a sociopathic FBI profiler finds a dark path and takes it. some time later, two more agents follow in his footsteps. murder, rape, rage, despair, raci...morea sociopathic FBI profiler finds a dark path and takes it. some time later, two more agents follow in his footsteps. murder, rape, rage, despair, racism, homophobia, a swinger party, a cult, hallucinatory freak-outs, nightmarish dreamscapes, Deep Ones, Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, H.P. Lovecraft, and gruesome bloody slaughter are all delivered in a timely fashion.
celebrated genius Alan Moore's graphic novel was, per the author's own admission, done for a paycheck and so that's that. it was also removed from a public library earlier this year due to its shuddery subject matter. here on Goodreads, reviews are mixed but many readers have reacted very negatively to all of the horrific nastiness on display.
so let's get that horrific nastiness out of the way first since it appears to be the central issue for some. spoilers ahead... in the last third of the novel there is a truly grotesque rape scene which also includes rape-by-monster. it is cruel, brutal, explicit, and goes on for a really extended period of time. now i have some serious problems with Neonomicon, but unlike many of my fellow reviewers, those problems have nothing to do with the rape. i actually think it is pretty well done, as such things go. it is not particularly exploitative (outside of the fact that it is depicted in the first place - which some could understandably argue is exploitative in and of itself); the pain & horror & ugliness are definitely not downplayed and the rape is not eroticized. the art is particularly interesting during this sequence, using the rape victim's blurry vision to startling effect. and the dialogue by the cheerful rapists is rather brilliant: banal, chatty, blasé, even friendly and supportive at times - all of that contributes powerfully to the pure horror of the situation.
my problems with Neonomicon are (1) the bizarre and pointless decision to make the heroine a sex addict (is this supposed to somehow make her better equipped to deal with her rape? ugh! NO, Alan Moore, NO!) and (2) with the dialogue that comes out of every single FBI agent's mouth besides our heroine. now it's one thing to have a sociopathic agent constantly shoot off comments that are not just misanthropic but pointedly racist and homophobic. fine, he's a sociopath and an asshole. but to have the same repulsive shit drop from the mouths of nearly every other agent? come on. obviously Moore himself is not a racist or homophobe (if you doubt me, just read his works), so clearly this must be how he envisions the FBI. i'm no apologist for the federal bureau of investigation - but give me a break! now that is just lazy, stupid, cheap writing and i expect a lot more from the author.
back to what's good... everything else! the art by Jacen Burrows is fantastic, particularly in the first part "The Courtyard" where almost every page is a double vertical panel. claustrophobia and murderous tunnel vision are aptly conveyed. and outside of the doltish dialogue from various agents, the writing is superb. Moore takes the Cthulhu mythos in a fascinating new direction (future is now!) and it is truly mind-boggling. i haven't had my mind boggled this way by anything lovecraftian in a long while - and that includes the superior Locke & Key graphic novels. so overall, Neonomicon is a flawed but absolutely worthy addition to the author's brilliant oeuvre.(less)
gentle elephant things in the jungle; furry man-shaped things in the mist. our hero, former colonial station chief, returns to this strange planet muc...moregentle elephant things in the jungle; furry man-shaped things in the mist. our hero, former colonial station chief, returns to this strange planet much changed. the planet itself has changed: its residents no longer considered mere "animals", beasts of burden to be used as humans see fit... they are "people". a surprisingly liberal future-Earth now recognizes these beings as sentient, as does our hero. he returns to this place, full of regret for past actions, craving understanding and redemption, yearning for the intangible. he will seek to provide recompense and he will know change, a great and terrible change.
this marvelous little classic gets everything right: a beautifully detailed yet still mysterious world... a flawed protagonist striving to accomplish ambiguous yet still understandable goals... intriguing mysteries and a strange quest... aliens that feel genuinely alien... and a powerful theme running through it all: to truly understand others is to truly understand yourself; one cannot be accomplished without the other.
there are shades of Heart of Darkness here (even including a character named "Kurtz"), except turned inside-out: the darkness within man made almost inconsequential; darkness made light. i was also reminded of tales of colonial India (even including an alien character named "Srin'gahar"), the misdeeds and the culture clash and the ugliness and the beauty. looking forward, i was also reminded of Tepper's Grass, a book published many years after this one that takes one of this novel's central ideas and runs with it, in a much more horrific direction.
Silverberg usually writes about the need to understand ourselves and the yearning to transcend who we are or who we are supposed to be. physical travel that parallels inner change. and such is Downward to the Earth.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
ECCLESIASTES 3:21
__________
this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on Shelf Inflicted.(less)
last week my mom and i had a conversation about God that devolved into an unpleasant argument, with mom saying some things that i found...morespoilers ahead
last week my mom and i had a conversation about God that devolved into an unpleasant argument, with mom saying some things that i found to be ludicrous beyond belief and with me responding with comments that were condescending and offensive. last week i read a book called Ship of Fools; it is a dark and grim science fiction narrative about a colony ship trying to find a new home, written in a polished and straightforward style, and it is has one major concern: the question of evil in a universe created by God. my mom used to be an "existentialist" who eschewed organized religion and it has only been in the past few years that she's found Jesus; her newly found faith has helped her enormously through some tough times. the crew and the passengers on the colony ship Argonos are at different places in their faith, believers & non-believers & those who don't give a crap about such things, all put together in one place, all trying to find something to help them make sense of their lives, to cope.
when mom and i talk about God it will ofen lead to talking about why God allows evil to exist, why children have to suffer, what "Evil" actually is... all that fairly typical stuff, conversations that end with an uncomfortable and probably typical dearth of answers and lack of resolution. a survey team from the Argonos explores a new planet they name "Antioch" and there they discover an old colony and the bodies of the colonists - terribly tortured and murdered men, women, and children hung up on hooks; full of horror and confusion and despair, the surveyors flee back to the Argonos. in our conversation last week, mom wanted to talk about Satan, about a revelation she had had about Evil and its origin - she comes from a perspective that sees Evil as a tangible thing, a purely evil angel that falls from the sky or a purely evil human that walks upon the earth; i see evil as something more intangible, as a choice that can be made or as a situation that is allowed to continue or to even exist in the first place. after their horrific experience on Antioch, the Argonos comes across an unsettling abandoned alien ship; strange things happen during and after the exploration of this ship - a contagious feeling of free-floating anomie and depression, even more widespread feelings of dread and loss of faith, attempted murder, suicide, death... are all these things the result of human failing - or something more tangible, some dire threat from within the ship, some unearthly influence?
mom follows this televangelist named Joyce Meyer who she connects with due to a shared history of childhood trauma and a shared desire to move past that trauma in order to become empowered, enlightened women who can be defined by their strength; i see Meyer as a study in typical hypocritical excess, using the name and word of God to line her own pockets - although i will acknowledge that there is some truth and some beauty in some of the things she says, even in some of her actions. on the Argonos there is a bishop, a corrupt man and man who secretly has no faith, and yet this character - the novel's "villain", i suppose - is just as often right as he is wrong - in the end he assesses evil as a tangible thing and urges the ship to flee that evil; the other characters, including our hero, have deep doubts about such a thing as "tangible evil" - they see no logic or science in it, and so they rationalize actions that lead them closer to that evil and closer to their own doom.
a few days later when i called my mom back to apologize for my harsh words and my sarcastic ridicule, i was inspired to read her a part of Ship of Fools, one that was all about God and "Free Will" and why bad things are allowed to happen: in that passage, a sympathetic clergywoman outlines a key part of her faith - the idea that bad things happen and evil exists simply because God has endowed humanity with Free Will, to choose as they see fit and to react in their own ways to the awful things that the world puts before them - and so to stop these bad things from happening or to somehow make people choose to do good would be to take away that gift of independence and of self-determination... my mom listened to all of this and was satisfied with what she heard, and called the author a "soldier of God". at the end of Ship of Fools, the protagonist and most of the crew and passengers of the Argonos flee their ship to establish a new home on Antioch; our hero remains a resolute atheist, denying the existence of God and of any afterlife, yet somehow finding the idea of something intangible and powerful - a higher power? - to be present in the memory of his love (the clergywoman), in the ability to share and cooperate with others in a new colony that will be built, in the basic concept of hope in what the future may hold, for him as an individual, but more importantly, for him as a part of a larger whole, a community... i would say that this character is my own version of a soldier of God.(less)
Barrayar continues and completes the story of former survey ship Captain Cordelia Naismith and her husband Aral Vorkosigan, Regent of Barrayar. it is...moreBarrayar continues and completes the story of former survey ship Captain Cordelia Naismith and her husband Aral Vorkosigan, Regent of Barrayar. it is pretty enjoyable. is Bujold becoming one of my favorite scifi authors? i'm surprised at that realization. her style is not particularly striking, often rather plain and unadorned. i don't usually gravitate to those sorts of writers - the straightforward ones. but her themes, her careful way with characterization, her undramatic recognition of the complexity, fallibility, and occasional heroism of the human species are all things that this usually impartial robot observer finds himself genuinely responding to, with uncharacteristic human warmth.
characterization is clearly Bujold's major strength and this novel supplies ample opportunity for intriguingly multi-leveled characters to shine. in particular Bothari - poor Bothari! - so damaged by life and the terrible things done to him that he has become a person who will take on the persona of whoever he is needed to be. his need for someone to guide him, his craving for validation and for purpose... made so palpable by Bujold.
the first half of the novel is pretty intimate in scale. it mainly concerns various domestic issues (and by "domestic" i mean "in & around the home" rather than "homeland") as Cordelia acclimates to the overly formal, high-strung, and resolutely warlike Barrayaran culture. it feels odd and a little wrong to use the words domestic and intimate when describing a (low-key) space opera whose first half includes two assassination attempts and various other dramatic incidents. but that is the feeling i got and it worked really well. the reader gets to know Barrayar in an unhurried fashion, just like Cordelia. and the reader continues to understand Cordelia in that same deliberate, slowly unfolding sort of a way. i liked the lack of hustle & bustle and i appreciated the calm, unrushed pace.
it all changes in the second part. and so swiftly! from slow acclimatization right into a fast-moving adventure narrative, things happening pell-mell... a flight, a rescue, a secret journey, confrontations, deaths, a raging fire... my gosh, a head gets cut off and carried in a bag to be dramatically tossed onto a boardroom table! awesome. it was incredibly satisfying to see how well Cordelia adapted to her new world, how easily she is able to win others to her side, how passionate and furious and even murderous she can get when dealing with people who have attacked her loved ones. Mother Bear! yet she still stays herself - compassionate, warm-hearted, saddened & angered by the small-mindedness of others. she's an awesome character. and this is a satisfying book.(less)
1:00 So what to do now? Feeling kinda happy from the whiskeys. Maybe read some trash?
1:15 Chose Allhallow’s Eve, not sure why. Checked out some Goodr...more1:00 So what to do now? Feeling kinda happy from the whiskeys. Maybe read some trash?
1:15 Chose Allhallow’s Eve, not sure why. Checked out some Goodreads reviews. All bad.
1:30 This is fun. Killer on the loose, mysterious Halloween party on the horizon. FUN!
1:45 Tight pacing. Nice build-up. Why don’t people like this?
2:00 Sleazy. All the boobs! Boobs, boobs, boobs. Laymon loves that word, all the time, all over the place.
2:05 More whiskey?
2:15 Too much boobs, sweet Jesus, enough already. Also, so many douchebags.
2:45 Kill these douchebags already! Even the teen hero is a miserable, creepy little creep.
3:15 Scene with writer & wife trapped in the bathroom was great. Quick-thinking writer!
3:30 What the hell just happened? Man oh man.
4:30 Party massacre was awesome, great ending! Wait, it’s 4:30 in the fucken morning?
A really fucken different version of this review appears in a Richard Laymon “article” posted onShelf Inflicted (less)
...a hermit, a shadow, and a madman travel across a strange desert on a strange journey. near the end of his journey, the hermit will be tempted by a...more...a hermit, a shadow, and a madman travel across a strange desert on a strange journey. near the end of his journey, the hermit will be tempted by a mysterious woman. along the way, the shadow decides he wants to become a man and so is instructed by his master the hermit to observe one: he chooses to observe a sculptor...
a sculptor crosses rooftops to be with a mysterious woman who lives in a strange room, its walls covered by pinned and dying butterflies. near the end of his journey, he becomes convinced that this mysterious woman is betraying him with the moon. by day he sculpts a statue of a young king; by night he dreams of this conquering king...
a young king conquers death and then all of the world; he becomes known as the Moon King and will eventually fight his last battle with a dragon who guards a strange gate. near the end of his journey, a mysterious temple handmaiden comes to him and he will try to ravish her. at night he dreams of strange figures, crossing a strange desert...
Alfie, what's it all about?
i dunno, not really. i was reminded of the film The Saragossa Manuscript (sadly, i have not read the book). stories expanding and then folding in on themselves. a moebius strip, an ouroboros. the separate tales connect in strange and mysterious ways, both figuratively and literally. they come together, they come apart, they come back together. the stories talk to each other. the hermit, the sculptor, and the king all leave their worlds. for what? for englightenment, in search of a higher love and a greater desire, maybe to conquer all. the material world is simply a place of furniture and refuse; striving towards a higher plane is the only true goal - but even that can be corrupted. it will always be corrupted.
just ask the freckle-faced boy with the runny nose... he tells his tribe about this new second sun and what they should do about it, what new goals they should strive towards. they respond by stoning him to death. later, they raise him up as their martyred Great Seer and use his words as a basis to conquer all. in time mankind will fear his very name. huh? yes.
the shadow is my favorite. winsome & earnest & chilling & amusingly deadpan.
Mojmir Drvota is a Czech writer, apparently living in the U.S. at the time of Triptych's publication by The Cauldron Press in 1980. he wrote an earlier novel called Solitaire. both are real obscurities and i could find pretty much no information on either one. alas!
the author has genuine skill in creating dreamscapes, in mining archetypes and in using the logic of dreams to expand upon those archetypes. his prose is masterful, moving easily from stark fable to enchanting fantasy to absurd anachronism to arch pedantry (the last appears in the penultimate chapter - a tongue-in-cheek thesis on various characters and a statue from the preceding "narrative").
here is the opening and closing of the novel's Prologue:
Through the dark forest toiled a pack of beings. They advanced with the faltering steps of the blind. Their backs were laden with massive burdens the size of original sin or stone tumuli...
They plodded on in silence, for there were no words, there was nothing to name and there was nobody to speak to - there was no other. The pack was a single body with a multitude of heads and limbs. Hence no one walked in front as the first among them all. Only the body of the pack wound its way through the labyrinth of darkness.
And the forest itself was nothing but a turmoil of writhing masses which enveloped one another, bit into one another, then slowly and insensibly swallowed one another, and so mutually maintained themselves in a balanced state of cold ebullition. Lost in the depths of this havoc, the pack of beings toiled on, staggering under the weight of their burdens.
there is a pair of scissors. they will stop a king from ravishing a handmaiden; they will be used by a sculptor to murder his mistress; they will be found plunged in a hermit's heart.
so this is a fast-paced novel made up of six formerly serialized parts, modeled on tv episodes, about what happens after a scattered number of survivo...moreso this is a fast-paced novel made up of six formerly serialized parts, modeled on tv episodes, about what happens after a scattered number of survivors wake up and realize that 99.9% of their fellow humans have disappeared and now there are these horrible monsters scurrying about wanting to eat them, and there are psychic powers and strange dreams and sinister government types too, and the whole thing was so fast & furious that i read my eyes out, really the pacing is often excellent, such a driving narrative and so many compelling mysteries, it was so much fun, really, addicting crack type fun, so fun that i ignored the rather horribly trite characters, including a cardboard abusive dad and a cartoon serial killer and a nauseatingly precious & cutesy-poo psychic child and a few supporting characters who are noted as "black" or "asian" and i give the authors points for trying to be diverse, i really do, but then why aren't the white characters noted as "white", well i guess that's just the default skin color, dear reader just assume someone is white unless you are told otherwise, and then, despite the pace still being set at FAST FAST FAST, there was just tons more of that awful so-called characterization, flashbacks & stories being told & lots of dialogue, except it was all so terrible, so trite & overly long & boring, the authors need to realize that characterization is actually their weak point, their soft spot, their fontanelle, that all that characterization began to be a real drag, a real block to my enjoyment, i started skipping all that crap, and then whaddyaknow, it didn't matter that the pacing was often so expert and the mysteries were still compelling, i just got so fucken frustrated that the end of the novel was actually a relief because then i didn't have to read such horribly amateurish attempts at characterization anymore, ugh, finished, over, done, happy sigh. but now i wonder, what happens next??
sorry, Shovelmonkey! i still think you have great taste.(less)
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