Well, it seems that the first review of Rule Dementia! has hit the net. You may read it here. I can't say that it's what I was hoping for. In fact, it's quite possibly the worst review I've ever had. Just to clarify a few points, the stories in Rule Dementia! were not generally written before those in Morbid Tales. Due to the vagaries of the publishing world, I was unable to put the pieces together in the kind of collections I'd originally envisaged, and so the stories, chronologically, are simply jumbled. However, Rule Dementia! features work that is generally more recent. I would also like to say that the stories feature, in many ways, the direction I am taking, in which plot takes a backseat. The reviewer mentions the many digressions in 'The Haunted Bicycle', for instance. For me, the digressions were the entire point of the whole piece.
Well, I always feel that my work is balanced on a razor edge between rubbish and… er… rubbish, anyway, but so far I've been happily surprised that others disagree. In this case I'm rather saddened that someone seems to agree with me about my own work, at least in the broad, general sense of it being shoddy. The strange thing is, I really don't think there's much of a quality gap between Morbid Tales and Rule Dementia!, if any. In fact, 'The Haunted Bicycle' is one of the few stories that I am close to feeling proud of.
Anyway, such is my insignificant response to this review. I am sorry to have disappointed the reviewer.
To be honest, I think that’s pretty good for a bad review. I mean, it’s not as if he’s saying you are crap per se – quite the reverse in fact – just that this doesn’t reach the high standards he has come to expect of you.The review comes across as a little incongruent to me – on the one hand he’s very fulsome in his praise of the writing, while on the other he says the stories aren’t much good, mainly because of perceived weakness of plot (“Too many digressions, Herr Mozart”).If I were reading the review without having read any of your work, I would probably conclude that his criticisms of Rule Dementia were based on personal taste, a dislike for the direction you have taken in these stories (and there’s nothing wrong with that) rather than their intrinsic quality.Either that or it really is crap. (Only joking!)
No, I think it really is crap.Only joking (he says with a nervous laugh). Oh well, I suppose I need some bad reviews here and there, anyway, for a bit of variety, and to charlatanize me, which is, after all, only how it should be. And I do agree with the writer Dazai Osamu, who writes on the subject of criticism in one of his essays that it is absolutely futile for a writer to try and explain or defend his work. “You can’t say, ‘But you’re wrong. You really should like it, you see.'” Or something like that. I just wish he wouldn’t use adjectives like ‘insipid’ and ‘boring’. Ouch! And it also seems strange that he wrote one of the most favourable reviews I’ve ever had for Morbid Tales. I honestly don’t think there’s such a huge difference between them that one is “the best new writer I’ve encountered since I read H.P. Lovecraft” or something like that, and one is a “severe setback” full of stories that are “boring” and “insipid”. But anyway, I won’t go on about it. Nice avatar, by the way. Thank you very much.
Hi Quentin,Don’t sell yourself short as you usually do 🙁 Yo were published and this is a great hurdle to jump. YOU DID IT!Like Will said.. a bad review is better than someone saying it was Rubbish.. Another thing it’s only this persons point of view on the book not the general public.Keep going I am with you. Eve
Dear Q,As someone who has read Rule Dementia, I can persnally vouch for it not being crap. Anyway, why bother giving a fuck what some loser reviewer from the internet thinks anyway? The best thing about reality is that with a little imagination its so easily fashioned into something which better suits your needs. The review is crap, not you.Love.
Q – Cheers for your compliment on my avatar. I was having a bit of a bad hair day but apart from that I think it’s quite flattering.
Hello everyone. Sorry for my lack of response. I have been busy and depressed.The new term starts at the school where I work soon, and I have to prepare. Oh woe, woe is me. Before I forget, there’s a nice little story here. I find it strangely refreshing.I suppose I should say, I have changed my mind, to some extent, about the review. I think it is a necessary reminder to me not to become complacent. It also reminds me that however much I write, I’m always just beginning. It’s all about what I’m writing from now on, what I want to write. What I have written, in a sense, does not really exist. Art is all just an ongoing attempt.Having said that, if I get time – which I probably won’t – I intend to post an entry partly as a riposte to the review.