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p.s. Hey. ** David, Hi. Yeah, it wasn’t bad. Folkestone is a lovely name for somewhere. Does it live up to his excellent syllables? Which Greek island? Nice. Sun for days. Bring sunscreen. ** Dominik, Hi!!!! It’s a very rare video game that has really good dialogues. Even great games fall short in the ‘talking’ parts. It’s a genre ripe for experimental literary intervention. Aw, thanks for that love. I’m rooting for him. Love looking everywhere for you until he finds you, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Well, yes, it’s quite a healthy genre, as you can see. Sort of like horror movies, and similarly hit or miss on the quality front, but always somehow very doable. ** Misanthrope, A good horror video game could be just the thing to make a man out of you. David continues his reality show stardom without the show part. I have a vague memory of that encounter with the girl and her standoffish boyfriend, huh. Well, for one thing, I seem to have successfully clued the children into recognising a pedo when they see one. Ha ha. ** Sypha, Hi. I wondered if you knew any of those games. I don’t know the ones you’ve played other than, obviously, ‘Eternal Darkness’, the genre’s crown jewel. Dare I seek out that SCP game? Hm. ** Alexandrine Ogundimu, Hey! Thanks for coming in here. Great pleasure to see you. You’re in school now, right? How is that, if I’m right? Haven’t actually played all those games (yet), but I did play F.E.A.R, and I’m with you about it. I don’t know ‘Condemned: Criminal Origins’ but your rec will have me looking for it today. Ooh. Thank you, thank you. Take care! ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you for the Forster link. I’ll head over there. ** T, Hi, T. I love games. I haven’t played in a horribly long time due to being afraid of being sucked into that ‘void’, but I’ve learned a lot as a writer from games about how to use narrative in a spatial way or something. Jeez, you’re coming here today? Wow. It’s overcast and a bit chilly, as you will soon find out if you haven’t. Let me know when you’ll be in Paris proper, and let’s meet up. I’ll wish you a magic day in which all your luggage shrinks until you can fit them all into one tiny little bag like they’re Pop Rocks. xo. ** politekid, Howdy, Oscar! Great to see you, pal! Happiest Halloween build-up back to you! Oh, I certainly don’t mind your list at all, whatsoever, and au contraire. Damn, a lot to investigate, and here I am with a bunch of hours to fill/kill this morning. That whole bunch sounds super exciting. Thank you lot for the effort and the share. It won’t go to waste, I assure you. I’m good. I’m crunching on stuff too, albeit with a strange bunch of free, or, well, formerly free hours this morning. I hope your work and editing deserve you. Talk to you soon, I hope. ** Bill, Right? Ha, it’s true that the slaves I tend to focus on are not generally the gruff voiced queen types who see Folsom as a kind of PNP-infused Oz. I need to get the new Evenson, thanks for reminding me. Cool. Bon today! ** Right. Today I give a little glimpse of our species’ collective future. Sorry about that. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Ha! Yes… Folkestone is a very beautiful place… and it attracts a rough interesting element by night, very drunk brawling tourists etc… on arriving this time several incidents were in full swing around and in our hotel… The island we are going to is Corfu… can’t wait…. This post brings back memories of Kate Bush’s beautiful song ‘Hello earth’ .. I saw her perform it live some years back at the Apollo Hammersmith 9th Sept 2014.. the lines “Murderer, Murder of calm, Why did I go?” Why did I go?…” broke my heart…. that and a number of her other oceanic songs influenced this poem I wrote…. called ‘Jelly fish’
Seaweed underfoot for blood, Adagio for tears,
Whistling ocean shells shield the Antichrist’s ears,
Both in hand, ‘Rub a dub dub’
More dead buoys than Kate Bush’s bathtub,
…If I’m mistaken… not… indeed!
The vessel in which I arrived, now leaves,
It plunges like a tongue into Satan’s rasping throat,
Another nodule on his boastful belt, “gloat, gloat…”
Ahh! I inhale the beach! What more could any man ever want?
Strawberry blond sand invades my skull font,
Baptised brain, beast with two backs,
Malefactor in a skin and bone pac-a-mac,
The sun in god’s piercing eye,
Never dare to question why!
His biblical fist leaves teeth in my gums,
A lot, a lot, more than some…
I emit a few, superfluous pegs,
Wrong of place, better less said,
Good at giving… not to take,
Look how pretty, God’s Mistakes!
Crimson spat on radiant sand,
Bony bits of truth land,
And just across the way Jellyfish! Crouching as he stirs,
No amount of brine could satisfy his thirst,
All good impeached,
He stands for me on the beach,
Arms awkward, ill practised stance,
Summer clenched in his hands,
Where hypocrisy spurned and nailed him,
I have holy-grailed him,
And this… does he know?
Always… he is where I rest my pillow…
Hi Dennis, this is actually one of my favourite posts; extremely #mood. I love these planetary explosions… they look majestic but also necessary? It makes one wonder that perhaps sometimes explosions are not integral to destruction, but to survival. Anyway, I hope you’re really well. Thanks for this stunning post.
Hey Dennis! Guess who…..Hahah. I left you a long comment yesterday but it didn’t post, I’m afraid. I don’t remember much of what I wrote.
How are you? How’s Paris? Congrats on having your book out, how are you feeling about it? All my friends in New York are singing your praises, I still need to get my copy but I’ve been told that I should be ready to cry. Are you happy with the rollout thus far?
As for me, I’m doing okay. This is the 1 year anniversary of my dad’s death, he died on the 14th of September and then his birthday is the 6th of October. So I’m feeling pretty sensitive and vulnerable lately. I feel like living in New York you just gotta let things roll off your shoulders, you can’t be too sensitive. But I’m a very sensitive person, I feel like I can put on a tough face but it’s taking a toll on me. I think once I get a book out I want to move abroad again, maybe move to China or Korea and teach English. Also I broke up with my boyfriend, we’re done for good this time. I am very confused about our relationship as well, I feel like he doesn’t really hear me or appreciate what I’m saying. Maybe I projected a lot of my daddy issues onto him and I’m disappointed that he comes up short. Maybe I expect too much out of people/the world…I dunno. Men, amirite?
Good news is I’m back in the groove with my writing. I just finished a new essay, I think it might be my best work to date. And believe it or not, my essay has something in common with your post today! I’m gonna keep that a secret though. It should be coming out on Madeline Cash’s project Forever Mag, which I hear you’re also gonna contribute to. I really like Forever, it’s very fresh and smart and inspiring. I think I might start my own publishing project soon too, something small and intimate.
So I guess I’m still an emotional wreck, like before, but I’m getting it together slowly but surely. I need to find a job soon. How long do you think I can last like this before I gotta kick myself in the ass? Hahah. Well anyway I hope this comment posts…..Looking forward to hearing back and congrats again on getting the book out!! 🙂
Hey Dennis. All is well with me in mtl. Working lots and trying to do some writing and reading when the brain allows for it. I’m almost finished the marbled swarm and it’s a great book. Very poetic and lyrical. I have IW on deck but I will probably read something junky between the MS and IW.
Hope all is well in Paris,
Ian
Hi!!
I’m not very familiar with video games in general (I’m a little ashamed to admit), but the dialogues I’m usually working on are definitely… yes… inventive, haha. Do you know “Oblivion”? My brother likes it a lot, and it’s full of the stupidest and funniest dialogues. Especially that every character in the background lives its own life as well, so they’re talking to each other even when the player doesn’t give a shit about them.
What a sweet, sweet love! I’m glad he found me in the end, haha! Thank you! Love building the world’s most secure underground bunker in 30 painful years and, upon seeing your post, realizing that it’ll be completely useless when the final hour comes, Od.
I think one of my favorite “Earth destruction” scenes occurs in Junji Ito’s REMINA manga, where the Earth is literally eaten by a gigantic other planet (that has a mouth and a big tongue). Not so much an explosion as it is a devouring, I guess.
AMNESIA: THE DARK DESCENT frequently crops up on “scariest games of all-time” lists. It’s a 1st person survival horror game where your main character wakes up in a haunted castle with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. You need to explore the castle and read books/journals/letters to piece together your past life. Unluckily for you there are monsters in the castle and there’s no way you can defeat them, so your only option is to run and hide from them in the shadows: the trade off to that is that your character has a fear of the darkness, so spend too long in the dark and he’ll go nuts. It kind of uses a mechanic somewhat similar to ETERNAL DARKNESS’ “insanity meter,” though not as inventively.
CONDEMNED: CRIMINAL ORIGINS is pretty good. I even made a “blink and you miss it” reference to it in HARLEM SMOKE.
Right now I’m re-installing THE SIMS 3 and seeing if I can restore my old game world on there.
Ugh I felt none too well last night, feverish and delirious but rather better so far today. Much improved for seeing the end of the world anyway! Funny how the human race can never quite seem to call it quits.
Hey Dennis, Glad to hear things are going well and that you’re working on some cool projects! I don’t think taciturn has made a comeback–it’s all these weird authors I talk to, I’m picking up their lexicon and half the time they’re inventing words, haha!
Have fun with Paul, he’s a really great human being. Our interests have synced up recently and last week we spent a few hours talking about going to the Ganges in India to explore how their culture confronts death: India (very open and public) vs. US (hidden away in hospitals).
The weekend was a lot of fun, I have two young kids and we went to an apple orchard and corn maze. There’s a lot I’m juggling, but weekends are fairly low-key and domestic. I’m trying to work on my work/life/11:11 balance and it’s getting there… I was working on a work/life balance book but publishing stuff ramped up and I haven’t been able to revisit my outline. At this point, I need to finish writing the book so I can use the book 😉 Hope you had a fun weekend as well!
Listening to WFMU at 1 AM last night, I was startled to hear Kevin Killian’s voice. The DJ played a recording of him reading the lyrics to Arthur Russell’s “Is It All Over My Face?” and discussing his friendships with Russell and Allen Ginsberg in the ’70s.
I’ve decided my next ep will be UFO-themed, with lots of spoken word samples. I finished a song called ‘Programmed Nostalgia” today. I don’t know if I should explain my intentions – a lot of thought went into the concept, but I probably wouldn’t care if I were reaching an audience of strangers.
BOOM!
Hey Big D – Enjoyed your latest interview. I just happen to like the way you express yourself! (duh) Reading I WISHED slowly and savoring it, as I said. If you don’t mind my saying, I really find it brilliant. As the English say, Brilliant! I love your conceits and anything I might say might sound ridiculous, so I’ll stop now. Except to mention that I enjoyed your phrase about Conceptual Art. I can never remember that term either when I want to!
Dennis, Hahaha. Okay, that’s really funny. The pedo clue-in thing.
Yeah, obviously the boy—probably 16?—probably knew what your books were about, saw and recognized me the next day, and was like, “I’m a get molested if I don’t book it!” 😀
Ha! Reality show without the show. Yep. Perfect way to describe it. I’m going to use that on him…and give you credit later.
Hmm, that horror videogame making a man out of me, reminds me of Gilligan’s Island. The Skipper says to Gilligan, “Are you a man or a mouse?” And Gilligan replies, “Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.”
The Earth blowing up? Really, Dennis? Soooooo negative. :'(