The Missing Links
The rehabilitation of Knut Hamsun * Allen Ginsberg at the Royal Albert Hall 1965 (via Larry-bob Roberts) * Why hasn’t there ever been a good Aleister Crowley movie? (See also, James Bridle’s review of The Devil’s Paintbrush) * Not sure who’s worse, but Ruth Dudley Edwards rips into John Banville (background here) * What we […]
No Logo Lite
While Lawson does touch briefly on the exploitation of labour, he’s coming more from the Affluenza angle: the impact of material wealth upon the purity of our souls. ‘Our pockets are deep but our lives are shallow.’ ‘The IPod is significant as we retreat from society into our own private world.’ ‘The car is an extension of us… we are what we drive.’ Isn’t there a timing issue here? Post-crash, the big problem for most people will not be the abundance of credit, iPhones and Ferrari Testerossas, but the absence of these and other goods: not materialism but a scarcity of materials.
Max Dunbar on Neal Lawson‘s All Consuming.
The Indian Rope Trick
At the heart of every writer lies a paradox. Whereas the other art-forms have a natural communal element, writing necessitates a monkish solitude but also a desperate clawing desire for recognition. The turbulence between these two states is the stuff that can make or break a person. Added to this are life’s natural disasters and the neuroses/bohemianism of creative types which have blazed a trail of glory and destruction from John Clare through Sylvia Plath and d.a. levy to David Foster Wallace. Whereas every successful writer’s path is more or less the same, every doomed one has a unique tale to tell.
Darran Anderson considers the phenomenon of the disappearing writer.
3:AM Reloaded
What you (may have) missed on 3:AM recently: Fiction: ‘Viagra talk is as florid as a baboon’s arse’ by Alan McCormick & Jonny Voss & ‘Receding shopping bags’ by Jessica Patient Reviewed: Karl Whitney on Adam Braver’s Nov 22, 1963: A Novel & Sam Jordison on Daniel Kalder’s Strange Telescopes Interviewed: Tom Bradley talks to […]