R.J. Dent's Blog, page 3
February 26, 2024
TYPO 5
The International Journal of Prototypes
The Goddess Issue
TYPO 5: The Goddess Issue, published on 19th March 2024, includes R J Dent’s modern English translation of Anton Chekhov’s short story, Romance With a Double Bass. The story is illustrated by Lilianne Milgrom.
Romance With a Double Bass was made into a 1974 short film starring John Cleese and Connie Boothe.
TYPO #5 — “THE GODDESS ISSUE”
FEATURING: Tim Newton Anderson; Tom Bradley; Anton Chekhov; Norman Conquest; Caroline Crépiat; R J Dent; Max Ernst; Eurydice Eve; Luc Fierens; Leonor Fini; Théophile Gautier; Harold Jaffe; Amy Kurman; Lo; Michael Maier; Dmitri Manin; Elena Marini; Lilianne Milgrom; Opal Louis Nations; Marty Newman; Claudio Parentela; Angeleaux Pastormerleaux; Paul Rosheim; Jasia Reichardt; Doug Skinner; Phil Demise Smith; Tabarin; Lono Taggers; Corinne Taunay; Shyam Thandar; Stefan Themerson; Konstantin Vaginov, Gregory Wallace.
· TYPOGLYPHICS
· THE LOVES OF PHARAOH
· GODDESS OF NOIR
· MAX ERNST & LEONOR FINI LOVE LETTERS
· MEXICO’S SURREALIST GODDESSES
· SEXY PRINTER ORNAMENTS
· THE LOUIS XIII JOKESHOP
· CONJOINING WORDS
· SEMANTIC POETRY
· THE WOMEN OF ROME
· A BILINGUAL ACROSTIC REBUS
and much more
February 12, 2024
Unheimlich
An Anthology of High Strangeness
UNHEIMLICH
An Anthology of High Strangeness
Including contributions from 33 authors, visual artists, and experimentalists, UNHEIMLICH is
an intricate weave of creative fiction that interrogates the unwelcome corners of our urban life.
Featuring work by:
Abichaos, Alex Antiuk, Alicestfu, Art Stanton, Artificial Bliss, Bhanu Pratap, David Kuhnlein, EECMIT, Elise Sawell, Elytron Frass & [X], Helena Pantsis, Jesse Hilson, Joe Bielecki, Joshua Martin, Julio Aliseda, Kenji Siratori, Lucas Haynes, Maria Elena Montecinos, Matt Bechtold, Michael R. Colangelo, Michael Tichy, Neil Higgins, R.G. Vasicek, R J Dent, Ro Mitchell, Sam Hollis, Sergio Hernandez Bernal, Snatch Wylden, Tatenda Simayo, Thomas Huntington, Zak Ferguson, Zaquira L.C
Title: UNHEIMLICH
Authors: Various
ISBN: TBC
Language: English
Pages: 313
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Soyos Books
Publication Date: 15th February 2024
Book details and purchase link: https://www.soyosbooks.com/product/unheimlich
January 25, 2024
Revelation Cover Art
by D M Mitchell
Here is D M Mitchell’s original ‘liquid chrome’ cover art for R J Dent’s novel, Revelation:
And here is the final cover of Revelation, with its black title bar and border:
‘There’s neither blame nor guilt on anyone’s part for what happened. And even if I were to want to apportion blame, I can’t think who the right person to blame would be. But I don’t want to point any accusing fingers because at the time everyone had a very lovely time…’
Revelation is the story of a married woman who agrees to fulfil one of her husband’s sexual fantasies – only to discover that a beautiful gift can become a malevolent curse. After one act of decadent abandon, she is drawn into a maelstrom of emotional devastation that threatens to destroy everything she holds dear, leading her to make the ultimate sacrifice…
Book details:
Title: Revelation
Author: R J Dent
ISBN: 978-1-4466-0288-1
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 70
Cover Design: D M Mitchell
Publishing Date: January 18th 2024
Publisher: Incunabula Media
Dimensions: (6 in x 9 in / 152 mm x 229 mm)
Purchase link: Incunabula Media: Incunabula Fiction – Revelation
Purchase Link: Lulu.com: Lulu.com/Revelation/RJDent/paperback
Amanda Hodgson’s goodreads review of Revelation:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6191529175?book_show_action=false
R J Dent: http://www.rjdent.com/
January 20, 2024
Revelation
A novel by R J Dent
From the publisher:
Revelation by R J Dent is a disturbing and chilling short novel dealing with the death of affect in human relationships, and the emotional and moral vacuum growing in the heart of our western society – encapsulated in the form of a marriage spiralling into disaster and almost insanity.
When I read this I thought ‘I’ve found the thinking man’s Ian McEwan’. It’s very, very good and very, very nasty.
From the back cover:
‘There’s neither blame nor guilt on anyone’s part for what happened. And even if I were to want to apportion blame, I can’t think who the right person to blame would be. But I don’t want to point any accusing fingers because at the time everyone had a very lovely time…’
Revelation is the story of a married woman who agrees to fulfil one of her husband’s sexual fantasies – only to discover that a beautiful gift can become a malevolent curse. After one act of decadent abandon, she is drawn into a maelstrom of emotional devastation that threatens to destroy everything she holds dear, leading her to make the ultimate sacrifice…
Book details:
Title: Revelation
Author: R J Dent
ISBN: 978-1-4466-0288-1
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 70
Cover Design: D M Mitchell
Publishing Date: 18 January 2024
Dimensions: 6 in x 9 in / 152 mm x 229 mm)
Publisher: Incunabula Media
Purchase link: Incunabula Media: Incunabula Fiction – Revelation
Purchase Link: Lulu.com: Lulu.com/Revelation/RJDent/paperback
R J Dent: http://www.rjdent.com/
January 3, 2024
Legacy
A short story by R J Dent
Published by D.F.L. Lit: https://dfllit.com/066-2/
Some notes on the creation of Legacy.
R J Dent says:
‘As with many short stories, Legacy started with a newspaper article that I read; one in which a man died in a car crash just days before he went on trial for several heinous crimes.
‘I used some elements of that newspaper report to write an imaginary back story for the man, trying to imagine what must have happened to him in his life to make him into the monster that he clearly was.
‘I wanted to write a story in which a decent person gets to ask difficult questions about something that would normally be impossible to ask – because the person they need to ask is no longer around. In Legacy, William Deacon gets to ask a question that he would never under ‘normal’ circumstances (whatever they are) get to ask. His question gets answered too.
‘My recent works (Revelation, Suki Takes It Off (Again) and Screaming at the Window in particular) are concerned with giving a voice to those who have either been silenced, or who are made voiceless for some reason. I provide those characters with an opportunity to ask unaskable questions – and to get answers to those questions.
‘As with many of my stories, there are several aspects of the story that are true. One person who read it said: ‘I love how British it is’ – to which I would add a slight refinement: Legacy is a very English story. The private boarding school system, the head boy becoming the headmaster, the Kent roads, the newspaper reports, and the denouement are all very ‘English’.
‘I wrote the story in three sections: the case history, the newspaper reports and the confrontation. The case history was the protagonist’s back story; the newspaper reports were the facts of his death; the confrontation was where the dead man’s brother got to ask the question he wanted to ask.
‘In Legacy, I wanted to examine the abuse of power and how that abuse engenders further abuses of power – leaving a legacy of corruption, psychological damage, destruction and death. There’s absolutely no redemption for anyone in the story, nor is there any proper resolution to the story either. The evil people get away with their crimes and the victims are left to suffer.
‘My interest was in William Deacon, specifically his reaction to the events. I wanted to examine how the brother of a monster deals (or doesn’t deal) with the fact that his brother is a monster. My main question was: What psychological acrobatics would William Deacon have to have performed to believe that his brother was ‘a caring man who went out of his way to help others’, whilst also knowing his brother was a victim of abuse and was also an adult abuser? William Deacon wants to get to the truth of why his brother was the way he was, but he also blames Michael Burton for his brother’s predilections. By doing that, William Deacon has absolved his brother from any personal blame for his actions.
‘In the third part of Legacy, William Deacon accuses Sylvia Burton of hiding her husband’s abuses and in doing so, he is both right and wrong. Mrs Sylvia Burton is evil – but so was his brother. Graham Deacon was not, as his brother claimed, ‘a caring man who went out of his way to help others’; Graham Deacon was a paedophile and a rapist. He was a victim of – and a perpetrator of – child sexual abuse, in that he had been an abused boy who grew up to be an adult abuser, as is sometimes the case with some abused children – and as has been documented.
‘Legacy does not state whether Graham Deacon’s death was deliberate or accidental. However, if Graham Deacon took his own life, then he had reached a point where he decided that rather than be ‘a caring man’ who would accept the appropriate punishment for his crimes and thereby go ‘out of his way to help others’, he would instead take his own life, thereby avoiding justice and condemning his child victims and his rape and assault victims to a lifetime of unresolved – and unresolvable – trauma.
‘Due to Graham Deacon’s death, his victims will never know what it is like to receive justice. As an abused child, Graham Deacon deserves everyone’s sympathy, but as an adult paedophile and rapist, it is Graham Deacon’s abuses which make him a monster. If his death was accidental, he escaped justice; if he committed suicide to escape justice, then he is irredeemable.’
R J Dent’s website: http://www.rjdent.com/
January 2, 2024
TYPO 4
The International Journal of Prototypes
Various authors and artists
R J Dent’s 96-line poem, Opus, is published in TYPO 4, alongside work by Tim Newton Anderson; Michael Betancourt; David Brizer; Steve Carll; Norman Conquest; Farewell Debut; Jesse Glass; Reinhard Goering; Rhys Hughes; Tim Hutchings; Mark Kanak; M. Kasper; Amy Kurman; Gabriel de Lautrec; Emilia Loseva; Jim McMenamin; O Homem do Saco; Jasia Reichardt; Doug Rice; Paul Rosheim; Doug Skinner; Franciszka Themerson; Stefan Thernerson; John Vieira; Gregory Wallace; and Danny Winkler.
Journal details: https://blackscatbooks.com/2023/12/31/happy-new-year-its-here/
Purchase link (US): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR8C61SW
Purchase link (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CR8C61SW
Revelation
by R J Dent
‘There’s neither blame nor guilt on anyone’s part for what happened. And even if I were to want to apportion blame, I can’t think who the right person to blame would be. But I don’t want to point any accusing fingers because at the time everyone had a very lovely time…’
Revelation is the story of a married woman who agrees to fulfil one of her husband’s sexual fantasies – only to discover that a beautiful gift can become a malevolent curse. After one act of decadent abandon, she is drawn into a maelstrom of emotional devastation that threatens to destroy everything she holds dear, leading her to make the ultimate sacrifice…
Book details:
Title: Revelation
Author: R J Dent
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 70
Cover Art: D. M. Mitchell
Publishing Date: January 2024
Publisher: Incunabula Media
Incunabula Media: https://incunabulamedia.com/fiction
R J Dent: http://www.rjdent.com/
December 31, 2023
Screaming At The Window
The tragic story of Blanche Monnier, the Prisoner of Poitiers
by R J Dent
Screaming At The Window (the tragic story of Blanche Monnier, the Prisoner of Poitiers) by R J Dent, is published in September 2024 by KERNPUNKT Press.
Screaming At The Window is the reconstruction and the retelling of a true case of imprisonment that took place at the end of the nineteenth century. Based on details and information reported in contemporaneous newspaper reports, Screaming at the Window is the true and tragic story of Blanche Monnier, the young woman who became known throughout France as The Prisoner of Poitiers (La Séquestrée de Poitiers).
Just before her twenty-fifth birthday, Blanche Monnier was imprisoned in an upstairs room by her mother and her brother. In May 1901, an anonymous letter alerted the police to the fact that Blanche, the daughter of Louise, an aristocratic mother and Ėmile, a former dean of the faculty of letters, was imprisoned in a dark room with padlocked shutters. According to the letter, Blanche had been imprisoned for twenty-five years. When the police found Blanche, she was half-starved, naked, sedated and screaming.
Part French history, part true crime study, part courtroom drama, Screaming At The Window is Blanche Monnier’s harrowing story.
Book details:
Title: Screaming At The Window
Subtitle: The tragic story of Blanche Monnier, the Prisoner of Poitiers
Author: R J Dent
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Genre: True Crime/French History
Publisher: KERNPUNKT Press
Publication Date: September 2024
October 28, 2023
Bed Bug
A Magazine of the Arts
As the world comes to an end, and the bed bug infestation spreads from France throughout Europe, it is time for a journal devoted to infestation, invasion, and chaos.
Bed Bug: A Magazine of the Arts – Punaise de Lit: Une Revue des Arts
Featuring works by Alphonse Allais; Tim Anderson; Tom Bradley; Norman Conquest; Farewell Debut; R J Dent; Larry Fondation; Jesse Glass; Boris Glikman; Rhys Hughes; Harold Jaffe; Amy Kurman; Terri Lloyd; John-Ivan Palmer; Jason E. Rolfe; Paul Rosheim; Thaddeus Rutkowski; Doug Skinner; Yuriy Tarnawsky; Corinne Taunay; Catrin Welz-Stein; Tom Whalen; Carol White; and D. Harlan Wilson.
Product details:
ASIN: B0CLZS6R21
Publisher: Black Scat Books
Publication Date: October 27, 2023
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 81
ISBN-13: 979-8989433001
Item Weight: 7.5 ounces
Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.21 inches
Magazine details and purchase link (publisher);
https://blackscatbooks.com/2023/10/28/bug-out/
Purchase link (US): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLZS6R21
Purchase link (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLZS6R21
October 9, 2023
Screaming at the Window!
Screaming at the Window!
A short history of Gothic fiction, from Dracula to Norman Bates
A talk by R J Dent
(author of Myth, Gothiques and Fantastiques, The Blood Delirium)
At 6pm on Saturday 21st October 2023
At Bookbuster book shop, Queen’s Road, Hastings, Sussex, England.
R J Dent’s website: http://www.rjdent.com/
