Ananda Osel/Joseph Osel: Article about a emerging genre of poetry. What does everyone think?

mjp

Founding member
Funny that you happened to "come across" that article. I mean, since you are (first time) posting from Seattle, and Ananda Osel is from Seattle. What are the odds?
 

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
Jesus. Why not just come out and be honest? If you have a personal interest then just admit it. That is the difference between being self promoting and a soulless shill.

Bill
 
Well, everyone thinks that they are smarter than everyone else, right? I don't like it, but I understand it.

I also understand honesty. In general, the vast majority of people don't speak the truth, they speak what they think you want to hear. It actually works to my advantage. Points out the people I'd like to avoid rather simply to me.

Carry on.

Oh, by the way, if you can't state "an emerging" instead of "a emerging" (oh, I suppose that's just poetry; how silly of me) just how enticed might I be? I'm gonna go pick up my dog's poop.
 

mjp

Founding member
He's "currently seeking a publisher" for his first first full-length collection, according to his official web site (where his official press photographs show someone who looks like a 22 year old frat boy).

Proletariat Press, publisher of his chapbooks, publishes only the good Mr. Osel, and another guy who is co-editor of his poetry web site, common-line.com (which was apparently run by Richard Wink for a few months at one point). The tagline for the site is, "a guerrilla (or guerilla, as it is spelled on the "about" page) magazine of poetry, art, interview and review."

Guerilla? Really?

"Gorilla poetry for the masses living inside my head."

That's my suggestion for a new tagline, kid. Embrace it. It's you.
 

justine

stop the penistry
bukowski's name is mentioned once, in the last paragraph of the article. did this guy really think he'd be taken seriously if he posted this here?
 

mjp

Founding member
It's gorilla marketing. He doesn't care if he's taken seriously.

This is probably the same douchebag who tried to hang the "dirty realism" crap on the Bukowski wikipedia article.

It almost seems like a performance art piece, this Ananda Osel character. I think someone is doing all this for a laugh. I say now, and believe with all my heart, that there is no Ananda Osel. But the memory of Ananda Osel will live on forever inside each one of us.

Ananda Osel. I better not type that name too much. It might lead people here instead of the official site. Wouldn't want that.
 

justine

stop the penistry
wait, who are you talking about? ananda osel? you mean ananda osel?

yeah i'm worried about ananda osel getting googled and his fans ending up here, instead of the ananda osel official website. pretty sure ananda osel would not be happy about that!
 
I checked the Ananda Osel website, and Ananda Osel had a link to sign up for an Ananda Osel fan page on Facebook. Because Ananda Osel really gets me with his dirty realism, I decided to check this Ananda Osel Facebook fan page. Turns out Ananda Osel has two fans so far, which is actually two more fans that I thought Ananda Osel would have. Ananda Osel also lists his interests, which include arguing, hip-hop, poetry, women and spell-check. That Ananda Osel is one great poet. Remember the name Ananda Osel.
 

number6horse

okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
That name kinda looks like an anagram to me.

A weepy emo song title: And Lose Ana

Wacky Italian grandmother porn movie title: Nana Does LA
 

mjp

Founding member
He also seems to enjoy "anonymously" commenting on things written about him:

(7) youdontstop says:
like the poems. when does the book come out?

Of course you like the poems, "Ananda." You wrote them. I assume many of the other comments there were also made by "Ananda," but I'm sure that one is. You know, since the signup email for Tannbox here is youdontstop@...

This is definitely an elaborate hoax. Kudos to the college student(s) behind it!

That being said, I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed that "Ananda Osel" hasn't come back here after his first successful blast of bukowski.net gorilla self-promotion. I suppose he will eventually. Can anyone guess how that first response will read? I could make a reasonable and accurate guess, based on the others who have made the same mistake. But I would rather let the wild young Turk speak for himself. Like this:

"Many people are convinced that for poetry to be good it must be obscure. They want to keep poetry exclusive to a certain group; the dance of it makes them feel smart. You know, I don't subscribe to that nonsense; I don't want to look words up in a dictionary or dissect a complex metaphor just to understand what a writer is trying to convey."

Now why hasn't someone else taken that brave stance in the past, oh, 50 or 60 years?

Oh...they have? Thousands of them? Huh. And here I thought "Ananda Osel" was onto something new. Go figure.

Rock on, "Ananda Osel." The world needs more like you. Save us from the sea of obscure and complex metaphorical poetry that we are drowning in!
 

d gray

tried to do his best but could not
Founding member
"Besides productivity, there's no real line between genius and insanity. But it doesn't matter anyhow; genius provides no cure for the condition under which I suffer. My mere existence perpetuates the state I seek to eradicate." Osel continued, adding that "my artistic autonomy, no matter how callous or transgressive, will not be restricted by popular opinion, custom, or anything else. I do what I want. Anything in my game is directed by me, not you, not them. If you want control or influence you'll have to fight me for it."

you go girl! oh the burden of genius...

ps - i have a hunch he won't be needing to fight anyone.
 

mjp

Founding member
If you are going to do anagrams, please use his full and proper name: Änanda Selah Ösel
 
Last edited:

justine

stop the penistry
This is definitely an elaborate hoax. Kudos to the college student(s) behind it!

the problem is that it's not elaborate: i don't care about people promoting themselves whenever and wherever they can - how else are you supposed to get your work out there? - it's the laziness combined with the dishonesty that's so fuckin irritating.
 

mjp

Founding member
What I mean is, I don't believe Änanda Selah Ösel is a poet or a real person or anything other than a creation. Some kind of low-rent, JT LeRoy-inspired snickering con. In that way it is elaborate, because someone had to write all that fake bad poetry, then construct a fake poet, designed to make everyone who comes across it think, "Wow, that kid is an asshole."

The fake literary genre, the pictures of the pumped-up-knucklehead frat kid, the "interviews" proclaiming that he's better than poets who are narcissistic or hype themselves (while narcissistically hyping himself) - it's all too tidy and perfect. It has to be carefully designed and crafted bullshit, put out there to establish an unlikable character and provoke an angry response.

So I hail the creators of Änanda Selah Ösel/Ananda Osel as geniuses, and only wish I'd thought of it first.
 
Last edited:

justine

stop the penistry
mjp, you're just too much of a nice guy, always willing to see the best in people and credit them with more intelligence than they actually have.
 

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
Thank God for And A Oh Sell's dirty poetry. It's kicking Bukowski right to the curb. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The reason I'm asking is because while I read the article and then read some of the poetry, and liked it, I'm not too sure that it's a "new genre." I think this weather you like it or not the style here and Bukowski's is too similar to call anything about it "new."

Should have been more specific.
 

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
I think this weather you like it or not...

me? I don't like it. too much rain. it's ruining my garden. the poppies look dismal.

but I'm glad to hear your vagina gets plenty of sun.

bad joke, but wait for it. it grows on you. that's what you get for calling yourself Tannbox.

hopefully, you're a dude, because if you're a lady, I'm just being rude. and that's not kosher. right? am I right?
 

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
I googled this article and noticed this:

[A.S. Osel is the former president of the Black American Student Association. Osel lives and writes in Seattle. He can be reached at ananda@ananda-osel.com.]

Yes, mjp is right. He is an elaborate ruse. If you look him up, he is white/black also he is a master in the ultimate fighting circuit.

This is someone's idea of a joke.

We are moving up the Google search. Soon Ananda Osel's ruse will be #1 on the Google search!

Bill

p.s. Ananda Osel
 

Ambreen

Sordide Sentimental
The funniest thing in all this is the time and energy some here lost in seeking information about the said Ananda Osel on Google and writing their mocking, virulent, never-ending blablablas. Though they could just ignore him/it.
 
Top