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Showing posts with label Guest Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guest Blog. Show all posts

Thursday, August 20, 2009

An Interview with Justin Isis


Justin Isis lacks abdominal definition


For me, literature should be as exciting and energising as pop music. I am now 37 years of age, and of a generation for whom pop music was both a personal journey of discovery and something that has always been there. I suppose that for those younger than me, at least the 'has always been there' part of this description must hold, if not all of it. It has been a source of puzzlement to me, therefore, that the sensibility of pop music – all that is best about it in spontaneity, daring and role-play – somehow has not managed to permeate the world of literature. I don't mean this in any superficial sense, that authors should all start wearing shades and writing in American hipster slang (by golly!). No, literature need not relinquish any intellectual depth by learning from pop music – it can even gain some.

Because, for me, interests in literature and pop music were equivalent and intertwined, when I first started having work published, I thought about the entire project through a pop music sensibility. My first collection,
The Nightmare Exhibition, was a 'concept album', in which the title story provided a meta-narrative for the other stories. This, for me, was only the start, or so I thought, until I found that my 'concept albums' were being broken up by publishers who would reject and accept stories with no regard for the song-cycles to which they belonged, who did not care for my pretentious collection titles and who gave me little or no control over artistic presentation.

I had thought that any artistic path should resemble that described by David Bowie in the song Star:

I could play a wild mutation as a rock'n'roll star.

However, some years of the oblivious plodding attitudes prevalent in the world of publishing made me despair of such a thing. There was no David Bowie of literature.

This could be a long story, but I'll cut it short. Justin Isis got in touch with me over the Internet, after reading an online interview of mine, and my faith in literature has become invigorated, precisely because he is a writer who understands the lack of vision in literature as it currently exists. He is also a writer quite capable of the wild mutations that make pop music, at its best, so vital and exciting.

Not long ago, an e-mail from Justin Isis to myself contained the following:


I feel like writing is at least twenty or thirty years behind music... Music seems to have reached a total point of convergence, where genre doesn't really matter anymore. Writing still seems very genre stratified. I also feel like writing is really lagging behind in using technology. I don't mean stupid shit like the Kindle or e-books or whatever, but I mean actual programs for generating text or producing fiction, or database-programs that could be used for combining or mashing up texts based on common words or phrases. If you Google literary mashups, there is like nothing serious that comes up. I really can't believe that I may be the only person that gives a
shit about this.

I really feel like writing now has the potential to be a thousand times better than writing has been in the past. It should be, but no one seems to be doing anything about it. I feel like Susuki is properly "of its time" in that it feels to me like where writing should realistically be now, rather than everyone who is writing like it was still fifty years ago.


It was after reading this that I decided that I must interview Justin Isis, and put that interview out there (on here). And that is what I have done. I hope you find the results exciting and arousing.

-Quentin S. Crisp

Thursday, February 12, 2009

A Conversation With Quentin S. Crisp



Justin Isis has interviewed Quentin S. Crisp before, and that interview is probably the best place to start for general information on Crisp's writing and clothing style. The purpose of the following interview is to whore out Shrike, Crisp's soon to be released novella from PS Publishing. Before reading this you should order Shrike, especially the jacketed hardcover version. Shrike is one of Quentin S. Crisp's most exciting works to date, and by 'exciting' I mean 'tenser than injecting Red Bull directly into your blood stream'. Brief responses to Crisp's statements are given in [ ] brackets.


Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Ten Things About Men and Women

1. SizeMen: Big things excite you.
Big bossoms, big curves, big cars, big money, big bodily appendages … and if I continue I would have men wanking to this post.
Women: Tiny things become you.
Fuelled by our intemperate desire to look thin, we either starve or surgically re-sculpture ours bodies. Hearing people associate us with thinness, even morbid remarks like, ‘You’re so thin … do you have cancer?’ fill our hearts with joy.

2. Sex
Men: You feel tired after ejaculation.
Seriously. Anyone care to explain this?! But if it’s too scientific, I’ll probably fall asleep so don’t bother.
Women: You feel tired … of having to pretend you had as much fun as he did.
What’s the deal? We CAN’T enjoy sex as much as men, our orgasm mailbox are emptier than men’s and complicated sex positions always involve us doing all the onerous work. =(

3. AppealMen: Boobs. Ass. Legs.
You find it socially acceptable to demand for big breasts but not at all to have your manhood crushed by girls who find that your penis doesn’t measure up.
Women: Personality. Face.
You find it socially acceptable to demand for adequately shaped and sized penis because they contribute almost completely to pleasure during sex while boobs play a 50% role.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Attending the 25th Torino Film Festival!



Hi,
This is the filmmaker Woo Ming Jin, guest blogging for swifty. I just returned from the Torino Film Festival in Turin, Italy where my film 'THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA' was in the competition lineup, or as the festival calls it the 'Torino 25', since this is the festival's 25th yr, but its first under the Italian director Nanni Moretti, a director whose films i'd watch when i was a film student and who won the Palme d'Or in Cannes some years back.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Happy Birthday to ME

First off thanks to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday in the last post from Swifty. It was truly an amazing night involving handcuffs, baked goods, and far too much liquor. I am now officially an old man of 23.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Mogwai - Hunted by a Freak

In this Mogwai video, CGI-animated animals are thrown off a building and die. That's all. I find it strangely satisfying and beautiful. It would have been rubbish with a different song, one that tried to 'play it up', but the somber music contrasts well with the visual style. Every time I watch a 3D animated film I usually imagine the annoying pseudo-cartoons dying in some way, so this was a huge relief. This is how they should all be killed: dispassionately, dropped from a great height, soundtracked by Mogwai. There's a great moment where it looks like a turtle is going to be saved, only to be immediately run over by a car. And another one where two animals try unsuccessfully to embrace in midair.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Sifow - Love Spell



Sifow.

Second album.

Love Spell.

It was released about a week ago; I just went to Shibuya and bought it.

I know I said I'd given up reviewing music, but what the hell.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Oh! Mikey

Oh! Mikey is the best thing to come out of Japanese comedy in years. Check this one:




It's SO much funnier if you've actually been to a hostess bar/kyabakura and know what they're talking about.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Serious Literary Fiction about Idols

I need help.

I am writing a serious literary work about idols and wota.

Someone please tell me suggestions for things they want to see in this.

This is not a joke, I am a published author.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Chomu

Chomu.

Quentin S. Crisp and I have started a new writing magazine. It's writing what we like, when we want. Other contributors are coming soon.

There is a new short story from me up, so go read it.

And tell your friends and family.

Here is a picture of Shinohara Ryouko sitting on the toilet:


Thursday, July 12, 2007

Michelangelo Antonioni Blows Up The World

Antonioni proves himself one of the greatest filmmakers of all time with 'Zabriskie Point'. Like the best movies, no explanation is necessary. This literally destroys shittier films, like 99% of everything released now.




Monday, June 18, 2007

Community service message: Fight Sexual Harassment on Public Transport!

Too long! For too long we have lived in fear of sexual harassers when we take public transport! TOO LONG!

(No, Swifty, I am not talking about your member's size, don't look at me like that. Justin, on the other hand ... *whistles*)

Anyway, back to sexual harassment. I just need a little help from you guys. Do you think you can visit this blog and leave a comment? I'm very worried that a potential sexual harasser will chance upon that blog, look at the pathetic amount of support there and think to himself, 'Muahahaha no one supports such campaigns I shall go harass more people.' Though I doubt sexual harassers can talk in such coherent sentences. They are usually sick idiots.

On another note, Swifty! Talk about Heroes! I know you don't usually review TV series, but Heroes is the most awesomest TV series ever (this, coming from an avid fan of Desperate Housewives)! Surely there's an exception for that? Or maybe not. Just ignore my pointless ramblings.

Here's my two cents for the Kuala Lumpur thing (yes, I am superior and so I don't have to post in the comment box =P No lar, I'm just lazy)
1. Traffic (yeah, made me thirty minutes late for my own birthday party once)
2. Weird-looking, weirdly dressed people! (they are found in abundance in KL. At least in Klang, where I am staying, the condition is not that severe because it's a tiny town. In KL! Oh my God! Total eyesore! Really gaudy hair colors and horrible tattoos. The girls wear skimpy and shoddy miniskirts or damn short tubes. No glamor at all.)
3. Cab drivers try to cheat your money!!! (or so I've heard)
4. Oh we're only supposed to give three? But my three reasons are so mediocre! =( Okay nvm.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Great Photo of Mishima



Incredible photo showing his style, along with the current mayor of Tokyo.

Also check this:



His English is unfortunately camp, but look at his smile while he talks and notice the massive contempt and disgust for everything showing through. Beautiful.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Rum of Heartsdales. Hot!

Rum of Heartsdales

"I ride boys like a motorcycle."
-Rum

There's an interview about her and her sister here.


Sunday, May 20, 2007

Maids for hire



Nude Fun

Do note here that I will charge an iniquitous sum of RM800 per hour and if you fail to abide, my mop will be going up a part of your body.

I will dress in ANYTHING except a chicken costume because I am there to look provocative and sexy, not like I recently knocked my head.

You will not get a refund if you find the aforementioned maid lacking in the breast department.

You will keep that dissatisfaction to yourself.

If you want to place an order, contact me at 012-of-course-this-is-a-joke-do-you-take-me-for-an-idiot or e-mail Swifty (he is my pimp! Oops. Did I say that out loud?) for further details.

Note: Hey Swifty, how come when I post photos, it is clickable but when you post it is not? Teach me how to do that!

Monday, April 23, 2007

10 Things To Do After A Break-Up (PS I Hate You list)

[kingyo] A nocturnal conversation at the carpark


(Edmund: In case you cannot read the name of the author at the bottom of this blog post properly, I would like to point out that this blog post, despite remaining as one of the most popular blog posts of all time here, is written not by me but by the self-published author May Zhee)

Don’t you just hate it when you find yourself still itching to go back to the daily life with your partner even after The Breakup? This especially pertains to those close-knit couples, who will go crazy and pull out their hair or something if they are away from each other.

Why would such a great couple break up in the first place I wouldn’t know. Maybe they grew bored. Maybe their parents got in the way. Maybe I stole their boyfriends. Etc etc.

Since the book PS I Love You tells about the list a girl followed to free herself from the cage of all things lugubrious due to her husband’s death, my list PS I Hate You will tell about what you can do to keep yourself from running back to your ex just minutes after The Breakup.

Apart from building a wall out of potatoes in front of your house, I mean.

Actually, I think that goes into the list too.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The poisoned and mortal wound of the civilised world



Manic Street Preachers knew it.

"You're obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and social conventions you despise, condemn, and know lack all foundation. It is that permanent contradiction between your ideas and desires and all the dead formalities and vain pretences of your civilization, which makes you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your powers. That's the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilised world."
- Octave Mirbeau