Northwesterners tend to spend a lot of time wondering what it is to
be a Northwesterner. In fact, that may be the most Northwesty trait of
all. (Do you want to know what it is to be a New Yorker? Fuck
you. That’s what it is to be a New Yorker.) And so the few dozen
people who gathered last Thursday at the Fireside Room in the Sorrento
Hotel could have been taking part in the most Northwestern evening
that’s happened in Seattle for quite a while: a reading for several
small-press titles that concluded with a long discussion about our
immediate geography.
The event was a launch for a new bookstore in the Sorrento called 12
Books that only carries 12 books at a time. These books, which patrons
of the Sorrento can order like room service, are displayed on a
small table in the lobby, and the lineup will change with the seasons.
Many of the titles are from Matthew Stadler’s new line of books,
Publication Studio, which Stadler explained was designed to be
immediate and light on its feet. At the beginning of the evening, 12
Books founder Michael Hebb announced his intent with the bookstore and
the ongoing Night School seminars at the Sorrento was nothing less than
“the revival of literary culture.”
After announcing that books were irrelevant and explaining that he
didn’t mind being irrelevant because relevancy is overrated, Bruce
Benderson read from his Northwest-skewering new novel Pacific Agony (my review is here). Matt Briggs read from
Shoot the Buffalo (originally published by Stadler’s previous
effort, Clear Cut Press), a novel that was out of print until
Publication Studio rescued it from limbo. Both readings ran a bit long,
but the crowd, warm from whiskey drinks, remained appreciative,
especially when Long Winters frontman John Roderick played two
beautiful songs and read from Electric Aphorisms, his collection
of Twitter posts.
The conversation about regionalism at the end of the night was
brainy, dense, and also slightly overlong. The back-and-forth between
East Coaster Benderson and Roderick about the difference between
friendliness and intimacy was occasionally leavened by a very drunk
heckler in the corner, who shouted, “Are you trying to say that
Northwesterners are douchebags?” Roderick, a confident performer,
implied that there was only one douchebag in the room. This was later
confirmed when the heckler bellowed, “Hey, guys! The asshole over here
is saying bullshit!”
The question at the end of the evening: Was literature revived? It
was a good start. If Stadler continues with his nimble publishing
endeavor and if Hebb stays focused on his efforts at the Sorrento (he’s
been known to abandon projects before), then the two men have a shot at
changing the face of literature in the Northwest. Which is, of course,
the only literature that matters to true Northwesterners. 
Oh my god, I totally agree with your first paragraph and would say that the question of the difference between “friendliness” and “intimacy” is their favorite obsession of all. As a former east coaster, the first thing I noticed about Seattle people was their tendency to get so meta on themselves, and it’s always so negative. Of course, the people who talk about how unfriendly Seattle is never consider themselves that way. Shit, I think it’s starting to rub off…
Lovely bit – thanks Paul! not sure I said I was up to “reviving literary culture” if so it was the may negroni’s talking and i aplogize for the awful presumption. hebb.
Glad you enjoyed it. I loved the Manhattans and don’t remember talking about geography. The discussion wasn’t particularly “northwesty” I think. Since Bruce Benderson’s subject in Pacific Agony is regional identity, I asked Bruce (and Matt Briggs, and John Roderick) if they found questions or tropes of regional identity helpful or hindering in their creative work. But you’ll find the same puzzle in the Midwest, Southwest, Upper Midwest, famously in the South, etc., etc. In short, everywhere that is not a cultural capital and therefore becomes defined as a “region” through some enduring magical collusion between the cultural capital that is interested in these “regional” things and those of us who live and think (or try to) amidst the bluster of such conversations. Whose problem is “northwest identity?” I’d like it not to be mine, but that means asking where the question comes from and to whom it is interesting or useful. Oh, and what about Matt Briggs praising Benderson for his “duplicity?” I found that and Bruce’s defensive reaction fascinating and was glad when Lesley Hazleton hoarsely interjected that all fiction is duplicitous.
Nope. Sorry, you’re wrong. It’s the most Northwesty trait of Seattlites and western Washingtonians. I lived in Seattle for 10 years – an economic refugee from Oregon in the ’80s – and quickly became nauseated not only by the collective navel-gazing about ‘what the Northwest MEANS’, and ‘what the world thinks about Seattle’, but particularly the fact that Seattlites actually believe that the Northwest IS Seattle.
Blech. I left for New York.
Been here for 23 years, and have lived in many parts of the Seattle metro area. Raised kids at “good” public schools, bla bla. And still haven’t made a single friend who was raised in the Northwest. Most natives are polite, dull, and well, exceedingly dull.
My theory is that Northwest natives, when they know they’re alone, transform into fabulously interesting and fun people — spontaneous even. But when they are in the company of anyone who wasn’t born here, they claim their territory by trying to bore us all into leaving.
In my case, the strategy will work.
I hate to break the news to some of you (the realists won’t mind)…but in the the big pic outside the US. NOBODY CARES BOUT SEATTLE!!! I have traveled all over and whenever someone asks where I am from, I say Seattle, they get a puzzled look on their face. BECAUSE THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHERE IN THE U.S. IT IS!!! Really it might be the biggest city in the NW, but it is not that hard considering the competion…name some big cities in between san fran and us. You got like one…I love you Seattle but get off your high horse, your one of the most beatiful cities I have ever been to but…