Paloin Biloid Biography
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Paloin Biloid is the first pen name of Will Napoli, which he
came up with in high school and used for comics, (what was
then called) subprose poetry, science fiction, and within a few
years music then later as a t-shirt designer as well. The name
is actually a subprose (now called protext) piece in itself. The
first name is anagrammatic of Will's last name and the last
name is a combination and familiarization/contraction/mutation
of his first and middle names. Will adopted it, when still called
Bill by most, which he wrote as "Bil" at the time because he
thought it sounded young, poetic, futuristic, streetwise, and
devolutionary. The first name also seemed to signify creativity
to him and the last name indicated modification of the
mundane, if not quite freedom from it. The name probably
owed something to the classic science fiction novel by Anthony
Burgess, A Clockwork Orange and the music and feel of Devo.
For subprose and now protext Will uses the name in all lower
case to indicate allegiance to concrete poetry as an art
movement a few generations old now.
Paloin's Progress
Art
Experimental Comics artist & writer
Fashion
Protext Isle™ t-shirt designer
Music
Earthman's Sound™ musician & song writer
Poetry
Experimental Poetry writer
Protext poet & inventor
Science Fiction
Cyberia™ author
Trademarks - 2010,
Earthman's Enterprises,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Bibliography
book of said (1990)
Speak'sPeak (1990)
Show'sHow! (1991)
concrete concert (1993)
artifacts (1993)
artomic bomb (2000)
water detail (2000)
ice try lip pry (2000)
the subprose onomasticon (2000)
A Better Mosaic (2002)
subprosary (2003)
water line (2003)
hot springs (2003)
fresh water (2003)
cummings and gongs i (2006)
the real read you rad diction (2006)
see green edition (2007)
head water
see water
break water
root loose (2007)
The Protext Primer (2007)
The Protext Primer 2nd Ed. (2007)
The Protext Primer, 3rd Ed. (2008)
not quite write (2008)
ultra mate 'em (2008)
insightful wry utter (2008)
The Protext Primer 4th Ed. (2008)
The Protext Primer Teachers Ed.
(2008)
book o blot (2009)
in their own write (2009)
book of spake (2009)
water log edition (2009)
rose water
water bug
water fall
the reading well (2009)
textroverts (2010)
literature feat (2010)
meaning what (2010)
and various smaller books, poet's
cards, bookmarks, and leaves over
the years.
Biography
Protext
Protext poet, paloin biloid was influenced by the gadget aspects of some of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry
and the freeform aspects of e.e. cummings poetry to invent forms that kicked off his protext career. He
hadn't actually read any concrete poetry before he started writing it, but he does also cite the
inventiveness of Dr. Seuss, which implied that neologistics of even nonsensical words could work and
become accepted as well as the word play of Benny Hill who explored gadget puns to create alternate
readings for humorous effect. There was one prior contact point with word poetry in paloin's education
and that was key. As part of an experimental megaclass in fifth and sixth grade one exercise that came
up was to attempt to draw a word and make it look like what it represented. Will chose the word "shark"
and stylized the letters to carry the image even further than it naturally does even in type. He later did a
report on sharks for biology because he was so taken with this piece, but it did not immediately lead to a
career in concrete or visual poetry, or marine biology. It was at least five years later that he started to
generate concrete and gadget poems. In the meantime he continued to draw, illustrating role playing
games he led and science fiction stories he dabbled at and started working on abstract line drawings
with a friend who was German-born and then minimalist cartoons.
Then in his senior year of high school paloin created a poem, "insomnia" that started with a single word
and created anagrammatic derivatives that read as a poem in a descent from the root word with a single
letter per line that was imitative of Japanese wall scroll paintings of rivers, two of which he had on his
wall. He called this form "subprose" and began developing alternate forms of gadget poetry that turn out
to be similar in some aspects to concrete poetry. In his first quarter at Ohio University the next year he
attended a fiction writing class with Andrew Russ. He shared his poetry with Andrew and then showed
him how his name could be rearranged to say "End war, USSR." Since the Soviet Union was still
around in those days and both are pacifists they thought it was pretty cool. Andrew then shared that his
middle names is "Cairnes" so he was able to extend his name-poem anagram to "End war scare in
USSR," which seemed even cooler. Paloin's own actual name is William Lloyd Napoli, so he had
previously created the name-poem anagram "Aim will, dolly! Plaino?" which also had the sound of
some near future slang that "paloin biloid" has. Andrew eventually started writing similar poetry under
the name endwar, as well as stuart pid in the early days. Both endwar and paloin have corresponded
since their initial meeting in '83 and endwar's work has been shown in Neopolis since its first concrete
poetry show, which opened in late October, 2003. It was in 2003 that paloin converted "subprose" into
"protext" by name.
Eventually endwar and later Chris Franke shared concrete poetry anthologies with paloin that gave him
a chance to relate to the larger community and history of concrete poetry. He had already started to find
other examples of it, including the work of Chris Franke who also resides in Cleveland, in advertising
more and more. Then the whole micropress community of concrete poets became more known to
paloin as Andrew hipped him to more and more contemporaries, which led to joining the Spidertangle
group, which helped enormously to create great shows of the genre at Neopolis. Endwar's interest in
bpNichol is now shared by paloin, but endwar has always been a better collector than paloin so it was
that in 1990 endwar's distilled water emerged as a takeoff on beep's 1970 still water and in 2000 paloin
followed with water detail that referenced both still water and distilled water. Paloin continued the
experiment in 2003 with subprosary which was similarly presented as loose leaves in a black wrap, but
was more a representation of a catalog of the forms paloin used at the time. Also in the same cluster
were water line, hot springs, and fresh water. Whereas water line was an attempt to imitate the style of
still water but with forms from paloin's own repertoire, hot springs repeated forms and fresh water used
fewer forms, mostly the "molecularty" form, which was used to generate the rap name "Hot Water" as a
protext piece using the molecular notation for water and adding a "t" to it. However, in 2007 paloin
created three new take-offs on still water that are all close to it stylistically and presented with green
dividers wrapped together with a short white wrap, which having the appearance of squarish bundles of
cash is called the "see green edition" of the three works: head water, see water, and break water. There
is no other edition at this time, but separate editions with black wraps are likely at some point. There is
also another takeoff on still water by Geof Huth released in 2005 entitled water vapour, which paloin saw
briefly a few years ago. And now there is also a second three-editions-in-one of water works by biloid:
water log (rose water, water bug, water fall) (2009).
Spidertangle.net
water vapour info
Biloid's first books of protext came out in 1990, when endwar's first books were released as well.
Biloid's first book was submitted in a Creative Writing class at Tri-C East for a grade and received a B.
The low-quality hand-drawn xerographic micropress style was admittedly crude, but this was
acknowledged in the presentation of the cover with a crude magnification and reproduction of the
typewritten title. Other similar books followed, all chap books, and then in 2000 the first subprose
onomasticon was published, which is a glossary of forms in use by paloin. A Better Mosaic was
submitted in a Creative Writing class at Cleveland State University, but only features a few experimental
visual poems at the end and is instead an exploration of numerous forms of poetry. In 2006 paloin
wrote and published cummings and gongs i, an homage to e.e. cummings and the real read you rad
diction, which is a collection of poems that appear in pairs with each having the same sequence of
letters, just separated into different words. Selections from both were read by paloin at the Blends and
Bridges show curated by Marcus Bales of Gallery 324 in the Galleria, a few streets over from Neopolis
in downtown Cleveland. A few of paloin's framed pieces, (hanging words 8^), were included in the show
along with these books. In 2007 paloin released a new minibook, root loose, a take-off on Geof Huth's
ampersand squared, which is an impressive collection of word poems by a variety of authors from the
beginning of concrete poetry to today. It includes works by endwar and paloin. Paloin's take-off is not an
anthology, but rather a collection of his own word poems in the style of those collected in ampersand
squared.
Paloin was joined by endwar and Chris Franke as panel members in a discussion of concrete poetry for
Heights Arts in Cleveland Heights, which was moderated by Suzanne DeGaetano of Mac's Backs
bookstore on November 4, 2007. The subprose onomasticon has been updated and expanded with
examples as The Protext Primer for the Heights Arts presentation. Already in its fifth (teachers') edition,
a massive sixth edition underway further expands this experimental poetry reference and will eventually
be available online. Look for continued update information in issues of Opus Soup. Some of the works
of endwar, Chris Franke, and paloin can be found at Mac's Backs or ordered through them. Will Napoli
has taught Visual Poetry in a Parma after-school program (2008).
Blends and Bridges info
Mac's Backs Books
Fashion
Paloin sometimes makes t-shirts out of his word poems or short protext pieces. Of course, he has a
catalog of works that can be placed on canvas and framed or made into a t-shirt for those who are
interested. This service will be available through this website at some point. However, Paloin does
have other thoughts for wilder fashion statements, but limited by the already wide range of work
underway hasn't pursued these thoughts just yet, but maybe.
Experimental Comics
Paloin's experimental comics include his early minimalist comics and a recent return to these as well
as others in between and following. Some of these will be posted within the next few months at least.
Science Fiction
Paloin has a lot of science fiction in the works and a few pieces have been published, as far back as the
early '90s. Cyberia and its introduction, Cyberian Front are the most notable and the works coming out
now. However, Paloin has mapped out a sprawling series and hopes to be able to write at least as
much as he has outlined so far. Covert Science is the vehicle for this science fiction at the moment.
Check it out.
Music
Paloin has recorded some songs that will be posted here soon. They are heavily electronic and some
have tie-ins with his science fiction. Stay tuned.
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