Category Archives: literature
Your Mission is a Failure, Your Lifestyle's Too Extreme: 5124 De Longpre Ave
5124 De Longpre Avenue, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, North American Continent, Planet Earth, System Sol: one-time residence of Charles Bukowski. Now an Historic Landmark and now occupied after a long vacancy. Incidentally, this is located about 5 … Continue reading
Ask the Dust (1939) by John Fante
John Fante is oft considered the real deal, a Los Angeles writer of genuine talent; as far as I can tell, this reputation is based entirely on the word of one man– Chuckie Bukowski– and one novel, Ask the Dust, … Continue reading
The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen
Like any feller under the influence & sway of our main man Howard P. Lovecraft, I’ve had my Arthur Machen phases– one in the mid 90s, one in early 00s– and though I remembered his work fondly, esp. that amusing … Continue reading
teatro grottesco: killing time with thomas ligotti
There are some writers who are all wrong, individuals with stylized approaches that routinely violate the dictums of Good Writing, and yet somehow remain utterly right. These rareties, usually male, never achieve a wide appeal– the best they will manage … Continue reading
north burial ground, providence, ri
Text quoted from Volume 1, Number Four of the Cthulhu Prayer Society Newsletter: By 1725, only 18 documented burials had occurred in the [North Burial Ground of Providence], clear sign that home burial was still preferred. The burial ground land … Continue reading
Horace McCoy Cover Gallery
Horace McCoy is my favorite writer of the early 20th Century; his first book, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is the single best novel of the Depression– a bleak, short dose of hell centered on a Dance-a-thon– and his last … Continue reading
thoughts on the odyssey and the cattle of helios
The Book Gods have interrupted my jaunty 19th Century kick– forcing a repeat engagement with the Odyssey of Homer. This is the fourth or fifth reading and the only time that I’ve liked it. I suspect that this has something … Continue reading
ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (and then some)
Don’t you believe the bad reviews & merciless critiques of this week’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I assure one and all that it is a glorious, splendid mess. In its luridness, the film comes very close to mirroring the sensationalist … Continue reading
REVIEW: He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond
I first read of Derek Raymond in 2002 while camping in Glastonbury, burning through Iain Sinclair’s endlessly rewarding Lights Out For the Territory. It was raining. I couldn’t get over my jetlag. There was nothing to do but read and … Continue reading
Edgar Poe & Others
Faithful commenter Todd C. Murry calls me out on my last post: I can’t believe you would call Lovecraft one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, but give an “undisputed” list of the greatest of the 19th that … Continue reading
French-Canadian Kerouac
For reasons bizarre & untold, I’ve been trying to make sacrifices to the Book God via the purchase of books at full cover, an almost unheard of sin. A few days ago, I acquired the newly released unexpurgated, unedited hardback … Continue reading
Derek Raymond
An odder entry in the kobek.com hierarchy is jarett.kobek.com, a page dedicated entirely to the great, late British noir writer Robin Cook, alias Derek Raymond. Cook’s bio can be found in richer detail on the aforementioned site, which links to … Continue reading