Although I have written 'things' that might be described as 'horror', I really have no desire to watch films such as Saw V. I suppose I shouldn't judge without watching. After all, I did enjoy The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Still, I suppose that, for me, horror has always been more about atmosphere than gore. I'm not that interested in things that too closely resemble nasty tabloid headlines. I suppose I just don't like violence. It doesn't interest me. And I find that rape, for instance, is almost always very poorly portrayed (in an almost laughable, if that's the right word, Spinal Tap sort of way) in horror films and books. It's like the way that it's okay to slaughter prostitutes left, right and centre in thrillers and so on. If you need a cheap victim, just write in a prostitute.
I'm reminded of a visit to a nearby Asda. Was it Asda? One of those places. Big out-of-town supermarket. I happened to wander through the book section (I don't generally go to supermarkets for my books) and I was, well, I won't say shocked, but taken aback to notice, in the 'bestsellers' section, about half a dozen shelves taken up entirely with books about child abuse. Bestsellers. Supermarket. Child abuse.
There was a definite blurring between fact and fiction. Some of the books – I didn't actually pick any of them off the shelves – looked like trashy fiction, but some were definitely based on real events (trashy fact?), such as a book about the Soham murders, with a title or subtitle that ran something like, "Beyond evil!" And I seem to remember a tagline about entering the sick twisted mind of a killer or something.
Ah, there it is.
So, I often think that I'm far less morbid than 'ordinary people', really. I really have no desire to read this kind of thing.
(PS at later date (Sunday 26th?). Out of curiosity, perhaps to provide a link, I looked up the trailer for Saw V on Youtube. The following captions came up in the trailer: "His message is righteous. His love is everlasting. His gift is life." Hmmm, I thought, this sounds very familiar, and American, especially bearing in mind we're talking about someone who in some way presides over the dismemberment and gruesome death of his victims. Anyway, I began to look for stuff on the first Saw film, thinking to myself that, I supposed the quality of the film all depended on how much it was really examining this kind of attitude and how much it simply was this kind of attitude (not a hint of righteousness about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as far as I recall). Anyway, in the comments under one clip I found the following exchange: "what is this movie about?" "creepy stuff about some1 play god punish bad people". I rest my case. Still, I suppose it's not just America. The writer of Beyond Evil sounded pretty righteous, as I imagine his readers probably are, too. Probably cackling away as they contruct mazes made of saws even as I type this.)
Hello.I shall answer soon, perhaps when I’ve worked out how to send you my postal address when neither of us have e-mail addresses of the other.Thanks.
Anonymous writes:
Dear Quentin,Hello, I’m a big fan of the writing on your website. I probably violently disagree with half of it but never manage to hate you for it, which is a rare compliment from me, and the bits I love I violently love. I would have written before to tell you so, but I don’t do that sort of thing due to time-poorness and shyness, though I’ve left the occasional anonymous mash-note in your comments. However I have to write now because I’ve just put a new piece on my own website and I need to check whether I’ve ripped you off in one of the jokes:www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/bus.htmIt’s the one at the bottom. If I’m remembering it from your site please let me know and I will link and credit.Best,Michael Kellyps If you would like a complimentary copy of Ulrich Haarburste’s book please send me a postal addresspps I don’t have time right now to flatter you properly, but I have bookmarked several of your pieces for various reasons. Also I trust you will take it as a compliment when I say the extracts from your worm novel may be the single most disturbing thing I’ve ever read, and of course brilliant and original. ppps Sorry, this was meant to be a private e-mail but I can’t find a contact address, please delete if appropriate
Obviously I’m going to have to go over this point by point:”Hello, I’m a big fan of the writing on your website. I probably violently disagree with half of it but never manage to hate you for it, which is a rare compliment from me, and the bits I love I violently love. I would have written before to tell you so, but I don’t do that sort of thing due to time-poorness and shyness, though I’ve left the occasional anonymous mash-note in your comments.”Well, big fans are always welcome, and I’m always happy to be the cause of violent feeling, even if it’s only violent dizziness. I’m intrigued at the mention of anonymous mash-up notes.”However I have to write now because I’ve just put a new piece on my own website and I need tocheck whether I’ve ripped you off in one of the jokes:www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/bus.htm”Okay, I’ve looked at it, and I don’t think any of the jokes are my work, and definitely not the one at the bottom, I’m afraid to say, though there are some good ones there. I did promise (or say, anyway) that I’d phase out the Richard Dawkins references on this blog. It’s ridiculous that his name is as large as my own in the ‘tags’ section at the side of this page. And there are people more deserving of critical examination – such as Ray Kurzweil. But since he has been brought up again, like a bad scotch egg, I’ll just say that I’ve noticed a striking resemblance between Richard Dawkins and Mark Heap, and I think the latter should play the former in a film of his life, soon, like this. And I suppose, in that case, Julia Davis or Amelia Bullmore should play Lalla Ward. “ps If you would like a complimentary copy of Ulrich Haarburste’s book please send me a postal address”I’ve thought about this, and I would like to maintain the illusion that it actually matters whether or not I give out my e-mail address on the Internet, so I’ll look for contact details on your own site, and, if I can’t find them, I’ll post a special e-mail address here, to which I would very much like you to write. I’ll explain when I post it. It’s an honour, incidentally (if such a thing can ever be incidental) to be communicating with the person who brought the world Ulrich Haarburste. I don’t mean in the sense of being his father, or the midwife, or that kind of thing.”pps I don’t have time right now to flatter you properly, but I have bookmarked several of yourpieces for various reasons. Also I trust you will take it as a compliment when I say the extracts from your worm novel may be the single most disturbing thing I’ve ever read, and of course brilliant and original.”Well, no one has that sort of time. I’m very glad you mentioned The Sex Life of Worms, which I did, indeed, begin to serialise on this blog a couple of years back. There are, in fact, hundreds of pages of this novel still lying around in various notebooks in longhand. The concept of the story for me – or part of the concept – was that it would start out ridiculously over the top and escalate from there, over the course of, well, hundreds of pages. But I never finished it. Perhaps I will one day. In the meantime, maybe I should serialise what I have written of it on Chomu. I’d be interested to hear opinions on this.”ppps Sorry, this was meant to be a private e-mail but I can’t find a contact address, please delete if appropriate”I’m afraid I won’t delete it unless you specifically ask me to. However, I will either post a contact e-mail here soon, or I shall find your own contact e-mail if it exists online.
Okay, I’ve decided to do something precipitate.Yes, I have.For the most part I have been loath to connect this blog in any way with my ‘professional life’. Of course, I mention here, occasionally, that I’m a writer, but unfortunately, that’s not my ‘professional life’. Or anyway, the kind of writing I mention here isn’t, exactly.However, I do have a ‘professional life’ that involves writing. Basically I do freelance writing. And particularly translating, from Japanese to English. I am fluent in Japanese, can read, speak and write it. If you need some translation done, or if you need the work of a freelance writer, please contact me here:[email protected] if you want to send me a free copy of a book about Roy Orbison wrapped in clingfilm or something (Roy Orbison and the book).I realise that my blog probably doesn’t give the impression of someone level-headed and dependable, but that’s where you’re wrong. It’s the others you can’t trust – not me. I’m surrounded by incompetents. It’s always the incompetent bastards who look most professional and slick. Don’t you find?Anyway, never mind that. I’m not joking. You can reach me at that address if you need the services of a freelance writer etcetera. Times are hard and strange, and I thought I might as well advertise even in this place where I am loath to talk business.