Summing up in 2020 vision
What a year! A tumultuous ride through highs and lows, sighs and blows. And it just didn’t seem to want to let go… But eventually it did! Hooray!
What happened?
In time for Genesis’s 70th birthday on February 22nd, Trapart Books published Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Sacred Intent – Conversations with Carl Abrahamsson 1986-2019. Very happy to have achieved that, and so was Gen.
As Vanessa and I were preparing to go to New York mid March to promote that book and have a book talk and signing together with Gen (as well as a million other fun things!), the pandemic hit. We cancelled our trip at about the very same time as the US barred people from coming in… Faît accompli, and a spiral, viral bummer to boot.
And even more so the news of only a day or two later: Genesis died on March 14th, 2020. Although we’ve been able to process this demise for some nine months now, it’s still hard to fully come to terms with.
Then it was full on pandemic time, which basically meant self isolation for us. As both Vanessa and I already work from home, the transition was pretty minimal. We just get up in the morning and work, and then we go to sleep. Whatever social interactions we may have had were so minimal anyway, so that was never a big deal. For this, we’re very grateful. Taking into consideration how other people are absolutely in need of social contacts for work and/or other reasons, and thereby expose themselves to the virus, we have indeed been very blessed.
We have read more than usual, plowing through the shelves in joy and literary arousal. We have watched more TV and movies than usual. And we have certainly worked more than usual. Where to even begin…?
Vanessa produced a large amount of podcast episodes for ”Rendering Unconscious.” And she wrote a book, too: The Cut In Creation: Scansion In Psychoanalysis and Art was published by Routledge in November, and is a great overview of art and artists in some way using the concept of scansion and/or other forms of more literal cuts and cut-ups.
I wrote three books: The Devil’s Footprint (Trapart Books, 2020), Anton LaVey & The Church of Satan (Inner Traditions, forthcoming, 2021), and a secret novel in Swedish (forthcoming).
It was also a year of books in other ways: I started a republishing process of all The Fenris Wolf volumes. As many of them had been sold out for quite some time, it was now high time to re-release them. As I write this, all volumes but three are available again. Oh, that’s right: The Fenris Wolf 10 was published, too! It’s the biggest volume so far, with its 422 pages of thought provoking occulture and pure delightenment.
I also started a specific The Fenris Wolf newsletter for all occultural aficionados of Wolfie.
I finished one film this year: ”Jag är som flugan på väggen – En film om Lars Sundestrand.” It’s a documentary about the brilliant Swedish photographer Lars Sundestrand, who once upon a time had a fanzine called Funtime, which was highly influential for me during my own fanzine days.
I decided to let all other film projects rest a bit, and focus on my own writing and the books. But that certainly didn’t mean there wasn’t any film action… ”Anton LaVey – Into the Devil’s Den” and ”Cinemagician – Conversations with Kenneth Anger,” both completed during 2019, did well during 2020. They will both be available on several new platforms/media during 2021.
Oh, and there was ”23rd Mind TV,” too. Vanessa and I decided that we wanted our own TV-show, so we made one with help and support from our Patreon patrons. There is always so much to talk about! We have made seven episodes of ”23rd Mind TV” so far, and they all contain us talking about our work, plus the work of others, plus assorted videos. It’s probably the best TV show in the world!
Oh, and there was ”Radio Mega Golem,” too. This project has grown phenomenally over the past years, and many nice people have added to the creation of the magical being called the ”Mega Golem.” So far, there have been five episodes of Radio MG. Great news in regard to the Mega Golem is that early 2021 will see the release of a very special Mega Golem book… It’s a volume that sums up writings and artwork focussed on this unique talismanic being, including some of the Radio Mega Golem material.
What about music, then? As for myself, I focussed on writing this year, but Highbrow Lowlife still managed to put out some interesting releases. We began with my ancient solo album ”No Longer Longer,” and followed suit with a whole lot of Vanessa: album collaborations with Akoustik Timbre Frekuency, Douglas Lucas, and Jillian Street/Damages. We also released Vanessa’s and my old albums from 2016, ”Switching” and ”Mirrors,” plus the brand new ”The Pathways of the Heart (for Jess).”
Speaking of collaborations with wifey, we have also worked on a jointly written novel, The Exquisite Corpse. It is exactly that: we take turns writing the chapters without talking about it to each other. So far it’s a wild and trippy neo-noir starring the Satanic detective Father Black and the cutting edge shrink Ivy St Clair. This novel is written exclusively for our patrons at Patreon, in two chapters per month. It’s accumulating nicely and morbidly, that’s all we can say!
Speaking of Patreon: it’s been our main social media hub this year, and definitely the most fun one. We love all our patrons, and share more personal stuff with them than we do on other platforms. THANK YOU, PATREON PATRONS! Here’s to a great 2021!
So, all in all, it doesn’t sound like a too bad or too crazy year, does it? But… Still it was.
My dear friend Genesis P-Orridge died, my favorite artist Peter Beard died, my aunt’s husband Lars Lindblom died, one of Vanessa’s oldest friends in Florida, Jessica Marshall, died, one of my oldest friends, Michael Matton, died. None of them from Corona-related causes, but still… A year of feeling utterly bereft.
Let’s not even go into the politics of the American Kindergarten kind… Or the Corona thing itself, or its global effects… I guess if one wanted to see the positive aspects of any of this, it’d probably be as some kind of extremely timely and urgent wake-up call. Whether humans are actually intelligent enough to wake up remains to be seen. I have my doubts, but… We shall see!
On that ambivalent note, I wish you all a very healthy, wealthy and wise New Year 2021! Let’s make the most of it!
Carl Abrahamsson, Stockholm, Dec 31, 2020
