literature should infuriate before it inspires transliterate, confound and confuse as it communicates. non of these is mutable or mutually interdependent; it suffices for text to to do any one of these. "seventeen billion buys a pair of shoes on a good day... twenty one on a bad one. church group may assist with the cost of dying; lead lined care framed"
unsigned.
Saturday, 10 May 2008
in the after glow
short order: sentient and other-worldly and over wordy tendency. every city has its own nuclear bunker, that is a facility in which you or they may survive the Armageddon. the main problem with these facilities is that nobody now knows their whereabouts , that is whereabouts they that is the bunkers are. as to this: they did and now they don't. this lack is a reference to a presence of an unknowing, twelve men did but they don't not anymore. as with the red book of hergest(his spelling) king arthur awaits an awakening of a shadowy order; welsh nazi's occupy canarfon castle(no guess found) sapphic in the support they provide for both language and genocide.
what am i doing?
compounding the problems of the present he had realized that the inevitable waiting task and in preparation of or for that mission (his hyperbole) he found himself recourseing to extended non punctuated language.(his full stop) growing anxiety is or was and is emergency procedural procedure. she could and does realize who she is; no bitterness slash vitriol just a creeping sense of uneasy uneasiness and in this the root of his/her platitudes placating and in doing so emphasizing above inadequacy.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
the thing is...
Attempted a philosophical exercise intended to release me from the universe’s ethical chains. It was in reality something of a poor version of crime and punishment; I stole some money and put it on a horse in the belief that the universe would conspire to make me win and so help me on my way to becoming a superman: no longer fettered by the chains of morality da di da… Raskilnikov went to prison and my horse lost. So it has gone with most of my projects of this kind, though in my youth I managed to subvert nearly all of my inherited morality; a process that has indelibly marked me with a deep distrust of youth. An attitude inevitably placing me at odds with a society that so venerates tight bald innocence. We are all given a moment in life when we may reform or erase everything grace has provided in that brief, eternal spell from birth to the first sticky sprouting of tufting aggressive indolence and self assurance. For me it was an impossibly angry blackness, ignorance tinted and flecked with Sicilian intractability, the fundamental problems with this project are painfully obvious in hindsight and hysterically accurate as my present analysis may be it does very little to ease my subsequent psychological distress. My psyche like a woman scorned; hates the part of myself rejected by my ‘brothers’ and hates more the brothers. Significant in this fractured narrative is an uncle who only showed awe in the light of my transgressions: pride in his nephew’s atrocities. At drunken wedding he would warn with glee the weak white progeny of his recent wife: “they will kick off your door while you sleep! Or even while you’re awake! They don’t care! They’ll do anything! Those boys… my boys… my boy.”
“Thanks dad”
But to be fair my dad is dead and would have singularly disapproved, disavowed and disowned all those things than are the preserve of the living. Unless you are Confucian. And it was perhaps for that reason; desiring direct interference from my ancestors, ancestor. I adopted a friend’s Chinese family: ate eggs filled with ducklings, dropped ‘l’s’ and gambled.
“Thanks dad”
But to be fair my dad is dead and would have singularly disapproved, disavowed and disowned all those things than are the preserve of the living. Unless you are Confucian. And it was perhaps for that reason; desiring direct interference from my ancestors, ancestor. I adopted a friend’s Chinese family: ate eggs filled with ducklings, dropped ‘l’s’ and gambled.
Thursday, 21 February 2008
On Fugu
It was at lunch in a restaurant that shall remain nameless that I first tasted Rape Beef. The eatery in question was a -----/--------/---- brassiere specializing in said bovine delicacy. It is said that RB combines all the elements of our most popular meat based treats while at once addressing the desire in present in most modern men to transgress vicariously; it allows the diner to participate in a positive orgy of blood lust and depravity during lunch and without his needing to change shoes.
On request a diner could obtain a biography, of some poor beast; complete with a written description of its final days, or for a significant surcharge a video of highlights from the killing floor. It is not difficult to deduce the target demographic for this cuisine. What did prove surprising was the popularity of RB among the legions of progressively minded ethical consumers.
Inevitably things could at times become slightly over heated: usually at the weekends and during the evening service, this was mostly down to an excess of alcohol, but on occasion the meat or more accurately the meat menu was to blame; there were several instances of wealthy patrons being asked to leave after they were found to be excessively aroused by the whole experience. There was no malice in these expulsions and the disruptive patrons were inevitably re-admitted to conclude their meal once they had relieved themselves at a nearby facility, as such a degree of symbiosis existed between the two establishments it was decided that they should merge. This decision was taken exclusively by the management and initially met with serious resistance from both sets of workers. I am told that the ethical custom dropped off around this time. And though at the time this was of little concern in the burgeoning economic climate it can now be seen as a definite turning point. In time cross-pollination twixt the brothel and bistro (sorry) had led to the most controversial/progressive/illegal service: namely rape rape. As you can no doubt see; by the time I came to eat there the initial premise of my story had collapsed under the weight of inevitability that is I suppose a human inevitability. I don’t know when it went wrong was it when the men from the sex trade got involved? Was it when the ethical eaters left? Or was it all fucked the moment it started? Rape beef indeed!
On request a diner could obtain a biography, of some poor beast; complete with a written description of its final days, or for a significant surcharge a video of highlights from the killing floor. It is not difficult to deduce the target demographic for this cuisine. What did prove surprising was the popularity of RB among the legions of progressively minded ethical consumers.
Inevitably things could at times become slightly over heated: usually at the weekends and during the evening service, this was mostly down to an excess of alcohol, but on occasion the meat or more accurately the meat menu was to blame; there were several instances of wealthy patrons being asked to leave after they were found to be excessively aroused by the whole experience. There was no malice in these expulsions and the disruptive patrons were inevitably re-admitted to conclude their meal once they had relieved themselves at a nearby facility, as such a degree of symbiosis existed between the two establishments it was decided that they should merge. This decision was taken exclusively by the management and initially met with serious resistance from both sets of workers. I am told that the ethical custom dropped off around this time. And though at the time this was of little concern in the burgeoning economic climate it can now be seen as a definite turning point. In time cross-pollination twixt the brothel and bistro (sorry) had led to the most controversial/progressive/illegal service: namely rape rape. As you can no doubt see; by the time I came to eat there the initial premise of my story had collapsed under the weight of inevitability that is I suppose a human inevitability. I don’t know when it went wrong was it when the men from the sex trade got involved? Was it when the ethical eaters left? Or was it all fucked the moment it started? Rape beef indeed!
Saturday, 16 February 2008
an article too grounded in short fiction
Could you come down to the prayer room? We seem to have a problem.
The same problem?
Yes.
Is it another lay practitioner?
No, I’m afraid that this time it’s a novice. Classic case: as with the others he is showing external signs of some deep inner peace.
External signs… a deep inner peace?
Yes. It was the Wednesday meeting you see.
Yes. Has he anything to say?
Yes it’s beautiful really, enigmatic yet concise and relevant. Like a white flame; dancing before your eyes; captivating and consuming though illuminating…yes, beautiful.
Yes! I understand, but can you please try and keep yourself together. The last thing we need is for this to spread any further. Not again.
No, of course. I am sorry.
Have you left anyone with him?
Yes: one of the Cambodians.
Good, no danger there then.
Danger?
Oh yes. Sorry this is brother -----: he has been sent from our European office. To keep an eye and write a report.
Hello.
Hello. You said there was no danger. Cambodians: what did you mean exactly?
Well, it seems that they’re completely immune: something in their character maybe? They just never seem to succumb to the thing.
Guilt?
No, unfortunately not. I mean that’s something we can work with. No, this is different. Obviously we persevere with them, though they never make it beyond the level of senior novice.
Worrying.
Though they are invaluable in times such as these.
Yes, I should think they are.
And are we any closer to understanding what is at the root of all this?
It appears that we, who are native to this place- these islands are unusually susceptible to a condition resembling looking like; externally appearing to be something approaching an enlightenment.
Enlightenment!? This is what you want me to report? Surely we have not reached the point where it is necessary to resort to and in resorting to; to use this kind of emotive language? I feel I now perceive what is at the root of your and make no mistake when I say yours I mean our and by that I mean your problem. This language! How can one: anyone communicate adequately with what is obviously an overstretched and at times outraged populace whilst using language? And language like this! I see your problem. Enlightenment is that what you wish me to say?
I am afraid you may have to. For if we and by we I mean you and I and also other members. If we do not use language such as this to describe a condition such as this: one that demands a description such as this. If we fail to do this at this point; I that case I feel that is not just our presence on these islands that is in doubt. No I feel and by that I mean think our entire future may well be in question.
I’m sure you’re right and I feel as you as to the urgency of the entire episode as it is or as it may be. But (ominously) if we are to address this ‘crises’ (his punctuation) then I feel that we must feel out what lies at the root causes of the whole episodic whole. (The narrator having felt no need to intercede at last broke his silence to apologise for the turn that _____’s speech, or his rendering of it had taken.) Our group has long prided itself on the major role it has taken in maintaining and imposing of linearity, that is lines or the idea of lines on and through and in the minds of those cultures and people and philosophies lacking in…lines (his pause) or linearity. Maybe it has been the unparalleled success we have had over the years that has made us complacent; in any case we find ourselves now facing a race, and I feel that my membership of a race allows me to employ such language. A race so completely lacking in both linearity or indeed any form of lines so as to make our task nye on impossible. It is at times like these that we must truly question why we truly are what we are and do what we do! I do not! Mean that we should interrogate what we do: as to my mind interrogation is an abhorrent process akin to torture. Rather we attempt to glean from the line what its intention is in showing its or his self to us in such a curved manner.
So you think that it is a lack of linearity then?
Fucking hell! Do you not know anything? What else could it be?
Forgive me but have we not always been taught that: “our line is the line of understanding and humility.” And that being the case could it not be that these men have inherited a line of which we are unaware? Could it not be that the appearance of curvature is merely an illusion a perspectival trick?
I am fast losing patience with you? You know as well as I do that: “ the curve may appear straight until one gains sufficient distance. And so may appreciate at last it’s inherent deviance” this is the basis of faith! We know that it is ‘possible’ that linearity is merely an illusion but anything can be an illusion. Linearity is truth! If we start to question that then what the fuck have we got?
Of course I apologise.
Don’t apologise! Just help me to get a handle on this whole mess.
The same problem?
Yes.
Is it another lay practitioner?
No, I’m afraid that this time it’s a novice. Classic case: as with the others he is showing external signs of some deep inner peace.
External signs… a deep inner peace?
Yes. It was the Wednesday meeting you see.
Yes. Has he anything to say?
Yes it’s beautiful really, enigmatic yet concise and relevant. Like a white flame; dancing before your eyes; captivating and consuming though illuminating…yes, beautiful.
Yes! I understand, but can you please try and keep yourself together. The last thing we need is for this to spread any further. Not again.
No, of course. I am sorry.
Have you left anyone with him?
Yes: one of the Cambodians.
Good, no danger there then.
Danger?
Oh yes. Sorry this is brother -----: he has been sent from our European office. To keep an eye and write a report.
Hello.
Hello. You said there was no danger. Cambodians: what did you mean exactly?
Well, it seems that they’re completely immune: something in their character maybe? They just never seem to succumb to the thing.
Guilt?
No, unfortunately not. I mean that’s something we can work with. No, this is different. Obviously we persevere with them, though they never make it beyond the level of senior novice.
Worrying.
Though they are invaluable in times such as these.
Yes, I should think they are.
And are we any closer to understanding what is at the root of all this?
It appears that we, who are native to this place- these islands are unusually susceptible to a condition resembling looking like; externally appearing to be something approaching an enlightenment.
Enlightenment!? This is what you want me to report? Surely we have not reached the point where it is necessary to resort to and in resorting to; to use this kind of emotive language? I feel I now perceive what is at the root of your and make no mistake when I say yours I mean our and by that I mean your problem. This language! How can one: anyone communicate adequately with what is obviously an overstretched and at times outraged populace whilst using language? And language like this! I see your problem. Enlightenment is that what you wish me to say?
I am afraid you may have to. For if we and by we I mean you and I and also other members. If we do not use language such as this to describe a condition such as this: one that demands a description such as this. If we fail to do this at this point; I that case I feel that is not just our presence on these islands that is in doubt. No I feel and by that I mean think our entire future may well be in question.
I’m sure you’re right and I feel as you as to the urgency of the entire episode as it is or as it may be. But (ominously) if we are to address this ‘crises’ (his punctuation) then I feel that we must feel out what lies at the root causes of the whole episodic whole. (The narrator having felt no need to intercede at last broke his silence to apologise for the turn that _____’s speech, or his rendering of it had taken.) Our group has long prided itself on the major role it has taken in maintaining and imposing of linearity, that is lines or the idea of lines on and through and in the minds of those cultures and people and philosophies lacking in…lines (his pause) or linearity. Maybe it has been the unparalleled success we have had over the years that has made us complacent; in any case we find ourselves now facing a race, and I feel that my membership of a race allows me to employ such language. A race so completely lacking in both linearity or indeed any form of lines so as to make our task nye on impossible. It is at times like these that we must truly question why we truly are what we are and do what we do! I do not! Mean that we should interrogate what we do: as to my mind interrogation is an abhorrent process akin to torture. Rather we attempt to glean from the line what its intention is in showing its or his self to us in such a curved manner.
So you think that it is a lack of linearity then?
Fucking hell! Do you not know anything? What else could it be?
Forgive me but have we not always been taught that: “our line is the line of understanding and humility.” And that being the case could it not be that these men have inherited a line of which we are unaware? Could it not be that the appearance of curvature is merely an illusion a perspectival trick?
I am fast losing patience with you? You know as well as I do that: “ the curve may appear straight until one gains sufficient distance. And so may appreciate at last it’s inherent deviance” this is the basis of faith! We know that it is ‘possible’ that linearity is merely an illusion but anything can be an illusion. Linearity is truth! If we start to question that then what the fuck have we got?
Of course I apologise.
Don’t apologise! Just help me to get a handle on this whole mess.
Monday, 11 February 2008
apologies for non cross posting
Wansee
1.
Anaemic ocean on whose shores
Atrocities consider
And marriages consummated
Not that…
2.
What’ll you have?
Carling
No carling; just Amstel
Or the Czech stuff
The Czech stuff?
Not Amstel… not unless
You want to see me throw up
Last… when did we have that
Greece?
No
Malta
Not unless you want to see me throw up
Do you want see me throw up?
Not Amstel
3.
I don’t like it when you turn red
I shouldn’t turn red
It’s been 48 hours
Or 36
Though it does have a very
Strange effect
Accumulative?
No
Just strange it’s an agonist or an antagonist
Antagonist sounds better
Yes
It does make me red
And can give me a headache
It’s a nice pub though
Yes
My only complaint is:
The later it gets the louder it gets
For the clientele I suppose
Not for us though?
I wonder where
We’re the clientele?
Not here?
No
Though I think they like us
Yes I think they do
4.
That boy’s never old enough
Old for what?
Beer
Beer maybe
But not scotch
Never scotch
I wouldn’t say never
Well yes he’s a young lad
Did they ever lower the age of consent?
Not that much!
For scotch I mean
Citizenship I mean
Not sex then?
I don’t know, are they not the same thing?
Not that much
1.
Anaemic ocean on whose shores
Atrocities consider
And marriages consummated
Not that…
2.
What’ll you have?
Carling
No carling; just Amstel
Or the Czech stuff
The Czech stuff?
Not Amstel… not unless
You want to see me throw up
Last… when did we have that
Greece?
No
Malta
Not unless you want to see me throw up
Do you want see me throw up?
Not Amstel
3.
I don’t like it when you turn red
I shouldn’t turn red
It’s been 48 hours
Or 36
Though it does have a very
Strange effect
Accumulative?
No
Just strange it’s an agonist or an antagonist
Antagonist sounds better
Yes
It does make me red
And can give me a headache
It’s a nice pub though
Yes
My only complaint is:
The later it gets the louder it gets
For the clientele I suppose
Not for us though?
I wonder where
We’re the clientele?
Not here?
No
Though I think they like us
Yes I think they do
4.
That boy’s never old enough
Old for what?
Beer
Beer maybe
But not scotch
Never scotch
I wouldn’t say never
Well yes he’s a young lad
Did they ever lower the age of consent?
Not that much!
For scotch I mean
Citizenship I mean
Not sex then?
I don’t know, are they not the same thing?
Not that much
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
after an absence...poetry
i am now embarked on an eighteenth century project: opium, philosophy, poetry-suicide maybe even landscape paintings and apocryphal tales of worthy peasant folk; who's nobility of spirit puts to shame the decadent excesses of our privileged class with our cloying hypocritical morality. milkmaids with their round hips pock marked visages and the sweet sour sent of rancid butter cascading from the sacred ceiling of that cotton curtained twin pillared temple at who's green spattered feet a sickly stenched whimpering lord may receive such a salty yellow baptism that may burn his eyes and for a fleeting moment wash away his lordly talc and charcoal blemish leaving him once more weeping and worthless among the ticks and manure.
Monday, 26 November 2007
Dostoyevsky's house
i read once that Dostoyevky ensured that wherever he lived; he could see from his window both a tavern and a church. so as to always be aware of the eternal choices facing 'man'-namely the spiritual and the earthly. from my window i can only see a graveyard... oh with a hospital behind it.
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Boundless sacks and rotten turning tawny hands
Bound in tourniquets, salvage and straps of soil studded plastic
Sheathed in defence of a sandy bottom
And covered in defiance of an elemental desire
Mildred bubbles with social reference and reverence for steeple of un-timed absence
A lack of function; whimsical in the extreme but tiered and peppered with sweets (a clumsy allusion to domestic terror)
“Ultimately fortune falls through your fingers”
As you gain credence and support in a scandal that has bloated the corridors of…
How shall I say that she left you unfettered though unbalanced and on the whole a far better soul?
But it’s not your repeated atrocity leaving you free to pursue an inventive career in progress and prototype.
No?
Now the lack of a hand, tawny or not will give you problems with slapstick
Offence and an inclination to adventure.
Bound in tourniquets, salvage and straps of soil studded plastic
Sheathed in defence of a sandy bottom
And covered in defiance of an elemental desire
Mildred bubbles with social reference and reverence for steeple of un-timed absence
A lack of function; whimsical in the extreme but tiered and peppered with sweets (a clumsy allusion to domestic terror)
“Ultimately fortune falls through your fingers”
As you gain credence and support in a scandal that has bloated the corridors of…
How shall I say that she left you unfettered though unbalanced and on the whole a far better soul?
But it’s not your repeated atrocity leaving you free to pursue an inventive career in progress and prototype.
No?
Now the lack of a hand, tawny or not will give you problems with slapstick
Offence and an inclination to adventure.
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
im sorry drunks should never be spat on. often they are only fallen members of our shadowy protector elite. i apologize for my lack of sympathy. but it is frustrating for one who has spent so long attempting to join their ranks to see former brewmen reduced to sniveling white cider wrecks, while Teddy is in the park every day defending us(and occasionaly reprimanding us for our stupidity) some of these former warrior sages drink 'White Storm'!
Yet again denmark or more specifically Carlsberg 'Special Brew' has come to my rescue; this is not however a solution. in fact i would go so far as to call it a problem: 'the brew problem' the scourge of civilized nations. though in truth it is or only remaining bulwark against the hoards who would seek to destroy our beautiful and delicate way of life. like madalines and jasmine tea the brew serves as secret repository for our most vital collective memories. it is for this reason that our societal custodian have taken upon themselves the heavy burden of the brew. you may mistake them for drunks in the park but in fact they are members of an elite which traces its lineage back to ancient greece. tomorrow attempt to question one of these individuals and you find their answer so subtle and mysterious as to defy our present logic, indeed this nuanced code has been developed over millennia to ensure the secrets that protect us remain so, until we have reached a level of understanding whereby we can utilize this knowledge only for good. like the eastern masters these men(and occasionally women) shy away from the unnecessary luxuries we consider essential: home, car soap for them a nobler path but one without thanks from the very people they tirelessly defend. consider these valiant heroes and when possible attempt to assist them in their mission £1.60 is the average price for a draft of this elixir. a warning if they do not drink brew then they are merely drunks and should be spat on.
Friday, 16 November 2007
As he sat there a visible change came over him and he spurted out;” Everyone blames it on evolutionary imperatives. But they are wrong! If we were so highly evolved we’d drink 2 and a half litres of water in one go. We don’t!”
“Surely that’s insufficient evidence with which to counter the larger part of western scientific thought on the nature of mankind” I queried. “well, yes I suppose it is” he responded meekly.
“I’m sorry. My sister doesn’t like me.”
With that an uncomfortable silence descended on the proceedings. We looked down at our coffee cups. I got smoke in my eye, but suppressed the urge to blink. Afraid as I was of appearing glib. This only increased the discomfort and worse; caused tears to stream down my face. After enduring the pain for long enough to disassosiate it from said smoke . I affected a casual wipe with my sleeve. My hand however only sered to remind me of the sores that surrounded my mouth; from her crotch, from my crotch from hers. Inevitably enough the conversation turned to the merits or otherwise of one Alessandro Botticeli; apparently an artist of some renown, but not one I particularly loved. That said I did have some respect for something or other someone told me he did. Anyway, I argued that in my opinion his work was a bit like the illustrations from ‘Hotspur: for boys’. My ccompanion did not agree and was beginning to castigate me. At this point I became aware that his words had been reduced to a monotontous hum in my only working ear, on top of this my narration was hoplessly stilted and staggered. I desperately grasped for an onomatipia as a drowning man reaches for a log… or a metaphor, but to no avail I was lost!
There was once a broken drain in the street behind a house. At night it seemed a lake was living there: a rat lake with rat boats and coke cans. Cold and Black(two cats) patrolled its edges; each a mirror image of the other.
“Frescos are just massive flat man cocks!” I started, it was not nessasareiy that I disagreed with the statement, no in fact it made perfect sense to me. At this point as at all the other points it was the physical manifestation of an internal and unrelated issue that woke me from my reveries. Today was a day for espresso. It was too cold for a longer beverage. This conversation had gone on for too long: but the fact was we had said nothing of any worth. I became aware that nothing of any worth would be said that day. It is most unsettleing to realize that nothing will happen.
It wasin tandem with these pronouncement that I realized that competitive creativity is not very creative. This discovery coincided with a massive transcription of my entire creative output. Uncertain about how to proceed with this frankly Hurculean task… correction: unsure about how to proceed with this Sysiphusian task, I came to the inevitable conclusion that mythological reference is artistic shorthand for theoretical ineptitude. I considered Artemisia Gentileshi and…Biblical scenes represent a more profound problem…spiritual malaise is theoretical shorthand for religious ineptitude. I wondered how long it would take to reconcile my early life. As an artist I was many things. But I certainly wasn’t street, this isn’t street, I sound like a sixty year old civil servant(civil srevant is going too far) possibly a clerk at the Alliance and Lester. “You’ll see how street I am!” I declared in past tense. Indeed (indeed!?). Edgy production values and open effrontery were going to put me on the map ghetto style. This is Newcastle and I’m from the north! How could I wear a suit and spats? That’s how! From the street and my art kills people.
Eventually I was discharged and had time to consider all that had occurred in the interim, that is since my rash decision taken post-above statement; and informed by little more than a vitriolic reverie/ revisionist contemplation of my ill imagined identity or lack of. Luckily the clerk at the Alliance and Lester did not take my threats any more seriously than my claim to have access to illicit IRA explosives, any more than the doctors believed that I was part of an active service unit or my actions were those of a highly trained specialist. As I dribbled Haloperidol into my cup a kindly soul regaled me with tales of his abusive past and the satori like state he had achieved through his recent chemical castration; administered with his consent, insistence even at an adjacent unit that housed some of the regions more dangerous sex offenders. I had some reason to question the efficacy of this treatment later that cycle(a cycle being the duration between chemically induced sleep: approx 6hrs) when Simon proceeded to felate me with a vigour I have seldom seen; even in the most complete individuals on ‘the out’. At this point I wondered if the administration of chemicals in fact made an individual more complete than the non-medicated? I was still musing on this point as I came. I felt bad. I would feel worse when I eventually learned the true extent of my par amour’s social transgressions.
The reverie I had experienced was; thogh artificial in its initiation; authentic in its content. Crawling through sulphurous memory, obliging reflux, indulging in hysterical blindness and catgut, I groped my way through the impudent bile of my youth. In a hostel I practiced life…badly, weed and cap guns from third floor windows, biannual meetings with young black muslims and failed social climbers defeated by the distance required to leave the cravace they wher born into, having made it just far enough to isolate themselves they curled up in liberal misogyny and the awe of black skin held by only the most hopless whites. Pub prophets and bad ones at that. A girl arrived on a day we will say was Wednesday
Simon knew that he must, at all costs maintain absolute secrecy. The last time his mother; a formidable women who resonated at an alarmingly high frequency when perturbed, had deduced that simon was once again embarked on another programme of experimentation. She had assured him that to continue would result, in his not only the forefitting of his rooms but also and more importantly the loss of his monthly allowance: a meagre sum, but his only income. It should be explained that although the’experiment’ had beenin progress for some years the world had only become aware of its exsistence in the last sixteen months.
JULY. Despite his compromised position, upon waking Simon’s first feeling was rage, Rage that the man standing over him smelt of psychiatry, rage at the belt like appendages securing hie limbs to a disinfected white carriage. There could be little doubt that his situation was somewhat precarious. Though he was buoyed somewhat by the fact that the other staff appeared to lack the unsettling combination of boredom and despair indicative of asylum staff, a man passed the door armed with an aggressive bouquet of tulips, confirmed that simon was on a medical ward (people don’t give flowers to the mad and even if they did those lurid stems would never be permitted near even the most stable of psychotics).
EXPERIMENT. Just when the initial breakthrough was made is unclear, suffice to say it was some time in the summer of 95, when as the man himself tells it: “I was chased and I jumped off one thing onto another thing”. At this point the author feels obliged to apologise for the standard of our protagonist’s prose, gifted though he is in his chosen field he lis somewhat lacking in linguistic verve. This is in part obstinacy on his part born in part from anger at not feeling himself a fully formed character. It has even been alleged that Simon is simply a narrative device; ruthlessly exploited for the communication of what is essentially a one liner. Though completely erroneous this presumption has left him a very bitter man. We can only speculate at what he would have said were he not so ignorant and one-dimensional. During his 21st year(which incidentally was my 25th) Simon Jepson was having some success with his fledgling band: ‘Rancid Butter in the Hindu Temple’ (a name inspired by the groups only female member). As it was their modest achievements culminated that summer in a booking at ‘insert festival 95 or 99. This came about, if you believe the subsequent court deposition due to an unhappy coincidence in the naming of a popular artist in another, more sinister genre. So to cut a long and overley elaborate story short. Or at least shorter and less elaborate:
On Rape Beef
It was at lunch in a restaurant that shall remain nameless that I first tasted Rape Beef. The eatery in question was a French/Argentine/Spanish brassiere specializing in said bovine delicacy. It is said that RB combines all the elements of our most popular meat based treats while at once addressing the desire in present in most modern men to transgress vicariously; it allows the diner to participate in a positive orgy of blood lust and depravity during lunch and without his needing to change shoes.
On request a diner could obtain a biography, of some poor beast; complete with a written description of its final days, or for a significant surcharge a video of highlights from the killing floor. It is not difficult to deduce the target demographic for this cuisine. What did prove surprising was the popularity of RB among the legions of progressively minded ethical consumers.
Inevitably things could at times become slightly over heated: usually at the weekends and during the evening service, this was mostly down to an excess of alcohol, but on occasion the meat or more acuratly the meat menu was to blame; there were several instances of wealthy patrons being asked to leave after they were found to be excessively aroused by the whole experience. There was no malice in these expulsions and they were of re-addmited to conclude their meal once they had relieved themselves at a nearby facility, as such a degree of symbiosis existed between the two establishments it was decided that they should merge. This desison was taken exclusively by the management and initially met with serious resistance from both sets of workers. I am told that the ethical custom dropped off around this time. This was of little concearn in a burgeoning economic climate, besides cross pollination twixt the brothel and bistro (sorry) had led to the most controversial/progressive/illegal service: namely rape rape. As you can no doubt see the initial premise of my little story has collapsed under the weight of inevitability that is human inevitability. I don’t know when it went wrong was it when the men from the sex trade got involved? Was it when the ethical eaters left? Or was it all fucked the moment it started? Rape beef indeed!
“Surely that’s insufficient evidence with which to counter the larger part of western scientific thought on the nature of mankind” I queried. “well, yes I suppose it is” he responded meekly.
“I’m sorry. My sister doesn’t like me.”
With that an uncomfortable silence descended on the proceedings. We looked down at our coffee cups. I got smoke in my eye, but suppressed the urge to blink. Afraid as I was of appearing glib. This only increased the discomfort and worse; caused tears to stream down my face. After enduring the pain for long enough to disassosiate it from said smoke . I affected a casual wipe with my sleeve. My hand however only sered to remind me of the sores that surrounded my mouth; from her crotch, from my crotch from hers. Inevitably enough the conversation turned to the merits or otherwise of one Alessandro Botticeli; apparently an artist of some renown, but not one I particularly loved. That said I did have some respect for something or other someone told me he did. Anyway, I argued that in my opinion his work was a bit like the illustrations from ‘Hotspur: for boys’. My ccompanion did not agree and was beginning to castigate me. At this point I became aware that his words had been reduced to a monotontous hum in my only working ear, on top of this my narration was hoplessly stilted and staggered. I desperately grasped for an onomatipia as a drowning man reaches for a log… or a metaphor, but to no avail I was lost!
There was once a broken drain in the street behind a house. At night it seemed a lake was living there: a rat lake with rat boats and coke cans. Cold and Black(two cats) patrolled its edges; each a mirror image of the other.
“Frescos are just massive flat man cocks!” I started, it was not nessasareiy that I disagreed with the statement, no in fact it made perfect sense to me. At this point as at all the other points it was the physical manifestation of an internal and unrelated issue that woke me from my reveries. Today was a day for espresso. It was too cold for a longer beverage. This conversation had gone on for too long: but the fact was we had said nothing of any worth. I became aware that nothing of any worth would be said that day. It is most unsettleing to realize that nothing will happen.
It wasin tandem with these pronouncement that I realized that competitive creativity is not very creative. This discovery coincided with a massive transcription of my entire creative output. Uncertain about how to proceed with this frankly Hurculean task… correction: unsure about how to proceed with this Sysiphusian task, I came to the inevitable conclusion that mythological reference is artistic shorthand for theoretical ineptitude. I considered Artemisia Gentileshi and…Biblical scenes represent a more profound problem…spiritual malaise is theoretical shorthand for religious ineptitude. I wondered how long it would take to reconcile my early life. As an artist I was many things. But I certainly wasn’t street, this isn’t street, I sound like a sixty year old civil servant(civil srevant is going too far) possibly a clerk at the Alliance and Lester. “You’ll see how street I am!” I declared in past tense. Indeed (indeed!?). Edgy production values and open effrontery were going to put me on the map ghetto style. This is Newcastle and I’m from the north! How could I wear a suit and spats? That’s how! From the street and my art kills people.
Eventually I was discharged and had time to consider all that had occurred in the interim, that is since my rash decision taken post-above statement; and informed by little more than a vitriolic reverie/ revisionist contemplation of my ill imagined identity or lack of. Luckily the clerk at the Alliance and Lester did not take my threats any more seriously than my claim to have access to illicit IRA explosives, any more than the doctors believed that I was part of an active service unit or my actions were those of a highly trained specialist. As I dribbled Haloperidol into my cup a kindly soul regaled me with tales of his abusive past and the satori like state he had achieved through his recent chemical castration; administered with his consent, insistence even at an adjacent unit that housed some of the regions more dangerous sex offenders. I had some reason to question the efficacy of this treatment later that cycle(a cycle being the duration between chemically induced sleep: approx 6hrs) when Simon proceeded to felate me with a vigour I have seldom seen; even in the most complete individuals on ‘the out’. At this point I wondered if the administration of chemicals in fact made an individual more complete than the non-medicated? I was still musing on this point as I came. I felt bad. I would feel worse when I eventually learned the true extent of my par amour’s social transgressions.
The reverie I had experienced was; thogh artificial in its initiation; authentic in its content. Crawling through sulphurous memory, obliging reflux, indulging in hysterical blindness and catgut, I groped my way through the impudent bile of my youth. In a hostel I practiced life…badly, weed and cap guns from third floor windows, biannual meetings with young black muslims and failed social climbers defeated by the distance required to leave the cravace they wher born into, having made it just far enough to isolate themselves they curled up in liberal misogyny and the awe of black skin held by only the most hopless whites. Pub prophets and bad ones at that. A girl arrived on a day we will say was Wednesday
Simon knew that he must, at all costs maintain absolute secrecy. The last time his mother; a formidable women who resonated at an alarmingly high frequency when perturbed, had deduced that simon was once again embarked on another programme of experimentation. She had assured him that to continue would result, in his not only the forefitting of his rooms but also and more importantly the loss of his monthly allowance: a meagre sum, but his only income. It should be explained that although the’experiment’ had beenin progress for some years the world had only become aware of its exsistence in the last sixteen months.
JULY. Despite his compromised position, upon waking Simon’s first feeling was rage, Rage that the man standing over him smelt of psychiatry, rage at the belt like appendages securing hie limbs to a disinfected white carriage. There could be little doubt that his situation was somewhat precarious. Though he was buoyed somewhat by the fact that the other staff appeared to lack the unsettling combination of boredom and despair indicative of asylum staff, a man passed the door armed with an aggressive bouquet of tulips, confirmed that simon was on a medical ward (people don’t give flowers to the mad and even if they did those lurid stems would never be permitted near even the most stable of psychotics).
EXPERIMENT. Just when the initial breakthrough was made is unclear, suffice to say it was some time in the summer of 95, when as the man himself tells it: “I was chased and I jumped off one thing onto another thing”. At this point the author feels obliged to apologise for the standard of our protagonist’s prose, gifted though he is in his chosen field he lis somewhat lacking in linguistic verve. This is in part obstinacy on his part born in part from anger at not feeling himself a fully formed character. It has even been alleged that Simon is simply a narrative device; ruthlessly exploited for the communication of what is essentially a one liner. Though completely erroneous this presumption has left him a very bitter man. We can only speculate at what he would have said were he not so ignorant and one-dimensional. During his 21st year(which incidentally was my 25th) Simon Jepson was having some success with his fledgling band: ‘Rancid Butter in the Hindu Temple’ (a name inspired by the groups only female member). As it was their modest achievements culminated that summer in a booking at ‘insert festival 95 or 99. This came about, if you believe the subsequent court deposition due to an unhappy coincidence in the naming of a popular artist in another, more sinister genre. So to cut a long and overley elaborate story short. Or at least shorter and less elaborate:
On Rape Beef
It was at lunch in a restaurant that shall remain nameless that I first tasted Rape Beef. The eatery in question was a French/Argentine/Spanish brassiere specializing in said bovine delicacy. It is said that RB combines all the elements of our most popular meat based treats while at once addressing the desire in present in most modern men to transgress vicariously; it allows the diner to participate in a positive orgy of blood lust and depravity during lunch and without his needing to change shoes.
On request a diner could obtain a biography, of some poor beast; complete with a written description of its final days, or for a significant surcharge a video of highlights from the killing floor. It is not difficult to deduce the target demographic for this cuisine. What did prove surprising was the popularity of RB among the legions of progressively minded ethical consumers.
Inevitably things could at times become slightly over heated: usually at the weekends and during the evening service, this was mostly down to an excess of alcohol, but on occasion the meat or more acuratly the meat menu was to blame; there were several instances of wealthy patrons being asked to leave after they were found to be excessively aroused by the whole experience. There was no malice in these expulsions and they were of re-addmited to conclude their meal once they had relieved themselves at a nearby facility, as such a degree of symbiosis existed between the two establishments it was decided that they should merge. This desison was taken exclusively by the management and initially met with serious resistance from both sets of workers. I am told that the ethical custom dropped off around this time. This was of little concearn in a burgeoning economic climate, besides cross pollination twixt the brothel and bistro (sorry) had led to the most controversial/progressive/illegal service: namely rape rape. As you can no doubt see the initial premise of my little story has collapsed under the weight of inevitability that is human inevitability. I don’t know when it went wrong was it when the men from the sex trade got involved? Was it when the ethical eaters left? Or was it all fucked the moment it started? Rape beef indeed!
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