tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84323964587372428902024-03-18T02:33:26.370-04:00dead panMichael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-90275529925837320902018-12-13T15:30:00.002-05:002018-12-13T15:30:19.033-05:00Houellebecq and Lovecraft<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Hello All ... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Some recent self-aggrandizement from Houellebecq prompts me to repost this 12 year old review of his book about Lovecraft, which was originally posted to the Modern Word website.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">***</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Michel
Houellebecq’s <i>H.P. Lovecraft Against the World, Against Life</i></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Michael
Cisco</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Houellebecq’s book is a
work of passion and intelligence, but like any caricature, it throws
certain of its subject’s traits into distinct relief only by
distorting the bigger picture. </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Biographers are afforded a
limited license to dramatize their subject’s lives, the reader
understanding that phrases like “Shelley threw down his pen and
...” are plausible inventions at best. Whether Shelley sets or
throws down his pen isn’t a momentous question, but persistent
novelization in a biography runs the risk of falsification. The risk
is worth taking, because there is at stake the chance one might
successfully conjure something out of the past. And that risk comes
with the territory when one is assembling a narrative out of a
collection of facts. </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">It’s a truism that
biographers tend to write about others by writing about themselves,
and this is a legitimate approach when there is an affinity or
spontaneous similarity of orientation of author and subject. But any
biographer taking this approach is pretty certain to fall into the
trap posed by superficial resemblances between her own point of view
and her subject’s, and take too much for granted. </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">This happens even in the
most scrupulous biographies, and is so much the more prevalent in
Houellebecq’s impatient and sloppy treatment of Lovecraft. The end
notes inform us that many of Houellebecq’s quotations from
Lovecraft cannot be traced, and that even Houellebecq himself is
unable to account for them. These dubious quotes seem more
attributable to misremembrance and inattention than to anything so
actually calculating or malevolent as fraud, but it is strange the
editor should treat so lightly what is actually a serious
misrepresentation of the subject. No one has any good reason to take
these untraceable quotes seriously. </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Houellebecq assimilates
Lovecraft much as Baudelaire assimilated Poe before him; perhaps
this is why he gives himself leave to speak improvisationally for
Lovecraft. Before anyone condemns this too heartily, it should be
noted that many writers have felt the yen to write their own
Lovecraftian stories, and this is Houellebecq’s irresponsible way
of doing the same thing. He wouldn’t write a Lovecraftian story,
but he would write a Lovecraftian addition to <i>Paris Spleen</i>.
While French critics like Blanchot have raised scrupulousness and
patience to an even excessively fine art, Houellebecq’s
contraptional essay nevertheless takes a characteristically French
approach. All is well as long as the reader understands that the
author, taking his own bias – and the inevitability of bias - into
account, will employ haphazard exaggerations and sweeping
generalizations as a way of being honest about his own attitudes.
Bias, to this way of thinking, is point of view, and must be
acknowledged in the execution, or more correctly the performance, of
the work. This is opposed to the more cautious, dissertational style
of Anglo-American critics, who transform themselves into general
speakers so as not to make too many big generalizations. The one
shows his cards by ironic delivery, the other by carefully clearing
the air.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Most of the points
Houellebecq makes are partially sound but disintegrate in zealous
overstatement. Others fail to gain any traction at all because they
are mere extrapolations from a stereotype of the poete maudit. The
essay dates from 1991, meaning Houellebecq could not have had
recourse to Joshi’s biography, but this does not wholly explain why
he should depict Lovecraft’s life-changing 1908 breakdown as the
recoiling of an aristocrat from the vomitory ignominy of the
bourgeois world. Joshi has plausibly argued that Lovecraft’s
initial crisis was less a discovery of horror in the world around
him, and more the collapse of his self-esteem resulting from the
disappointment of his ambition to become an astronomer. (Apparently,
he was surprisingly inept at mathematics.) Houellebecq later
acknowledges the extent to which Lovecraft was oppressed by the sense
of his own failure, but he doesn’t connect this to 1908. In fact,
Houellebecq’s treatment of Lovecraft is not as imbalanced as it may
appear on cursory reading, because many of his hyperboles and
sweeping generalities are eventually qualified after another twenty
or thirty pages.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">The discussion of
Lovecraft’s opinion of Freud is bungled. Houellebecq is in such a
hurry he gets all his terms mixed up. He mistakes Lovecraft’s
indifference to sex for hostility to sex, he conflates sex itself as
subject in general with the popular treatment of sexual subjects at
the time, and he crudely reduces sex tout court to anything having
anything to do with Freud. So Freud = sex and Lovecraft is anti-sex
(there is no intermediate, asexual position entertained here) and
therefore anti-Freud etc. etc. Houellebecq keeps lunging crazily
across the poles. Lovecraft, we are told, mentioned Freud a few
times without being especially critical of him, but it is clear we
are meant by Houellebecq to understand that Lovecraft ultimately
dismissed Freud in a slighting, offhanded, reductive manner more
typical of Houellebecq than Lovecraft. We are told that Lovecraft
summed Freud up in two words ... no, he didn’t. According to
Joshi, Lovecraft probably never actually read Freud, making his
evaluation of Freud of less moment anyway, but whenever Lovecraft did
discuss him in his letters, the assessment was thoughtful and
well-balanced. Most of Lovecraft’s criticism, at least where race
was not concerned, had this measured, judiciously thorough quality.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Houellebecq has been rightly
praised for emphasizing Lovecraft’s racism. He is entirely right
in recognizing Lovecraft’s apprehension of competition from these
“other races,” and almost on to something here for a while, in
this passage about Lovecraft’s reaction to African-Americans:</span></div>
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“<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Their vitality, their
apparent lack of complexes or inhibitions, terrifies and repulses
him. They dance in the street, they listen to music, rhythmic music
... They talk out loud. They laugh in public. Life seems to amuse
them, which is worrying. Because life is evil.” (original
ellipsis, page 113)</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Lovecraft
does seem to have been repelled by the uninhibited. It is
stereotypical to speak of black folks dancing in the street, but then
Lovecraft was dealing in stereotypes and not in experience.
Listening to music is never a problem for Lovecraft, but rhythm as
such did seem to induce anxiety for him. Adorno stupidly disapproved
of rhythmic music because he felt it was hypnotic, suppressive of
thought, and conducive to the fascistic choreography of large masses
of people; that Lovecraft often associates rhythm – particularly
low pulsing of the kind that maddens the narrator of “The Tell-Tale
Heart” – with feelings of oppression is well-spotted. Only a
truly sheltered soul, like Lovecraft’s, could have believed that
African Americans were much amused by life in the 1920’s and
1930’s, when racist violence in the US was at its worst. </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">When he cites the frothier
passages from the New York era as characteristic of Lovecraft’s
racism, Houellebecq doesn’t follow through any more than most other
readers have. Certainly Lovecraft hated with as much emotional
intensity as he could muster, but I would say these passages are at
least as much characterized by a joy in invective for its own sake,
so much so that I can imagine Lovecraft losing sight utterly of the
actual objects of his hatred and becoming lost in whipping up those
long chewy sentences of his. And this is typical of Lovecraft; the
object, the plot element, or what have you, is only a peg to hang the
writing from – Lovecraft’s horror is <i>in</i> the language or it
is nowhere.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">While he profoundly
appreciates Lovecraft’s prose, and correctly repudiates the dull
condescension of many critics to his style, Houellebecq seems to have
a tin ear for Lovecraft’s bantering sense of humor, and he
sometimes takes for earnest what Lovecraft wrote in a spirit of drily
self-ironic Johnsonian pomposity. He does not discuss Lovecraft’s
preference for the shaggy-dog story form which builds, insofar as the
plot is concerned, to anti-climax, and to a punchline outlined in
italics. Much of his analysis of Lovecraft’s style, and content
for that matter, will be unrewarding to those who know Lovecraft
already.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">For example, no one denies
that Lovecraft wasn’t interested in characterization; this is a
trait he shares with Poe. But it is inconsistent to say his
characters exist only to perceive, and then later to say that the
perseverance of these characters in seeking out nightmarish things to
perceive shows either obtusity or sublime courage. A cursory reading
even of only those letters actually cited by Houellebecq (the ones
that exist) shows that Lovecraft found at least one thing to admire
in his fellow humans, that being the striving after knowledge (see
<i>Letters</i> vol 1, page 61). Lovecraft’s characters do not
drift passively from one hideous perception to another, they actively
seek out the maddening truths that destroy them. Remember the
narrator of “The Nameless City,” crawling in total darkness
through miles of tunnel scarcely big enough to admit him, deep
beneath a trackless desert, just to discover the source of an odd
noise? Houellebecq observes that many of Lovecraft’s narrators end
up paralyzed and staring haplessly at the onset of their own
destruction, but, in his unaccountable haste to plaster everything
with the label “nihilistic,” he fails to note that this paralysis
is ambivalent, and owes something to an active desire to know which
better meets the definition of fascination than a merely passive
state. There is wish fulfillment at work all throughout the stories.
</span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">In Lovecraft’s fiction,
human beings, or at least some of them, are just intelligent enough
to apprehend the truth (or enough of the truth, which is arguably the
same thing) if not quite mentally robust enough to handle it. This
means that Lovecraft was not, for example, a strict Pyrrhonian
skeptic, when writing, because his works depended on the possibility
of certain knowledge for their effects even when that effect was the
radical destabilization of the edifice of human certainty per se.
Houellebecq only brushes against this when he notes the absence of
Todorov’s ambivalence in Lovecraft’s fiction. Although he is
quite right to note that absence, he is not when he asserts this is
basically unheard of before Lovecraft: a similar absence of doubt
can be discovered in Machen, in Blackwood, and in Bierce, to name a
few.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Likewise, Houellebecq stops
short when he insists Lovecraft regarded the world, and life, as
evil. Evil implies malice. Did Lovecraft consider human beings
significant enough to merit the malicious attention of cosmic beings?
Is Cthulhu filled with venomous hatred of mankind and a chafing
desire to torment humans, or is Cthulhu indifferent to humans, like
an avalanche or an earthquake? Where is the evil in <i>The Shadow
Out of Time</i>, or “Within the Walls of Eryx”? Are the Elder
Things of <i>At the Mountains of Madness</i>, whom the narrator
crucially calls men, evil? The shoggoths are horrible, but are they
evil? It is interesting to note that the shoggoth is a figure for
the irresponsible mob: a conglomeration of bubbles, neither distinct
nor separate, mindless muscle employed by the aristocratic,
historically-minded Elder Things chiefly for construction purposes.
When the shoggoth appears, Danforth retains some scraps of his sanity
by chanting Boston subway stops, but the shoggoth <i>is</i> a subway
train – it pipes, it’s covered in small lights, it’s
cylindrical and hurtles through tunnels. The shoggoths overwhelm
their former masters by crudely aping them, and specifically take
over the cities of the Elder Things – although one might be
justified in wondering for what shoggoths would need the streets and
buildings of a city. This is something like racism, but only like it
– Lovecraft is coming to anticipate the unsettling of one species
by the other in a kind of cycle that is neither good nor evil, but
indifferent ... unless it’s the indifference that is evil, but in
that case, it would be evil only from the point of view of those who
suffer for it. By the time of <i>At the Mountains of Madness</i>,
Lovecraft’s idea of evil seems to have crystallized into the
collusion of deliberative individuals with the forces of decay. Evil
is a matter of betraying humanity, or the status quo perhaps, to the
future. </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">Houellebecq does touch on,
but frustratingly fails to develop, a really interesting question
with respect to Lovecraft’s rejection of realism – since realism
presupposes it is possible to say what is and isn’t real. On the
one hand, Lovecraft is obviously a fantasist, who turns from a
stultifying, already-beyond-familiar, claustrophobically confined
reality, to dreams. The conventional realist is one who dwells on
sex and money without actually asking what sex and money are.
Naturalist novels of the Zola school must look only at the strictly
ordinary. Anything extraordinary is ruled out, and only the middle
notes of life appear. Houellebecq is at his most refreshing when he
bluntly dismisses realism as of no further use, but he might have
gone so much further.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook L, serif;">When one contemplates the
human world of commerce and intercourse of all kinds in the broader
context of the scope of time and space, the vastness of the universe,
the evanescence of human life in the scale of cosmic time, then it is
money and sex and political horse trading which become unreal. So,
in this other sense, Lovecraft’s writing ascends to a higher
register of realism in anticipating, truly weirdly, the kinds of
questions existentialist literature will raise. In his emphasis on
Lovecraft’s mythmaking and the strange power his work has to induce
imitation and extension, Houellebecq is at his strongest and is
perhaps righter than he understands, in the sense that Lovecraft
seems actually to have created <i>real myths</i> instead of <i>realist
narratives</i>. Houellebecq says there is something about Lovecraft
that is not literary, and it seems to be that viral propensity of his
work to propagate itself. </span>
</div>
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</div>
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</div>
Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-61849590848600880522018-04-04T13:52:00.000-04:002018-04-04T13:52:09.696-04:004.4.18<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAurYAYNiVw6XzN978ryivcdlJd4iOk0GLAvyIAaXg0FnRcPZpFmPqO-DwHkHJ2mywxz0Mb0vjW0A8NSaHC33ug6iNgMCjRJi-CHRJHfZhixaHgTBTHD7H1p5d9iCgeMKh0j7V5JJXHbg/s1600/melancholic+cannibal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="733" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAurYAYNiVw6XzN978ryivcdlJd4iOk0GLAvyIAaXg0FnRcPZpFmPqO-DwHkHJ2mywxz0Mb0vjW0A8NSaHC33ug6iNgMCjRJi-CHRJHfZhixaHgTBTHD7H1p5d9iCgeMKh0j7V5JJXHbg/s320/melancholic+cannibal.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>
<br />
Hello All --<br />
<br />
(The painting is "Melancholic Cannibal" by Ljubomir Popovic).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unlanguage-Michael-Cisco/dp/1621052664">UNLANGUAGE</a> is available now, published by <a href="https://eraserheadpress.com/2018/04/01/new-release-unlanguage-by-michael-cisco/">Eraserhead Press</a>.<br />
<br />
The French translation of ANIMAL MONEY will be published later this year, with more to come.<br />
<br />
A collection seems to be in the cards as well ...<br />
<br />
I continue to labor on my new novel, and my monograph on weird fiction. <br />
<br />
Here is an excerpt from UNLANGUAGE, available nowhere else:<br />
<br />
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The wandering student
of the work book abandoned the life the wandering student had made.
Decay is the door to new life. The matter of life conjugates and
declines. With steely passivity the student watched as everything
that had been life disintegrated, not lifting a finger to prevent the
disappearance of a career, a home, the dispersal of carefully
collected and preserved property, the evaporation of love and
fellowship. It was a little like standing on a prominence looking
back on the rubble of a home town reduced to smoking ruins and
blanketed in corpses that can't be told apart, then turning to enter
a new day of isolation, poverty, want, exile, shame that's
inescapable because it has nothing to do with the faltering of any
merit, a fatal and maybe impregnable language barrier has risen. All
the same, the student allows it all to die, making not even a
fruitless effort. He will wander homeless through the world and
suffer, but he will at least be spared the humiliation of confinement
to a psychiatric hospital, which never befalls him.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The First Person, the
teacher, is brought in by four students carrying him in a litter,
which is a swivelling desk chair supported on a couple of wooden
posts actually, and the teacher himself is a corpse. The students
convey him to one corner of the spacious, windowless classroom with
walls of bare cinderblock and tip him onto the floor by a bunch of
cardboard boxes. The teacher's corpse falls in a seated position,
sprawling against the boxes, head a little lolled back, one hand
resting on the floor. The legs are bent and sideways. His lips have
shrivelled away to nothing and his open mouth is a black sharpness in
his face, clean-cut as a hole punched in a paper cone. The whole
body has a slack, deflated look; the flesh sags and seems to be
hardening into soap.
</div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The bell on the wall
rings shrilly, on and on.</div>
<br />
<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-63762065260122848322017-05-31T03:40:00.001-04:002017-05-31T03:48:44.523-04:00ETHICS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQblxRfKmLB2wf8Vl4q0J5Dr-DPXHJibWeSdnnhM_4-JXmqEE3fWC8nUXpIz50ljsLbPq_080DejdqEK9gzdN7a26vcnfq9XkpjIysD5GFlm5X3XwkCYNXyfLxYHLnzwar18XSfdUW44c/s1600/2.+Jeunes+pousses+parmi+les+arbres+%25281933%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1128" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQblxRfKmLB2wf8Vl4q0J5Dr-DPXHJibWeSdnnhM_4-JXmqEE3fWC8nUXpIz50ljsLbPq_080DejdqEK9gzdN7a26vcnfq9XkpjIysD5GFlm5X3XwkCYNXyfLxYHLnzwar18XSfdUW44c/s320/2.+Jeunes+pousses+parmi+les+arbres+%25281933%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Hello All --<br />
<br />
I have been neglecting this blog lately, so I ought to show you what I've been up to. This is the opening to a novella about birds, entitled <i>ETHICS</i>, that I wrote a little over a year ago. The first part is about a songbird, the second part is about the cuckoo that has parasitized the songbird's nest, and the third part is a stripped down version of what I imagine the <i>Ethics</i> would have been like if Spinoza had been a bird (sorry). <br />
<br />
****<br />
<br />
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Streaking
over the earth, the songbird lifts itself up slightly and then,
folding its wings, drops into a shallow swoop toward cover as a flash
of lightning bursts and gutters, and then, virtually in the same
moment, a thunderclap swats the bird to the ground. The bird's skull
fractures, with a crack that sets its jaw awry, and the pain and
shock of crashing is doubled and redoubled with the searing, sugary
torture of the split bone. The blasted bird lies turned onto its
side, stunned in the tall grass, still dry, though whipped by the
wind, which has begun to stink. </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Suffering
is playing all around the bird like that stinking wind. Suddenly,
she sees the fire. The dream is in the light, the gold and scarlet
color, the almost inaudible sound it makes, the impossibly nimble
dance it's doing in place, and in the way it swells, as if the bird
were hurtling up to meet it and only it, unmoored among all the other
fixed things the bird can see. The noise of the fire is like the
song of an unfamiliar type of familiar animal. There's a humming,
like a swarm of bees. There's snapping like twigs, rustling like dry
leaves, but then none of these familiar noises are ever produced at
once by the same thing, not in any organized way. The fire thing
must have its own organization, which is the reason it sings in the
way it does, using the most unusual things as voices. The coloring
is strange because the noises have no associations whatever with
bright things, like sparkling water running; but then the ocean also
sparkles and roars. Incandescent gold sparkled into ruby and sullen
bloody scarlet, lacings of symmetrically tongued crimsons and
carmines, luminously tawny and sun-glazed sand. The fire looms over
her now like a tree growing out of nothing, the stinking, coiling
brilliance in front of her seems to want to poison and devour her
senses like a swarm of vicious insects, but it is mysteriously
contained in itself, even as it fights to hatch itself out of its own
shape. The songbird stares in awe at the coilings of towering
scarlet monster rearing itself out of nothing, no roots, nothing but
grass and the level ground, taking in its writhing shapelessness, its
struggles within its bottomless shape, as if it were a huge poisoned
animal convulsing and sick, vomiting itself. The fire, set by
lightning, dancing out of its irregular footprint and throwing itself
impetuously up, up. Now it channels itself along its length to
heighten this leaf, standing bolt upright out of its spiny, whirling
mass, and now that leaf shrinks back down and becomes a spine while
the fire, which seems to be both the whole thing and a sort of
darting shootingness inside it, transfers its upward groping into
another limb adjacent to the first. </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Horrorstruck,
she stares at the beaded lashings sliding along the dry stalks of the
grass only inches away from her. She struggles, her skull flaring
and crackling with every movement, her head heavy and ungainly,
pulling her down to strike it again against the ground and causing
the flames already lining the crevice to pop. She watches helplessly
as a feeble sticklike arm of the fire effortlessly encircles her.
She is trapped inside the fire. She screams. Stares. Screams.
Stares. She cannot balance, get her wings out to fly. Then a chance
contraction concentrates her will into the effort to rise to her
feet. Just then, a lazy flirt of wind dashes a scrap of flame
directly onto her, and she catches fire, the flames sucking greedily
at her neck and face. Her right eye puckers, charring. The bird
flails wildly, battering herself against the ground, all her muscles
spasming. She falls on her right side and feels the cool of damp mud
through the heat. </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
pain is so total that it almost forces her out of herself somehow.
Her right side is slathered with mud. The right side of her face and
neck are smoking, but the flames are extinguished. Staggering, she
turns to look toward the fire with her one seeing eye, and sees that
there is a brownish hollow space inside it, returning her gaze like
an unexpected eye.
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
"This
is Reason" it says.
</div>
Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-1023238829917035802017-05-21T16:43:00.001-04:002017-05-21T16:43:39.075-04:005.21.17<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRBX2kMvmrQqGHGIBdKhBW2CtNpy7kbv-tm1f5_N_tX_e2MQsfmomtxVsYqX8qNNnr9TEixFW_PH-lGx3LYS-U5JpNSgSkjdfP5c_KjDXI0pJy6ui4xST8ajm6IpAkkB5EoVaEY8BOMI/s1600/Sg33big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRBX2kMvmrQqGHGIBdKhBW2CtNpy7kbv-tm1f5_N_tX_e2MQsfmomtxVsYqX8qNNnr9TEixFW_PH-lGx3LYS-U5JpNSgSkjdfP5c_KjDXI0pJy6ui4xST8ajm6IpAkkB5EoVaEY8BOMI/s320/Sg33big.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Hello All --<br />
<br />
In a comment on my previous post, E.S. rightly takes me to task for neglecting this blog for a year. Shaking my head. <br />
<br />
The Big News is that French publishing house <a href="http://audiable.com/">Au Diable Vauvert</a> has signed me; the French edition of <i>ANIMAL MONEY</i> is slated to appear next year, with more works to come. I am very much humbled to learn that the French translator of Thomas Pyncheon's work will be translating my work as well, and to appear on the same roster as David Foster Wallace, Octavia Butler, China Mieville ....<br />
<br />
As far as other publications go, in addition to my story "The Righteousness of Conical Men" in <i>The Madness of Caligari</i>, my story "Rock n' Roll Death Squad" is due to appear in a new collection from Dim Shores, entitled <i>Looming Low</i>. A short story of mine, "Bet the Farm," has been accepted for a collection called <i>Mechanical Animals</i>, forthcoming from Hex Publishing<br />
<br />
Much of my longer stuff is in publication limbo at the moment, including <i>UNLANGUAGE</i>, a short fantasy novel called <i>PRISTINE</i>, and a novella called <i>ETHICS</i>. I'm about halfway into my new novel, <i>PEST</i>. <br />
<br />
I'm going to be presenting an academic paper on weird fiction in Toronto this June at the Tenth International Deleuze Studies Conference, and if I can manage it, I may be able to swing the Chi-Zine reading in that fine city on Wednesday, June 21st. I will also be attending ReaderCon and NecronomiCON as usual. <br />
<br />
This summer I will also be trying to finish up my monograph on weird fiction, and commencing the search for a publisher.<br />
<br />
My essay, "'HELLO FROM THE SEWERS OF N.Y.C.' -- T.E.D. Klein's 'The Children of the Kingdom'" has been published in <i>Thinking Horror</i>; I've contributed some articles Matt Cardin's reference book on horror fiction, <i>Horror Literature Through History</i>, on topics including the sublime, the Bronte sisters, ETA Hoffmann, Gustave Meyrink, The Golem, dark fantasy, and Thomas Ligotti.<br /><br /> <i>The Lovecraftian Poe: Essays on Influence, Reception, Transformation and Interpretation</i>, a peer-reviewed collection of essays including one of mine, and edited by Prof. Sean Moreland, should appear this year from Lehigh University Press. <i>The Call of Cosmic Panic: New Essays on Supernatural Horror in Literature</i>, another collection containing an essay of mine, also edited by Prof. Moreland, is also due sometime soon.<br />
<br />
Yours for more frequent updates --<br />
<br />
M<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<br />
Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com80tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-43795133828808813992016-05-14T18:29:00.001-04:002016-05-14T18:29:22.450-04:005.14.16<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4NZ94Byi3tHV390kwtjv4fkS0woNIAWi4Lf6XtW_vccxuthYV94tZg5FF0k1Qyxb5apn3VTu1p99iP9h1mrjQoM6Z2_HRCNL-6tVJuWpRJv_jZrWLs0xRuPgQTFShOZTYHAL8cdzsKU0/s1600/tumblr_npdtupJGGn1rnfgvdo1_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4NZ94Byi3tHV390kwtjv4fkS0woNIAWi4Lf6XtW_vccxuthYV94tZg5FF0k1Qyxb5apn3VTu1p99iP9h1mrjQoM6Z2_HRCNL-6tVJuWpRJv_jZrWLs0xRuPgQTFShOZTYHAL8cdzsKU0/s320/tumblr_npdtupJGGn1rnfgvdo1_1280.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Hello All!<br />
<br />
Much to announce.<br />
<br />
My lost haunted house novel, <i>The Wretch of the Sun</i>, has been published by Hippocampus Press! You can find out more <a href="http://www.hippocampuspress.com/mythos-and-other-authors/fiction/the-wretch-of-the-sun-by-michael-cisco?zenid=5b1a9b154ae453d315bae14fb584b8a9#.Vy1wAZ25-b8.twitter">here</a>.<br />
<br />
My lost San Veneficio novella, The Knife Dance, has been published by Dim Shores! You can find out more <a href="http://dimshores.storenvy.com/products/16315701-the-knife-dance-tp">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I will be reading in Providence, RI., at Lovecraft Arts and Sciences, on Friday, May 20th, and I believe the following day as well! <a href="http://www.weirdprovidence.org/store/c1/Featured_Products.html">Here</a> is another link.<br />
<br />
New short fiction from me in the upcoming anthology <i>Swords v. Cthulhu</i> from Stone Skin Press. Link <a href="http://www.stoneskinpress.com/index.php/swords-v-cthulhu/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<i>The Beastiary</i>, an anthology of monsters edited by Ann VanderMeer, is out, and contains a piece by your reporter, who has once again bumptuously sleazed his way into the company of his betters! Link <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-Ann-VanderMeer/dp/1613471335">here</a>. <br />
<br />
Enough for now, isn't it? <br />
<br />
My thanks to all of you.Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com84tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-84809775284129674112016-04-15T22:20:00.001-04:002016-04-15T22:20:13.590-04:00A Poem for Joe Pulverday 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwbLSMJY93-_90gzU8Os-gXAPbukGRi6hyphenhyphen_kyTliG-DoK1_B7szCik1IdW_njf-CiKvsLwcxp979KdgilJZfxb6j_QR8Uex94QSLD1WTo-ktDHKpWbObYVeZEezrkGQN7ngSy7YkvTpI/s1600/joe+and+schmoe.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwbLSMJY93-_90gzU8Os-gXAPbukGRi6hyphenhyphen_kyTliG-DoK1_B7szCik1IdW_njf-CiKvsLwcxp979KdgilJZfxb6j_QR8Uex94QSLD1WTo-ktDHKpWbObYVeZEezrkGQN7ngSy7YkvTpI/s320/joe+and+schmoe.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Oh Great
P'uul-yverre</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">there is no hope for
you</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">once you've seen the
Medusa
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">there is no hope for
you</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">the Medusa of
language pullulating with alien life
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">you can change your
name</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">(there still is no
hope for you!)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">you can change your
country</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">(there is still no
hope for you!)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Medusa can satisfy
only once
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">and you are a
Medusa-addict</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">a Medusa-head</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">your own temples
wreathed in hypnotic constrictors</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">there is no hope for
you</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">snorting pulverdust
off one of her casual</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">come-hither
keep-thither glances</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">stoned on Medusa</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">only your addiction
has hope</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">and once you're
fixed you stand fixed</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">center stanza of a
stone uniVERSE</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">that blooms black
Spring</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">a metal and stone
Spring</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">stoneheavy leaden
ponderous as a voorish dome in deep dendo</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">only your addiction
has hope</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">that perches on the
bust of Medusa atop your chamber door and says NEVERENOUGH</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">there is no hope for
the one who can only want always more,
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">-- when your eyes
met</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">that's when she said
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">-- always more --</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-17241175175758659042016-03-17T02:00:00.002-04:002016-03-17T02:00:20.522-04:003.17.16<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0HPhUkkg6tSEQmMQKnL4Vs_5r86TMzuuczYMmirEyW2o_6dzqdJ08NvEYtarw4nGJrTyxC5IYNY4yZ9C-w8NoRUDxzwbT6AlsoGPzF_pvUCEgx3J7FCrDsv4atukfAoLmJoyrjQZJLk/s1600/onemysteriousThingsaide.e.cummingsmax.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0HPhUkkg6tSEQmMQKnL4Vs_5r86TMzuuczYMmirEyW2o_6dzqdJ08NvEYtarw4nGJrTyxC5IYNY4yZ9C-w8NoRUDxzwbT6AlsoGPzF_pvUCEgx3J7FCrDsv4atukfAoLmJoyrjQZJLk/s320/onemysteriousThingsaide.e.cummingsmax.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
ANIMAL MONEY is now available in electronic form, via StoryBundle. You can get it, and books by Brian Keene, J.S. Breukelaar, John Skipp, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Molly Tanzer, <span>Juliet Escoria, Stephen Graham Jones and Brian Allen Carr, all in one batch. But -- you have to order by April 7th or so. </span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span>Get it <a href="https://storybundle.com/horror">here</a>.</span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><br /></span>Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-33317275737502802572015-11-16T21:55:00.001-05:002015-11-16T21:55:36.420-05:0011.16.15<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4W-zRI5AhOI0UVg7fnmoOFUu__AAUk6jApsfGFoxUmL04LhG5ebRml98dwfD0gK5hR1r3gVlW2L4LJ8hXVSxZ4_mBgTdoGxlRPJCoe7JtV-DuJwk3-OcbQpZM_RcK8OztjUoKXFGaTok/s1600/AnimalMoneyfinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4W-zRI5AhOI0UVg7fnmoOFUu__AAUk6jApsfGFoxUmL04LhG5ebRml98dwfD0gK5hR1r3gVlW2L4LJ8hXVSxZ4_mBgTdoGxlRPJCoe7JtV-DuJwk3-OcbQpZM_RcK8OztjUoKXFGaTok/s320/AnimalMoneyfinal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
ANIMAL MONEY<br />
ANIMAL MONEY<br />
AMINAL NOMEY<br />
YAMINA MONEL<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Money-Michael-Cisco/dp/1621052125/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447728183&sr=1-1&keywords=ANIMAL+MONEY">ANIMAL MONEY is available</a><br />
<br />
Consider reading it, won't you?Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-76658239808026929132015-07-04T14:50:00.000-04:002015-07-04T14:50:28.759-04:007.4.15<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zAchptwrVLYcU-YoPdJ9_pCt7MCKcSfPBKzXznTIVRXs0zeGGMuknNL51ueU25BnDp13BEKIN9XzqOXu_S0XSATlneLupuuLF3iy5hMmxYMwdedhQOT6sHscnPB90krqNf_ozbnrOkc/s1600/05-seiichi-hayashi-gold-pollen-picturebox_900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zAchptwrVLYcU-YoPdJ9_pCt7MCKcSfPBKzXznTIVRXs0zeGGMuknNL51ueU25BnDp13BEKIN9XzqOXu_S0XSATlneLupuuLF3iy5hMmxYMwdedhQOT6sHscnPB90krqNf_ozbnrOkc/s320/05-seiichi-hayashi-gold-pollen-picturebox_900.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The scope of my interest in politics is almost exactly counterbalanced by my aversion to debate. You could say I'm chicken. <br />
<br />
I would like to use this blog to encourage you to consider signing a petition aimed at Congress. The US has more influence over the IMF than anybody else, and it's hard to see how or why the IMF would move away from their traditional position of cruel stupidity without real political pressure.<br />
<br />
I've been following the news as best as I can, and I am horrified by the way the European insitutions are railroading Greece. This story may not be so well known, and what is known may be lies. It is a story that has broad global implications; it is a matter of profound concern to anyone when economic institutions can bypass sovereign governments. <br />
<br />
It is now beyond obvious that the European institutions have been acting in bad faith from the beginning. Their idea of "negotiations" so far has been nothing better than bullying. Syriza has been repeatedly slandered, but it seems to me the Greek government has conducted itself with vastly superior grace and humanity than the bastards sitting across from them.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/07/03/nine-myths-about-the-greek-crisis-by-james-k-galbraith/#more-8304">This link has some information about the crisis from someone better qualified than I to discuss it.</a><br />
<br />
A name on a petition is better than nothing. <a href="http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-oppose-imf-assault?source=s.icn.tw&r_by=1446339">This link will take you there</a>. Please consider signing it. <br />
<br />
Thank you for your attention.Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-81858108160494737872015-05-15T18:17:00.001-04:002015-05-15T18:17:54.295-04:005.15.15<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLxtn8bTsKKLftUJuB8JajeeAL4Hy1b8OXZEaOc2HLaXt8shm7xHyLyD4B4sBtkaZg4c6V7xy4QkXMryafiTquJwbg-Ej7moiWdU4BV0GHiad1Skt4TMff1gjflHtZQcGGzG_3nWsjfI/s1600/TheNarrator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLxtn8bTsKKLftUJuB8JajeeAL4Hy1b8OXZEaOc2HLaXt8shm7xHyLyD4B4sBtkaZg4c6V7xy4QkXMryafiTquJwbg-Ej7moiWdU4BV0GHiad1Skt4TMff1gjflHtZQcGGzG_3nWsjfI/s320/TheNarrator.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
Hello All --<br />
<br />
The Lazy Fascist re-issue of The Narrator is out and available in both <a href="http://www.ereaderiq.com/dp/B00XM0WUVM/the-narrator/">electronic</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Narrator-Michael-Cisco/dp/1621051854/ref=la_B004JOYIZQ_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431726989&sr=1-1">paper</a> formats. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.threehandspress.com/penumbrae.php">Penumbrae</a>, edited by Richard Gavin, Patricia Cram, and Daniel A. Schulke, is out now from Three Hands Press, and includes a story of mine called "Altar! Altar!"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Aickmans-Heirs-Simon-Strantzas/dp/0981317790/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431728058&sr=1-1&keywords=aickman%27s+heirs">Aickman's Heirs</a>, edited by Simon Strantzas, is now available, and includes my story "Infestations." <br />
<br />
I have three more new stories due out soon, probably this year. <br />
<br />
And ANIMAL MONEY is coming.<br />
<br />
With that said, and your kind permission, I retreat once more to the slime ...Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-17536422365734482832014-12-20T17:18:00.002-05:002014-12-20T17:18:43.570-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWYiUxlPtvJgtHS5RVR_eeQTztVoG3zxZOgc7TJHM7WAFVvu_BYmLwzIwmsw1qOdRomno3tE6e2tUjYPI3LKMPeJOxzmTdcKDi25xiPM5CgtcEjTGtgIeEXqqJwSTYn9ZJrwMFWCvVXZE/s1600/underground.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWYiUxlPtvJgtHS5RVR_eeQTztVoG3zxZOgc7TJHM7WAFVvu_BYmLwzIwmsw1qOdRomno3tE6e2tUjYPI3LKMPeJOxzmTdcKDi25xiPM5CgtcEjTGtgIeEXqqJwSTYn9ZJrwMFWCvVXZE/s1600/underground.jpg" height="320" width="319" /></a></div>
Hello All.<br />
<br />
My new novel, ANIMAL MONEY, will be coming out in November, 2015, from Lazy Fascist Press.<br />
<br />
LF is also interested in reissuing THE NARRATOR -- if all goes well, this may appear as soon as February, 2015. <br />
<br />
<i>The Starry Wisdom Library</i> anthology, edited by Nate Pedersen and including a piece by me about <i>The Book of Eibon</i>, is now available directly from PS Publishing. Here's the <a href="http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/the-starry-wisdom-library-jhc-edited-by-nate-pedersen-2564-p.asp">link</a>.<br />
<br />
<i>Weird Fiction Review</i> has posted my translation of Marcel Béalu's story, "The Sound of the Mill." This is its first appearance in English. Here's a <a href="http://weirdfictionreview.com/2014/11/the-sound-of-the-mill/">link</a>. <br />
<br />
LACKINGTON'S has picked up a chunk of UNLANGUAGE for some time next year. Here's their <a href="http://lackingtons.com/">home</a> on the web.<br />
<br />
My story, "Altar! Altar!" has been picked up for a weird collection edited by Richard Gavin, slated for publication in 2015. <br />
<br />
My story, "Infestations," has been accepted by Simon Stranzas for a collection called <i>Aickman's Heirs</i>, due out from Undertow Books in Spring, 2015. Here's a <a href="http://www.undertowbooks.com/2014/10/13/aickmans-heirs/">link</a> to that worthy project. <br />
<br />
I will be presenting a conference paper on a panel on Lovecraft and Poe at the upcoming <a href="http://www2.lv.psu.edu/psa/Conference2015/index.html">Poe Conference</a> here in New York (February 26 to March 1, 2015) as well. This paper will be a digest version of the chapter I've written for <em>The Lovecraftian Poe: Essays on Influence, Reception, Interpretation and Transformation</em>, forthcoming from <a href="https://lupress.cas2.lehigh.edu/">LeHigh University Press</a>, 2015.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
This post turned out to be a good deal longer than I thought it would be.<br />
<br />
I return, with your permission, to the mines. My best wishes to all of you, out there in the dark. Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-19961869877404243222014-10-13T02:32:00.000-04:002014-10-13T02:32:20.519-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxchaA3lvE_hbHcWCTCnPaZoII_6yjGvEajWnoitAHxTu3J3XV-hklmbHc2rLmtfqMK1Xa_Wln0Ugctj9p6qHgQwRG2y3RNwscteVHRU8fOB3IqxBzsXBF9B4gZJxdAjlRYQJLQW3wXFg/s1600/tumblr_n9irlo84MI1qz72v7o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxchaA3lvE_hbHcWCTCnPaZoII_6yjGvEajWnoitAHxTu3J3XV-hklmbHc2rLmtfqMK1Xa_Wln0Ugctj9p6qHgQwRG2y3RNwscteVHRU8fOB3IqxBzsXBF9B4gZJxdAjlRYQJLQW3wXFg/s1600/tumblr_n9irlo84MI1qz72v7o1_500.jpg" height="276" width="320" /></a></div>
Hello All --<br />
<br />
Your reporter will be <a href="http://www.wordbookstores.com/event/bk-scary-stories-christopher-buehlman-michael-cisco-katherine-howe-and-tobias-carroll">reading at the WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York</a> at 7 PM on Wednesday, October 22nd. <br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/09/headache">Cortazar translation</a> was published at TOR.com as planned, with a beautiful illustration by Dave McKean. <br />
<br />
A new story entitled "Altar! Altar!" is on the way. It isn't alone.<br />
<br />
That is all.<br />
<br />
<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-38708800233030098772014-07-14T16:45:00.000-04:002014-07-14T16:45:39.135-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On September 3rd, TOR.com will publish my translation of Julio Cortazar's story "Cefalea" ("Headache"). This story has never appeared in English before, and I believe mine is the first English translation of it. <div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I discovered this story by accident, having mistakenly purchased the Spanish edition of his collection <i>Bestiario</i>. When I tried to collate its table of contents with my English edition of his stories, I found one tale, "Cefalea" unaccounted for. I decided to try translating it for my own edification ... now here we are. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I would be even worse than I am if I lost this chance to thank Ann VanderMeer for making this publication possible, to thank TOR, and to thank the Cortazar estate for accepting my translation of this story. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The official announcement from TOR went up this morning, and you can read it <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/07/announcing-headache-by-julio-cortazar">here</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
***</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My thanks and salutations to all my friends at Readercon, and a tip of the hat to my tolerators. </div>
Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-23591739649947100772014-07-02T17:06:00.003-04:002014-07-02T17:06:20.772-04:007.2.16PS ...<br />
<br />
Ebook versions of both <i>The Traitor</i> and <i>The Tyrant</i> are included in the storybundle, alongside Amal El-Mohtar's <i>Honey Month</i>, <i>Tainaron</i> by Leena Krohn (a superb writer), <i>Jagannath</i> by Karin Tidbeck, Jeff Vandermeer's <i>Third Bear</i>, and a collection called <i>It Came from the North</i> edited by Desirina Boskovich. There is also a kosher chimera cookbook put together by Jeff and Ann. <br />
<br />
Find it <a href="http://storybundle.com/fiction">here</a>. Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-86816857447244739982014-07-01T02:36:00.000-04:002014-07-01T02:36:10.095-04:007.1.14<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAlgBlcOvNPQntL0JbuC0ybUmLhQbLiCXxKDviCBJX5yjfBm2rEPEYvo04CHImSSD2C10W3nfzieVaLg-6GbJk2CrqMCH8OvRuXxXoFADOjP5leOYUbT4XFb2qnKwZQQyxZLHW4WcmECE/s1600/tumblr_n6j3x432Vo1qat224o4_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAlgBlcOvNPQntL0JbuC0ybUmLhQbLiCXxKDviCBJX5yjfBm2rEPEYvo04CHImSSD2C10W3nfzieVaLg-6GbJk2CrqMCH8OvRuXxXoFADOjP5leOYUbT4XFb2qnKwZQQyxZLHW4WcmECE/s1600/tumblr_n6j3x432Vo1qat224o4_1280.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Back again. <br />
<br />
New Stories:<br />
<br />
Two excerpts from my unpublished novel <i>UNLANGUAGE</i> have appeared recently. One, in German translation, appears in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Abyssus-Intellectualis-Spekulativer-Amanda-Beech/dp/3883963429">Abyssus Intellectualis</a>. The other, in the original Unlanguage, is in the latest issue of <a href="http://pstdarkness.com/">PostScripts to Darkness</a>. <br />
<br />
"Learn to Kill," in <a href="http://wordhorde.com/the-children-of-old-leech-are-coming/">Children of Old Leech</a>.<br />
<br />
Plus two others, entitled "Altar, Altar" and "Infestations." I'll announce where as soon as I am free to.<br />
<br />
New Novel: <br />
<br />
ANIMAL MONEY. <a href="http://lazyfascistpress.com/">Lazy Fascist Press</a> will be publishing this one, sometime next year. <br />
<br />
And Readercon once again.Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-69270005547919864152014-06-28T03:30:00.001-04:002014-06-28T03:30:25.382-04:006.28.14<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I read the ending of Lucius Shepard's story, "A Spanish Lesson," at the celebration of his life and work KGB hosted recently. This is a story I've also had the opportunity to give to students, and I emailed Lucius about it, to see if he would be willing to provide me with a brief statement about the story that I could pass on to my students. <br />
<br />
He wrote:<br />
<br />
"One of my writing teachers laid down a rule that
said you should never end a story with anything that might be
considered as a moral or a message -- so I decided to break it. A great
deal of "A Spanish Lesson" is autobiographical. I lived in a small
house in a tiny beach community on the Costa del Sol qnd some of the
characters were derived from people I knew then....the Nazi twins, not
so much. I made myself out to be somewhat more heroic than I was for
purposes of the story. In real life I was a fairly disreputable sort,
earning a living as a smuggler, partnered up with the guy after whom I
modeled Shockley. The moral conviction conveyed by the end of the
story was something I could only aspire to. However, viewing my life
through the lens of those days caused me to reflect on the person that I
had been and inspired me to make some changes. Now that person has
been obscured by the intricacies of time and experience, just as the
beach community has been swallowed up by the urban sprawl of Malaga, so
much so that few recall its name or exactly where it was situated."<br />
<br />
Lucius possessed an unbluffable, probing intelligence, incredible capacities of all kinds, perhaps most surprisingly capacious in his curiosity, generous. His humanity was incandescent, like Stepan Chapman's. I salute them both.<br />
<br />
Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-54552561943556843712014-01-30T22:10:00.001-05:002014-01-30T22:10:21.081-05:001.30.14<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've just received word that Stepan Chapman died on Monday, the 27th. That's him up in the corner, with the stethoscope. Stepan was a great writer and a friend of mine. I spent very little time with him. Not nearly enough. I imagined I would have other opportunities to spend more time with him, but I wasn't right. I suppose it often turns out that way. He had a great deal more to say than he was given the opportunity to say. I will never forget him. <br />
<br />
My condolences to Kia. Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-47914287609178250722013-11-23T03:49:00.000-05:002013-11-23T03:49:03.736-05:0011.23.13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Sean Moreland has interviewed your reporter <a href="http://pstdarkness.com/?s=michael+cisco">here</a>. Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-30186836703536888502013-10-27T17:06:00.004-04:002013-10-27T17:06:45.102-04:0010.27.13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-91001874374179444852013-09-11T00:12:00.000-04:002013-09-11T00:12:19.095-04:009.11.13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Your reporter will be reading at KGB (85 E 4th Street), October 16, 2013. <br />
<br />
My first four novels are now available in electronic format from Cheeky Frawg, and Weird Fiction Review is serializing The Divinity Student. More information about both can be found <a href="http://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/09/michael-cisco-and-the-divinity-student-on-wfr-com/">here</a>.<br />
<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-84877429988893940282013-08-19T15:10:00.000-04:002013-08-19T15:10:07.567-04:008.19.13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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MEMBER is coming.</div>
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October 16, 2013.</div>
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<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-5665216192426654422013-06-17T16:08:00.004-04:002013-06-17T16:09:27.208-04:006.17.13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBz2lBxQTirz0B5sLsvZ7Ea-r3ZVNR0_AgaCd-_yIVp7cIb372_Lcc4trmReGDDyy0Mjpz5WlmNCzZoB4Zg4JeFZ3XARlpls6tNogsplOh5o0q5KHM6rQnC0XXuNcGKaG_itE_FpGN3E/s1600/jean_giraud2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBz2lBxQTirz0B5sLsvZ7Ea-r3ZVNR0_AgaCd-_yIVp7cIb372_Lcc4trmReGDDyy0Mjpz5WlmNCzZoB4Zg4JeFZ3XARlpls6tNogsplOh5o0q5KHM6rQnC0XXuNcGKaG_itE_FpGN3E/s1600/jean_giraud2.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Me again. <br />
<br />
Many things happening, but not many things I am at liberty to discuss.<br />
<br />
A new novel: MEMBER, to be published by Chomu this Fall.<br />
<br />
An essay of mine has been published in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lovecraft-Influence-Predecessors-Successors-Supernatural/dp/0810891158">Lovecraft and Influence</a></i>, edited by Robert Waugh and published by Scarecrow Press. The topic: Lovecraft and William S. Burroughs.<br />
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No Readercon for me this year. Owing to a mixup somewhere, perhaps at my end, who knows?, my invitation never reached me. While I might have gone anyway, simply to see people, I am giving a paper at an academic conference in Lisbon that ends the day before Readercon begins, and, well ...<br />
<br />
I will be attending the renewed NecronomiCON in August. <br />
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That's all.Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-32754899899084498092013-03-09T19:06:00.002-05:002013-03-09T19:06:21.584-05:00"nowhere" from CELEBRANT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-66966192056142484062013-03-09T19:00:00.000-05:002013-03-09T19:00:18.104-05:00"timesermon" from CELEBRANT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8432396458737242890.post-91032149821521105162013-03-09T18:54:00.000-05:002013-03-09T18:54:12.123-05:00Robert Walser: "Basta"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Michael Ciscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07041771707198204460noreply@blogger.com1