This Thursday Literary Death Match @ Le Poisson Rouge

Truly, could there be something more pretentious than a battle of the literary types? Yeah, I can’t think of anything either. So in a way, witnessing one would sort of be like seeing… I don’t know… something that’s equally representative of such a special mindset. I guess it would be sort of like going to a Springsteen concert even though you weren’t from Jersey… an occasion for some fascinating anthropological study.

All this to say, Thursday at Le Poisson Rouge, something pretty unique is happening. And if the Gods don’t raze the place for their tragic hubris, it will probably be one of the more boast-worthy events in NYC this fall.

This truly flabbergasting event is called Literary Death Match. The idea is that a group of fiction and non-fiction writers duke it out. I think I can promise you right here and now, that no actual fighting will take place. Still, it will be occasion to meet some interesting folks and at the very least break up your routine of porn and noise concerts at Death By Audio. Besides, maybe the contestants won’t be foppish pretenders to modernism but rather reactionary throwbacks to the days when pages were written with blood and tears (quite literally).

Literary Death Match is hosted Electric Literature and features The Atavist, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and BOMB Magazine. The repartee will be judged by such unsung champions of justice as Jon Ronson (a movie star… sounds like his parents got his name backwards… it totally should Ron Jonson, that would make way more sense), Touré (TV personality or essayist or something), and Jamie Lee (of TWTTER!! FME!!!… but for real, apparently she’s super fresh).

The event will start at 7pm. Get your tickets here. Come around and get your fill of (totally not forced or snobbish!) laughter and some real down on the farm kind of culture. Then we can all go home, watch TV, and forget literature even exists.

Literary Death Match
Thursday, Sept. 13th at 7:00pm
$10
Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker St.)
[Greenwich Village]