Bottom Rung of the Literary Ladder
I’m not saying all those books were literary masterpieces but the key thing about hoolie lit is that it knows exactly what it is (or was) and who it is aimed at. As a consequence, not only has it sold a lot of books but just as importantly, those books have brought a lot of people back into reading. Yet as a literary genre, it receives no recognition for what it achieved. I always say that those of us who write it are not simply regarded as the bottom rung of the literary ladder, we’re the bungs on the feet at the bottom.
Andrew Stevens interviews the “yob laureate” Dougie Brimson.
Ex Simulacra
A moment passed while he turned back through his own pages, and forward in the secondary in a panic, sinking, falling into despair, looking forward in the secondary text: she had returned to her seat, but a large coffee stain obscured her actions, as re-narrated from the original. He skipped ahead several pages, having forgotten the passage in its initial form entirely, turning past the stained and faded pages until coming upon a clear page, and coincidentally, its final one. He read the passage, which seemed wholly different from the original (as far as he could remember), stating: “She walked briskly towards the door, exiting, glimpsing a portrait of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara far-up, within a room illuminated by a chance fissure in the overcast sky.
By Derek Hardman.