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Selfie, Suicide: or Cairey Turnbull's Blue Skiddoo
A disintegrating romantic anatomy in five acts.
164 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 2019
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377 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 18, 2019
This is the ultimate grift book. You can tell because of the lack of effort. There was no consideration put into proofing the manuscript; the grammar, punctuation and syntax all leave much to be desired. The cover is terrible, and while it relates to the book, this isn't what a cover is for, which says to me that this is a vanity project, not a serious work. Even the blurb on Amazon is a single sentence. I bet there are not even key words.
So if you are not even trying to find a larger audience than your rabid twitter followers, why bother? Why even put a finger to the keypad? This is a cobbled together novella that almost implodes from its own pretentiousness. An idea popped into the author's head and he wrote it down in a flurry, stood back, thought he was very smart, and tricked everyone, including myself, into giving him money.
I can commend two things. The first, finishing a book. Well done, that's one star. The second is that the author does indeed have a knack for lyrical, rhythmic writing. Not the whole thing, not close, but segments of it were interesting. Not the insights, those were high school level, but the art of the sentence was there when the poor punctuation didn't get in the way.
I am sure there was some grand plan when writing this too-clever-for-its-own-good snippet, but it ultimately fails to capture the reader and instead repels them. I am sure the author has a good novel in him, it just might not appear for a few years.
If I could sum the book up in one image:
So if you are not even trying to find a larger audience than your rabid twitter followers, why bother? Why even put a finger to the keypad? This is a cobbled together novella that almost implodes from its own pretentiousness. An idea popped into the author's head and he wrote it down in a flurry, stood back, thought he was very smart, and tricked everyone, including myself, into giving him money.
I can commend two things. The first, finishing a book. Well done, that's one star. The second is that the author does indeed have a knack for lyrical, rhythmic writing. Not the whole thing, not close, but segments of it were interesting. Not the insights, those were high school level, but the art of the sentence was there when the poor punctuation didn't get in the way.
I am sure there was some grand plan when writing this too-clever-for-its-own-good snippet, but it ultimately fails to capture the reader and instead repels them. I am sure the author has a good novel in him, it just might not appear for a few years.
If I could sum the book up in one image:
March 22, 2019
Superb! Riveting! Delicious and Blue; I devoured it all!
"He is thinking of how strange it all is- how everyone can accept this zoo of man, these stacked cubes of domestic atomism- & this is Art? Is this what Life has become? Is this what remains of the species that once toiled and bled in the fields of history? How can this be real?"
I've long enjoyed this man's wit and insights on Twitter, and I was glad to hear he was finally putting pen to paper for the masses. He has often been a gate, for me, to the unplumbed depths of literature which I have even yet to explore, and he draws from these literary influences, as he openly acknowledges, throughout for wonderful prose and meter in this small, fascinating package I implore others to indulge in.
I must say then, I am obligated to rep his Twitter: https://twitter.com/Logo_Daedalus
and, for a far more insightful reading, I also have to recommend Zero HP Lovecraft's own review: https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1...
"I have sipped that poisoned chalice. I've chased the rabbit holes with Alice... I drank deep & lost my mind. I left all worldly woes behind. But in the end, what did I find?"
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
"Yet there are other realms to free/ & We have more to do..."
"He is thinking of how strange it all is- how everyone can accept this zoo of man, these stacked cubes of domestic atomism- & this is Art? Is this what Life has become? Is this what remains of the species that once toiled and bled in the fields of history? How can this be real?"
I've long enjoyed this man's wit and insights on Twitter, and I was glad to hear he was finally putting pen to paper for the masses. He has often been a gate, for me, to the unplumbed depths of literature which I have even yet to explore, and he draws from these literary influences, as he openly acknowledges, throughout for wonderful prose and meter in this small, fascinating package I implore others to indulge in.
I must say then, I am obligated to rep his Twitter: https://twitter.com/Logo_Daedalus
and, for a far more insightful reading, I also have to recommend Zero HP Lovecraft's own review: https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1...
"I have sipped that poisoned chalice. I've chased the rabbit holes with Alice... I drank deep & lost my mind. I left all worldly woes behind. But in the end, what did I find?"
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
"Yet there are other realms to free/ & We have more to do..."
September 17, 2020
the sissy cock hypno chapter was lugubrious
October 21, 2020
Veritable enough addition to the 'meme canon' so to speak... Cairey Turnbull goes on a date at a museum of performance art and has an existential dostoevsky-like trial about his fate and modern humanity. At times it is too thesaurus-verbose (the waxing of chapter 1), too melodramatical (chapters 4 and 5), too direct (chapter 3, titled 'exposition', where we get a distracting long narrative biography about our protagonist). He seems to emphasize style above all else, although he's clearly excited about the poetic cadences of his characters and scenes. His style all things considered is not too bad, really, although sometimes it really is almost ridiculously excessive. As for the 'artsy-online outsider's critique of contemporary culture', he aims for the scope of a Bernhard novel with the tone of Joyce's The Dead, but achieves neither and his spirit of resignation comes off more like a defeat on the part of the author who doesn't have much insight. In that regard, Mike Ma's rather comparable book is much better at capturing the contradictory vitriol of the edgy outsider, while mr Daedalus has only traditional (modernist) forms of disillusion and alienation to source from, despite obviously running in the same current (note how much more shallowly he psychologizes Ophelia, obviously a quieter variant of the same misogynist-skeptic stream as Ma). Still, all things considered, this is a reasonable effort and hits the right notes, just too weakly and out of time. Certainly he may write something better in due time
July 15, 2019
The literary equivalent of a self-suck video. Why the "author" would put out a book with spelling errors and typos is hard to understand. It shows laziness and a complete lack of pride in their work.
September 30, 2022
No ending I more enjoy than one that leaves you with more questions than answers. I really enjoyed how the ending was so wonderfully / meticulously built up by the entire novel. I thought I was following and understanding until I realized I wasn’t, lol. It’s definitely something that requires a deep study and re-reading to better understand.
October 18, 2023
going in I thought Cairey would turn out a Ignatius J Reilly type of Character but its shakespearean
okay its rough around the edges, but a lot of it is superb, beautiful, touching
while all of these pastiches of neoliberalism/modernity get old quite quick, this book does it probably the best yet
okay its rough around the edges, but a lot of it is superb, beautiful, touching
while all of these pastiches of neoliberalism/modernity get old quite quick, this book does it probably the best yet
May 30, 2020
The large amount of time it took for me to finally finish reading this short book is reflected by all the other people who had problems with the "wait" at the start. Most people complain about the grammar and style of the opening which I find a bit pedantic, but there is a lead-in before chapter three starts, and all is explained in detail that hits too close to home. I finished right before that and it took about eight months before finally progressing. It's Cairey's lifestory distilled into a few pictures in front of an audience that makes him sick and shrink like he's giving a school presentation. The Frygian analysis and presentation of the book comes to a clear structure as he recollects his pathetic life that is made so compelling by all the ways the reader sees his current real conditions reflected in the deficiencies Cairey has, whether personally or seen by others. I'm not so bad, but I'm aware of how widespread those issues are with people who usually spend a lot of time on the internet, and this is the first depiction I've seen of this group of people that is represented well and shows a main undercurrent: the lack of an honest love or bond with the people they know in the kind of world they live in. It may be silly of me to mainly focus on the part of the book that relates most closely to me simply because it describes problems that I also have. It's hard to reckon with as Cairey has a lot of "society's" norms and institutions going against him, but he's one step above the worst of selfish NEETs. He's just too weak to be that extreme, but he's haughty even in his enlightened state at the end. There aren't answers or deeper dives into this time of his life for this part of the story, because it's not a collection of greentexts, it even mentions that being obsessed with trying to find some way to solve these problems online won't help, and it's a story of a character who, if the books continue like the Divine Comedy, will face different challenges to his journey to Paradise.
Now I'll admit that last sentence is probably reaching and wrong in some ways because I have not read the Divine Comedy. Even if I did right now, I do not have the breadth of reading to understand it well. I have just graduated from my own youniversity, which clearly has not prepared me for "the real world" as much as advertized. There are plenty of better reviews out there talking about other authors that Logo has mentioned as his favorites and influences like Nabokov, Dante, and Fry which have clear representations here. There are two I see as important and neglected a bit that I at least have some familiarity with. J. D. Salinger will always be connected to stories of dissatisfied young men with Catcher in the Rye, but the layering of personas with Buddy Glass in his other books is a clear analogue with Logo, Simon LaFeint, and Symon as controllers and pure artists in this story. The breakdown of power and influence related to the Basilisk is still blurred to me, but I think it's a convincing way of showing influence over the story, as well as a homage. The trapped setting as Cairey and Ophelia go on their date at the MEH is like so many of Salinger's stories stuck in one room. The other obvious reference is with William Shakespeare. Lake Lear being the location of a tempest that leads to young Cairey's mental breakdown in a very childlike way seems clear enough, as well as the obvious parallels with Cairey as Hamlet and Ophelia as Ophelia. I had something besides surface-level observations to Hamlet, but I've forgotten them now.
So, if it's not clear enough, I'm giving this four stars more for lack of my own understanding than necessarily the quality of the book. I was fine with the stylistic quirks and do not have some great understanding to immediately see all the details and connections in this book. I've never been good with anagrams. I think it's clear that Logo put a lot of effort put in, and it is something new and exciting to read. I do want to read Logo's next book, especially if it is a sequel so I can start to look past how depressing Cairey Turnbull's Blue Skiddo can get.
Now I'll admit that last sentence is probably reaching and wrong in some ways because I have not read the Divine Comedy. Even if I did right now, I do not have the breadth of reading to understand it well. I have just graduated from my own youniversity, which clearly has not prepared me for "the real world" as much as advertized. There are plenty of better reviews out there talking about other authors that Logo has mentioned as his favorites and influences like Nabokov, Dante, and Fry which have clear representations here. There are two I see as important and neglected a bit that I at least have some familiarity with. J. D. Salinger will always be connected to stories of dissatisfied young men with Catcher in the Rye, but the layering of personas with Buddy Glass in his other books is a clear analogue with Logo, Simon LaFeint, and Symon as controllers and pure artists in this story. The breakdown of power and influence related to the Basilisk is still blurred to me, but I think it's a convincing way of showing influence over the story, as well as a homage. The trapped setting as Cairey and Ophelia go on their date at the MEH is like so many of Salinger's stories stuck in one room. The other obvious reference is with William Shakespeare. Lake Lear being the location of a tempest that leads to young Cairey's mental breakdown in a very childlike way seems clear enough, as well as the obvious parallels with Cairey as Hamlet and Ophelia as Ophelia. I had something besides surface-level observations to Hamlet, but I've forgotten them now.
So, if it's not clear enough, I'm giving this four stars more for lack of my own understanding than necessarily the quality of the book. I was fine with the stylistic quirks and do not have some great understanding to immediately see all the details and connections in this book. I've never been good with anagrams. I think it's clear that Logo put a lot of effort put in, and it is something new and exciting to read. I do want to read Logo's next book, especially if it is a sequel so I can start to look past how depressing Cairey Turnbull's Blue Skiddo can get.
March 14, 2021
Apparently the author is notorious, so bear in mind my review does not take this fact into account since 1) I don't care and 2) I have no clue who the author is. This book randomly popped up as a recommendation from the almighty algorithm (meta as fuck) and I was tired of reading non-fiction so I gave this one a whirl. A good indicator of a book's quality is if you want to read more about the book after finishing it. I would love to hear what other people think about the ending, but since this book appears to be relatively unknown I doubt I will find much.
I will say that the ambiguous and ethereal ending reminded me of Diamondis by James Wadman, one of my few 5-star fiction books, and a similarly underground work that is also self-published (and also has occasional typos, though not nearly as many as Blue Skiddoo). The subject matter is quite different, but I would highly recommend people check it out to get a less pessimistic interpretation of what Blue Skiddoo was trying to uncover (life, meaning, the ultimate reason for anything and everything, what happens when we die, and does it even matter).
I will say that the ambiguous and ethereal ending reminded me of Diamondis by James Wadman, one of my few 5-star fiction books, and a similarly underground work that is also self-published (and also has occasional typos, though not nearly as many as Blue Skiddoo). The subject matter is quite different, but I would highly recommend people check it out to get a less pessimistic interpretation of what Blue Skiddoo was trying to uncover (life, meaning, the ultimate reason for anything and everything, what happens when we die, and does it even matter).
December 26, 2020
This book left me with a lot to think about but the thing I was most impressed by was what made him freakout when it finally reveals what his grand freakout was.
Lots of funny commentaries on the current art world and the current media world, that's the stuff Daedalus was interested in. Also very "now" to frame it all around a date.
I found this to be a very good book though I really wish he'd learn how to make an em dash on his keyboard rather than using hyphens endlessly in such a daft way.
He's probably making some kind of point with that. I can abide the ampersands, but the hyphens were trying.
Still, this is a great little book and at its slim size, how could you not like it?
Lots of funny commentaries on the current art world and the current media world, that's the stuff Daedalus was interested in. Also very "now" to frame it all around a date.
I found this to be a very good book though I really wish he'd learn how to make an em dash on his keyboard rather than using hyphens endlessly in such a daft way.
He's probably making some kind of point with that. I can abide the ampersands, but the hyphens were trying.
Still, this is a great little book and at its slim size, how could you not like it?
May 20, 2019
Bruh, I feel yuh; I also want to melt into art that I haven’t yet completed. But at least you’re on your way - keep it comin’!
January 3, 2023
Whatever you think about the author of this book and his online antics, disregard it. This slim little self-published poorly-edited novella stands apart from the obnoxious "home base" of its creator and enters another-- the Museum of Expressive Humanism, where not only the distinctions between Art & Life, but Art & Life & Self & Reality, fall away. In a hypermodern world of connectivity, social credit, narcissism, and overhyphenated college majors, we enter a realm where the individual is glorified, and his story celebrated in spectacle. And Cairey, caught in the middle of fame that he did not ask for, has his complicated narcissm, borne of an unfinished childhood fantasy, transformed into insanity. But we aren't asked to judge Cairey, only to understand. I don't fully understand, but neither does Cairey.
The potentially pretentious prose becomes essential as the story's many influences become clear. It is a Romantic classic, a postmodern nightmare, and a Lynchian voyuerism all at once. The author's skill is promising, incorporating poetry, time flux, and Chekov's guns like a pro; unfortunately the text itself suffers from generous typos. But in its rawness it is is one of the most unique and interesting works of fiction I've read in a while and I will definitely be chewing on it for a long time. I encourage the anonymous(?) author to get off twitter and chase down the muse of the longer form.
The potentially pretentious prose becomes essential as the story's many influences become clear. It is a Romantic classic, a postmodern nightmare, and a Lynchian voyuerism all at once. The author's skill is promising, incorporating poetry, time flux, and Chekov's guns like a pro; unfortunately the text itself suffers from generous typos. But in its rawness it is is one of the most unique and interesting works of fiction I've read in a while and I will definitely be chewing on it for a long time. I encourage the anonymous(?) author to get off twitter and chase down the muse of the longer form.
July 18, 2022
This really did it for me, really warmed my heart and scratched an itch—though definitely sad, too. Also: a huge thunderclap, the only one of the ensuing rain, sounded as I finished the concluding poem.
October 17, 2024
This was very entertaining and quick. Really wish, to add effect, they had the last page (Inconclusive Fragment) flipped text so you would have to turn the book upside down to finish the story. I mean what a ride
July 22, 2019
Ambitious, dense. Very good Logo.
July 26, 2019
Well written, compelling story. Easy weekend read.
August 29, 2019
I don't get it. Is it... modern?
August 3, 2025
Excellent for a debut book. Logo captures Urban isolationism exceptionally well. Very condensed setting could have been more expansive in my view. Would reccomend it to anyone in the NY arts scene
January 17, 2021
excellent , becomes much more enjoyable when the tempo increases , looking forward to reading ampersand and would like to see a longer work with a less specific setting from logo. “read with a libidinal flick of my hazel eyes”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2020
the author's good ideas are well executed and well written. his worse ideas aren't. lake abigail and ophelia were the best characters.
July 21, 2019
I find it to be a shame that I did not enjoy this book as much as I had anticipated I would & it is possible that this stemmed from my own high expectations - probably misplaced for a debut.
An issue I had with the book, particularly early on, was his apparent familiarity with a thesaurus, although this may be ironic.
There were errors regarding spelling*, punctuation & grammar (e.g. queue cards pg. 31) - I am not sure if the book was self-edited.
The idea was interesting, but certain parts seemed to drag on (i.e. the detailed account of Set72). I enjoyed the brief description of Cairey’s parents & Cairey’s adventures at the island. ‘The End’ was my favourite chapter.
I am a fan of Logo’s poetry & online ‘brand’. I look forward to his future works and hope that negative reviews do not dissuade him from pursuing future writing endeavours.
& it is also entirely possible that I didn’t ‘get it’.
*I am aware some misspellings were intentional (i.e. Youniversity)
An issue I had with the book, particularly early on, was his apparent familiarity with a thesaurus, although this may be ironic.
There were errors regarding spelling*, punctuation & grammar (e.g. queue cards pg. 31) - I am not sure if the book was self-edited.
The idea was interesting, but certain parts seemed to drag on (i.e. the detailed account of Set72). I enjoyed the brief description of Cairey’s parents & Cairey’s adventures at the island. ‘The End’ was my favourite chapter.
I am a fan of Logo’s poetry & online ‘brand’. I look forward to his future works and hope that negative reviews do not dissuade him from pursuing future writing endeavours.
& it is also entirely possible that I didn’t ‘get it’.
*I am aware some misspellings were intentional (i.e. Youniversity)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 6, 2024
Excellent writing with sinister ideas attempting to bridge fantasy and reality like Nick Land's horrorist stories but perhaps even better developed. Though I'm no expert in black magic, this short book feels like an evil spell, weaving a mental tapestry of dark despair. Smart readers may find the fantasy elements corny. Dummies may be compelled to follow its plot psychologically and pursue the limits of their own sanity. Not a book for young people. Goodness is not represented.
February 24, 2020
A modern day Great Gatsby, but instead of being gay and boring it's actually good.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews