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Forrest
Forrest is on page 101 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
"London After the Rave: Burial" lauds Butial's self-titled album as the album of the decade, echoing the ghosts of shattered dreams and people left in the wake of 90s race culture.
Apr 29, 2020 05:30PM 1 comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 98 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
The disturbing, nay, horrifying revelations around the sexual predation by British '70s celebrity icon Jimmy Savile are the focus of "Now Then, Now Then: Jimmy Savile and 'the 70s on Trial'." But this travesty isn't about the 70s, really, it's about celebrity connections, power, and the ability to get away with rape . . . repeatedly. A sad story. But little to do with the '70s, outside of incidental chronology
Apr 29, 2020 04:28PM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 88 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
Fisher's essay "Can the World Be as Sad as It Seems?": David Peace and his Adapters offers nothing new, really. Some directors and producers successfully adapt novels into movies, some do not. There's not a lot of insight here. Or maybe I just read too much and don't watch movies enough. This essay reads like it was taken straight out of a blog . . . Which it was.
Apr 29, 2020 03:30PM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 79 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
I don't know that I fully agree with Fisher's assertion in the first paragraph of "The Past is an Alien Planet," that society has lost confidence that there can be any kind of future at all, but I do think he's onto something about the glorification of bad behavior in "Life on Mars" as a sort of reactionary nostalgia of the '70s.
Apr 29, 2020 10:21AM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 11 of 320 of Dissonant Intervals
A beautiful book-as-artifact. The first two sentences of the first story are perfect, from a writerly perspective. Perfect.
Apr 28, 2020 07:58PM Add a comment
Dissonant Intervals

Forrest
Forrest is on page 46 of 241 of The Hill of Dreams
The meandering style of this work reminds me of walking for hours through the English countryside as a teenager, with all the thoughts and rage that Lucian experienced. There is no real plot to speak of here, and I love that fact, thus far. It is a literary walk exploring the psychogeography of Machen and his environs. So fitting that I bought the book in the same area (SIluria) that he portrays.
Apr 28, 2020 05:21PM Add a comment
The Hill of Dreams

Forrest
Forrest is on page 76 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
Having never read the novel, seen the '70s TV miniseries, nor the 2011 film, I was at a distinct disadvantage reading Fisher's essay "Smiley's Game: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy". The short version is: the novel was the best, the '79 miniseries was a good interpretation, and the 2011 movie just tried too hard to be "'70s". Had I any familiarity with these media, I might have enjoyed it more. Alas . . .
Apr 28, 2020 03:54PM 1 comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 64 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
Only tangentially related to music, in the end, the essay "No Longer the Pleasures: Joy Division," uses Joy Division's troubled story and the suicide of Ian Curtis to examine depression itself. It's a heavy essay, worth reading, especially if you've suffered from depression yourself. One wonders how Fisher was unable to convince himself of his own need to survive. Such is mental illness. Sadly reflective.
Apr 28, 2020 10:45AM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 39 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
"Ghosts of my life: Goldie, Japan, Tricky" is a meandering essay about electronic music old and new, but, on a deeper level, that music's reflection of the dissolution of societal structures and the struggle to maintain some semblance of self-identity amidst the grinding of class structures and social expectation. I see now why Fisher titled the book as he did - the idea of ghosts works on many levels. Four stars.
Apr 27, 2020 10:49AM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 39 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
I didn't discover David Sylvian until 1994 or so. Still, I feel like his name crops up in all.the oddest places, including Fisher's analysis of the band Japan, circa 1982. It's a tangled web that I can't seem to unravel, but some thread of my intellectual life seems tied up in knots with David Sylvian. I just wish I could make sense of it all, but I'm just sort of this senseless fly caught in a spider's web.
Apr 25, 2020 08:44PM 2 comments
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 29 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
The written version of "The Slow Cancellation of the Future" feels like it has more gravitas than the lectured version. Fisher is able here to have the breathing room to more solidly contextualize his hauntological argument within the framework of Capitalist Realism in a more convincing way while, at the same time, exploring the nuances of hauntology itself.
Apr 25, 2020 07:25PM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 16 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
I hit chronological adulthood in 1987. This is just when Fisher argues the future was in the middle of being cancelled. I can actually see what he means. More explanations to follow in my review, but I was a first-hand witness to exactly what he was talking about. I'm glad I got to see culture when I did because now, much of it seems rather . . . flat.
Apr 22, 2020 10:39AM 2 comments
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 6 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
Already, a divergence from his lecture. Good! Sapphire & Steel was from before my time in England (I moved there in '85), so watching that last episode just now was a bit shocking. It puts some emotive impetus behind Fisher's evocative essay.
Apr 21, 2020 07:59PM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest added a status update
I apologize in advance that my next two review are going to be lame and/or late. We just bought a new house and we have to get our existing one on the market, but fast! Anyone want to move to Madison, WI? It's a great city!
Apr 21, 2020 10:55AM 8 comments

Forrest
Forrest is on page 2 of 232 of Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
Just getting started. And we start with "The Slow Cancellation of the Future," a lecture given by Fisher that I've watched on youtube many times, but have never read. Glad to be able to process it now at my own pace!
Apr 21, 2020 06:47AM Add a comment
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Forrest
Forrest is on page 16 of 241 of The Hill of Dreams
Had Machen merely produced nature writing, it would have been astounding. No, he layers some of the most vivid nature writing beneath a keen psychological observation of youth which lies, in turn, under a luminous vision of that which is beyond nature, yet permeates it, scrying into the esoteric. This tale seethes with a pantheistic sensibility, cosmic logic, Cosmo-logical.
Apr 20, 2020 09:10PM Add a comment
The Hill of Dreams

Forrest
Forrest is on page 214 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
Louys' "A Case without Precedent" is, well, without precedent. An interesting anecdote in rather dry prose about the potential marriage of a young man and conjoined twin girl(s). It's a strange case, indeed, but little more than an anecdote. A clever way to end the anthology, but a weak story, unfortunately. Three stars.
Apr 20, 2020 04:40PM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 209 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
I would swear that the literary seeds that sprouted Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges were planted firmly in this story, "Paolo Uccello, Painter". This is a precognizant proto-echo to those two great writers' work, combining the best of both before either was even born. It is an anachronistic miracle. Five transcendental stars.
Apr 20, 2020 02:52PM 1 comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 205 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
"Lucretius, Poet" is a story of longing and logic and science and love, all of it ending tragically and mad, of course. Because who can understand all of those things at once and not be driven utterly out of their mind? Another great character study, which I didn't know was one of Schwob's strengths, until now. Four stars.
Apr 20, 2020 10:42AM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 202 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
"52 and 53 Orfila" reads like an Aickman story, but not as weird. Still, the story of pettiness among dwellers in an old-folks home rings strange simply because of the amount of sheer haughtiness and cliqueishness and the extremes to which people will go to fulfill a gnawing jealousy. It is a great character study of (some of) the elderly, though. Four stars.
Apr 20, 2020 10:33AM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 198 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
Schwob delivers the grue in "The Sans-Gueule," a story about two soldiers that have had their faces blown completely off and the woman who takes them home to try to determine which is her husband. This story was disturbing even for Schwob, which is saying something. I felt like I was watching a Tool music-video in my head while reading this. Really off-kilter stuff here. Five stars worth, in fact.
Apr 19, 2020 06:39PM 6 comments
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 194 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
Given my previous experience with Marcel Schwob, I had high expectations going into this section. "The Brothel," a transgressive ghost story, if I ever read one, met those expectations. Five stars.
Apr 19, 2020 03:15PM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 191 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
"Perseus and Andromeda" is a wonderful pastiche of Romanticism and turns the tale, perhaps not completely on its head, but sideways, to be sure. The portrayal of Perseus as a dandy-to-top-all-dandies is hilarious. Four stars to this twisted myth.
Apr 19, 2020 01:25PM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 173 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
"On the Threshold" is a strange little story about a heron named "Remorse," among other things. A fairly blase story, it is elevated by it's strange elements. Four stars.
Apr 17, 2020 09:46PM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 168 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
Never have I seen Eros and Thanatos so intertwined as in Gourmont's story "Don Juan's Secret". In that little sub-sub-sub-genre of stories about death and sex, this has to top them all. My goodness, what a writer! I already knew that, but this clinches it: Remy de Gourmont has ascended to stand side by side with Marcel Schwob as the decadents' Decadent. Five stars.
Apr 17, 2020 10:30AM 1 comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 165 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
"The Faun" is an interesting bit of debauchery. Well-written, of course, but not compelling. Four stars.
Apr 16, 2020 10:40AM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 162 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
"Danaette" is exactly what I signed up for when I picked up this volume. I should have known Remy de Gourmont would deliver such a work of exquisite beauty. The prose is absolutely stunning. The imagery is jaw-dropping. The co-mingling of sin and innocence is a precise hallmark of decadence, in my mind, at least. This is the gold-standard. Five stars like white snowflakes, if you catch my drift.
Apr 16, 2020 08:26AM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 159 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
Rodenbach's "The Time" is a bit of chaos magic, but rather than sigils and ecstacy, it is time and death that cast the spell for the hapless narrator. Only after he has forgotten the weaving of synchronicities that would realize one desire, but only in the absence of another. Five stars.
Apr 15, 2020 09:10PM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 148 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
Both timely and "too soon," "The Man Who Loved Consumptives" debates whether the subject in question is a near-necrophiliac or a tender elegaic. Of course, given the Decadent's penchant for objectifying women, he is viewed as wise, a person who feels more deeply than the rest of humanity, and is lauded for his cleverness. Though I disagree heartily with the sentiment, this is a convincing story. Five stars.
Apr 15, 2020 10:31AM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

Forrest
Forrest is on page 143 of 231 of French Decadent Tales
"The Man with the Bracelet" is truly what most people would call "decadent," forbidden pleasures in a sea of decay, squalor, whores, and cut-throats and the people who try to exploit them, all mixed together in a stew of self-loathing. This story puts the "decay" in decadence. Five stars.
Apr 14, 2020 06:18PM Add a comment
French Decadent Tales

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