BOOK THREAD

Ruby

Well that's a tough one... Burroughs is a real can of worms - disease ridden at that. Can alter yr entire psychology if yr not careful. CAUTION: very high voltage writing! But ya, Junky and Queer are his first two and are completely straight ahead drugstore pulp novels. Quick beachreads but mostly interesting how they set up two of the major themes he'll monomaniacally return to over and over again: the search for sex with idyllic young men (boys, really) and the search for drugs in all four corners of the earth (and eventually solar system). Everything after those two is a real doozy. The Wild Boys is my favourite, maybe cause it was the first one I read and also I just love the crazy cinematic sci-fi-ness of it all (same goes with the Nova Trilogy). I guess it's partially what inspired the Ziggy Stardust character. The later Cities of Red Night trilogy is a great distillation of everything he's done. And ya, Naked Lunch is great, like an exploded version of Junky with a heavy injection of hardboiled crime and satire, and as good a starting place as any. Still boggles the mind that it was a 'best seller' (a very famous trial for obscenity wasn't exactly bad for business either). His essays are interesting too, particularly on writing ('The Adding Machine'). He's got a real dungeon-quack mentality but it certainly isn't without its charm.

I have some advice though: Burroughs primarily works in raw material so whichever one you start with (other than the aforementioned Junky and Queer), don't try to understand what you're reading. Just take it all in as an aesthetic experience. Blast through it and don't look back. Even if half the pages are missing from your copy, don't worry about it. Then, when/if you finish, immediately read it again and I think you'll find that beneath all the degenerate linguistic chaos and disjunct narratives there's a pretty normal book in yr hands. Well, maybe not normal, but perfectly effable. Same goes for the Atrocity Exhibition (Ballard's 'Burroughs' book).

And happy birthday!

BARELY HUMAN

Lammie Anybody here into J.G. Ballard?

I've gotta dive deeper into Ballard's stuff, but I read High-Rise maybe a year ago now and was blown away... he can really take a simple conceipt and imbue it with so much meaning and depth... that book I'd really recommend, total all-timer -- basic premise is a kind of accelerated modern city with this community living in high-rise apartments that's more or less stratified by class (or rooftop access etc is the analogy for class really), shit goes down, drama ensues... I'll never look at elevators or hotel swimming pools the same way again.

Nathan Loud

BARELY HUMAN

I think I forgot that Ballard had a novel call High-Rise. That must be where the Japanese noise psych legends got their name. Need to read.

Ben Lyon

Currently reading Fug You, Ed Sanders' memoir. I'm enjoying it. Just finished Jon Savage's book on Joy Division and the 33⅓ on Kraftwerk's Computer World.

Sukebe_GG

Feeling very bummed...I recently restarted "Sick On You" by Andrew Matheson of the Hollywood Brats, then saw one of my fave r'n'r YT channels was upping Brats and his solo stuff and then saw he has just passed. I was really loving the book, both thoroughly entertaining and really immerses you in the sites and situations, so I don't know why I stopped reading after 100 pages or so but have gone back to start and enjoyed re-reading it immediately.

I finished the "Childish bio To Ease My Troubled Mind" recently and was gonna write a whole spiel about him but eh, not feeling it now...Crazy to think I read his "My Fault" memoir nearly 30 years ago. Been a fan since even longer, so it was enjoyable to get the perspectives and stories into/about his art and life from fellow travelers. It also helped me catch up on him as I hadn't listened to the Loveday stuff much and honestly did not about his son having his own band!

I'm also reading Richard Meltzer's "The Night Alone" - my first foray into his fiction after all these years but it's more memoir erotica memoir - calling it Henry Miller through the Meltzer prism is a bit too simplistic but alas, there you have it. Sometimes very straightforward and poignant and sometimes stream-of-consciousness fly on the wall of an LA or NY city bachelor pad in the mid-70's. I also have "Autumn Rhythms" that I might dive into next...

Regarding Burroughs: I have only read "Queer" and "Naked Lunch" - but had a lot of wild psychedelic coincidances with Burroughs while living in Mexico City, not far from where Burroughs lived and "accidentally" shot his wife (there is actually a tie-in with Childish in that regard! maybe I will be inspired to share my frivolous memoir meanderings later) BUT ANYHOW the death of his wife and then going to Colombia to do Ayahuasca under Ginsberg's suggestion (read "The Yage Letters") was pretty much what changed him from being a straight-ahead documenter of his seedy life to breaking his head open and exposing the inner workings of his life and thoughts on the world...

JessVex

RIP Andrew Matheson of the Hollywood Brats! His book is great!

Lincoln

Summer read #1
Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe

Kind of like that Christopher Nolan film Memento, but set in ancient Greece. Wolfe has a mysterious literary style that isn't very common in speculative fiction, and it suits this story well. Really enjoyed it.

Sukebe_GG

I was browsing the Rare Bird Lit page, finding out they have a large amount of RnR books and spotted "Combat Love" by Alisyn Camerota - a network news type and it is indeed about growing up in NJ with Shrapnel. Anyone read it?

CNN Anchor Alisyn Camerota’s memoir Combat Love is her story of growing up longing for stability and attachment as the foundation of her family crumbled. Set on the Jersey Shore in the free-range 1980s, Camerota finds the belonging she craves courtesy of a local punk rock band named Shrapnel and their diehard fans. Combat Love chronicles her near-misses and misadventures at clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, coupled with the sex, drugs, and punk rock of 1980s New Jersey. By the time she leaves home at sixteen, it feels like home had left her long ago.

Full disclosure: I've always had a man-crush on Air Dave Wyndorf!

Al Dorado

Sukebe_GG haven't read it but i'm curious so i just ordered a copy.

Sukebe_GG

Al Dorado
Coolio! Look forward to a revue!

Maybe there should be a separate Comics/Comix/Graphic Novels etc. thread but for now, I'll just drop this news here

A Collection of 112 Underground Comics from the 1960s and 1970s
Mostly NorCal: Various, 1965-1979. First Edition. 111 vols, in varying condition, though most of them are "very fine" (on CGCs scale) or better. A Majority date from before 1974, which is considered the first wave of underground comix, before the print numbers increased dramatically. Many of them are single issue titles or number ones, and almost 30 of them are Print Mint file copies (the most prolific publisher on the first wave). Several are rare and significant among collectors. Near Fine. Item #1058
Underground Comix remain exactly what their creators intended them to be, an unleashed manifestation of free speech, and a new art released as pure tribal shock from the counter culture, unanticipated, appalling, innovative, upsetting, influential, brazen, obstinate, novel, scandalous, radical, and as irrevocable as a haircut, for their independent writers, artists, publishers, retailers, and for people who witnessed it all, the 20–somethings of 1968, who casually sought philosophical terrain, and social reform, but not at the expense of amusement.

Price: $10,000.00
https://www.biblioctopus.com/pages/books/1058/underground-comix/a-collection-of-112-underground-comics-from-the-1960s-and-1970s

I have a huge digital stash of UGs if anyone is interested!

Nathan Loud

Sukebe_GG

I’m interested. ✅

Sukebe_GG

Nathan Loud

Sure thing! I made a doc of all the Underground stuff, on the first two pages, then everything else I purloined in the late aughts/early 2010's at what seemed to be the peak of people feverishly scanning these artefacts of bygone eras...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ncHstMVLs3bWxutv11XC5UbEK1V0lyQK/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100419080882910422234&rtpof=true&sd=true

pm me to share specific folders!

Lammie

I just finished Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi. Bought it on a whim and thought it was great. A Japanese woman tells her coworkers she is pregnant, because she is sick of being treated as the office's cleaning lady. Washing the used coffee cups is impossible to do ever since the morning sicknesses, she tells them.
Faking pregnancy changes the world around her as well as herself. Is she faking though? The book is beautifully written, a fleeting story rich with symbolism that reflects on living in a big city in the 21st century. The main character is a single working woman in Tokyo. I am none of those things yet I found the story very relatable.
Feeling empty and therefor making up there's something growing inside you is one of the many interesting paradoxes this book presents. Despite its depth I thought it was an easy and very enjoyable read. My favorite line was: 'I wondered how long it had been since I'd talked to someone with fake eyelashes.' If any of this peaks your interest, read it!

Clif

Science Fiction Summer!

So far since school got out I have read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert, and am currently re-reading Nueromancer by William Gibson.

Quick Takes: Snow Crash was amazing. pretty sure it coined the term meta verse. I had read Cryptonomicon before and this is just as good. A tad more straight forward. still a super quick ending. seems to be a Stephenson staple?

Dune Messiah is a bridge book. Paul mainly just laments his slide into apathy and his unwillingness to change his destiny. Clone Duncan Idaho and crazy dwarfs abound

I just feel like I want to re-read Nueromancer. Don't remember a ton of it because I read it when I was 18. I am old now.

BARELY HUMAN

got a bit uninspired with reading the last month or so, so just been picking through Philip K Dick books i've never read that are lying around the house... read A Maze of Death which was so sick, real eery, almost reminded me of Solaris a bit (ironic because of their hilarious feud). then i just finished Clans of the Alphane Moon the other day and that wasn't good... only partly hilarious because among this absurd space opera type thing crossing planets and whatnot, the main character's entire motivation is just like, "i hate my wife".

Lincoln

BARELY HUMAN I swear, I love PKD, but half that man's output was just him processing his feelings about whatever partner he had at the time. The sci-fi king of divorce novels aspect of his work doesn't age well.

BARELY HUMAN

Lincoln haha 100%, it's like bad 1950s stand up sometimes..

have the sci-fi heads in here got any tips on diving into Sam Delaney btw? I read Babel-17 and thought it was sick.. also enjoyed Trouble on Triton a lot but holy shit was it dense (lots of skipping through mathematical equations that outlined the rules to some kind of board game). not sure where to go next, and i sense he's got a pretty big cult following, but i like his approach in everything i've read about him

Lincoln

BARELY HUMAN Dhalgren is probably the Delany classic. It's his most punk novel too IMO. I read it years ago, and ideas from it still come back to me from time to time.

Tales of Neveryon was the first book I read by Delany. I loved it, and the whole Neveryon series. Definitely not your average fantasy novel though 🦄

BARELY HUMAN

Lincoln ah sick! i'll see if i can track dhalgren down.. thanks for the rec. i think i've seen it around before but got intimidated by its length, tho i've been a bit less freaked out by long books lately so should toughen up a bit

dr_chile

My buddy in Albuquerque has an awesome book store called Alarum Books. He specializes in esoteric literature. From the description: "Alarum Books is a rare book firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico established in 2023 by Ryan O'Connor. Our goal is to spread the word about the strange, esoteric, and challenging literature that lives below the surface of our increasingly homogenized reality. We simply want to put books with a real sense of aura into your hands, so that you too may be inspired to create something new.

Our specialties include counter culture; occult; esoteric; modern poetry; modern horror; sleaze; music and private press materials, though we have items in our inventory ranging the spectrum from "relatively normal" to "why does this book exist?" Please feel free to contact us if you're interested in recommendations, or are seeking out a particular item."

https://alarumbooks.com/

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