Timothy McSweeney's Header Image

Please welcome Amy Jean Porter's horse T-shirt. For the next few days, the shirt is 20 percent off.

- - - -

Occidental Swing.

BY STEVEN WALING AND JOHN CALVERT

- - - -

 The stranger rode on a Mexican pinto into the town of Patriarchy,
 where previously there had been reports of sporadic post-individualism
 breaking out in the barrios. The sheriff, filled with logocentrism, 
 had rounded up the leaders in order of signification, 
 all except for Hosé, who had escaped by night to Slippage
 and even now was making free passage to the state of Textuality,

 where he would find himself once again in the arms of Miss Textuality. 
 An expert in the devious arts of acute patriarchy, 
 she could charm him with her secret wiles into post-individualism, 
 all liberally administered with copious amounts of logocentrism
 in a long tall glass, mixed with Coca-Cola and a dash of signification. 
 After several of these, there was always the tendency of slippage

 between this world and the next. Her real name was Ella. Slippage
 into something more comfortable—she knew how he liked the textuality
 of her curves—enabled her ably to rouse her lover's patriarchy,
 which she knew would inevitably lead to post-individualism
 in the big brass bed of her room in the Hotel Logocentrism. 
 Thus, they spent many long afternoons in a state of signification. 

 Meanwhile, the posse rode into town searching for Signification, 
 who, rumors said, was hiding under the guise of Thaddeus Slippage, 
 barber and undertaker. He was up to his eyes in textuality,
 but that had not prevented him from dealing in unlicensed patriarchy
 round the back of his premises. Hosé, still deep in post-individualism, 
 knowing full well he operated under the shadow of logocentrism, 

 heard the commotion, and would have fled but his latent logocentrism
 prevented him from joining in the hunt and ensured Signification
 would escape his fate. So it was he who succumbed to the slippage
 that he knew full well would probably end in textuality
 and a long stay in the caboose at Fort Patriarchy
 with no chance of a reprieve, unless found innocent of post-individualism,

 which wasn't on the cards. However, it was finally Ella's own post-individualism
 that led her to betray her man, on account of his logocentrism
 with another woman. This was the cowgirl at the Rio Signification
 who, so legend had it, had a particular habit of slippage
 into something less comfortable, whilst stroking a man's textuality, 
 so it was no surprise when our story ended in patriarchy

 and moral turpitude. Patriarchy rode away on a horse called Post-individualism
 and no one learned from the slippage that settled on the plain of Textuality
 whilst the stranger's own logocentrism was largely without signification. 

 

MORE SESTINAS

 

- - - -

MAIN PAGE   |   ARCHIVES

 

Memories of Amanda Davis

 


Red dot denotes content that is new today.

Black dot denotes newish content.

McSWEENEY'S STORE

SUBSCRIBE TO:
McSWEENEY'S
THE BELIEVER
WHOLPHIN

FUTURE McSWEENEY'S BOOKS

THE AMANDA DAVIS HIGHWIRE FICTION AWARD

INVITE A McSWEENEY'S AUTHOR TO SPEAK IN YOUR TOWN OR COLLEGE

McSWEENEY'S MONTHLY MAILING LIST

McSWEENEY'S-RELATED EVENTS AND VARIOUS TOUR DATES

ORDER INQUIRIES AND ADDRESS CHANGES

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
FOR BOOKS
FOR THE QUARTERLY
FOR THE WEBSITE
FOR WHOLPHIN

McSWEENEY'S INTERNSHIPS

CONTACT US

- - - -

LETTERS TO McSWEENEY'S

LISTS

McSWEENEY'S PREDICTS

McSWEENEY'S RECOMMENDS

NEW WHOLPHIN FILM

DAN LIEBERT, VERBAL CARTOONIST

JOKES BY BRIAN BEATTY

REVIEWS OF NEW FOOD

DISPATCHES FROM MOSCOW

SO YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT?

DISPATCHES FROM THE ANACOSTIA

THE WINNER'S CIRCLE WITH ERIC FEEZELL

BEN GREENMAN'S FAKE CELEBRITY MUSICALS

DISPATCHES FROM A HUMANITARIAN JOURNALIST

DEB OLIN UNFERTH'S SICK OF THE REVOLUTION

DISPATCHES FROM IRAQ

SHORT IMAGINED MONOLOGUES

PHILIP GRAHAM SPENDS A YEAR IN LISBON

STAINED TEETH: A COLUMN ABOUT WINE

DISPATCHES FROM THE NAPOLEONIC WARS AT THE MET

KEVIN DOLGIN TELLS YOU ABOUT PLACES YOU SHOULD GO IN EUROPE

SONGS OF ENEMIES AND DESERTS: LIVING WITH THE SUDAN LIBERATION ARMY

LAWRENCE WESCHLER'S EVERYTHING THAT RISES: A BOOK OF CONVERGENCES

THE CONVERGENCES CONTEST

ABOUT WHAT IS THE WHAT

ABOUT BOWL OF CHERRIES

ABOUT COMEDY BY THE NUMBERS

ABOUT JOHN BRANDON'S ARKANSAS

ABOUT MICHAEL CHABON'S MAPS AND LEGENDS

ABOUT UNDERGROUND AMERICA

LETTERS FROM AN EARTH BALL TO, OR CONCERNING, SEAN HANNITY

DISPATCHES FROM ADJUNCT FACULTY AT A LARGE STATE UNIVERSITY

ADVICE FROM A PERSON WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY

DISPATCHES FROM THE NBA ENTERTAINMENT LEAGUE

JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG CORRESPONDENCES

B.R. COHEN'S ANNALS OF SCIENCE

INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTERESTING OR UNUSUAL JOBS

OPEN LETTERS TO PEOPLE OR ENTITIES WHO ARE UNLIKELY TO RESPOND

DISPATCHES FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN

MICHAEL IAN BLACK IS A VERY FAMOUS CELEBRITY

DISPATCHES FROM ROY KESEY, AN AMERICAN GUY MARRIED TO
A PERUVIAN DIPLOMAT LIVING IN CHINA


STEPHEN ELLIOTT'S POKER REPORT

- - - -

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL