Richard Hell: Godlike

It's New York City, 1972, and twenty-seven-year old poet Paul Vaughn is feeling old before his time when sixteen-year-old poet R.T. Wode arrives in the city. They begin a tempestuous affair, dropping acid and crashing parties and perambulating the grit and grime of the East Village. Paul is in love with T., but T. is in love with experience. Their relationship disintegrates. This is the premise of Richard Hell's Godlike, a novel of compelling originality and transcendent beauty, originally published in 2005 and now entering the canon of New York Review Classics.

If the premise sounds familiar, that's because Godlike transposes the notorious romance of Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud to the East Village in its squalid, glorious '70s heyday. The book comprises a version of Paul's 1997 hospital notebooks: diaries amidst poems and essays, along with, most pertinently, the poet's third-person memoir-novelette of his youthful time with the now-famous T. Godlike is infused as well with evocations – and sometimes actual poems – of many New York poets of the era, from Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett to Edwin Denby and James Schuyler.

Join host Sean Michaels for a season in hell as Richard Hell discusses his beguiling masterpiece.

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ABOUT THIS EVENT'S GUESTS:

Richard Hell was born and grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, but dropped out of high school and moved alone to New York at the age of seventeen. He first came to public attention in the mid-1970s as an originator of punk. In 1984 he retired from music and returned to his original ambition of writing books. He is the author of several works of fiction, poetry, essays, notebooks, and autobiography, including The Voidoid, Across the Years, Artifact, Go Now, Hot and Cold, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp, Massive Pissed Love, and What Just Happened, as well as co-author of book-length collaborations, including the collection of poems Wanna Go Out? (published under the heteronym Theresa Stern) with the musician Tom Verlaine and the image-texts of Psychopts with the artist Christopher Wool.

Sean Michaels is the award-winning author of the novels Do You Remember Being Born, The Wagers, and Us Conductors. In 2003, he founded the pioneering mp3 blog Said the Gramophone, and his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and many others. His zines IT LASTS FOREVER and IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER can be found at bookstores and on photocopy racks in Montreal.

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This event is part of our signature Salon Series, where we host local and international authors, artists and thinkers in conversation about their new books and big ideas.

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PLAN YOUR VISIT:

Location: Bram and Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street), 2nd floor

Time: Doors open 6:00pm, Event starts 7:00pm.

Tickets: Free registration required.

Ticket policy: We oversell these events to make sure that the greatest number of people have an opportunity to attend. Tickets are guaranteed until 6:45pm or until capacity is reached. Any remaining space will be opened up to the rush line beginning at 6:45pm. Seating first come, first served. Tickets do not guarantee seats.

Accessibility: TPL is committed to accessibility. If you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation for this event, please contact [email protected] or 416-393-7099 at least three weeks prior to the event.

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Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, Canada

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