'The Virtual Revolution' on BBC2 TV last night says World Wide Web (WWW) was invented in CERN. Seems therefore a good name for the Internet: CERN Zoo?
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_cern_zoo_page.htm
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Over a thousand new and previously published stories by DFL:
http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/reinvented_wheel.mws
NEW STORIES IN 2009:
All Endings Are Happy: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/all_endings_are_happy.htm
KNOTS: All Endings Are Happy: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?p=15898
A Cthulhu Mythos Story: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/a_cthulhu_mythos_story.mws
GLIMPSE: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/01/glimpse.html
Drowsy With Divinity: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=464312875
And The Exploding Marrow: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/and_the_exploding_marrow.htm
Diary of a 21st Century Drunk -
Entry One: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=136537694&blogID=466078745
Entry Two: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/entry_two.htm
Entry Three: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/01/man-oba.html
Entry Four: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/109295.html
Entry Five: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2526
Entry Six: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=145421249&blogID=467220266
Entry Seven: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/the_knot_of_knots.mws
Entry Eight: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2009/01/30/on-the-poe.html
Ligottus: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/ligottum.htm
Derivatives: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/02/derivatives.html
The Fubbcuckle: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/name_for_the_credit_crunch.htm
Yesterday Was A Funny Day: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/yesterday_was_a_funny_day.htm
The Stumbling Fear: http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/sreply/98667/t/Credit-Crunch-recession-or-depression-.html
Build A Character - http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2615
The Orchard - http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=17395&postcount=1
Demolish A Character: http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=17426&postcount=3
5 Apr: The Art Gallery: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/04/art-gallery.html
9 Apr: Naan Bread & Slippers: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/109682.html
12 Apr: Cern Zoo: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/?entry=345388
17 Apr: The Drains Are Blocked: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/299.html
2 May: Celliano: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2878
15 May: A Handbag: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/05/handbag.html
http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/110014.html 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" by the Clacton Writer's Group (14.5.09)
24 May: Éclaircissement (a poem): http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=21796&postcount=319
19 Jun: Last Song: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/110864.html
19 Jun: The End of the Pier: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_end_of_the_pier.htm
21 Jun: Taught by Masters: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/06/taught-by-masters.html
29 Jun: Made From Passion: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/made_from_passion.mws
11 Aug: Tea and Biscuits:
http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/114066.html
16 Aug: A Candle Dream
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/a_candle_dream.htm
17 Aug: The Art of Caring for Candle-Dreeamers
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_art_of_caring_for_candledreamers.htm
10 Sep: Rods & Mockers
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/rods__mockers.htm
15 Sep: Two Old Gents
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/two_old_gents.htm
25 Sep: Another Two Old Gents
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/09/another-two-old-gents.html#links
26 Sep: Yet Another pair Of Old Gents
http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/yet_another_pair_of_old_gents.mws
8 Oct: The Two Old Gents Have Flights Of Fancy http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/10/two-old-gents-have-flights-of-fancy.html
11 Oct: Pirate
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/10/pirate.html
Charles - Steve Rasnic Tem
A marked parallel with the type of relationship in ‘My Brother’s Keeper’, but there it was a sibling one, here a mother / son one. A Pinteresque setting, significantly in the context without perceived pauses. The abode is evocatively seedy and disowned, but disowned by whom? Not a whodunnit, as such, but more who’s the leaseholder? I’m sure the headlease author once thought he knew. But the beauty of this truly haunting story is that the reader at least senses that there is nobody at all wielding the levers of collusion-with-some-reality. A wonderful emptiness where once there had been at least one person to imagine another person. As if the ‘hanging-rocks’ here are not caves or cromlechs, or sunning-places, but dark corners where even death itself cannot subsist. One wonders if flights of stairs in these places create acts of ascent and descent that transform time itself on each occasion they are undertaken with only the Proustian selves of the same eventually depleting person being able to pass each other. Like all well-anthologised Horror fiction, each story subsists separately as well as communally, each of them thus strangely empowering a negativity or tabula-rasa that becomes its unique strength. (18 August 09)
Unearthed - Kim Lakin-Smith
I seem to have read these stories more quickly than I originally indicated above. This seems to be as if time is erasable in hindsight, a concept that seems to be working towards this story: this rite of retribution and paralleling events: almost a Jamie Bulger type re-enactment, involving skinning ... and the caves or inferred cromlechs of Nottingham, some of which form the beer cellar of a theme pub where our protagonist works. It is as if we are looking through the other end of the telescope and seeing the fate of vanished or imaginary ones i.e. the result of ‘absorption’ by the ‘hanging-rocks’ prefigured earlier in this clutch of stories. Can I get into your skin? - a question posed by this story: a real ‘imaginary friend’ fleshing itself out from its position as ghost ... re-tracing the life/death symbiosis represented, in particular, by ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ and ‘Charles’. The tanners here as ‘flatrock sunners’? Flayrock skinners? The men who work at Brysons? Unstuffing beasts with blood? Feeding families by removing those they would otherwise need to feed - in accordance with Swift’s ‘Modest Proposal’?
In many ways, this story is a coda or bonus track, a run-of-the-mill tale of young people in a Horror film escapade. This is the one story that does not stand up on its own, I feel, but benefits from the company it keeps. The final unravelling of the marvellous fiction-self that this clutch of stories represents was with ‘Charles’ – and now this last story is, at best, a cleansing of the palate or relinquishment of the gestalt’s lease. Not really my style of story, so I may be diminishing it by calling it a coda or bonus track. (18 August 09 - two hours later)
.
NB: There is also much else of value to the Horror reader in ‘Black Static’ in addition to its fiction: - www.ttapress.com
Flatrock Sunners - Sarah Totton
This story – let there be no mistake – stands memorably on its own as a rite of passage of a boy’s growing up among a ‘mythology’ of not only real ‘imaginary friends’ but also real “imaginary enemies”, of unknown authorship (the protagonist’s or some other force?), yet presumably a mythology facilitated by his father who was in turn created by the author whose name is appended to the story.
A story’s standing on its own can be changed or enhanced or downgraded (or simply sent along fault-lines it never intended) by the context in which one reads it. Here, for me, it is indeed enhanced. But it doesn’t need enhancing. It just is. But any potential enhancement, even if not strictly required for creating this as a wonderful story in itself (which it undeniably is), can never be unwelcome. Here we have echoes of the ratcheting in time from ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ (here a clock not a watch), the adult conspiracies as seen by the young protagonist, the figures on the shoreline that here become even more pliable as physical structures, the threats of the real ‘imaginary enemies’. It also has the Peter Pan type of timelessness. And a sense of the utterly sad creatures from the end of ‘Bryson Feeds Families’. Feeds Families being a key phrase to keep in mind when proceeding further, perhaps. We shall see. In any event, I love the concept of its flatrock sunners, its petting zoo, and all the filmic pliability of Totton’s story. It needs nothing else but itself. (17 August 09 - another 5 hours later)
Stone Whispers - Tim Casson
I wish my wife and I had found this solitary island by mistake instead of Sark when we were on holiday there many years ago. The story’s wonderful ‘genius loci’ is strangely combined with its opposite: an explicit dislocation. A reclusive (sexless?) couple, George unpredictable and gauche, Celia a poet, are ostensibly ‘invaded’ by some sensual hooray-henries in a boat which they can hardly steer. Milk cows, if not the beef ones from ‘Bryson Feeds Families’. Plus a time paradox as if from the blend of the previous stories, represented by a slowing and quickening gramophone and story-telling scene narrating millennia without account of any inactive periods. A ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ scenario (that also had a time paradox and cromlechs (or caves of sorts), I recall) where I can imagine George and Celia being ‘flatrock sunners’ basking before vanishing into the stone whispers of Celia’s own poem. Or have they vanished into this very story, as if into its word cromlechs, where their only family issue will be those who once were made by dead bones? Only by reading it will you be able to unlock what I say. Not a spoiler, but its opposite. (17 August 09 - another 3
I’m starting another of my real-time reviews. This time it is of the fiction stories in TTA Press's ‘BLACK STATIC’ - Issue 12 (August/September 2009). I shall attempt to draw out all the fiction's leitmotifs and mould them into a gestalt. This review will be done slowly, savouringly, in real time, so please do not look back here more than once every few days for additions. All my real-time reviews are linked from here: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/recent_reviews_of_books_by_dfl.htm.
My Brother's Keeper - Nina Allan
My standard introduction to my real-time reviews shown above seemed even more appropriate once I started reading this haunting story of fluid existence passing through a fixed perspective together with the steady fade-in and fade-out of people in one’s life, not only because real-time is treated here with TCP ointment (Time Conflux Parentage (my inference) any others?) but also a telling reference to Wagner’s Ring Cycle – a work that probably invented leitmotifs in music. This story has childhood angsts blending brilliantly with other serendipities and synchronised shards of random truth and fiction. Also related to a Ligottian figure (named Ferenc here) and to childhood’s ‘imaginary friends’ made real. And adult conspiracies too grown-up to fathom. Dark family secrets. And Elizabeth-Bowenesque tea-time sea-side set pieces that I think of as Nineteen Fifties but subject to a modern timelessness invoked by the protagonist’s prized gift of a watch. A well-jewelled piece. A nice movement. (17 August 09)
Bryson Feeds Families - T.F. Davenport
An ostensibly didactic prose work, designed from six discrete responses to interview questions, responses from people involved in or affected by the meat trade, all six in juxtaposition, telling a story culminating in a physically and emotionally gut-wrenching finale. But not, thankfully, didactic, in the end, for me. More, I feel, a symphony in six movements: adult conspiracies regarding selfishness and cruelty and blinkered existence. The animals are not animals, but tantamount to those ‘imaginary friends’ in a childhood Rupert book, which makes their fate even more gut-wrenching. Didacticism through the back door, skilfully done. But that's only one interpretation. Only one response to the question the whole piece asks. (17 August 09 - two hours later)
Hole discovered by Yellowish Haze in Wheel Safety-Net now replaced:
Night Shade Message Boards:
DF Lewis: http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/8/8.html
Nemonymous: http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/201/201.html?1163701394
To read 'A Pocket Sea': a story collaboration by several writers on one of Jeff VanderMeer's message boards, please click
http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/15/303.html?1076686442
CABINETS project on Jeff VanderMeer's message boards:
http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/15/425.html
http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/15/1267.html
Hello Des (first thread in 2003 on Night Shade Books Forum):
http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/8/31.html?1155369609
===============
THE MASSIVE 'QUiNCUNX'
http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1304
ALMOND COTTAGE:
RAW AIR
SEVEN MILES TO KIDWELLY:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=145421249&blogID=238716767&MyToken=716d41c6-fa46-4697-9ae2-cfd2ff2bba31
WAS THAT A MESSAGE OR A MOVEMENT?:
THE PLUG: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/03/plug.html
GRANDFATHER CLOCK: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2007/03/08/
SIMONETTA'S LEGS:
EM: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/212.html
AMONG THE PRAMS: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/104097.html
THE DARK THRASH: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/the_dark_thrash.mws
PADGETT WEGGS XIV: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/01/padgett-weggs-xiv.html
HAMSITA: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/hamsita.htm
MORE GIVE THAN ANGLES: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/03/10/more-give-than-angles.html
THE FAIR OF THE DOG: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/03/fair-of-dog.html
MR. RAMPIVES:
DOWN TO THE BOOTS:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=239485060&MyToken=6b7b54c4-eb76-4edc-9073-276dddb7c3b3
AFTER THE REQUIEM: http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1653777/after-the-requiem/
THREADING THE NIGHT: https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1653780/threading-the-night/
A PAUSE TOO FAR: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/a_pause_too_far.mws
A BENCHMARK FOR GHOSTS: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/297.html
THE BLIND: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1654352/the-blind/
TO THE NORTH: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/weirdtongue/index.blog/1654356/to-the-north/
THE METAL GHOST: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/12/05/the-metal-ghost.html
A ROOTLESS THOUGHT: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/104410.html
ONE SIDING IN TIME: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/one_siding_in_time.htm
THE BRAINWRIGHT: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2007/03/12/
THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT:
THE LURK DESCENDING: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_lurk_descending.htm
A MOUSEFUL OF PINS: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/03/mouseful-of-pins.html
CIGARETTES AND DANDELIONS: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2007/03/14/
THE BOY WHO HAD THE MAN'S DREAMS: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/104525.html
GESTALT: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/214.html
SPARKS OF DUSK: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/sparks_of_dusk.mws
A DIFFERENT FACE: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1656102/a-different-face/
BUMPSADAISY: https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1657409/bumpsadaisy/
MORE GIVE THAN ANGLES: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/03/10/more-give-than-angles.html
THE MAYPOLE: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/03/17/the-maypole.html
TWICE: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/03/17/twice.html
SAYINGS OF THE EARTH: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/03/17/the-sayings-of-earth.html
AN INFUSION OF DREAM: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1657407/an-infusion-of-dream/
ADRIAN'S SPACEWALK: http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1657410/adrians-spacewalk/
THE PIANO-PLAYER HAS NO FINGERS (No. 1):
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/03/piano-player-has-no-fingers-no-1.html
A TALE OF TWO TODGERS: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/11/tale-of-two-todgers.html
GENTLEMAN GEORGE: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/gentleman_george.htm
FLOSSHEAD: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/flosshead.mws
A CORE UNTO ITSELF: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/215.html
WOKEN WITH A KISS / RINGING THE CHAINS
THE DOORMAN COULDN'T SLEEP:
THE LETHAL CHAMBER:
SHUNT: http://elizabethbowen.fortunecity.com/blog/entry92.html
LECHLADE: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/03/lechlade.html
SHADOWS OF SIGHT: https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1662703/shadows-of-sight/
A MULTITUDE OF SINS: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/108947.html
ABOUT NOTHING: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/03/about-nothing.html
LOVE ON THE LINE: http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1663838/love-on-the-line/
BEYOND DEATH: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2007/03/27/
CLUMSY NIRVANA: http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/12/05/clumsy-nirvana.html
NADINE DOGNAHNYI: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=136537694&blogID=445920511&Mytoken=FD9BC8A9-319C-4925-A921AA8BFA8B79E5270967769
DARK FILMS & FLAPDOWNS: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1664264/dark-films-and-flapdowns/
SYMBOL CREAM: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/weirdtongue/index.blog/1664268/symbol-cream/
FOLLOWING THE RHYTHMIC RAKES: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/following_the_rhythmic_rakes.mws
HEADCOUNT:
LEFT FOOT (2):
THE IRREDICIBLES OF NYGREMAUNCE: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_irreducibles_of_nygremaunce.htm
SNAIL TRAIL (2):
THE LAST PENNY:
SOFT LUGGAGE: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/03/soft-luggage.html
CLIMB DOWN EVERY MOUNTAIN: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/217.html
BEYOND THE HELP OF MORTALS: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2007/03/31/
BEGGARMAN, THIEF: http://elizabethbowen.fortunecity.com/blog/entry30.html
THE PIANO:
DABBLING WITH DIABELLI: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=138197636&blogID=445921845&Mytoken=F9A82D1C-C0A9-4669-BD5AE4498B2FC955271664453
DEREK & VERITY: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=136537694&blogID=445921117&Mytoken=8A2FC9FE-2055-4A38-BE293DA05F5AD83B236984829
POPPER'S IN THE WINE: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/poppers_in_the_wine.mws
SEASCAPE: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/223.html
MADAME CLAUDIA: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1671695/madame-claudia/
CARTWHEEL CRAZY: http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/weirdtongue/index.blog/1671699/cartwheel-crazy/
MAX HAZE: https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1671703/max-haze/
YELLOW CARGO: http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1675039/yellow-cargo/
DARK COMETS: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2007/04/09/
THE RESIDENT (2): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/11/resident-2.html
DEATH WHERE IS THY STING?: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/death_where_is_thy_sting.htm
A WORK OF ART (1) & (2): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/04/work-of-art.html
OWEN'S DAMASCUS ROAD: http://elizabethbowen.fortunecity.com/blog/entry31.html
BEYOND THE BOOKCASE: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/218.html
THE HORN'S LAST RITE: http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/the_horns_last_rite.mws
ONION SOUP: http://elizabethbowen.fortunecity.com/blog/entry28.html
VOW OF CONTRITION: http://elizabethbowen.fortunecity.com/blog/entry49.html
Most DFL story collaborations:
DFL COLLABORATIONS (!) ARE LINKED FROM HERE:
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/dfl_collaborations.htm
===================
CONTINUATION OF STORIES PREVIOUSLY PRINT PUBLISHED AND NOW UPLOADED TO THE 'WEIRDMONGER WHEEL' in 2008:
Smart Suit Day (Psychopoetica 1996): http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=386897173&Mytoken=2EFBCA49-E941-4A8E-B48403816449D31612109248
Ancient Crafts (Stabat Mater: Multimedia DFL experience - Digital Workshop 1996): http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/272.html
Gardening Tips (The Cimmerian Journal 1996): http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2008/05/01/
Soft Steps & Rockeries (Butterfly & Bloomer! 1996): http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/soft_steps_and_rockeries.mws
Dawning (Purple Patch 1996): http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/dawning.mws
Simply Sick Again (not dead but dreaming 1996): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/05/published-not-dead-but-dreaming-1996.html
Belly Laugh (Spotted Rhubarb 1996): http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/belly_laugh.mws
Simply A Stranger (Psychotrope 1998): http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2008/05/11/
Only Parts Are Real (Next Phase 1996): http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/277.html
Trooping the Colour (Footsteps 1996): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/05/trooping-colour.html
The Prince's Wood (Sierra Heaven 1996): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/05/princes-wood.html
Rising Sap (In Your Face 1996): http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=398041693&Mytoken=84DF62C3-4F48-4CF0-8F284B789D6AA9B266821464
Somewhere (Colchester Library 1996): http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1816326/somewhere/
Wake In The Morling (Eco-Runes 1996): https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1816331/wake-in-the-morling/
Tree Panning (Geek Love 1996): http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1817713/tree-panning/
Folded Away (Mail Art - Wearwolf 1996): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/06/folded-away.html
Magicked by the Moon (not dead but dreaming 1996): http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?p=9868
Wooden Box (New Hope International 1996): http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/weirdtongue/index.blog/1818887/wooden-box/
Face (frisson 1996): http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=445884539&Mytoken=993BA952-B44E-4FEC-AE5A7EB37B2812B7212196726
Comings and Goings (Three 1996): http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/06/09/comings-and-goings.html
Posthumous Prize (Psychopoetica 1996): http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/posthumous_prize.mws
Mummy's Boy (Trash City 1996): http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2008/06/10/
The Provenance of Souls (Dreams & Nightmares 1996): http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/278.html
Rituals of the Clock (Writer's Block Magazine 1997): http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/108323.html
Widow's Weeds (Beyond the Boundaries 1997): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/06/widows-weeds.html
Desultory (QRD 1997): http://nemonymous.tripod.com/word_hunger/index.blog/1820917/desultory/
INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION (Strange Wonderland 1997): http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/industrial_evolution.mws
In The Beginning Was The Word (frisson 1997): http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=406732971&Mytoken=8DD1C038-471F-4956-939EE05E6548C86A205349400
XXXX (Zine Zone 1997): http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/279.html
Oblongs of Oblation (Psychotrope 1997): http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1863951/oblongs-of-oblation/
The Secret House (Unreal Dreams 1997): http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/06/secret-house.html
Transferred:
Separation (Dementia 13 1991): http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1826766/separation/
The Dream I Was (Masque 1994): https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1826765/the-dream-i-was/
Headless Hall (Barddoni 1991): http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1826764/headless-hall/
Love & Stitches (Psychotrope 1994): http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=414179590&Mytoken=C81CC67F-14F7-484D-8EEAB50D21C9B88924255531
The Jinx (Purple Patch 1990): http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/280.html
Epilogue (Hadrosaur Tales 1997); http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/07/epilogue.html
The Groundling (Dark Horizons 1990): http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/100142.html
Office Block (Purple Patch 1990); https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1863952/office-block/
Where I Came In (Cobweb 1990): http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/07/11/where-i-came-in.html
CONTINUED ELSEWHERE ON THE WEIRDMONGER WHEEL
==================================================
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http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/08/backseat-dreamer.html - Backseat Dreamer
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/08/both-sides-of-midnight.html - Both Sides of Midnight
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/08/deathless-in-venice.html - Deathless In Venice
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/09/dark-hem.html - The Dark Hem
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/09/ounce-of-three-castles-and-packet-of.html - An Ounce of Three Castles and a Packet of Blue Rizla
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/09/dark-miscegenation.html - A Dark Miscegenation
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/10/monkey-who-did-not-like-its-hat.html - The Monkey Who Did Not Like Its Hat
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/11/deep-one.html - A Deep One
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/11/spare.html - Spare
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/12/end-of-season.html - End of Season
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2006/03/i-blame-mother.html - I Blame The Mother
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2006/04/dies-irae.html - Dies Irae
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2006/05/old-familiar-places.html - The Old Familiar Places
THE EXQUISITION: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_exquisition.htm
Solaris (A Lyttony): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/solaris.htm
======================
Twelve DFL collaborations with TIM LEBBON:
DIRTY PIPES (Peeping Tom 1999)
WANDERING PIANOS (Blood From Stone 1999)
SORDID LIMBS (Nasty Piece Of Work 1997)
WORDLESS WAFFLES (The Dream Zone 1999)
INKY STORIES (Hadrosaur Tales 2001)
EMPTY BREAKFASTS (fantasque 2000)
PRESUMPTIVE SPIRITS (unpublished)
===================================
MOST DFL COLLABORATIONS (!) ARE LINKED FROM HERE:
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/dfl_collaborations.htm
===================================
TENTACLES ACROSS THE ATLANTIC:
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/tentacles_across_the_atlantic_by_df_lewis.htm
===================================
BRAND NEW FICTIONS WRITTEN FOR THE FIRST TIME DURING 2008:
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/a_watery_grave.htm WATERY GRAVE
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_soft_scoop.htm THE SOFT SCOOP
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_smoke_issued_from_the_lonely_boot.htm THE SMOKE ISSUED FROM THE LONELY BOOT
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/tread_lightly.htm TREAD LIGHTLY
http://vaultofevil.proboards75.com/index.cgi?board=filth&action=display&thread=1200759483 HACK AGAINST THE PILLOWS
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/tread_lightly_2.htm TREAD LIGHTLY (2)
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/marys_broken_house.htm MARY'S BROKEN HOUSE (by Wordhunger)
http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/the_house_of_mr_moses.mws
THE HOUSE OF MR MOSES
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/hp_lovecraft_was_not_a_good_prophet.htm
HP LOVECRAFT WAS NOT A GOOD PROPHET
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/shirty.htm
SHIRTY
http://nemonymous.tripod.com/word_hunger/index.blog/1852397/the-gazing-stacks/
THE GAZING STACKS
http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2008/02/22/
WHIRLYGIG
http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/whirlygig_2.mws
WHIRLYGIG (2)
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_drogulus_1.htm
THE EXUNGULATION OF THE DROGULUS
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/beware_spoilers.htm
BEWARE SPOILERS
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/woodland_without_trees.htm
WOODLAND WITHOUT TREES
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_famulus.htm
THE FAMULUS
http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1585
THE GRINAGOG
http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/the_hummum.mws
THE HUMMUM
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_mentagra.htm
THE MENTAGRA
http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1615
One Day At A Time
The Teapot Moved: HERE
The Mirror: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_mirror.htm
The Mirror (2): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_mirror_2.htm
The Teapot Moved (2): HERE
The Hoop: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2008/04/27/
===================================================================
Original Secret Wheel (3):
http://weirdmonger.mindsay.com/a_live_show.mws: A Live Show
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/03/tales-of-touching-love.html - Tales Of Touching Love
http://elizabethbowen.fortunecity.com/blog/entry53.html: Stretch of the Imagination
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/03/blessed-in-oils.html - Blessed In Oils
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/03/soft-furnishings.html#links - Soft Furnishings
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/04/builder-dragons-of-planet-ishgilia.html - The Builder Dragons of Planet Ishgilia
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/04/he-felt-as-if.html - He Felt As If...
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/04/estate-duty.html - Estate Duty
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/04/absent-without-leave.html - Absent Without Leave
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/05/raw-air.html - Raw Air
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/05/misanthropy-on-naze.html - Misanthropy-on-the-Naze
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/05/do-ghosts-dream-of-winding-sheets.html - Do Ghosts Dream of Winding-Sheets?
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/06/billy-belly.html - Billy Belly
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/06/absence.html - The Absence
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/07/princess-and-rose.html - The Princess and the Rose
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2005/07/and-more.html - And More
==================
https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1836982/a-disorderly-imagination/
http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1836983/ambulance-chasers/
http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1949 why behind the fence?
http://simplon.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/09/01/father-of-the-head.html
This Flight Tonight: http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/285.html
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/a_live_show.htm
Even Dogs Could Talk: http://weirdmonger.livejournal.com/2008/09/02/
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/09/dark-footnotes.html
http://nemonymous.tripod.com/word_hunger/index.blog/1838641/only-in-the-past-do-the-dead-talk/
Count The Dreams: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=80029030&blogID=429523199&Mytoken=528BB813-CC54-4DE9-A33A6A2F4771147833219770
My Favourite Book: https://augusthog.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1838647/my-favourite/
http://weirdtongue.tripod.com/weirdtongue/index.blog/1838650/office-block/
http://wordonymous.tripod.com/blog/index.blog/1838652/the-extra/
Mostly Monochrome Stories
by John Travis
The ExaggeratedPress 2009
Having just bought this book, I intend to write one of my real-time reviews...
I shall write here a review of each of the 23 stories as and when I read them, while trying to discover leit-motifs and the book's eventual gestalt.
I am not reading the Author's Note or Simon Clark's introduction until I've reviewed all the stories.
Caveat: There is one story written in collaboration with myself ('Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat') and one of the stories ('Nothing') was first published in 'Nemonymous' in 2002.
MY PREVIOUS REAL-TIME REVIEWS ARE LINKED FROM HERE.
===========================================
Pyjamarama
...is the place of punishment with which Slink, the protagonist as a child, was threatened by his mother if he didn’t sleep deeply enough. Now, Slink, in late middle age, discovers it wasn’t just a silly story.
This opening Travision makes the particular general or the personal universal or your enemies avuncular or the inanimate directional or text tactile. And all vice versa.
Travis, judging by this story alone, cannot be labelled. I have read much literature over my 60-odd years – but, to me, this is a genuinely ‘primary cause’ seedbed or some ‘first mover’ clockmaking that cannot be called by any expression such as (author’s name)-ian or (genre-generated word)-ific or even (invented word)-esque. Perhaps I’ll think of something by the time my off-kilter kiln is fired up enough. (27 May 09)
.
The Guy Who Nailed Himself to the Bench(Dedicated to a stupid little band from Boston)
I’ve now realised why these are ‘monochrome stories’ – the print on the paper shows up black and white. But I have as yet to fathom the ‘mostly’.
Large nails in the previous story; large nails in this.
Indeed, I sense stigmata. This story is like being laid-back in a surreal fairground-ride (where you feel unduly safe), one which takes your breath away until it comes to rest with an anchor of thought that seems to make you think you’ve returned to some form of reality – albeit an entropy that most realities tend to be.
The tramps, the lodgers, the cars, the trains, the supermarkets, the indefinable diurnal objects are all ingredients of what we believe to be reality. This makes me think there is a distinction indeed between one reality and a different, but equally real, reality, both of which realities dream of the other. And literary surreality or weird fiction (which these Truth-Travisions (so far) tend to approximate but fundamentally differ from) are satellites in orbit around a balance of realities that is rollercoaster-oblique but which the author (I infer) thinks is static-straightforward.
“...the lack of light meant he wasn’t sure what he was looking at.” (27 May 09 - 3 hours later)
.
Idle Hands...are the Devil’s tools? That’s why my hands are busy reviewing this book. Meanwhile, do many idle hands make light work even lighter?
This is a relatively short empathic monologue-fable which made me want to write this review on my office wall rather than on the computer screen. Are today’s youth all that bad? In the early sixties, one of my Grammar School teachers was rumoured – on his many sick days – to be watching the static Test Card consistently all day on his TV, waiting for the real programmes to start at 5 pm. How did they know? One or two of his truanting pupils spied him doing this through the crack in his parlour curtains. I don’t know why, but this ‘story’ reminded me of that long-forgotten (till now) memory. I wonder if he turned down the Test Card’s musak? The generation gap is between two realities. A gap now filled in with various real and virtual surfaces to paint words on. New culture-breaking words. And we can all become writers...whatever the scribbled nonsense.
“...eat from a can and drink yourself into insensibility in front of an out-of-focus TV set...” I wonder if it’s in monochrome, like the actual reality of the old days was? (28 May 09)
.
Nothing
Unlike with most of the other stories in this book, I have been familiar with ‘Nothing’ for a few years. It is close to my heart. I can only say – upon re-reading it just now – it remains a genuine classic for me, a story that should win awards and be filmed or dramatised and anthologised in famous books. The only story that is genuinely successful in depicting dimmer-switch controlled identities – a most beautiful treatment of love and bereavement...
And, in my current frame of mind, this quite short story is tantamount to the noth or nth degree.
A declining intransitive (or intravistive) verb: I noth, you noth, he noths, he is nothing, I am nothing, I was nothing, I had been nothing, we would have been nothing, you nothed, we had nothed, I will noth ... not so much the opposite of ‘become’ but rather its necessary partner in a symbiosis of verbal power. The plurality of both. The singularity of neither.
“...but still he couldn’t be with them, as they filled every room and cranny and nook.” (28 May 09 - 2 hours later)
The Happy Misanthropist
“Time had no meaning; it was just a procession of dark and shade, dark and shade...”Molière, eat your heart out. And Suzy Quatro. I note from Google that this story was first published in print during 2006. But it is one crazy capricious flash fiction of mixed-up Proustian selves for today in 2009. Particularly in the UK!
"Looking from the windows I saw a group of men and women attacking a man in an expensive suit. Looking closely I recognised him as the local MP. That made me laugh, at least.” (28 May 09 - another 2 hours later)
.
Dance of the Selves
More Proustian selves? Not exactly. But I shall pencil in a thesis for later this year that shall explore with some rigorous scholarship the angle of selves in this Book of Travisions. Meanwhile, this story is a substantial tale of one of those shops one sometimes finds and often can’t find again, although the protagonist here does find it again. Sometimes stationary, sometimes shifting stationery. This perfect gem of a story, I’m sure, will be found most delightful to all lovers of fantasy, weird, supernatural and horror fiction – and of old-fashioned school pencil-cases or geometry-sets. And to answer this question: ‘All the lonely people / Where do they all come from?’ one must first look to one’s own time-flow of selves as elves, because one will soon feel them attenuate ... to become someone else’s selves? Or worse. "It’s a rare adult indeed who retains any creativity after puberty. Personally I think the world would be a much better place if we were all creative. It’d give us something to look forward to for a start. Bring the magic back into people’s lives, that’s what I say. A bit of magic. Self expression! It’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?” (29 May 09)
.
The Terror and the Tortoiseshell (A Benji Spriteman Story)
A skittish ‘film noir’ where anthropomorphisals masquerade as detectives and detective’s molls. I’d have thought this perfect for the forthcoming ‘Cern Zoo’ book had it been submitted! The most dead-pan oblique ending that makes normal punch-lines judy-squeezers. A Travisty. [Wasn’t it Angus Wilson, not Arthur Machen, who wrote that Zoo story this story mentioned? Ah, ‘The Terror’ was by Machen. Hmmm.] (29 May 09 - 3 hours later)
.
Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat (Written in collaboration with D F Lewis)Well, I can’t exactly remember knuckledragging with Travis on this one and which finger is whose. It reads a crazy well. The pen is like the pencil in ‘Dance of the Selves’? And actual black-and-white words are anthropomorphised amid back doubles and rat runs of plot made mock-poetic. Either pretentiously silly or shamefacedly clever. Protagonist’s identity angst seemed very nemonymous to me. Don’t hold back, I say to the two writers. No half-measures. [Sandstorms? Didn’t Alex Garland write something about a beach?]
"But there was the book. Alan saw it standing before the door flapping its pages and rustling its cover like so many cardboard peacocks eager to get between the shelves." (29 May 09 - another hour later)
The Flooding of Mark Wiper
“‘All for nothing. All for nothing.’ I wanted to tell him how wrong he was.”
An inverse or mutant version of the story called ‘Nothing’ – reminding me at moments of the (retrospectively risky) shape-of-a-mountain-building scene from the film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ ... and of certain aspects of Allen Ashley’s story ‘Life Under Water’. An ironically vicious circle where an artist’s creation can be its own destruction. “Misery breeding Misery”.
You try to build props in a theatrical attempt to underpin your existence. But when they collapse or turn against you, it’s worse than having built them in the first place. That often happens with any artist, especially so-called fiction writers who take these risks on behalf of the readers. The more make-believable these risks, the riskier they are.
“The walk brought back the loneliness of Christmas; the only difference being the colour of the paving slabs, a dull beige here instead of grey.” (30 May 09)
.
Self Disgust
This title takes on a new force in the light of the treatment of Proustian selves in some of the previous stories. It is about a beach. It only takes up a page – but what power can be in just one page of prose. This was a vision (for me) of the nature of dying. Frightening enough simply being that.Yet, it was overlaid with a more positive aspect: one’s own selves dying one by one ... to provide an evolution of selves. (Cf. The Close Encounters reference above). There is this tension . There was this tension in the previous story. Nothing is black and white in Travis.
“Waves crawl over discoloured beige sand then retreat in bubbles of gritty foam.” (30 May 09 - 2 hours later)
The Other Exhibition
“The sky, a mixture of pumice grey, purple and orange, hummed at him like a refrigerator.”
Dear Reader of this Review,
Reading this delightful story is like entering an exhibition of my favourite painter: René Magritte ... in palimpsest!
It is simply wonderful. Over-dosing on my own senses for their own sake.
Yours nothingly, Oswald Masters.
“...nothing spoiled by signatures or explanations.” (31 May 09)
To be continued...