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Almost got time to think....and read.
Dec. 10th, 2009 06:26 pmWaiting rooms being what they are etc; and lost time between soundcheck and stage; and idling while others are late for rehearsals.
Anyway, I've finally managed to put feet on the ground &etc. So as usual on Thursday I took Poor Mad Felix for lunch. Also booked a Christmas lunch for him (and me, of course) next Friday at 1pm.
Took delivery of a few books yesterday from Abe_Books by an American writer living in Ireland called Seamus Cullen, two of which I read yesterday, and the last of which which I'm halfway through.
They are:
And
Of course, they are all first editions. A Noose of Light and The Sultan's Turret were both published in 1986. Astra and Flondrix ten years previously.
The first two mentioned are sequences that would not be out of place in the Arabian Nights....especially Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation; and are actually rather good, if somewhat rude in places. Apart from the Islamic/Jewish/Christian/Alchemist/Magical elements and the Djinn-and-demon involved sex, I cannot see how they have been overlooked by the folk who devour fantasy literature: but passed-over they have been. Cullen can write, and tell a damn good story; bizarre and strange enough to have been in the original Arabian Nights canon. They've been out of print for years, and undeservedly, given some of the dross that purports to be fantasy writing published this last decade.
Astra and Flondrix is an entirely different property. The word rude doesn't do this book justice. Pornographic fairy stories are few and far between, and well written ones that in some way seem to truly echo older, simpler forms and narratives are as rare as unicorn shit. I'm hugely surprised the nation of furries hasn't taken this book to heart and made it an Ur-text. Bestiality and all-round furriness ain't my thing, but this book is nevertheless good, in a mindblowingly strange way. I could do with a few more synonyms for bizarre. Of course I may change my opinion when I've finished reading it.
I stumbled across Seamus Cullen recently in a collection of comic fantasy edited by Mike Ashley. For the musicians and rock music lovers out there, can you remember when you first heard Twelve_Dreams_of_Dr._Sardonicus? Well, can you remember trying to tell other folk about it, who had no idea of how important and influential it was? And how it came out in 1970 and was criminally overlooked by one and all excepting those who stole from it, and profited from watered-down and repackaged versions of its ideas?
I think Cullen's time may be just around the corner. I'm going to get some lending copies of all three books: I think I may need them. These three books though seem the entirety of his literary output. Bit of a shame, that.
Anyway, I've finally managed to put feet on the ground &etc. So as usual on Thursday I took Poor Mad Felix for lunch. Also booked a Christmas lunch for him (and me, of course) next Friday at 1pm.
Took delivery of a few books yesterday from Abe_Books by an American writer living in Ireland called Seamus Cullen, two of which I read yesterday, and the last of which which I'm halfway through.
They are:
And
Of course, they are all first editions. A Noose of Light and The Sultan's Turret were both published in 1986. Astra and Flondrix ten years previously.
The first two mentioned are sequences that would not be out of place in the Arabian Nights....especially Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation; and are actually rather good, if somewhat rude in places. Apart from the Islamic/Jewish/Christian/Alchemist/Magical elements and the Djinn-and-demon involved sex, I cannot see how they have been overlooked by the folk who devour fantasy literature: but passed-over they have been. Cullen can write, and tell a damn good story; bizarre and strange enough to have been in the original Arabian Nights canon. They've been out of print for years, and undeservedly, given some of the dross that purports to be fantasy writing published this last decade.
Astra and Flondrix is an entirely different property. The word rude doesn't do this book justice. Pornographic fairy stories are few and far between, and well written ones that in some way seem to truly echo older, simpler forms and narratives are as rare as unicorn shit. I'm hugely surprised the nation of furries hasn't taken this book to heart and made it an Ur-text. Bestiality and all-round furriness ain't my thing, but this book is nevertheless good, in a mindblowingly strange way. I could do with a few more synonyms for bizarre. Of course I may change my opinion when I've finished reading it.
I stumbled across Seamus Cullen recently in a collection of comic fantasy edited by Mike Ashley. For the musicians and rock music lovers out there, can you remember when you first heard Twelve_Dreams_of_Dr._Sardonicus? Well, can you remember trying to tell other folk about it, who had no idea of how important and influential it was? And how it came out in 1970 and was criminally overlooked by one and all excepting those who stole from it, and profited from watered-down and repackaged versions of its ideas?
I think Cullen's time may be just around the corner. I'm going to get some lending copies of all three books: I think I may need them. These three books though seem the entirety of his literary output. Bit of a shame, that.
