WHILE KNOWLEDGE OF THE EVIL STAYS IN PLACE
a digest of recent writing, Vitiators review, music links
That was a poem from my chapbook Handcuffing the Venus De Milo that stemmed from an uncomfortable conversation I had with my daughter when she was 7 when she innocently asked, āWhy would anyone want to take me away?ā The subject of being careful around strange people had come up, and it was a balancing act between telling your child not enough about it and telling her too much.
Like many writers Iām naturally interested in understanding evil. In my role as a crime writer I often feeling like part of the job description is sitting around and thinking evil thoughts. It gets scary sometimes. I donāt want to know about it much of the time. And yet it is there.
Books I would like to read: Sean Kilpatrickās Tantrums (I was graciously gifted a copy, the book is formidable and the text is retina-crumpling, tiny font and many words and not much paragraph-indenting, to say nothing of the intricate belletristic style, in the best sense. Itās grisly and aggressive and threatening writing, if you know about him. Itās not nice stuff but taken from the standpoint of art and literary excellence it it quite amazing, I might say).
I want to read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry which I acquired recently. Likewise Patricia Lockwoodās No One is Talking About This which I got after her savage but (I thought) reasonable and balanced critical essay about David Foster Wallace, one of my heroes. It was a unique and challenging balance between withering and reverential. Iām okay with people bashing DFW to a degree because I know what he means to me and my convictions about his greatness and how much I love his writing are pretty solid, and Iām willing to listen to critiques people lodge at him. Iāve lodged a few myself, in the way that maybe only a fan can do. I wonāt link it here but Iād recommend not only finding the essay at the London Review of Books but also checking out the LRB podcast where Lockwood continues the discussion. I certainly donāt think sheās a hack or a jerk as some people might think.
I have so many books to read and always thinking of more. I need to read David Kuhnleinās Die Closer To Me, OF Cieriās Backmask, keep going with Faulkner and McCarthyās Blood Meridian. I gave an urge to cautiously dip back into William Burroughsā later stuff which I havenāt read. And I want to read Sartreās Saint Genet (the two go together like bottles of poison in Vladimir Putinās pharmacopeia ā more on that below in my spy novel). I canāt tell you how hoards of books and things chase me down, howling banshee wolves driving me through a dark forest of reading. Iāve started reading the London Review of Books proper as well as the Times Literary Supplement and the NY Review of Books when I can get my hands on them. Sometimes I wake up in the night and my eyes are thirsty to read words and suck them down, my eyes are tentacles needing to capture and stun and devour sentences (sounds a bit pretentious but itās true).
I donāt watch as much TV or movies. I did just watch the historical drama series Transatlantic on Netflix which I would recommend to anyone into the history of WWII, what happened to European intelligentsia and artists as they tried to flee the Nazis, spycraft and resistance operations a la Alan Furst novels (also recommended), and related subjects. I donāt know all the history and Iām sure there were inaccuracies but overall I felt like it was pretty good. The politics might have been a touch āwokeā and revisionist but I didnāt mind. I watched it with my daughter and I thought it was cool for the most part. Nazis and the web of intolerant subjects they are spider like at the heart of will never die in terms of being useful calibrations of evil. The police in Vichy France were collaborationist and tainted with that brush, of course. The fear was very real. The show is essentially about how Americans in Marseille were sent to try to get some famous writers and artists out of France and to safety. The USA had not entered the war in 1940 which is the year the show is set in. And there were the inevitable array of compromised US officials and ambassadors as well as heroic and selfless people who saw the writing on the wall. Real individuals such as Andre Breton and Max Ernst are portrayed, along with Marc Chagall and others; Walter Benjaminās tragic date forms an early centerpiece of the series and I was blown away that Netflix would spend time on recounting his destruction and suicide and turn it into entertainment, which is ironic given some of his writings. (I know very little about him so this is dilettante opinion-slinging on my part, of course.)
Iāve had some things published in the past couple weeks so I will put them together in digest form for you here.
A fragment from my spy novel Fear is a Hollow Verb was published at Apocalypse Confidential. Iām proud of it. If only the novel could be wall-to-wall this kind of thing. I have contemplating splitting the novel up into three or four shorter novellas that are linked (my plans for the whole thing are huge and only partially formed). Thereās a lot of characters and a lot of directions it could go in. Check it out:
https://apocalypse-confidential.com/2023/07/15/sudoku-gets-shuffled/
Hereās a link to a story of mine called āVolunteer.ā Iām not sure if itās a part of another novel Iām calling I See Prism Threads or not. It deals with death which is a preoccupation of that novel so far. Some of you might find it to be familiar. It was published at The Pixilated Shroud a while back but that site has disappeared so I felt like it was fair game to publish again. Iām not getting paid for any of this.
https://www.bruisermag.com/volunteer-by-jesse-hilson
Next up is a goodreads review I wrote of Elytron Frassā graphic novel Vitiators from Expat Press. I actually put this off for a year (!) because I was resistant to reading something which featured murdered children. Iām not into art that takes its cue from that kind of thing. But I relaxed a touch. Hereās my review which was not 100% favorable. Itās a shocking and transgressive piece of work. It also could have been executed better, I think. But making a graphic novel is not easy work. Iāve tried and itās a lot of writing and drawing which is grueling so I take my hat off to Frass and Charles N. who drew the thing.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5690752524
Some music until we meet again: Sunset Rubdown, one of my favorite bands:
Pitting guitar riffs from Chuck Schuldiner from the band Death against other death metal bandsā riffs: