Monday 4 April 2011

Strange Attractor Journal Four etc

So much for March's posts.

I'll shortly have to decide whether or not to continue this blog (which I wouldn't have started through choice) after finishing my degree. I think I will; the novelty of seeing places I'd never heard of on the Analytics map hasn't worn off yet.

Anyway, as you're probably aware if you're interested in this sort of thing, Journal Four of the wonderful Strange Attractor is out now, featuring contributions from Ken Hollings, Erik Davis, Alan Moore, Mike Jay and others. It also has very nice cover art by Julian House.

Coincidentally, I was using that same split eye image on an (abandoned, for now) cover for The Atrocity Exhibition.

At the moment I'm also reading a novel by an author I discovered through Journal Two, Foam of the Daze by Boris Vian. It looks like I was lucky to get hold of a cheap copy. Do people really pay these prices? I then made up for it by spending an absurd amount on a book about Ikko Tanaka (although nothing like what they're asking for it now).

Tell you what, Monster Brains has been on a roll lately. Check out the recent posts on Alfred Kubin, Jaroslav Panuska, C.J. Pyle, Carlo Somaschini, Boris Zabirokhin and A. Paul Weber, among others. And it was strange seeing Dougal Dixon's Man After Man and The New Dinosaurs again: I borrowed them from Chorley Library as a kid but I'd completely forgotten they existed.

Oh, and while I've been away A Journey Round My Skull has become 50 Watts. Does this guy ever sleep?

2 comments:

  1. Never sleep!

    I'm glad you've decided to keep up with this blog.

    It sucks that "Foam" is unavailable, but I think it will be temporary. The publisher, Tam Tam Books, publishes a bunch of Vian's books and I'm sure they won't let it go out of print. Send them an email.

    Re: your praise of the recent Monster Brains posts: I sent basically the exact paragraph to Aeron in a recent email. Quite a roll.

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  2. Thanks. Expect mostly lazy posts for the next few weeks though!

    Only halfway through Foam but I think I'll be checking out some more of Vian's books. It's strange, it doesn't seem like a novel that should have such niche appeal (even if the translator has to explain half the jokes). The same goes for The Tenant by Roland Topor, but then maybe that says more about me than it does about the public's tastes...

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