What you (may have) missed on 3:AM this week:
Flash fiction: ‘Forget the Fucking Swans’ by Sam Jordison; ‘An American Flag’ by Alan McCormick & Jonny Voss
Poetry: In the nineteenth of his Maintenant series SJ Fowler interviews the Greek poet Krystalli Glyniadakis; ‘Five Poems by Krystalli Glyniadakis
Non-fiction: Courtesy of 3:AM Asia, Japanamerica: ‘Create & Play, Anime Avatars in the USA’ by Roland Kelts
Reviewed: Colin Herd on Pierre Guyotat’s Coma; Jonathan Woods on Ron Rash’s Burning Bright; Max Dunbar on Why Statues Weep: The Best of The Skeptic, Peter Sloterdijk’s Rage and Time: A Psychopolitical Investigation & Bret Easton Ellis’ Imperial Bedrooms:
The critics have a point; the overwhelming vibe of Ellis’s work is a flat low hum, the high white note of a plane overhead, the song of the void: ‘a view that confirmed you were much more alone than you thought you were, a view that inspired the flickering thoughts of suicide.’ Clay gets strange stalkey texts and emails and is followed by men in cars. Throughout this spare novella there is a darker story acted out behind the scenes. We see it in shadows and details. Only Hunter S Thompson did paranoia this well. The sense of impending doom, when there’s not a cloud in the sky.
Imperial Bedrooms is a coda for the completist. The obvious reference is Raymond Chandler, who is quoted at the beginning, but the novel reminded me more of The Sun Also Rises in its economic portrayal of dialogue and drinks. You get the impression Ellis is closing the curtain on something: the question is where he can go from here.
