I am back in Wales.
I've also just discovered this, a great piece by the artist Vincent Chong, which, according to his website, is destined for my forthcoming novella, Shrike. The strange thing is, a piece of cover art, from the same artist, already exists. But maybe this is for the back cover, or something. Even then, there is a photograph that I believe is earmarked for the back. I'm rather impatient to see the finished item now to discover how it's all going to work together.
By the way, for those who have pre-ordered copies of the novella, thank you, and my apologies for the fact that its publication appears to have been delayed. I'd like to be able to promise to have something out in the meantime for you to enjoy, but I simply haven't acheived the status yet where I can guarantee that a publisher or editor will even read something new I've written, let alone publish it. I do tend to feel, with each thing written and published, that I'm basically back to square one; I don't yet get the sense of things 'snowballing', I'm afraid.
I've been reflecting on this a lot recently.
I'm glad to have had the supporters I have, in terms of publishers and readers, but have to say that I don't yet really feel understood by more than a handful of people, and this is frustrating. It's also scary in a way to have my marginal status increasingly brought home to me by encounters similar to the age-old pairing of head and brick wall. It would be nice to think I had my finger on 'the pulse', but it seems this sensation comes from me simply having my finger on 'a pulse', and, it turns out, some nameless and morbid pulse wholly different to that which titillates the fingertips of most of those with whom I share this planet. I frequently have experiences which seem somewhat like sitting with someone and holding their hand only to have them say goodbye and rise from the bench, leaving me wondering whose hand it is that I am still holding. Because I am alone again with this five-fingered beast.
Someone recently told me that he wasn't really keen on the kind of thing I write, but that he felt I was probably writing within a very particular field about which he knew little. Well, this is true, and yet it's false. I think if I really were writing in a particular field or genre, life would be much, much easier for me. But genres are tribal, and I think that none of these tribes – the most obvious candidates would be horror, science fiction and fantasy – would look at me and recognise me as one of their own. On the other hand, there's still too much of the ghetto-smell of genre about me for me to belong in the world of Booker Prize winners and other humanistic, literary writers who all produce utterly forgettable prose. I'm too tired to explain why this is at the moment. But…
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.
'Alone', by Edgar Allan Poe.
No, I can't explain more right now. I must sleep. By the way, as mentioned, I did see Morrissey live on Friday, and will probably blog the event at some point in the near future.
“I’m glad to have had the supporters I have, in terms of publishers and readers, but have to say that I don’t yet really feel understood by more than a handful of people, and this is frustrating.”this seems to be the life of a writer. it’s not cool.
Hello.”this seems to be the life of a writer. it’s not cool.”No, unfortunately it’s rather tiring. I keep wracking my lazy brain trying to think of something to do about it. It’s like planning a bank heist, but far more difficult and perilous.Incidentally, I’ve just noticed that I didn’t read the information on Vincent Chong’s website carefully enough. The illustration in this post is, indeed, the back cover illustration.
why don’t they appear??? :eyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5sIXUbMgF0
best video of tool in my opinion.
oh, btw I liked the image. reminds me some dolls of the band called ‘tool’.have you herad this band before? let me find some video for you.
anywayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiV_ue-PbL4&feature=related
Those videos are excellent. They’re very much the kind of thing that I hope to evoke in what I write – the same kind of imagery, which I feel is expressive of the emerging human psyche, that is to say, the dreams that we are just on the verge of dreaming that we still don’t quite understand.The second of them looks like the work of the Brothers Quay:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWtaGI9zuIYI'm sure it must be. I suppose what I write isn’t always as dark as that, though. I think I have a bit of a whimsical streak. Also, I’m very influenced by Japanese literature, so I love anything that’s ridiculously aestheticised.
I am not sure what to think about japanese literature. I just know a bit of their cinema, which is amazing on the dark movies, terror and similar. I’d like to read some japanese literature. what you recommend first?
I guess they have used some of the stop motion animation of the quay brother’s. see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_bandThe directors of the videos are inspired in them.
In terms of Japanese literature, it depends on what kind of thing you like. The strange thing is – perhaps – that although I have been very interested in gothic literature, and very interested in Japanese literature, I haven’t read that much that incorporates both the Japanese and the gothic/supernatural elements. So, I’m not sure I can recommend much Japanese stuff in the vein of the Tool videos. I simply don’t know that much. My own favourite Japanese writers are as follows:Nagai Kafu, Mishima Yukio, Dazai Osamu, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Higuchi Ichiyo. I’m always trying to expand my reading, but for some reason it’s become very hard these days… Ho hum.Anyway, in terms of novels, I’d recommend Mishima as a good starting place, and specifically, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. That’s its English title, of course. I don’t know what language you prefer to read in. Anyway, the story is loosely based on the real incident of a buddhist acolyte burning down a famous temple in the fifties. If you like reading in English, then I would definitely recommend The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories as a starting place. (I don’t know if it’s published in other languages.)http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Japanese-Short-Stories-Books/dp/0192803727It’s an excellent anthology by any standards. I don’t think there were more than one or two stories in there that I didn’t find to be brilliant. It basically includes short stories of modern Japanese literature, which is from 1868. If you’re interested in earlier stuff, I’m afraid I don’t know that well enough to give a very authoritative opinion of what to read, but I do very much like Hojoki, which is a very slender essay cum autobiography written by a hermit who has abandoned the world to live in a kind of portable hut. I think, though, that classical Japanese literature (IE pre-modern) is much more difficult to translate successfully, certainly into English. The pith and simplicity of the original Japanese has a poetic resonance that hardly ever comes across at all in English. Much of the pre-modern stuff (and even the modern stuff) is probably, to the Western reader, an acquired taste, anyway. A lot of the time, there’s really no action or development at all. I’ve recently finished reading The Tosa Diary, which basically recounts a voyage by sea, from the provinces back to Kyoto. But really, nothing happens. Sometimes the weather is bad, so they can’t put out to sea that day. But sometimes the weather is good. At one point they see cranes perched atop pine trees on the shore. And that’s about it. Personally, I quite like it, but some people might wonder how it’s managed to survive hundreds of years. With the caveat that translations of classical Japanese literature tend to be criminally limp, Ihara Saikaku might be of some interest, too. The little of his prose I’ve read in the original is fascinating, but I haven’t read any of his stuff in translation, I’m afraid. So… basically I’d say it’s best to start with the modern stuff, and maybe work your way backwards if you find yourself interested. Oh, also, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro always writes humdinging stories, so, even if the translation is not great, they usually work really well. Tool look really interesting. I don’t know why I’ve never heard of them.
Justin Isis writes:
Yumiko Kurahashi reminds me of Tool, especially the story she has about a hermaphroditic alien which is sexually abused by a young brother and sister. The alien reminded me of the little man in the “Sober” and “Aenima” videos.
I still haven’t got round to reading her stuff. Damn! The frustrations of limited time! I’m not sure I even brought the book with me to Wales. Maybe it’s in one of these tiresome boxes, which I’ll no doubt have to shove elsewhere when my Welsh tenure is up for reasons of flood, fire or penury.
thank you very much Q. I’ll do my best to find them online and I’ll read them, even if it has only in English. you showed me many sources. 🙂 thank you!oh, I’m listening something that made me remind of you. Meiko Kaji. 🙂 I like!
When you mentioned the word ‘genre’ it brought to mind a conversation I had years ago when a fellow artist told me I should stick to one style, one genre and not to use so many different colors. I thought to myself, what do I say to this person who paints picture after picture of pretty little posies. I really don’t remember what I said in response because it was too long ago and I have continued to paint whatever is in my head…..using different styles, brush strokes, colors, genres. Is it getting me anywhere?…..maybe when I’m dead.
“thank you very much Q.”That’s okay. My pleasure, as they say. “I’ll do my best to find them online and I’ll read them, even if it has only in English.”I expect there are Portuguese translations of Mishima, but I might be wrong.”you showed me many sources. thank you!oh, I’m listening something that made me remind of you. Meiko Kaji. I like!”I quite like enka, but I think I like Okinawa minyo better. I’m not an expert, but there must be some crossover, I think. I spent last night trying to find some decent clips of Okinanwa minyo on youtube, but there don’t seem to be any. Not ones that I like much, anyway. Hang on, I’ll have another quick look. This is not bad:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IVkphrAx9YHmmm, as I suspected, though, all the best stuff has been taken down.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAQliRRRp4sI hate that about Youtube. All the best stuff gets taken down very quickly. I can never find what I want on the Internet, generally. For intance, I was looking for a clip of when Fry went out with Amy in Futurama on Youtube recently and couldn’t find one.Ah, this is a bit better:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1TOgv35J8Not everyone’s taste, I’m sure, but I like it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qq_fnLzobE“When you mentioned the word ‘genre’ it brought to mind a conversation I had years ago when a fellow artist told me I should stick to one style, one genre and not to use so many different colors. I thought to myself, what do I say to this person who paints picture after picture of pretty little posies. I really don’t remember what I said in response because it was too long ago and I have continued to paint whatever is in my head…..using different styles, brush strokes, colors, genres. Is it getting me anywhere?…..maybe when I’m dead.”Yes, I sympathise. I’m beginning to think that this whole thing about genre somehow expresses the basic struggle of my entire life. I seem to feel the same way about everything. I don’t like to stick with one thing, whether that is politically, philosophically or artistically. It seems many people can’t comprehend this. I could go on about this at some length, but I don’t want to be a bore. I don’t know. I suppose I would say that, people find it childish when teenagers gang together and call themselves ‘goths’, ‘punks’ or whatever, and yet, this very same tendency can be seen in every single aspect of human life, religious, social and artistic. It drives me mad.
is this his name? okinawa mynio? I’m trying to find in soulseek.
oh, ok. I guess I understood. Noooot…
Ah, I should have explained. Okinawa refers to the southernmost group of Japanese islands, though some might say that they are not Japanese. ‘Minyo’ just means folk music, really.
The music by Tool is cool. 🙂 However, the videos were disturbing 😮 only because I have seen faces and figures similar to these. They are in a group of paintings I did when my mother was dying of cancer and the year after her death. I have not taken pictures of them yet. Soon.
In other words, when I was grieving for my mom, AND in the process of painting, I saw these faces and figures in my head, so I painted them.
“oh, ok. I guess I understood. Noooot…”I could have explained it better. Nice Borat impression, by the way.”In other words, when I was grieving for my mom, AND in the process of painting, I saw these faces and figures in my head, so I painted them.”I see things not entirely dissimilar, but with writing, it’s very hard to describe them directly. Direct description seems to destroy the feeling that the images have. They have to be suggested in some roundabout way. Do you find yourself able to paint things as you imagine them?
“Do you find yourself able to paint things as you imagine them?”Often, but also, with the way I paint, I sometimes see things in the paint. What I mean is, I will often coat the canvas with a layer of paint, let it dry, then paint on another layer. Before the second layer is dry, I’ll rub off some in a random way, using a brush, rag, scraper, or whatever. I’ll see the other color underneath and start seeing shapes and things. If I get into a ‘zone’, no telling what I will see. It is a whole different process if I have a set plan of what I am going to paint such as a diesel engine, a figure, etc. It’s funny trying to explain what I do because I don’t even think about it when I’m doing it.