The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Month: November 2021 (Page 5 of 13)

Bill Hsu presents … Joel Lane’s bleak, unsettling fiction

 

“Dark times lead to powerful writing – just think of what the Depression and the war brought to American horror fiction. But the danger for modern weird fiction is that it struggles to break out of a tiny coterie of Internet-connected fans. The world needs intelligent horror fiction just as it needs socialism, and for the same reasons: the power of truth is the only thing that can give us a future.”
Joel Lane (via email, 20/04/2009)
[via Gary McMahon’s blog post]

 

Adapted from Lane’s wikipedia page:

Joel Lane (1963 – 2013) was a British fiction writer, poet, critic, editor, and activist. He published two novels, seven collections of short fiction, and four volumes of poetry. He won the British Fantasy Award twice (for his first collection The Earth Wire in 1994, and his short story “My Stone Desire” in 2008), and the World Fantasy Award in 2013 for his collection Where Furnaces Burn. He lived in Birmingham (UK), and was active in the Tindal Street Fiction Group and the Socialist Party.

 

Alan Beard’s obituary, with comments from Lane’s friends and associates
Simon Bestwick’s article from thisishorror.uk
Nina Allan’s blog post
Joel Lane’s goodreads page
Joel Lane’s page at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Joel Lane interviewed @ Swan River Press
Joel Lane interviewed by David McWilliam

 

 

The writer S.D. Stewart on Lane’s first collection (most of these observations are just as appropriate for Lane’s later fiction):

To call it ‘horror’, ‘weird’, or ‘urban fantasy’ would be a misnomer, and would likely cause some potential readers to turn away. But you should not turn away, for these stories are worth your time. They are also not always blatantly fantastic or horrific in nature. Most project, at least on the surface, a grimy urban realism based in the English West Midlands—nearly always suffused with a dark, melancholic tone. This atmosphere pervades all of the stories, thus connecting them through a common sensorial experience generated through their reading. In the less obviously unreal examples, below this layer of grime lurks a slight tinge or element of strangeness. Accompanying this is often a current of social consciousness that I find rare in literature of the weird. Lane’s style is self-assured, quietly capable. Even in the descriptions of the frequent messiness permeating his characters’ lives there is clarity and precision. The subtlety of his writing has a lulling effect, and once transfixed by it a reader may miss important keys buried offhandedly in the text.

Lane displays a stylistic kinship with Robert Aickman, yet often taking that writer’s type of trademark ambiguous strangeness to an even higher plateau. I was also reminded of Christopher Priest’s authorial voice, yet Lane is more oriented toward human relationships than Priest, and more successfully probes at their nuances. I found more emotion in Lane’s fiction than in Priest’s, though it is still somewhat muted by his style. … there is never a neat and happy ending, or that it’s all presented so matter-of-factly yet still touched with pathos (as in lines like ‘The opposite of love is indifference’). Though not exclusively so, I have found this kind of restrained emotionality to be common in British writers, and it’s usually a welcome relief to encounter.

A Personal Note:

I found out about Lane’s work less than a year ago, and quickly became a fan. I am also sad that I never got to meet Lane. I’d spent more than a few weeks in depressing Birmingham, Lane’s stomping grounds, and would have loved to hang out with a writer of such dark and powerful fiction, who was obviously very familiar with the local indie rock scene, and a passionate leftist activist.

I took to his writing almost immediately, with its backdrops of garbage-strewn cityscapes, abandoned industrial buildings, bricked-up windows, and dark languid canals. Initially plausible everyday situations are disrupted by random violence, or slip uncontrollably into blurred supernatural nightmares. Lane’s stories remind me a bit of Ramsey Campbell’s post-Lovecraft work from a similar period, but Lane has more empathy with his characters and their challenges. Like with Campbell’s characters, sex (both gay and straight for Lane’s characters) is often on the agenda, and mostly uncomfortable and unsatisfying. Lane effectively evokes decaying urban cityscapes and cold, gray interiors; the writing is always so skillfully executed. His characters stare into the bleakness, with no illusions; however, they soldier on and somehow find ways to stay afloat. This is the kind of weird fiction that I love.

 

Joel Lane stories available online:

The Black Country
Like Shattered Stone
Incry
The Hunger of the Leaves
Midnight Flight
A few poems

 

Joel Lane’s 7 Short Story Collections and a Novel

The Earth Wire and Other Stories (1994)

Goodreads page for Earth Wire

S.D. Stewart: Joel Lane’s first collection of short stories does not read like the work of a beginning writer. Either Lane wrote hundreds of unpublished stories before he wrote these or his gift simply sprang fully formed onto the page.

In his most effective stories, Lane consistently steers clear of horror cliches, and builds disturbing and ambiguous situations (and, sometimes, creatures). His empathy for his characters is always clear; his prose is sharp, poetic, and full of memorable and quotable passages.

Like (say) Brian Evenson, Lane can slip us the essential details in an artful and economical fashion. “The Night Won’t Go” starts:

The first real day of winter was the day he put on the wrong clothes. He’d stood for ten minutes in the shower, trying to wash away his hangover. Going back into the dark bedroom, he’d reached into the chest of drawers on the left-hand side of the bed. Daniel’s clothes were hardly distinguishable from his own; they often swapped T-shirts or sweaters when one of them ran out. Without putting the light on, Peter dressed himself in Daniel’s shirt and trousers. The fabric was briefly as cold as glass. The mirror showed him only a blurred figure, like a shadow.

He didn’t know what he was doing it for. But it couldn’t do any harm. It wasn’t as though the other were dead, or even seriously ill. Most of Daniel’s clothes were at the hospital now. These were probably what he’d wear if he came back to stay for a few days. When he came back. Peter left the flat, unable to face breakfast; he took some coffee in tablet form. Outside, the pavements were smeared with frost, like the residue of a million cars’ exhaust fumes. On the bus, he watched people folding themselves inward, keeping their faces tight against the cold.

“And Some are Missing” feature the indescribable anti-people; encounters with them are always slippery and unsettling.

The first time, it was someone I didn’t know. Inevitably, I’d gone out to use the phone box, around eleven on a Tuesday night. This was a month after I’d moved into the flat in Moseley. I phoned Alan, but I don’t remember what I said; I was very drunk. Coming back, I saw two men on the edge of the car park in front of the tower block I lived in. It looked like a drunk was being mugged. There was one man on the ground: grey-haired, shabby, unconscious. And another man crouching over him: pale, red-mouth, very tense. As I came closer, he seemed to be scratching at the drunk’s face. His hand was like a freeze-dried spider. I could see the knuckles were red from effort. With his other hand, he was tugging at the man’s jacket.

It ends:

Eventually, Jason’s name was called and he followed a nurse out through the swing doors. I waited, still drunk but sober in whatever part of me reacted to what was happening. Half an hour later he came back, with fourteen stitches in his forehead. It was past four o’clock. Jason lived in Kidderminster with his parents; he’d had to move back there after losing his job. I took him back to my flat, where he slept like a child. In the morning, I woke up and lay there for a while, looking at him. If anything visited him in the night, I didn’t see. He woke up around midday and left soon afterwards, thanking me repeatedly for my help. But somehow, I still felt responsible. Fourteen stitches are not enough.

The collection ends with “In the Brightness of My Day”. The promise of sexual encounters is enticing, but the outcomes are amorphous and disturbing. Interactions between characters can be intimate and even fleetingly beautiful, but an ominous detail will skew everything in a much darker and even dangerous direction.

An hour later, someone bought Moth a drink. He was a nervous man in his mid-thirties, his forehead already on the way towards joining the back of his neck. ‘I’m surprised you’re on your own,’ he said. As he spoke, he held his pint up to his mouth like a faulty microphone. His name was Glen, and he’d come up from Stoke for the weekend. Moth said he was a six-former who lived with his parents. Inwardly, he calculated that there was no point in taking this one back. He was too old for Matt. Moth asked Glen for his impression of Birmingham. ‘Icy,’ was the reply. ‘All except you.’ Moth smiled in his best angel manner. ‘Well, I’ll have to be going soon,’ Glen said.

Moth touched his arm, as though brushing off a loose thread. ‘I know somewhere we could go for a while.’

We’re never sure about Moth and Matt’s motivations, or even their cryptic relationship; it’s often unclear what exactly is happening, other than a situation that we should probably flee from. Later:

In the kitchen, Moth turned Darren around to face him, and kissed him slowly. It was the first serious kiss he had given anyone. They sat at the kitchen table, drank coffee and ate thin biscuits with the image of a coffee pot and cup engraved in them. Then Darren got up to go to the toilet. Moth followed him into the hallway. When Darren came back out of the bathroom, Moth embraced him silently. He let some of his own face tear away, like cobweb, between Darren’s fingers. Then he pushed open the door to the other bedroom, and switched on the light. ‘Meet my other half,’ Moth said, closing the door behind them.

And it continues.

 

The Lost District (2006)

Goodreads page for The Lost District

The first few stories are relatively straightforward: bleak realist vignettes familiar from Lane’s first collection. Then comes “Scratch”, and the language seems to kick up a notch. It opens:

Do you know, I can’t remember the name my mother gave her? All I can remember is my secret name for her, Sara. Without an “h”. It was my sister’s name.

The depressing vérité backdrop lulls us into expecting another outing similar to the earlier stories. But a brief flash of the fantastic careens into a spectacular ending.

 

The Terrible Changes (2009)

Goodreads page for The Terrible Changes

(This is a rare limited edition. Good luck on locating an affordable copy.)

From writer Alan Beard’s goodreads review: A terrific imagination is at work here, with memorable images – in The Hard Copy (again set in Leamington) a gay lover leaves his bloodied impression on (bed)sheets, in ‘Face Down’ a corpse seen in the canal begins to haunt the protagonist until it appears beside him everywhere and the ending, when he tries to turn the body round is deeply disturbing. I like the images that Lane conjures, eg a vibrating phone shivered in my hand like a tiny bird (Alouette); The aeroplane lurched like an ice dancer with food poisoning (City of Love).

 

Where Furnaces Burn (2012)

Goodreads page for Where Furnaces Burn

This won the 2013 World Fantasy Award for best collection. It has the familiar Joel Lane touches: the clean, matter-of-fact prose; the post-industrial depression of the Midlands; plucky characters trying to get by in challenging circumstances; the promise and often unsatisfactory outcomes of sexual encounters; violent events that may have some supernatural agency. Unlike Lane’s other collections, a single narrator is shared by the brief stories (some early pieces are just 3-4 pages). The narrator is a policeman, shades of X-Files; Fox Mulder is namechecked jokingly. But there are some terrifically unsettling ideas here, and the atmospheric treatments are almost always surprising, with open-ended non-resolutions.

 

Do Not Pass Go (2013)

Goodreads page for Do Not Pass Go

A booklet of five very short crime stories, two of which are also available in other collections.

“No More the Blues” packs so much into two pages. An excerpt:

I consider kicking the crap out of Dec, but my good mood and the distant rumble of Nine Below prompt me to help him. I pull out my wallet and look for my last tenner. His pale hand moves so fast I hardly see it, grabbing the leather and yanking it open. Credit cards and train tickets spill onto the concrete floor.

His reflexes are quick, but mine are quicker. I’m not a junkie. Before I really have time to think about it, my penknife is open in my hand and my hand is pressed to his throat. Like a knee-trembler, how quickly you reach the point of no return. I push him back into the cubicle and shut the door, then wash my hands. There’s blood on the floor, but not much. Could be a nosebleed. I wonder what to do.

 

The Anniversary of Never (2014)

Goodreads page for The Anniversary of Never

This slim volume is finally back in print. In his introduction, Nicholas Royle quotes a line from email sent by the author to the editor:

The Anniversary of Never is a group of stories concerned with the theme of the afterlife and the idea that we may enter the afterlife before death, or find parts of it in our world.

The collection opens with “Sight Unseen”, which appeared earlier in Ellen Datlow’s Lovecraft Unbound anthology. It’s an affecting tale about the narrator dealing with his father’s death, composted with hints of cosmic horror.

We meet the narrator of “All the Shadows” at the start of a depressing holiday:

The hotel hasn’t changed. Same tired-looking woman behind a reception desk cluttered with paperwork. Same outdated optics behind the bar. Same obscure, faded pattern on the carpet. Same feeling that not only the air but the light has gone stale. I remember Nathan standing there, uttering to me: ‘This is a place where people come to die.’

And here I am again, in the same hotel. Alone. I need to remember what happened, get it clear in my head by setting it down. If I can set it down. Memory is an infection: you can pass it on, but you can’t get rid of it. Still, I need to pass the time somehow. I buy a drink at the bar, a vodka and cranberry juice. That’s what Nathan used to drink. It seems important to remember him somehow. There are five men and two women scattered around the bar, all drinking alone. I don’t feel like breaking the mould, but there are no free tables left. So I take my glass upstairs.

Hints are dropped that this is not just a tale commemorating a doomed affair, but there’s a surprising concluding event and reveal.

“Ashes in the Water” (with Mat Joiner) is the kind of dark, melancholic tale that Lane does so well. The narrator is trying to process the death of his boyfriend, wandering through various barges and boats:

The canal walkway looked colder than it was. Boarded-up factory windows, coils of razor-wire, gaunt bridges, blackened leaves on the path. But the still air was dense with traffic fumes, warm enough to make Josh sweat under his winter coat. After dark, the only light came from the distant streetlamps; it turned the view to a sketch, more remembered than seen. He’d known this stretch of the Grand Union Canal for thirty years; it never seemed to change. Maybe that was why Anthony had come to live here. The pace of abandoned things was better than no peace at all.

The small supernatural intrusions just add to the overall melancholy. What the narrator is seeking is never explicitly stated, and we have another beautiful ending with no answers:

Then he walked on. There was no moon, but the clouds and traffic fumes held the city’s light like a dusty crystal ball. In the distance, he could make out the long black shape of a narrowboat. He hoped it was the right one.

“Bitter Angel” wastes no time, opening:

Hello, Michael. It’s good to see you again. I’ve missed you. Can you hear me? I don’t know if you recognise me, even. It’s Lee. Do you remember? The nurse wouldn’t tell me whether you can understand things. The last time I came here, you were covered in bandages. Now I can see it’s you. But what’s damaged or lost inside, nobody seems to now. I just — I want to tell you that I think I understand what happened to you and Jason. I’ve made sense of it.

So much is packed into its five pages: brief thoughts on politics and social unrest, dealing with the death of loved ones, dreams of flying. Another beautiful, tender, melancholic piece, another lovely and sad ending.

The collection ends with “Some of Them Fell”, another affecting and ambiguous story. We follow the narrator on his meandering and unpredictable path over the years, through teenage misadventures, a queer and sometimes troubled love affair, and brief but disturbing supernatural intrusions. Again, a departure that is tender and relatively unsentimental:

I knew our affair was over, but it didn’t matter. For him, it had only been a means to an end. Maybe that’s true of most people. If you accept that the end is more than the obvious things.

When the bus came, he touched my cheek and said, “Thanks. I couldn’t have done that on my own.” Surprised, and briefly upset, I watched the lights of the bus diminish as it sped downhill and on through the night. If I could, maybe the city would let him go.

 

Scar City (2015)

Goodreads page for Scar City

Lane’s posthumous collection contains some of his strongest stories.

“In This Blue Shade” opens:

Lee was woken by a voice speaking into his ear. But when he raised his head to look around the dusty, curtained bedroom, the voice had gone. He must have dreamt it. Instead of drawing him deeper into the dream so he could answer, it had woken him up so he couldn’t remember the question. That was people for you.

The subsequent events only seem to have tenuous connections, and Lane again eschews condescending explanations. Our understanding of the narrator evolves significantly in a few pages; a fleeting but oddly tender queer encounter is only part of the complex picture. A few striking images recur in his journey, which ends:

There were no buildings, only trees with the lights beyond them. This must be a park. He could see thin figures like meercats drifting between the trees. Lee recognised their faces, but they didn’t notice him, or they ignored him. The shadows under the trees were blue. As he stumbled onward, a branch lashed out and cut his hand. He passed another tree and felt it slash his cheek. All the trees had razors, he realised. How many more did he have to get past? He suspected he wouldn’t reach the light. But there was only one way to find out.

“Echoland” is a snapshot of ’80s-90s indie rock lives, as the troubled characters search for a supernatural portal into a darkly alluring city. We meet Moth (and Matt; characters who share these names also appeared earlier in “In the Brightness of My Day”):

Moth had fans now, a chosen few. At least half a dozen in the audience, probably all students, wearing the silver on black T-shirt they’d been selling at the last gig. Just before the band started, Diane went out for a breath of fresh air. The Victorian church at the centre of St. Peter’s Square was closed up and unlit; she stood in it doorway, sheltering from the invisible rain.

As usual, the destination never turns out the way it should. Another lovely ending:

Diane walked on towards the tower until a hanging veil blocked her path. Drops of moisture glittered in its woven surface. This was the last proof that human presence survived in Echoland. She touched the fabric. It tore, and some of it came away on her hand. The gap reminded her of the portal by which they’d come here. Staring at the silvery net, she saw movement within it; a silent community of tiny spiders.
“Birds of Prey” is another bleak realist piece about a queer affair in the 80s that spirals into darkness. As in “Echoland” and his first novel, Lane’s sketches of musicians and gigs are realistic and sympathetic. We are not told outright what happened with the protagonist and his sometime lover, but we fear the worst with the ominous hints.

“The Grief of Seagulls” is a tender, elegiac tale of memory and desire; Lane’s restrained approach and avoidance of explanations make it all work. It ends:

I stood up and reached for him, but something was changing. The scars on his chest were denser, and they gave way under my hands. I reached up towards his face and could feel only a web of scars, as if that was all that held him together. Glad that I couldn’t see anything here, I gripped his torn arms and we pressed together against the wall. I felt a cool breath against my lips. And then my hands and my face were crushed against cold, damp brick.

When I walked back along the quay, night had fallen. A frail aurora was glowing above the dark water: a ragged veil of blue and yellow like bruised skin. As I watched, the colours melted into each other and the night. Near the station, I saw the old man sitting asleep on a bench. He looked worn out, as if after a hard day’s work. Then I realised what his work was.

——————

I saw him again — the old man, that is — a few weeks later. By then it was autumn, and a bitter wind was blowing in from the iron sea. He and a younger man were walking towards the harbor. As they passed me, deep in conversation, I avoided catching the old man’s eye. I didn’t want to interrupt his work. Or make him think I was jealous. Or, to be honest, know him.

 

From Blue to Black (2000)

Goodreads page for From Blue to Black

Lane’s neo-realist first novel takes place in the indie rock scene in the British Midlands. The writing is typical Lane: always thoughtful, cliche-free, and engaging. Lane’s descriptions of grim cityscapes and suburbs always ring true.

As usual, Lane is so good with the details of independent music scenes. The protagonists are (more-or-less) openly queer, a rare thing in the early ’90s indie rock scene. There are lovingly constructed descriptions of songs, recording sessions, gigs, and stressful tours. Readers of (say) Jon Savage’s oral history of Joy Division would find this eerily familiar. It is easy to forget that the band in the novel, Triangle, never existed:

The three of us went out together, in darkness. The audience were hardly visible. Ian beat out the time signature, and we crashed into ‘Third Flight’ as a pale blue spotlight flickered above us like a police car. I’d helped Karl to tighten up all the instrumental arrangements, link them to a hard beat rather than an ocean of ethereal sonic effects. Karl was still jittery, playing too fast in a stop/start manner that turned the song’s feeling of menace into violent panic. Third flight / Coming back for more / Goodnight / Heard you kiss the floor / Blood footprints on the stairs / Blood footprints on the stone. We paused for a count of three, then blasted out a discordant storm. The audience were drenched in cold blue light. I could see the front row moshing viciously, their eyes blank. Karl’s black hair was highlighted with sweat. His voice was nervous, a little higher than usual. It didn’t matter. Triangle were his real voice.

The central relationship between two of the band members, David (the narrator) and Karl, is messy, complex, and packed with gritty and beautiful detail. (And alcohol.) In this scene, David has just walked into a dark recording studio, looking for his boyfriend:

The music pounded and surged around us, an enclosure without walls. I could see a point of red light on the tape deck. The tape reached its conclusion and juddered to a halt, without the slow fade we added later on. Against the level whine of the machine, I heard Karl’s breathing. He was standing by the wall, close to me. ‘Karl,’ I said, ‘It’s me.’ He reached out, drew me to him. Our mouths clasped together like empty hands.

There’s a disastrous and funny band interview with a gay rag, highlighting the complexities involved with being queer in (largely) non-queer music scenes, and making art in forms that do not have large queer audiences. It’s one of the few sections in the novel where Lane really let loose and had a little acerbic fun.

Karl’s downward spiral is not surprising. But the events after are sweet and thoughtful, with cogent commentaries on contemporary politics, changes in LGBTQ socializing, messy, complex interactions and personal relationships, and music (an atonal violinist named Erik Zan! Pansy Division and the new queer rock!) As one of the characters quipped:

There’s no such thing as the whole story.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. This weekend you have the true pleasure of exploring a post by the superb composer/visual artist Bill Hsu concerning Joel Lane, a sadly late writer of very charismatic, unnerving, and fun (yes, all three) short fiction and one novel. And like so many artists featured on this blog, his work is inexplicably under-known. On a personal note, Joel and I were comrades backing the 90s when our works were lumped together in the ‘transgressive fiction’ heyday, and he was a terrific, intense guy. All of which is to say you have a lot of good up there awaiting your close perusals please do peruse at the very least, and spare some words in your comments for your guest host Mr. Hsu, if you don’t mind. Thanks, all, and really thanks to you, Bill. ** David, Swear to god I’ve never screamed, and I’ve never seen or heard anyone real scream. Whine, gasp, go eek, etc., sure, but scream? Nah. I think screaming is an old wives tale. But I believe you have. I’ve just never been so lucky as to be in your presence when you screamed. I haven’t found a watchable ‘Vivarium’ yet, but my hunt is far from over. ** nb, Hi there. I know, two, how about that? And poor Roger Eno, ha ha. What’s up? ** Sypha, Ah, okay. I was getting kind of Christopher Nolan vibes off your description of the book. On second thought, your bro’s novel sounds more like a pretty fun video game waiting to get made. Do novels ever get made into video games without having been made into a movie first? Huh. So, how does it end? ** Dominik, Hi!!!! Ha ha, yeah, love was just a little stressed out yesterday. And packing. Not the world’s best combination. I think your love might have found the key to releasing my love’s pent up …whatever. Love  in the form of your yesterday love’s girlfriend automatically crossing her arms upon hearing her boobs being used as a negotiating tool and giving your love an evil sidelong look to say, in effect, ‘as of now, my boobs are over you’ then casually reaching inside her shirt and withdrawing a little pistol she keeps hidden in her bra and shooting your love and my yesterday love in their heads with great skill, speed, and aplomb, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, You would think I, or at least my writing, would have been impacted by that kidnapping incident, and that’s logical even, so probably, huh. In fact, Gisele is trying right now to arrange to revive ‘The Ventriloquists Convention’. It’s looking good. I hope so too; it’s one of my favorites of our works. I’ll let you know. Thanks, bud. Super great weekend to you! ** David Ehrenstein, I swear to god ‘Antoine Monnier’ is a really terrible piece of shit, but thank you for your rose coloured memories of it. And please don’t let anyone read your copy, thank you, ha ha. Everyone, Mr. Ehrenstein’s FaBlog responds to Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal in this manner. ** Bill, Hi, host with the most. Thank you so much again for the weekend. I’m very grateful, and of course it’s really nice to have Joel’s work placed out in the bright light of whatever amount of day reaches this blog. Yeah, had Brian and Kenji collaborated back in the ‘Taking Tiger Mountain’ era, that really could have been something. Have a fine weekend, B, and thank you so very much again! ** Toniok, Hi, buddy, so good to see you! No, I know about the existence of the ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’ game, but I’ve never played it. That sounds really good. I’ll hunt. Thanks a lot! I’m good, and I hope you are too, to the max even. ** Brian, Hi Brian. I love video games, and, as I’ve often said, I learned a whole as a writer from playing them, so that’s a recommendation to dip into them right there. I’m actually about to watch a Dreyer film for my Zoom bookclub thing, as it’s the current assignment: ‘Odet’ (1957). I really like all of Bret’s novels, although I think the only lesser one is the most recent, ‘Imperial Bedroom’. It seems a bit rushed or something. I saw ‘Satyricon’ projected the last time I saw it and, oh, man, what a perfect way to see it. It’s so great. And ‘Toby Dammit’ is a blast too. Very, very nice. And of course the Fassbinder. Not bad. Me: ‘Titane’ sometime today. And there’s a Resnais retrospective at the Cinematheque, so that’s likely. And I have two interviews to do. And hopefully friends. I would happily wander into a Demy movie, so I’ll see if I can find its no doubt secret entrance. Your weekend seems pretty covered, so maybe I’ll just wish you get to eat some really fucking amazing and delicious food of your choice in-between your moviegoing stints. Awesome tidings! ** Right. Joel and Bill are up top waiting for you, so head back up there, and I’ll see you on Monday.

Kenji Eno Day

 

‘The technology of the ’90s, including innovations in 3D graphics and affordable storage in the form of CD-ROMs, opened doors for a new generation of video game innovators. One of them was Kenji Eno.

‘Eno’s games became known for their singular creativity, though they never managed to land major commercial success. But that was all part of what kept Eno going and inspired his fervent work ethic and indie-first mindset.

‘“Eno’s work serves as a lesson in overcoming hardship,” says John Andersen, a writer and video game historian. “Eno’s point-of-view was: Forget about the societal norms that you believe are blocking you. Bring your creativity out of the shadows and into the world.”

‘I have always found it fascinating that someone can be “ahead of their time.” In his two decades making games, Eno certainly proved to fit the bill. Nowadays, it is common to find walking simulators like Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch that position the narrative first—cinematic-driven experiences that zero in on oddity rather than rogue-like difficulty. Eno was first to explore this now accepted game design aesthetic. Still, his best-known game, D, is barely a footnote in video game history. Perhaps if he had been producing D today, the game and his work might have found even wider acceptance.

‘On March 1, 1994, Eno founded Warp, a game studio that would go on to produce his most recognized work. The studio was every bit a startup, with a limited staff and resources that would influence which platforms the studio focused development on. A few years before the original PlayStation launched and quickly dominated the marketplace, Tripp Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, left to start the 3DO Company. Among its largest feats was the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, a 32-bit gaming console at the cutting edge with its use of CD technology and 3D polygonal graphics. Eno was attracted to how affordable it was to develop for the console. Using the 3DO’s technical capabilities, he aimed to develop an ambitious filmic game experience that would become 1995’s D.

‘At a time when “survival horror” was still months—or, in Resident Evil’s case, a year—away, Warp published the game. The story follows Laura Harris as she investigates a hospital after her father has a psychotic break, resulting in a mass-murdering spree (with a controversial side of cannibalism).

‘The game plays a bit like Myst. Every move the player makes is matched on screen with dramatic cinematic sequences. Coupled with an extremely ominous and moody soundtrack composed by Eno himself, D was a commercial success at the time, selling a million copies in its native Japan and becoming a system seller on the 3DO. In the States, it became a cult classic, launching Eno’s name into the stratosphere of the gaming public.

‘“What I respected most about Eno was that he wanted a better working environment for Japanese game developers,” Andersen says. “He had seen how American game developers operated in the early-to-mid 1990s; he wanted the same environment for Japanese game developers.”

‘While American developers like John Romero and John Carmack of id Software stepped into the spotlight, speaking out for their games openly and with definable charisma, Japanese game companies were highly structured and culturally devoid of interaction with their audience. Japanese developers seldom looked past their current projects and treated each game as work to be done, moving on without any participation in the title’s marketing or publicity. Eno wanted Japanese developers to be more like rockstars. “He was a very outspoken guy, which is why he chose to strike out on his own.” …

‘During his last years, Eno endured a period of creative wanderlust, his artistic drive extending across multiple mediums, including writing a children’s book called Dear Son and the proposed founding of a school dedicated to the arts and entertainment media. Until his death on February 20, 2013, due to heart failure at the age of 42, he never stopped working. Katsutoshi Eguchi, a developer and composer at Warp, told Gamasutra: “He went to America about two days before he died. As soon he touched back down in Japan, he went to his office to work. He didn’t even go home on weekends; he just worked straight through. He never rested.”

‘Eno left a unique mark on gaming, one that is frequently eclipsed by the efforts of more popular game developers, even though his oeuvre is held close and remembered affectionately by a devoted fanbase of hardcore gamers. “He was able to plant seeds in people’s minds, to get them thinking,” Harmon muses. Should you happen to experience one of his games, you too might fathom the full extent of his vision.’ — Michael Seidlinger, Wired (read the entirety)

 

___
Stills







































 

_____
Further

Kenji Eno @ Wikipedia
KE @ Giant Bomb
Kenji Eno Broke New Ground for Video Games
Remembering Kenji Eno
Kenji Eno Passed Away, But His Friends Are Making His Last Game
THE NEGLECTED HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES FOR THE BLIND
Kenji Eno: Reclusive Japanese Game Creator Breaks His Silence
Memories of Kenji Eno
The Elusive Kenji Eno Speaks!
D – Kenji Eno’s Breakthrough Horror-fest
BitSummit’s Tribute To Kenji Eno
The “D Trilogy” Was Weird, Wild, and Truly One-of-a-Kind
Interview with Kenji Eno

 

____
Extras


Kenji Eno Who Dreamed in 3-D


Trolling Sony, Tricking the ESRB, and Horror Games: A Kenji Eno Story


One Man & His Machine


Kenji Eno promote D2 for SEGA Dreamcast on TGS ’99

 

____
Interview

 

____
Games

_____________
Time Zone, 1991

 

_____________
Panic Restaurant, 1992
‘Known in Japan as Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World (“Panic Kokkun’s Gourmet World”), Panic Restaurant is the brainchild of the late Kenji Eno, the eccentric musician/game designer behind the D survival horror series. Don’t expect anything so avant-garde here, though. Panic Restaurant is about as basic as 8-bit side-scrollers get, relying almost entirely on its quirky theme and vivid cartoon graphics to make an impression. The player controls an elderly chef named Cookie on a quest to reclaim his stolen restaurant from scheming rival Ohdove (an unfortunate mangling of “hors d’oeuvre”). Cookie’s expressive sprite art and animations make him a likable protagonist. I appreciate Ohdove, too. He’s a scrawny weirdo with that manic Waluigi energy.’ — collaxx

 

___________
Sunman, 1992
‘EIM would also be contracted by Sunsoft to create a Superman video game for the NES. However, due to conflicts with design, the game was cancelled. Sunsoft then asked the company to create another superhero based gamed entitled Sun Man. While the game was never officially released, a seemingly complete version would resurface on the Internet many years later.’ — collaxxx

 

__________
Flopon: The Space Mutant, 1994
”The First game Kenji Eno made for the 3DO was a puzzle game called “Flopon The Space Mutant”. It was a huge hit in Japan and as a promo for the Playstation version ( Flopon P ) there was even a TV game show where contestants played the game against each other for prizes. There was a rap song based on the game ( The Flopon Rap ) and dolls, t-shirts, pillow cases, bed sheets….you name it. At the time, you probably couldn’t go anywhere in Japan without seeing the mascot Flopon (the character with the bat wings) on billboards, store windows etc.’ — LightningBoy

 

__________
Trip’d, 1995
‘Unlike “Tetris”, “Columns” and other similar puzzle games, “Trip’D” has a unique twist in which you form 4 eggs in a square and create a alien creature. You then need to get 4 or more of the same egg to make contact with each other to get rid of the alien. In doing so, you get a bonus of extra points or the removal of 1 or more layers of eggs that start forming at the bottom of the screen. As with all games of this type, if the eggs get to the top of the screen, it’s GAME OVER!. This makes for some interesting strategy espeacially when playing against another person. You can make layers of eggs drop down on your enemy or make aliens drop down on your enemy. When your enemy gets rid of the aliens that you drop, it makes more eggs drop down on him/her. This might sound simple, but it’s not.’ — LightningBoy

 

_____________
Oyaji Hunter Mahjong, 1995
‘Our story begins as a high school girl walks home alone at night, only to be assaulted by a pervert who flashes her with his camera and begs for her underwear. Then he flashes himself, revealing he’s wearing nothing but pink teddy bear panties. Clearly in a pinch, she calls for the Oyaji Hunter! Alright, so to get this in the right order: the pervert is tazed, then Hunter flies in from miles away and punches him to the ground. I’m not sure how he shocked him from a mile away, but I have to admit he’s good at stopping an attack in progress. The best part of all these scenes is the obviously forced segue into mahjong.’ — kusoge.cafe

 

___
D, 1995
D‘s premise is very simple. The player is given two hours real time to navigate the castle, solve puzzles, and locate Richter. Much like the classic Dragon’s Lair, you’re simply pressing directional buttons to move Laura around, and hitting a button to make her interact with the environment or examine her inventory. If you get to a puzzle that has you stumped, Laura can consult her mystical compact for clues. However, you can only do this three times before the compact mirror shatters and becomes useless for the rest of the game.

‘While dated by today’s standards, D earned a great deal of attention back in the 90’s for it’s slick pre-rendered presentation, moody and omniprescent atmosphere, and it’s somewhat gory subject matter for the time. Indeed, Kenji was concerned that the game wouldn’t be published in the US as a result, and came up with a rather devious scheme to ensure it would see the light of day Stateside. During it’s initial development, there was no narrative attached to the project. The story was created in secret, and most of the WARP staff wasn’t even aware it existed. When everything was finished, Eno submitted this ‘clean’ version of the game for approval. Since he had submitted the master discs late, he would have to hand deliver the final product to the US manufacturers if he wanted it published. This was all part of Kenji’s plan. While on the plane bound for America, Kenji channeled the spirit of Folger’s coffee commercials, and switched out the ‘clean’ version with the complete copy. As a result, Kenji was able to completely bypass the censors. Clever girl.

‘While D made little impact in the States (much in part to the 3DO’s low user base at the time,) it was well received in Japan. So much that WARP would produce a “Director’s Cut” of the game in 1998, featuring new footage, interviews, and all kinds of neat goodies. However, Acclaim took a liking to WARP’s little creation, and offered to publish the game for Sony and Sega’s 32-bit systems, as well as PC’s running Microsoft Windows and DOS. This helped D gain more exposure in the US and Europe, and led to even more sales for Eno and his crew. However, this move would result in Eno having a huge fallout with Sony and it’s Playstation brand.’ — The Pigeon Coop

 

_______
Short Warp, 1996
‘Another Japan only WARP release was one of their most bizarre yet. Short WARP was a series of eight crazy mini games. And I do mean crazy. Take a look at the vid above if you don’t believe me. And get this: inside every copy of the 10,000 hand numbered units produced, Kenji Eno was gracious enough to include a very special WARP condom. Yep…a condom. No dumb art books or soundtracks. Just pure protected sexual bliss. What a guy!’ — The Pigeon Coop

 

_____________
Real Sound: Kaze no Regret, 1997
Real Sound: Kaze no Regret (“The Wind’s Regret”) is an audio game released for the Sega Saturn by Japanese studio WARP, Inc. and directed and produced by the company’s founder Kenji Eno. The game was released on June 15, 1997. The game was re-released for the Dreamcast in 1999 with a visual mode that included pictures and photos to accompany the story, but this version of the game also relies entirely upon sound and audio cues for gameplay.

‘The game came as a result of contact that Eno had with blind and visually impaired fans of WARP games. Eno was fascinated that the visually impaired would be fans of his games. He thought his games were very visually rich. He even went so far as to contact some of these fans to find out how they played his games if they could not see the games. As a result Eno decided to make a game that would be audio only, with no graphics at all.

Real Sound: Kaze no Regret was a very large influence on further games from Kenji Eno and WARP, Inc. Games that came afterward from the company would take gameplay elements from Real Sound. Enemy Zero featured invisible enemies that could only be through sound. D2, also from WARP, included parts of the game where the player’s character was rendered blind and the player must rely on sound, following a voice to get through the game. D2 also featured a sequence where the character was rendered deaf.’ — Giant Bomb

 

_________
Enemy Zero, 1998
Enemy Zero was originally planned to be a PlayStation-exclusive game, however designer and founder of Warp, Kenji Eno took a strong dislike to Sony’s manufacturing process, failing to prioritise copies of his previous game, D. Though Acclaim, D had amassed roughly 100,000 pre-orders, however Sony only produced 28,000 copies of the game in time for release.

‘This friction led to one of the most interesting headlines of 1996, in which during a backroom conference at the 1996 PlayStation Expo promoting a game with strong public backing from Sony, a PlayStation logo at the end of an Enemy Zero morphed into a Sega Saturn one, with Eno proceeding to jump on a stuffed MuuMuu from the Sony-published PlayStation Jumping Flash!.

‘Following this incident, all Warp-published games became Sega exclusives, starting with this game and continuing with both the Saturn and Dreamcast versions of Real Sound: Kaze no Regret and finally D-2 (the studio being closed shortly afterwards).’ — segaretro

 

___
D2, 1999
D2 is arguably the weirdest game in Eno’s exceptionally strange trilogy and only takes the series to more insane places. This is a title where during one boss fight a giant pigeon will swoop in to momentarily eat your enemy’s entrails. There’s also lots of validation for tentacle porn fetishists in this game and it really earns its MA rating, so proceed with the proper amount of caution.

D2 was originally planned to take the series back to its roots at Panasonic for their new M2 console, the cancelled follow-up to the 3DO. D2 drastically changed when it headed over to the Dreamcast (although a trailer for the original game for the M2 version was still shown at 1997’s Tokyo Game Show and can be found hidden away in the Japanese release of D2). Eno also continued his streak with weird marketing in order to publicize the game, like when he simply held a celebration for the arrival of the cherry blossom rather than feature any game demos.

‘There are echoes of both of Eno’s first two games in this title (Kimberly from Enemy Zero even sticks around), even though this game once again tells a totally new story with a new version of Laura. If Enemy Zero is Kenji Eno riffing on the Alien franchise, then D2 is his tribute to The Thing and fellow body horror classics.’ — Bloody Disgusting

 

____________
You, Me, and the Cubes, 2009
‘A little background info- the concept, design, and music of You, Me and the Cubes are all by Kenji Eno, the creator of the some of the most interesting games on the Dreamcast and Sega Saturn. He’s also a well renowned Sony-hater, is rumored to suffer from mental illness, and hasn’t released a game on a home console in over nine years. You, Me and the Cubes marks Eno’s triumphant return to the gaming scene, and what a weird triumph it is.

‘The game can be enjoyed on many levels. Some will see it as just a 1 or 2 player puzzle game, others will see it as a creepy take on the afterlife, still others will view it as a opportunity for run-of-the-mill sadism on a big cloudy cube. Personally, I see it as a game about parenting, and how scary and awful that responsibility can be. Regardless of what you make of the game, it is unquestionably unique and well made. It’s not all greatness. There are a few parts of the game that are downright ugly, but for the most part, You, Me and the Cubes is an elegant work of art.’ — Destructoid

 

_______
Kakexun, ?
‘Kenji Eno, the famed Japanese developer behind such esoteric titles as D, D2, Enemy Zero, and You, Me and the Cubes may have passed away in February 2013 at age 42, but the brilliant and eccentric game designer wasn’t going to let that stop his final project, Kakexun, from seeing the light of day.

‘Instead, his developer colleagues decided to carry on his work to the best of their abilities. Kakexun launched a crowdfunding campaign earlier this year where it raised ¥5,486,300 (about £30K / $47K) for an alpha, and now it’s launched an Indiegogo campaign in the west to see the the game through to its beta.

‘The Kakexun project was initially launched by chief director Kazutoshi Iida, creative director Naoya Sato, and the producer Katsutoshi Eguchi. As one would expect of Eno’s work, Kakexun sounds weird. Really weird.’ — Eurogamer

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David, Hi. Huh, the Ken Russell thing, wow. I avoid dentists like the plague until I’m, like, screaming in pain. But then it’s like no big deal. ‘Vivarium’, no, I don’t know it. But of course I’ll investigate. I don’t think I’ve ever screamed in my whole life. I’ve always thought screaming is one of those things that nobody ever actually does. ** Misanthrope, I’ve never owned gun either, duh. Oh, wait, when my dad died he left me a bunch of stuff including some ceremonial gun he was given when he was the President of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. I don’t know if it works. It doesn’t look like it does, but then … Alex Baldwin. Bowling! I love bowling. Haven’t gone bowling in ages. Do you know (or care) that there’s a bowling alley right underneath the Arc de Triomphe? Zac accidentally discovered that recently. It has a semi-secret entrance. I think we’re gonna bowl there. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Me too, big time! Yes, my yesterday love had a good soul. I don’t know where it came from, ha ha. Oh, hm, I guess I would ask your love to give me that Candy Machine gun, and thank you in theory. Speaking of yesterday, here’s today’s love who has found himself alone in a room with the cutest, most heterosexual boy he has ever seen, G. ** Sypha, ‘Darjeeling Limited’ would be in the lower rungs of my Anderson list. If the movie rights to your brother’s novel are ever purchased, the intended movie would need to have a 300 million dollar budget, I reckon. ** _Black_Acrylic, I shot a rifle at a shooting range as a teenager once. Otherwise, the only other times I’ve seen a real gun is twice, once pointed at my face when I accidentally wandered into a robbery at a 7-11, and the other time pointed at my head again as a teenager when a guy I picked up hitchhiking kidnapped me and my parents’ car and forced me to take him and his friends on a 10 hour, drug-fuelled joyride. Irvine wrote a TV series? Oh, the hellish doomed ARTE TV series thing … it got adapted (by Zac and me) into a film script which Gisele is supposedly shopping around. ** L@rst, Cool that you’re on board about ‘Fargo’. Like the Coens films too. I don’t I’ve ever disliked one, and several are killer. Man, do try to stick to the no smoking thing if you can. Well, I mean duh. Quitting is so fucking hard. I don’t even want to try again. But, man, huge, huge boon if you can do it. ** David Ehrenstein, Ah, excellent add. Everyone, Mr. E added to the guns post yesterday by linking us all up to a film by the great Jonas Mekas called ‘Guns of the Trees’ (1961). I similarly recommend its excellence. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. I really don’t anticipate writing non-fiction again. And writing about Bresson would be the last thing that would tempt me back. That’s way, way too hard an assignment for me. Everyone, Steve has a new song that you can hear: ‘Altamira’. ** Brian, Hey, Brian. Ghosting is one of the worst weapons people can use, up there with guns in a weird way. Like committing suicide out of spite for someone but without the death part. Or something. Anyway, you’ll live and well. Gotcha on the leaving so soon thing. And, yeah, no doubt it’ll all crystallise when it’s memory/fodder. I like ‘Trial of Joan of Arc’, obviously, but, yeah, it’s not one you would point Bresson novices at. ‘American Psycho’ is a great novel. It gets a lot of uncalled for poop, as do Bret’s other books, but it’s really something. I’ll watch ‘Titane’ this weekend for sure. It’s on deck, and I’ll let you know. Cookies and cake sound splendid, thank you. Maybe I’ll actually nudge your wished for Friday into being on my own. I hope your Friday sings ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ to you until you tell it, ‘Thank you but please stop now.’ ** Okay. I came across the article I use at the top of this post by Michael Seidlinger the other day, and it reminded me of what a wacky video game auteur and pioneer Kenji Eno was, and I thought I would plant his work in front of you and see what happened. See you tomorrow.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 DC's

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑