted axioms of audio publishing (big first print, marketing budget and simultaneous with the hardcover). Why? Because: the novel spoke to me.

I found in it a voice that crystallized my inchoate concerns, thoughts and feelings post 9/11, especially about the direction the country was heading in its aftermath. As a nation, I believe that we responded to 9/11 with our collective hypothalamus, determined to avenge the stain upon our nation. We set reason aside, then our founding principles, and finally, our morality. There is nothing we have not sacrificed to achieve victory in the war on terror, nothing, not habeus corpus, due process, nor civil liberties. We sacrificed it all in an illusory quest, not for freedom from terror, but for freedom from the fear of terror. And all we have after four years and billions of dollars is more terror and more fear of terror as we sacrifice more and more of our freedoms. A black comedy, indeed.

I am trying to complete this post by attaching a video that was taken when I went on hiatus from audio evolution, llc and began working for [Redacted] Audio, Inc., now a subsidiary of [Redacted.com]. Spent three years out in the mid-w-east (weast pronounced like yeast is a new meme (culturematic) to describe midwest peoples who populate an east coast time zone.

In any case, in the first year at my cottage o'er looking the unsalted sea. I lived next to a loveable but certifiable maniac (at the time). He was always filming himself doing something outrageous. As this video documents an intrusion into my household and an assault upon my person by depriving an elder of his precious nap time.

Beach Assault at Kilkare Cottage, July 4, 2009

*I found this image online. http://telling-secrets.blogspot.com/2011/11/monkey-mind.html.
I am uncertain if the art is the blog author’s artwork or not. But there is no indication of the copyright holder of the art, as opposed to the ownership of the blog. Given the author’s posted stance on plagarism, I expect that she herself drew it, rendered it, or commissioned its creation. A picture worth 500 words.