Today I don't wish to make of my body a pin-cushion for daggers and long for the grave to obliterate the obscene embarrassment of my existence quite as much as usual, because I have received a package containing a number of Kodagain CDs (five in all), including the demos so far of the Quentin S. Crisp/Kodagain album project, Letters From Quentin. I have not felt this excited about music for years.
I have listened to the demos for Letters From Quentin on the big speakers downstairs for the first time (rather than on the computer speakers here), and I am currently lost for words as to the… I told you I was lost for words. I only think that this will be the best album ever made.
I'm going to be naughty and give you a peek at the titles of the demo songs so far, like a saucy minx lifting her skirt to show her garter. Not all of the songs here (about thirty, I think) will appear on the final album, probably, and there may even be songs as yet unwritten that do make it. Anyway, there'll probably be just over twenty songs on the album proper. Here are the titles so far:
The Letter
Purple Loose-strife
Short-Term Solution
The Iowa Writers' Workshop Lack Yuugen
Three Cherry Trees
Creaking Gate
Radish-Patch Rain
Thomas Ligotti
Tristan Disappointed
Nervous, Before Breakfast
Princess Kaguya
Annette Funicello
Mushrooms
Boys and Girls
The Candle
Mannerisms
Tao Te Ching
Sea and Seagulls
Designer Vagina
The Nagai Kafu Way of Life
Fishes
Stars and Dandelions
Leonard Hatred
Take This Tip From Me
The Old Violin
The Return
I Can't Help Smiling
You Are A Half (lyrics by Justin Isis)
Magibon Is Awfully Quivering
England and France
You By the Bayou
31 titles. I'm going to have to stop sending lyrics to Sasa, because even as it is, it's going to be agony excluding some of these songs from the album.
Anyway, after listening to this demo album, I put on one of the other albums, Diggin' Deep Ain't No Sleep. What can I say? Apart from anything else – a fantastic start with It Takes So Long To Say Goodbye, the whole song resembling a fantastically baroque and wistful yodel. The next song was A Suggestion to My Friend, Liu, a poem by Chu-i Po set to music:
There's a gleam of green in an old bottle,
There's a stir of red in the quiet stove,
There's a feeling of snow in the dusk outside —
What about a cup of wine inside?
To which I reply:
There's a brown parcel on the mat this morning,
There are CDs from Eastern Europe inside.
There's snow outside the cottage, and coal tits flurry by.
How about listenting to Kodagain for a while?
I realise making promises is the last thing I should do, so I won't, but don't be surprised if I write more about some of these CDs later.
You have reason to be excited Quentin. This is a great collaboration. Monumental as far as I’m concerned and an affirmation to your writing.
Thank you. I’m hoping – though I shouldn’t really hope – that this will be a good year for me, as I have various things on the horizon. I can’t mention them all, as some are still uncertain. Some are almost upon us, though. Someone sent me, this morning, another review of my book, for instance. I’m dreadful at waiting for things and I don’t know the release date, but I suppose my author’s copies will turn up one morning like the CDs did this morning:http://www.bookotron.com/agony/Current/Current_Review_3.html
Thank you. I must get ready for work now so will check the links later.
There’s nothing like a surprise delivery on the doorstep.An excellent review IMO. I especially liked these phrases:” …browsing his work is like savouring a delicious vintage wine to be enjoyed sip by sip.”” …when I turn the last page of one of his pieces I feel slightly intoxicated and still longing for more.””I think Crisp is fated to generate debate, to spellbind but irritate like great artists often do.”I don’t know if your books are available in the U.S. I’ve only looked in Bookman’s, the used bookstore I frequent and where I found McCullers’ books. Barnes & Noble is also nearby so I will go there next. The books there are not used, however, so a bit more expensive. They do order for you if they don’t have a particular book in stock.
I think normal bookshops are unlikely to stock it, since it’s a limited print run book. I phoned Waterstones about an event recently, and they said the book wasn’t available through their normal suppliers, so they weren’t interested. Shrike is available from the publisher and some online stores. My other stuff might be on Amazon, e-bay and so on. Rainfall Books, who did Rule Dementia! were out of action for a while, because John’s wife had cancer. Sadly, she died just last year, but the website says that John is now returning to Rainfall Books, though perhaps not working on it as intensively as before. Anyway, some links:http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/acatalog/shrike_hc.htmlhttps://www.horror-mall.com/MORBID-TALES-by-Quentin-S.-Crisp-p-16892.htmlhttp://www.rainfallsite.com/RainfallBooks.htmlhttp://www.rainfallsite.com/NewsRecent4.htmlSomeone wrote to me recently and asked me something like, “Do you know how hard it is to get hold of one of your books, Mr. Crisp?”Well, I’ve been told it’s pretty hard, but I hope not impossible, for those who are interested.
Peter A Leonard writes:
Great news indeed!I love the write-up on the Ex Occidente Press website:http://www.exocccidente.com/allgodsangels.html“The house of literary Romanticism has fallen into sad disrepair. Through its dusty passages are to be heard only the muffled, shivering voices of its ghosts, like the last lingering echoes of some forgotten passion in a lunatic asylum. It has been said that, in the grounds of this ruin, was a hothouse where Romanticism showed its last, grotesque bloom in the form of H. P. Lovecraft, since when the grey desolation of realism has swept over all in a fungoid blight. And yet, there remains a kind of life here, perhaps stranger still than previous blooms, in a weedy and overgrown flowerbed, under the name of Quentin S. Crisp. All God’s Angels, Beware!, the fourth collection of fiction from the contemporary British master of dementia, gathers together for the first time twelve examples of Crisp’s own unique species of decayed Romanticism.”“Master of dementia”, Quentin, that’s an absolute WOW! And you’ve got a bigger print run than any of the other authors!Can’t wait for my copy!Kindest regards.Peter
Hello.An e-mail trickled through today telling me that someone has now recieved a copy of Shrike, so presumably it has now been released into the wild. I shall just check the PS site….Well, it’s still listed as ‘forthcoming’ rather than ‘current’, but presumably that will change soon:http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/acatalog/forthcoming_titles.htmlAnd you’ve got a bigger print run than any of the other authors!Needless to say, I’m pleased about this, but we should keep it quiet, just in case anyone notices and complains.There should be some interviews about Shrike and so on on the Internet soon. Hopefully my answers to the questions won’t simply be stuff that’s long familiar to readers of this blog. Anyway, I’ll let you know any news.Cheers!
Oh, I should also add, the information on the collection at the Ex Occidente site is not 100% definite yet, which is why I haven’t posted a link before. I think the main point of uncertainty is that there might be eleven stories rather than twelve, depending on some technical details.
Hello. I hope that the collection is as good as it sounds here. I mean, obviously I know what it’s like in a way, because I wrote it. My opinion is that it is better than the previous three collections, and from what I gather, the current publisher agrees with me on this. Anyway this is enough to make me forgive you for your latest tirade against the wonderful Richard Dawkins!If my tirades are having the effect of making people think Dawkins is wonderful then they are probably unforgiveable. I should say that I’m fully expecting to meet Mr. Dawkins one of these days. In terms of the whole ‘six degrees of separation’ thing, he must be only about two away from me (hang on, does two in this case indicate the ‘a friend of a friend’ degree of separation – in other words, is it the third person?). Honestly, all the time friends and ‘so on’ of mine are saying, “Oh, I met Richard Dawkins the other day.” I’m not joking. The same probably goes for… Neil Gaiman. I’ve probably lost some friends there with that tirade a while back. And I still haven’t told you the amusing story about the particular degrees of separation between myself and a friend of Dr Ben. But that’s not a story for this blog. This kind of thing happens to me all the time.But the collection is, indeed, a happier subject, for me, at least.
Robin Davies writes:Wow! That new collection sounds awesome. Just the title (inspired by the mighty Joy Division I take it) and mention of “a weird tale in the tradition of Blackwood and Machen” are enough to get my brain salivating in anticipation, if you’ll forgive the expression (which you probably shouldn’t). Anyway this is enough to make me forgive you for your latest tirade against the wonderful Richard Dawkins!