Hey there -- it's Ben, of . . . well, . . . Stranger Encounters.

I read through Vague Cities and Trans-Siberia. Not to degrade you to my level -- but I feel like Vague Cities in the design and the way it's written is the story I have in my head and would have made eventually had I my shit together and the talent to do so. I've had half-ass attempts at the block designs, and I've written early-20th-century-like testimonial stories to the monster city and intimacy within in. Anyway, thought I'd say I appreciate it.

Also, your Robot26 site is psychotically well designed. Very, very well done!

Oh, have you read any Arthur Schnizler?

Hey Ben,

Thanks! I don't feel 'degraded' no worries. I read the first story in Stranger Encounters and I could see right away a similar sensibility at work. Definitely keep me posted about your future projects! I haven't read Schnizler, but a quick Google search showed him to be a somewhat contemporary (and fellow Austrian) of Stefan Zweig whose work I really admire. Any suggestions where I should start with Schnizler?

Thanks for your thoughtful comment,
Tom K

Actually, I spelled his name wrong -- Arthur Schnitzler. I can't find the book I read in his list of works, and am wondering if it's completely obscure. I read it in the class of a professor who runs this site you might be interested in:

http://www.artmargins.com/

Ah, upon researching a particular phrase I remember, I have everything wrong. Schnitzler may write on themes you'd be interested in, but the particular phrase that reminds me of Vague Cities is from "Kakania" by Robert Musil:

"For some time now such a social idee fixe has been a kind of super-American city where everyone rushes about, or stands still, with a stop-watch in his hand."

. . . and its surrounding text.

(http://www.xs4all.nl/~jikje/Texts/kaka.html)