Category Archives: cult fiction

Cult fiction item #7

Bjorn_Berg_Emil

Björn Berg‘s illustration for one of Astrid Lindgren‘s Emil books.

Swedish graphic artist Björn Berg‘s (1923 – 2008, best-known internationally as the illustrator of Astrid Lindgren‘s Emil books) recent death allows me to introduce Astrid Lindgren‘s short story My Nightingale Is Singing, read it and weep.  Other tales in this collection are equally strong, the whole collection of bleaker short stories by Lindgren is one of the best items of cult fiction of the 20th century. My Nightingale Is Singing is cult fiction item #7.

This city is famous for, or, cult fiction #6

This post is part of the cult fiction series, this issue #6

“This city is famous for its gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts, fetishists, onanists, pornographers, frauds, jades, litterbugs and lesbians. If you have a moment, I shall endeavor to discuss the crime problem with you, but don’t make the mistake of bothering me.” –Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces

Will you talk about yourself?

This post is part of the cult fiction series, this issue #5

The Swimmer (1968) Frank Perry

The famed John Cheever short story appeared in the New Yorker and people talked. Now there will be talk again. When you sense this man’s vibrations and share his colossal hang-up . . . will you see someone you know, or love? When you feel the body-blow power of his broken dreams, will it reach you deep inside, where it hurts? When you talk about “The Swimmer” will you talk about yourself?“

A 2005 collage novel

This post is part of the cult fiction series, this issue #5

Graham Rawle Woman's World

A page from Graham Rawle’s Woman’s World

A collage novel is a form of experimental literature. Images or text clippings are selected from other publications and collaged together following a theme or narrative (not necessarily linear).

The dadaist and surrealist Max Ernst (1891–1976) is generally credited as the inventor of the collage novel. He published the collage novels “Les Malheurs des immortels” (1922, text by Paul Éluard), “La Femme 100 Têtes“ (1929), “Rêve d’une petite fille…” (1930) and “Une Semaine de bonté“ (1933–1934).

Recent examples include the 1970 novel A Humument[1] by Tom Phillips and Graham Rawle’s 2005 Woman’s World.

See also: cut-up technique, appropriation

Introducing French imprint Chute Libre

This post is part of the cult fiction series, this issue #4

Norman Spinrad on Chute Libre

Norman Spinrad on French collection Chute Libre

Chute Libre is/was a French publishing imprint directed by Gérard Leibovici. They published, amongst others, the translated work of the new wave of science fiction authors Philip José Farmer, Norman Spinrad, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny and Theodore Sturgeon.

I can’t remember who I had this conversation with, but the conclusion was that “we” could not find the illustrator of this beautiful series (follow the link to the source post to find some succulent tentacle erotica), so if anyone knows who was behind these designs, please let “us” know.

Norman Spinrad provided the inspiration for the name Heldon, French guitarist Richard Pinhas‘s band (which to me is the bit the French equivalent to Sonic Youth, but 10 years sooner). The name of the band was taken from Spinrad’s 1972 novel The Iron Dream.

Chute libre is French for free fall.

Via bxzzines, see also English-language covers posted by John Coulthart and all the covers in one handy place by Mike.

Hurry, before it’s gone

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcNG4_Z2h5k]

From “The Incredibly Strange Film Show” (1988-89) Ross, Clarke

Apparently, so I found today, the book RE/Search No. 10: Incredibly Strange Films spawned a television documentary series hosted by Jonathan Ross. see the Doris Wishman entry on a YouTube clip here. Hurry, before it’s gone. Someone is going to object soon, be it copyright- or censorship wise.

Other parts of the series are online too.

Cult fiction #3

Verschijningen van Henri Michaux
Verschijningen

I started reading Verschijningen today, a Dutch translation of a selection of texts by Henri Michaux, published by Meulenhoff in 1972.

My first conscious exposure to the thought of Michaux was by way of David Toop‘s Ocean of Sound, in which Toop describes Michaux as an armchair traveler.

The collection comprises Les poètes voyagent (1946); Un certain Plume (1930); Apparitions (1946); Ici Poddema (1946); texts from Façons d’endormi, facons d’eveille; followed by a short essay by the translator Laurens Vancrevel.

My first impressions are based on reading Les poètes voyagent; Un certain Plume and Apparitions, Plume providing the most satisfying reading experience: the whole of Plume breathes Edgar Allan Poe and especially Poe’s incomparable short story Loss of Breath.

Keywords of Michaux’s writing are viscerality; the tropes of the macabre, fantastique, rocambolesque and grotesque; petrifaction, death, the void, lightness and emptiness, “everything-you-know-is-wrong” feelings, disintegration, decapitation and dismemberment, walls (and especially ceilings). All things considered, this is a very eerie collection told in a matter of fact voice.

If the content and tone are definitely Poe, the form of this collection’s most likely sibling is the writing of Baudelaire, and especially Baudelaire’s prose poetry.

The “liner notes” to this collection also alerted me to Images du monde visionnaire, a film by Eric Duvivier and Henri Michaux, an educational film which was produced in 1963 by the film department of Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz (best known for synthesizing LSD in 1938) in order to demonstrate the hallucinogenic effects of mescaline and hashish. It is the only venture in film of notable French writer and painter Henri Michaux. See that film by following the Documents entry, read more at Ombres Blanches.