ANARCHY AND ALCHEMY: THE FILMS OF ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
A long-overdue volume, and in my view an essential one, a thorough study of the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, arguably the premiere wild man of the cinema.
AMERICAN GOTHIC
The utterly distinctive photographic artwork of Carlos Batts, as presented in this book, falls somewhere between the harsh naturalism of Weegee and the horrific surrealism of J.K. Potter. Over the past 15 or so years Batts has provided illustrations for numerous album covers, magazines and comics…
THE SHADOWED MIND
An insane asylum set South African horror-sexploitation oddity from 1988 that was heavily informed by FAREWELL JOHNNY, the granddaddy of South African horror/cult films. Taken on its own terms THE SHADOWED MIND is agreeably bizarre, though not nearly as deep as it purports to be.
CONE ZERO
Not having read any of the other Nemonymous anthologies, I was unsure what to expect. That, it turns out, was an ideal state of mind in which to approach this book
THE COMPASS STONE
Fernando Arrabal is Spain’s grand master of the avant-garde, a playwright, artist, filmmaker and sometime novelist. THE COMPASS STONE (LA PIERDA ILLUMINADA), translated by Andrew Hurley, is one of a handful of Arrabal novels available in English (the others are BAAL BABYLON, THE BURIAL OF THE SARDINE, THE TOWER STRUCK BY LIGHTNING and THE RED VIRGIN), and for me the standout, an astounding torrent of madness, perversion, hallucination and murder, but graced with a probing, boldly intellectual edge. It’s told from the point of view of an unnamed teenage girl living in a vast, crumbling mansion run by her father, known only as “the Maimed One”, who spends his days watching TV and decrying the decadence of modern society. “The Sisters”, two gluttonous handmaidens, are on hand to attend to his every need.
CERN ZOO
Another Nemonymous anthology, meaning another weird and fascinating compendium of horror, science fiction and general oddness.
CATASTROPHE
The most famous collection by Italy’s late Dino Buzzati
THE CAGE
I’ve previously crowned CODEX SERAPHINIANUS the strangest book ever printed, but this relic from 1975 gives that tome a serious run for its money in sheer nonlinear weirdness.
THE BLIND OWL (Book)
“There are sores which slowly erode the mind in solitude like a kind of canker.” That’s the opening sentence of THE BLIND OWL, and it adequately sets the tone for what follows.
BEREAVEMENTS
Eccentric, humorous and decadent: all those things adequately sum up BEREAVEMENTS, with its perversely humorous depiction of grief-born insanity.