1,095 words
Jalal El-Kadali
Oyster Mountain: Poems
Charleston, WV: Nine-Banded Books, 2020
To say that frogs turn
Into princes is blasphemy
Against Nature; Salvador Dali, however
Was a painter who painted the things in his subconscious
The world of his dreams; at least
He didn’t expect anyone to believe that they were real
At least he wasn’t telling lies to children (more…)
3,924 words
Quotes from the Naked Lunch film are unreferenced. Quotes from the text have a chapter reference, as page references are different between the various published editions and formats.
Naked Lunch is David Cronenberg’s 1991 adaptation of William Burroughs’ novel of the same name. It is likely as close to a direct adaptation of the novel as possible, given that Naked Lunch is a postmodern piece of fiction with many asides and no clear narrative structure. (more…)
4,611 words
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, with Peter Christopherson
Brion Gysin: His Name Was Master
Texts and Interviews by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, with Peter Christopherson. Edited with notes by Andrew M. McKenzie. Introductions by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge & Carl Abrahamsson
Trapart Books, 2018
“[Brion Gysin was] the only man that I’ve ever respected in my life. I’ve admired people, I’ve liked them, but he’s the only man I’ve ever respected.”[1]
2,857 words
HAarlem VEnison
DEATHTOTHEWORLD: an interracial racist love story
Evohum Press, 2016
“I feel like the dirt on the ground. I can’t tell up from down anymore.”
In modern society, only the so-called or self-styled “racist” is the true free-thinker, the true outsider. If so, then the race-realists must assert their identification with, and take for their own, the literature – or literatures – of the Outsider.
6,095 words
Harper Lee
Go Set a Watchman: A Novel
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015
“I almost don’t care what the critics say as long as I can write another one.”[1]
“Mockingbird is a classic, but you’ve probably read it before, and it’s no more relevant to your future legal career than 12 Angry Men is to picking a jury. (more…)
1,282 words
“The white people invented the atom bomb, and a little later they disappeared.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Rigadon
May 27th is the 121st birthday of French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline (real name: Louis-Ferdinand Destouches)—avant-garde novelist, propagandist, dissident, and physician. In America Céline is mainly known for his first two dark, expressionistic novels, first published in the 1930s, (more…)
2,028 words
Paul Bingham and Emril Krestle
Black House Rocked
Hopeless Books, Uninc., 2015
“I’ve often wondered what happens to people when they get out of prison. People like you, I mean. Can they get jobs, do old friends rally around them? What if they never had any friends?” – Dial ‘M’ for Murder
No sooner had I hit “send” on my review of Only Lovers Left Alive,[1] (more…)
2,989 words
Dave Wallis
Only Lovers Left Alive
London: Anthony Blond, 1964
Richmond, Va.: Valancourt, 2015
“In those days, before the death of the last square . . .”
At some point, I suppose with Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange,[1] the “youth in trouble” genre, already fairly exploitative beneath its standard moralistic framework,[2] mutated into a “cult of youth” format, (more…)
2,547 words
Fenek Solère
The Partisan
London: Iron Sky Publishing, 2014
“How disheartening to those who uphold the myth of manhood based on muscles and metallic strength: this alone is the true man, the absolute man! He absorbs within himself the ambiguous virtue of the female. Lao-tzu talks about the invisible magic of the feminine, which in a feline fashion attracts and absorbs in itself man’s action . . .”
— Julius Evola, “Serpentine Wisdom”[1] (more…)
5,685 words
Matthew Levi Stevens
The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs
Oxford: Mandrake of Oxford, 2014[1]
My very first question to him, a living, breathing, Beatnik legend in the flesh was . . . “Tell me about magick?” William was not in the least surprised by my question. “Care for a drink?” he asked. Putting on the TV to watch The Man from U.N.C.L.E., he explained “Reality is not really all it’s cracked up to be, you know . . .”—Genesis P-Orridge (more…)
4,540 words
Bradley R. Smith
A Personal History of Moral Decay
Charleston, W.V.: Nine-Banded Books, 2014
“I’m setting out to see the world and make my fortune, just like they did in the old days. I know I’m past the age when these things are normally taken care of, but I’m a slow starter.”
4,320 words
Part 3 of 3
While smiling a lot, the colonists in Odd John don’t talk much at all, which just adds to their creepiness.
William S. Burroughs with the hint of a smile
5,047 words
Part 2 of 3 (part 1 here)
Alan Watts’ notion of “fascinating ugliness” leads us to another important theme is the disquieting or even repulsive “beauty” of John and his kind. Here is Jacqueline:
But though passably ‘human,’ according to the standards of Homo sapiens, she was strange. Were I an imaginative writer, and not merely a journalist, I might be able to suggest symbolically something of the almost “creepy” effect she had on me, something of its remote and sleepy power. (more…)
4,763 words
Part 1 of 3
Olaf Stapledon
Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest
London: Methuen, 1935 (Etext)
“Well,” said John, “I’m thought queer because I have more brains than most children.”
After making my way through The Flames, and having read Last and First Men already, I decided to press ahead in my Kindle anthology by tackling Odd John, (more…)
