a letter to no one 9

First, you accept there is no way back. What is lost is lost and not for any profit that could equal the price paid. What surprises are there in this? Should we not think that the real surprise is having thought any differently? Your life is full of events and each event places an impassable …

Horristocrat 3

But of course in the annihilation of the stereotypes we know, and in spite of the infamous prejudice against prejudice, new stereotypes will emerge. There is no guarantee these new identities will be any better. On the contrary, it seems far more likely that what will emerge will be a fresh evil untethered. Racists have …

Horristocrat 2

I disapprove of what you say, but I will attack to the death your right to say it.

Horristocrat

In Heart of Darkness, Conrad describes a piano as a “sombre and polished sarcophagus” in a passing condemnation of the ivory trade. There's no doubting ivory is an excessive luxury, piano keys can be made just as well of wood as ivory. Yet now that I am recalling some of the songs I've heard played …

Crowds

It is rush hour in the city and the streets are bustling with pedestrians. The pavement is not visible underneath this milling mass of people. There is no unified movement shared among them, patterns and passageways form and then collapse upon themselves. Yet each participant is a person in their own right. Whatever that means. …

Triptycution — new book

I am publishing a new novella. Triptycution is a portmanteau of triptych and execution. As such we have three-part novella on the phenomena of execution, the fear of those inflicted with it and of those dread beings who commit it. The question of suffering has been the most asked in history, but what of those …

a letter to no one 8

The typical pathol-… the typic-… the t-t-t-… tossed trail of breadcrumb-like pride-morsels now lead Hansel and Gretel back to your ancestral Black Forest: home of: you there Struwwelpeter, fingernails protracted, gnasher hygiene protested, you fuppering fairytale fool: a splooging spell, an eye-crossing illusion, a phantasmagoric veil in which questions of this or that are answered …

Joan

First she saw a vision of the road to Vaucouleurs. Then she saw Charles make his solemn prayer, she saw the fall of Orléans, and the Burgundian army flee the field. She saw the archer stretch a smile as he pulled her off her horse, she saw the inquisitor’s proud compassion as he questioned her. …

paracosmic goss

She joins him in the restaurant booth, where he sits scribbling in a notepad. Startled, he smiles and puts away the notebook. She apologises for being late and asks what he was writing. "Just some ideas for a story, it's about a guy going on a date with a beautiful woman," he says and lets …

eyes better to see you with

I read a novel recently, fantastic stuff, and as I got to the end I turned one page more and found a collection of quotes. They ranged from simple praise to ecstatic delight. I read through them, knowing well the delights of having your already formed opinion confirmed by vague celebrities whose fame you would …