With Endgames, Marton Koppany seems to be attempting to step beyond his trademark “poor” or minimalist work, which I think is his source of strength. This is indeed a difficult proposition for originals like M.K. who arrive at a form that seems perfectly to fit what they have to say. Where to go next? Armand Schwerner was in a similar situation with his “Tablets,” I think and he eventually arrived at a complicated, totally self-self-self-conscious articulation for his series that–I have to admit–disenchanted me. Marton also takes one or two steps in that direction with his “Graffiti 1-12″ series in which he riffs on his trademark empty frames and cryptic statements, by adding seemingly personal, perhaps even autobiographical, annotations. And this is the point: to anyone who knows the previous work, “Graffiti” comes across as a step toward the self-involved, the more easily indentifiable, even the cute. The genuine shock, the metaphysical humor, of the older work is replaced here with a commentary on the autobiographical narrative that we’ve encountered before.

Finally–a note on my own publishing philosophy for Ahadada books. In 2003 I published a fine little collection of Marton Koppany’s work, which is still available through SPD. I do believe that this book presents some of the best and most brilliant of Marton’s work. We worked hard to produce and promote this book and we find that we still have quite a few copies left. Although I would love to continue to publish Marton Koppany’s work, which I genuinely admire, I’ve decided to forego the pleasure until we’ve sold all we have of Marton’s books. That policy will apply across the board to most of our authors. So if my friend Marton Koppany would like to help us move some of our stock of his books we’d love to see another manuscript. It’s just business.