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Burn this book
Jan. 22nd, 2008 07:41 pm"Burn this book" - that is what the inscription from the author reads. The author in question was running a hucksters table at a con and we were discussing what I could buy. We went through many possible options before he pulled out a copy of the book in question from below a stack of other titles. There were no other books that he had actually written on display. This one was written more than 10 years ago - the stories which make it up even older. Are you getting the picture? It is surprising he even had a copy at all.
So when an author has obviously grown beyond his work and is perhaps a little ashamed of it, why should I want to read it. You see I had every reason to believe that it would be something I would enjoy. The book is a collection of stories by Bill Congreve called Epiphanies of Blood. You see knowing Bill, knowing the type of work being written a lot 10 or so years ago and looking at the subtitle "Tales of desperation and thirst", I could see that it was going to be a collection of dark stories characterised by detailed mental landscapes and filled with strong emotions. These stories would be crafted to be as deep and meaningful as they possibly could - i.e. pretentious. Of course the flip side is that the other elements of storytelling are missing or shambolic - i.e. raw. But, you know, sometimes I'm just in the mood for pretentious and raw - I'm strange like that. This afternoon was such a time and this book did its job nicely.
So when an author has obviously grown beyond his work and is perhaps a little ashamed of it, why should I want to read it. You see I had every reason to believe that it would be something I would enjoy. The book is a collection of stories by Bill Congreve called Epiphanies of Blood. You see knowing Bill, knowing the type of work being written a lot 10 or so years ago and looking at the subtitle "Tales of desperation and thirst", I could see that it was going to be a collection of dark stories characterised by detailed mental landscapes and filled with strong emotions. These stories would be crafted to be as deep and meaningful as they possibly could - i.e. pretentious. Of course the flip side is that the other elements of storytelling are missing or shambolic - i.e. raw. But, you know, sometimes I'm just in the mood for pretentious and raw - I'm strange like that. This afternoon was such a time and this book did its job nicely.