Synopsis
Taking place across a mutating set of darkrooms, art galleries, blank apartments and bedrooms; In Their Arms is an acute inspection of loneliness, desire and confusion.
The narrator attempts to simultaneously find himself and become lost completely in a world of sex, internet hook-ups, drugs and pleasure.
Within the arms of nameless and unknown lovers, a strange, often conflicted spirituality is hinted at. In Thomas Moore’s second novel, he uses a deft and purposely layered prose to create a grey area of illusions and smokescreens, where needs and fears entwine, often becoming the same thing.
In Their Arms is a disturbingly seductive assault from one of the most exciting new voices in experimental fiction.
– In Their Arms was released October 11th 2016 by Rebel Satori Press
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Reviews
Minor Literature[s]: In Their Arms by Thomas Moore — Joe Rollins
Thomas Moore’s second novel, In Their Arms (Rebel Satori Press, 2016), begins with a proposition: ‘the world is full of warmth…’ Offered not as a trite observation but as an outstretched hand to a figure on a precipice, this notion becomes a vital mantra for the reader plunged into Moore’s world. ‘Remember,’ Moore seems to beg of his reader, ‘the world is full of warmth,’ no matter how cold it might appear. And Moore’s world is certainly cold. In Their Arms maps a nightmare geography, a terrible and glittering sprawl of fantasy and abuse. And yet some warmth does still persist in the back streets of Moore’s creation: a faint animus of meaning that haunts the urban and digital spaces of this slim novel. Moore flirts with the abject, yet never allows his novel to degrade into pure nihilism. Instead, In Their Arms is a rare thing: a novel at once unafraid to confront the darkest recesses of the human condition, and yet unwilling to allow the light to be snuffed out completely.
Guided by an unnamed narrator, In Their Arms weaves through a series of endlessly mutating spaces: gay club ‘darkrooms’ playing host to predatory sexual encounters, online message boards populated by bug-chasers and submissives, cruising bars and cruising apps that orchestrate the sexual fantasies of anonymous men, web pages of the damaged and disaffected. Moore’s narrator relays these sights in the affectless tone of the chemically dependent and chronically bored, yawning his way through tales of work, parties, orgies, and death. The milieu reads like a jacked-in Burroughs, the narrator an escapee from Ellis’ L.A. haze … It is at once tender and transgressive, delicate and grotesque, abject and sublime.
Read the full piece @ Minor Literature[s]: https://minorliteratures.com/2016/09/16/in-their-arms-by-thomas-moore-joe-rollins/
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Filthy Dreams: You Make Me ____: 21st Century Cruising And Nihilism In Thomas Moore’s ‘In Their Arms’ by Emily Colucci
In 1977, Richard Hell appeared on the cover of his seminal album Blank Generation with the words “You Make Me______.” scrawled on his bony chest. While the term blank generation certainly resonated with the post-Vietnam, bankrupt New York of the 1970s, they had nothing on the blankness of our digitally obsessed 21st century. In fact, it feels almost prophetic.
“The journey home is a blank. I’m so blurry that the world and my interactions with it are too opaque for either component to illuminate the other enough to form anything approaching sense,” opens Thomas Moore’s second novel In Their Arms, which was recently published by Rebel Satori Press. The experimental fictional novel narrates the alienation, detachment and aloofness of our contemporary era despite the buffet of bodies available on online hook-up sites, gay bars and cruising apps. Even though, in 2016, there are many ways to be queer, Moore’s novel essentially shows that we are possibly even more alone.
And despite this seething isolation that runs through the book with characters glued to their smartphones and computers, In Their Arms is a genuine page-turner, which I read (quite ironically) on my iPhone in a little over a day.
In Their Arms follows an arts writing protagonist, who–like the rest of the characters that flow in and out of the book–is unnamed. Without a set identity, Moore already cements the narrator’s disconnection from the rest of the world, as well as the readers. You can never quite get a grasp of the narrator or his intentions, with the exception of some very relatable moments for fellow art critics (I’ve always wanted to write a review of a show I never went to).
Similarly, certain chapters are peppered with references to “you” (“I walk into the show that I’m supposed to review, with a black eye where you punched me last night” (57).) but there’s not a clear sense that this “you” is the same every time. It may be an ever-revolving set of hook-ups.
Like the vagueness of the novel’s characters, the plot of In Their Arms twists and turns through a series of darkened bars, various apartments, parties, openings, backrooms and obsessive skimming through Tumblr, Twitter and forums linked to an event called Cum Worship. “I feel like a ghost,” describes the narrator, “Like if I were to take my feet off the floor, I could just float or the wind would push me through the streets and cars could pass through while I was flinching for notion” (34). This sense of floating almost perfectly describes the plot–nothing particularly notable happens. Instead, there’s a strangely relatable sense of meandering through spaces–both physical and online.
Whether IRL or online, the spaces inhabited by the protagonist are hazy and indefinite, rendering the entire novel dreamlike and right on the border between memory and reality. As Moore writes, “It could be memories from anywhere” (3).
A moment mid-way through the book acts as a sly key to the ambiguousness of the plot in comparison to its emotional resonance. Writing a review, the narrator explains, “I talk about the artist using paintings as a queer space in which meaning and facts and specifics are bent out of shape and displaced by a dream-logic where things make emotional sense as opposed to a narrative sense” (84-85). This is precisely what Moore does through the novel–a nod and a wink to readers who may be wondering what the hell is happening throughout the text.
Read the full piece @ Filthy Dreams: https://filthydreams.wordpress.com/2016/10/23/you-make-me-____-21st-century-cruising-and-nihilism-in-thomas-moores-in-their-arms/
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Beach Sloth: In Their Arms by Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore’s presents voyeurism as a way of life in the eerie glow of “In Their Arms”. Featuring a main character who looks at the lives of others online, those he quite seems to dislike, the story unfolds of one who prefers observation to participation. Everything involving the rest of the world feels weary as he hooks up with the same old he saw online a few months ago, reading the comments of everybody who opts to share online. Most, if not all, of the time he reads the sort of things that sort of startle and shake him to his very core.
Even with the beginning the character wakes up with a great tiredness. Nothing feels real. All feels memorized nearly. Friendships are there, he is cared about, but returning that care appears to be a bit of a struggle for him. His career seems perfectly suited for him as well as he judges the artistic output of others. Judging from his internal monologue that forms the crux of the book, the art he could create would be rather beautiful. Much of the time he’s confused, wondering how people interact successfully with each other. This is why he makes up stories, tragic ones, of non-existent previous loves, working out every possible detail. While he tells these stories he notes how others project their hopes onto his work of fiction …With a night vibe and a deep look inside the inner workings of emotional states and introspection, Thomas Moore’s “In Their Arms” is darkly beautiful work.
Read the full piece @ Beach Sloth: http://www.beachsloth.com/in-their-arms-by-thomas-moore.html
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Cultured Vultures: In Their Arms by Thomas Moore, by Ben Arzate
In Their Arms is an excellent exploration of disconnection from life and loneliness among others … Moore’s prose is simple but evokes powerful imagery of loneliness and sex … I highly recommend picking this up when it’s out.
Read the full piece @ Cultured Vultures: http://culturedvultures.com/book-review-arms-thomas-moore/
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Excerpts:
The world is full of warmth…
Six hours later I’m asleep in the darkroom. I wake up when the light turns on. The barman tells me to leave. I push against the damp floor and manage to sit up. I struggle to get my jeans and belt to fasten. The barman pulls at my arm and tells me to get out again but angrier than the first time. He only works here because he has to.
The journey home is a blank. I’m so blurry that the world and my interactions with it are too opaque for either component to illuminate the other enough to form anything approaching sense.
There’s no music vague enough to fit the mood that I wake up in. I opt for silence. I’d managed to make it on to the bed, which for an optimist could just about be conceived as a plus. I let the tap run and listen to the sound while I reach under the sink for a glass. I let the water overflow quickly and run onto my hands. Water sprays off around the bowl and leaves an imprint on my t-shirt.
There’s an ache behind my eyes, like tiredness has swollen and become something solid and tangible. I try to rearrange my thoughts into something linear tracing back through the night. I remember getting to the bar. I remember walking around the darkroom to get an idea of who was there. I remember having to train my eyes to the darkness so I could get used to the movements of shadows, knowing when to avoid old men who are only in a queer place because their wives have died and they’re able to clearly differentiate a libido amidst their loneliness. I remember smoking out the back and trying to make the right kind of glance at the people who interested me or I felt I could potentially interest.
It could all be a guess. It could be memories from anywhere.
The buzz of the iPhone on the table feels like a sudden attack. I flinch. A photograph of my friend wearing sunglasses, giving a drunken thumbs-up. I silence the call and flop backwards onto the bed. My jeans are still wet. Sticky denim uncomfortably pulling my leg hairs. I pick up the phone. My friend’s face has disappeared and she’s relegated to a banner alongside two more missed calls.
Two minutes later and another buzz, another flinch. The water ripples in the glass. A text message: Hey stranger … are you alive? I guess we could make it dinner if you’re not around for lunch?
When I get my jeans off I realise that there is a hole torn in my underwear, a flap of material hanging out of place.
I run a bath and start to swill mouthwash around my tongue and gums. The inside of my cheeks sting as I inflate them. I let the mouth wash linger long enough to start hurting. I spit it out and lick the roof of my mouth. My tongue doesn’t taste as bad as when I woke up.
The bath takes a while to fill. I turn on the coffee machine that I inherited when someone at work got divorced. I make an espresso and drink it quickly from a normal sized mug.
I get into the bath and try to stretch. My neck and back feel sore and I wonder what a massage would feel like right now. I’ve only ever had friends do it when I’ve been high or sleepy. I lift my hips and pick at my asshole. I run the tip of my finger around the rim and then rub it with my thumb, letting the miniscule mix of sperm and dried shit dissipate into the water.
A subtle fog of condensation spreads over the small window and mirror. My skin starts to relax. I put a full stop on trying to remember pieces from last night. It feels irrelevant. It’ll only make things more complicated. I imagine what drowning would feel like. For about two seconds I’m close to sleep again.
Read another excerpt from In Their Arms at BERFROIS:
http://www.berfrois.com/2016/09/in-their-arms-thomas-moore/
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About the author
Thomas Moore’s work has appeared in various publications in the UK, USA, France and Sweden. His first novel, A Certain Kind of Light, was published by Rebel Satori Press. His novella, GRAVES, and two poetry collections, The Night Is An Empire and Skeleton Costumes, have been published by Kiddiepunk. In Their Arms, published by Rebel Satori Press is his second novel. He lives in the UK.
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Special thanks to Michael Salerno for his beautiful artwork.
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Trailer
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Links
In Their Arms @ Rebel Satori: http://rebelsatori.com/new-release-in-their-arms/
Buy In Their Arms @ Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Their-Arms-Thomas-Moore/dp/1608641236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477310983&sr=8-1&keywords=thomas+moore+in+their+arms
Buy In Their Arms @ Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Their-Arms-Thomas-Moore/dp/1608641236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477311037&sr=8-1&keywords=thomas+moore+in+their+arms
Thomas Moore on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thomasmoronic/
Thomas Moore on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thomasmoronic
In Their Arms @ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30115547-in-their-arms
Thomas Moore @ Kiddiepunk: http://kiddiepunk.com/skeleton_costumes.htm
Michael Salerno: http://www.michaelsalerno.net
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p.s. Hey. Today the blog has the enormous privilege of helping to usher the new novel by the spectacular author and longtime DC’s d.l. Thomas ‘Moronic’ Moore into this place we call the world. Please use your local time today to find out precisely why you need to have this book in your life. Thank you very much, and thanks mostly, to say the least, to you, Thomas. ** Jamie McMorrow, Hey, Jamie! Thank you most kindly about the gif work. Yes, that’s my first gif work/thing/whatever since I finished the gif novel. Her show was at Tramway, cool. The one incursion of Gisele’s and my theater works into Scotland was a ‘Kindertotenlieder’ gig at Tramway years ago. Nice place. ‘The Innocents’ … no, I don’t think I’ve seen it. I’ll find out the scoop. Did Halloween make a sufficient spectacle around you? Zac’s doing the very last tech stuff on the music video, and it should completed and on its way to Xiu Xiu this very morning. And then we head off to Salon du Chocolat. Very excited! Morning after love, Dennis. ** H, Hi. Happy post-Halloween to you. Yes, the 7th is spookily soon. I need to get ready. I’m glad you want to come. Thank you. ** Bernard, B-ster! It means just a massive, transcendent ton to me that you liked the new gif work. Thanks, maestro. It was very lovely to see you in Brooklyn too, and Zac seconds that loveliness or reiterates it or extenuates it or something like that. Darn about the mistiming on the NYC. ** Montse, Hey, Montse! Happy a bit late Halloween! Thank you muchly about the gif thing. I’m good. I’m busy, you know me. Cool that you liked the Youth Code album. Yeah, they’re sweet, right? That’s wonderful and very interesting about your helpful foray into lu jong and chi kung. I’m going to google them. I ended up doing nothing last night, which was fine. I’ve always preferred the build up to Halloween more than the actual night, or least since I outgrew my trick or treating costumes. Love to you!!!! ** Dóra Grőber, Hi, Dóra. Thanks a bunch about the Halloween gif thingeroonie. Fingers crossed about the video. Like I told Jamie M. up above, we’re sending it to Xiu Xiu this morning. Was the party a total blast as per your hopes or even something that outdistanced your fondest wish for it? I didn’t do anything last night, just worked. It was fine. Have a great Tuesday! ** David Ehrenstein, Ha ha, thanks. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. No, no annotating, just laborious (but pleasurable) trial and error until I find combos that work. Unlike Blogger, WordPress provides the data on how many times each post gets revised before you launch it, and the Halloween one was revised 373 times, which I guess gives some kind of sense of how time-consuming the building of those things are. Cool that you sprang for the giant-sized ‘RB’, and I do remember that ‘in case you didn’t’ ending, ha ha, yes. Good luck with all of your work this week if I don’t get to see you in the meantime. ** Tosh Berman, Thanks, Tosh. I think coffee might be to the gif works the way LSD is to ‘2001’, ha ha. ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien. Thanks a lot, man. Jeez, I hope you’re feeling a lot better today. Sick on Halloween is just cruel. ** Steevee, Hi. Good news for now on the withdrawals and sleep amount. I hope future bridges are just as crossable. Oh, gosh, I so completely disagree with you that WA’s work with that thematic is just playing out a sexist male fantasy trope. I think we come at this issue from super oppositional places. To me, the whole notion of what constitutes ‘interesting analysis or spin’ is nothing but subjective, as is what constitutes ‘a sexist male fantasy trope’. The idea that he should balance out his interest in depicting older man/younger woman relationships by flipping that … I mean, his films aren’t documentaries. Look, during my entire writing life my work has been consistently attacked by some people along exactly that same line. That my books depict sex/violence without ‘interesting analysis or spin’ and thus just perpetuate homophobic portrayals of gays. I think that criticism is bunk and rigid and preset and generalizing and, as a consequence, deeply inattentive, both in the case of my work and in the case of Allen’s, regarding this issue too. Sorry, that particular way of reading art is a real bee in my bonnet. ** Daniel and Eric, Hi Daniel and Eric! Welcome! Oh, sure, I’ll write to you today. That sounds very intriguing. Thank you very much. Oh, and my email, if you’d like it, is: [email protected]. ** Thomas Moronic, Mr T! So very, very happy to have your work and book grace this humble abode today. Thank you so much! I can’t wait to read the novel! Love your Halloween look. Very scary. *Brrr* Love, me. ** Jeff Jackson, Hi, Jeff! Happy Day After! Thank you kindly for your attentiveness to the gif work and your good words. Would love to see photos of your sculpture show, for sure. I’ll keep the Facebook version of my eyes peeled. Work-wise, I just finished the Xiu Xiu video, am in-between things on the opera and TV series projects as we await confirmations, am getting ready to start work on the new film with Zac, so kind of in a brief lull at the very moment. And you? ** New Juche, Hi, Joe! Great to see you, man! On the opera, we’re currently awaiting the feedback of the musician/composer who is going over the libretto sketch and preliminary ideas now. So, it’s on hold until he gets back to us. Which should be very soon. Take care! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Happy Yesterday (and Today too)! If I have correctly parsed your screenprint idea based on your little description, I’m on board and excited too! ** Toniok, Hi, man! So nice to see you! I hope you had a very, very fun Halloween! ** Nemo, Hey. Glad you liked sadness. I will never have characters like that, ha ha. Belated Halloween of Happiness to you and yours! ** B, Hi, B! Thank you so much. Oh, the title refers to the toll of injuries and deaths in the gif work itself. Later, gator. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Well, it can’t just be gone. Find it. Ugh is very useful. And it is capable of radiating many different tones, which is useful as well. I don’t have a clue who David Laid is, of course, but I will remove that ignorance during the course of this day. My Halloween was not happy but it had a mild pleasantness quality that was perfectly acceptable. ** Sypha, Hi. My friend and collaborator Jonathan C. is historically a Lady Gaga fan, and he was playing her new album as the soundtrack to his warm up exercises during the ‘Kindertotenlieder’ rehearsals last week, so I heard at least most of the album, and I thought it was dull as dishwater, as did a very crestfallen Jonathan C. I know, post-kid, Halloween’s mojo is entirely conceptual, which is okay, but … ** Alistair, Hi, Alistair! Thank you so much about the gif work. Yeah, man, I know what you’re going through with the submissions from personal experience and many times. It’s kind of an interesting process if you can manage to depersonalize it. Very interesting about the revision. I have no doubt in the world that the book will get a wonderful home, and I just hope that it’s sooner than later. I’ll munch some chocolate and astral project my consequent joy in your direction today. Love, me. ** Hyperbolic_plain, Hey! Exactly, on the Hecker show. You put it really, really well. I do like Ben Frost and Jóhann Jóhannsson, yes. The latter has started to tire me out a little bit in recent years. A kind of settling of his thing or something. But, yeah, Frost for sure. Excellent that you’re here for a while. Where are you exactly? Let’s do a coffee for sure. It might be a bit tough this week ‘cos I’m getting ready for a short-long trip to the States, but I’ll be back on the 18th, so maybe after I get back, if that works for you? My email is [email protected]. Have a fine day! ** Chris dankland, Hi, Chris! I loved your leaping. I didn’t even eat candy last night, but I’m going to eat a ton of funny looking chocolates today, so no prob. Thank you so, so much to putting your mind to the intricacies of the gif work. I so appreciate it. I don’t know that Salem song, but I’ll play it for myself in full in a minute. Thank you! Oh, man, really, reading your thoughts on the gif work was very exciting. Another exciting thing is that Dorothea Lasky is going to be one of the artists who reads/interprets my gif works at the New Museum event! I’m going to be in the US on election day. I’m very scared. Have a most, most fine day! ** Jeff Coleman, Hi, Jeff! You’re a sight for sore eyes, as they say. Halloween’s kaput over here, yep. And, yes, you did scare me. I’m still scared. Can you tell? I loved your exit. It’s one for the books. ** Right. Now spend your day greeting Thomas Moore’s book, and thank you, and see you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hi Dennis and Thomas
This looks great – I just bought a copy. Thomas, all these really positive and thoughtful reviews must be pretty gratifying. I look forward to reading the book, and I’ll let you know when I’ve finished it. I want to read Skeleton Costumes too, but haven’t got round to ordering it yet.
Dennis, as ever I’m looking forward to finding out who the mystery musician is. And hopefully even hearing/experiencing the finished work. Unlike either of you two I reckon, last night I consumed a substantive quota of Halloween ales, and not for lack of trying, failed to watch any horror films. Ended up watching Herzog’s The Bad Lieutenant: New Orleans.
No word on Mountainhead yet, but I remain hopeful. I’ve finished my Rangoon book also, and will start submitting that shortly.
Well Done Thomas
Best
Joe
Thanks so much. Yeah the reviews have all been really awesome and happy making. Thanks for being interested.
Hey Thomas Moore, a copy of this book is supposedly heading my way as I type and after today’s post I’m looking forward to reading it even more than I was. That extract, the cover, even those reviews, are all completely entrancing. Well done!
Ahoy, Dennis! Cool that you were at the Tramway. When was that? That’s like four minutes walk from my flat. If you’re ever there again, you can come round for dinner, if you want.
I’d recommend The Innocents, after thinking about it for a day. There’s a nice little doc after it on Youtube, where it’s explained how the makers used different visual means to try to replace Henry James’ ‘over-ripe’ prose, which I liked a lot.
I hope that the Salon… was a truly great and deserved treat. Did the video get sent away and were you pleased with what you did?
I’ve got the no-sleep blues again, so will stop blabbing right now.
Have a swell Wednesday!
Lots of love to you,
Jamie
Thanks, Jamie. Glad you’re feeling enticed. That means a lot – and I really hope you like the book.
A day when a book comes out is always a great day. Thomas congrats on bringing this out to the world. It’s on my reading and purchased list!
Oh awesome – thank you, Tosh!
Hey Thomas M, this looks great! I love the hard clarity in the writing and the way that the compression of these lines deflect the emotional space around them.
Really great stuff. Congratulations man.
TomK – hey stranger! Thanks, dude. That’s a really cool way of putting it. Thanks man.
Hi, Dennis!
I understand your feeling about Halloween, it makes total sense. I think all the work you do for the blog around this time of the year is a way to celebrate/enjoy it as well.
Awesome day today! Congrats, Thomas! I still haven’t read ‘In Their Arms’, but I will very very soon.
Big hugs,
Thanks Montse! I miss you!!! Loads of love.
Hi, As some of you may have noticed, the blog was having a lot of problems earlier. That was due to a general problem at the hosting level, but it should be fixed now. Sorry about that.
Dennis, yeah, I figured that you had probably overheard a friend playing the new Gaga album. H’mm, well, I should say that I don’t hate it, that there are a few songs on it that I like quite a bit, and at least the songs as a whole stick in my brain afterwards, and that it has an identity of some sorts (unlike, say, the recent third Gwen Stefani solo CD, which, in light of the quirkiness of her first two solo offerings, was so bland, anonymous and phoned-in that IMO it was the kind of album that you only really notice once it’s stopped playing). But I can’t really get excited about the new Gaga album because I feel that it’s another kind of album: one that reveals all its secrets on the very first listen: it has no mystery to it. In recent years I’ve gotten the feeling that Lady Gaga has been trying (and possibly even straining) a little too hard for mainstream acceptance: stuff like doing an album of jazz standards with Tony Bennett, trying out acting, and so on and so forth. I don’t know, I just get the feeling that it’s really important to her that people “respect her as an artist” (ugh, always a kiss of death). It kind of reminds me of the Killers in a way, in that their first album was kind of a trashy fun guilty pleasure exercise in 80’s New Wave revivalism, but for the second album it was all, “Hey, let’s grown beards, tell people our influences actually aren’t Duran Duran but instead is Bruce Springsteen and U2, pose for the obligatory B&W Anton Corbijn photograph, and write songs about small town Americana.” (or, to use an example from the TV world: towards the start of the first season of “True Detective” the screenwriter was hyping up as influences horror writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, and so on, but by the end of the show’s run, when all of the critics were kissing his ass, he started doing interviews where he claimed that maybe he overstated his being a horror fan and that his real literary interests were Faulkner and the Bible. Sigh.) You may recall a few years ago there was a big media backlash against electronic dance music, with everyone and their cousin hyping up acts like Adele and the Foo Fighters as “real” or “authentic” music (whereas artists who used electronics were seen as “fakes”). At the time Lady Gaga gave what I thought was a very good defense of electronic dance music in an interview in some magazine (maybe it was “Vogue”). So it kind of distresses me to see her getting bit by the rock & roll bug: now it seems she’s all about twangy vocals, stripped-down acoustic guitar-based songs, and “authentic heart-felt” lyrics about booze, John Wayne, dive bars and blah blah blah. I actually miss the superficiality of her earlier albums, where I think she came off as more interesting.
Just Googled the Gaga interview in question and I was right, it was Vogue. Here’s the comment I was referring to:
“Despite the fact that electronic music has, at long last, ascended into the mainstream, it still not always taken seriously. When I bring this up, Gaga says, ‘Well, I think we both know that acoustic music isn’t better than electronic music. Electronic music requires a tremendous amount of technical expertise and really knowing the mathematics and beauty of music. At the risk of sounding like a snob, if you don’t really understand how to make electronic music, it might be much easier for you to write it off as low-brow.'”
But really, this is a subject I could go on and on about (as you know, I’m a big proponent of electronic music), so I’ll just shut up now.
Oh, and to get back on the topic of today’s Day, I would just like to add that I read Thomas’ new novel a few weeks back and really thought it was very enjoyable, I highly recommend it (and congratulations Thomas!… though I’m still waiting for your MZR contribution, ha ha). I’ll just repost my Goodreads review on here as it pretty much summarizes my thoughts on the subject:
“A short yet intensely bleak read: the pages here should be turned with appropriately desolate death music playing in the background to set the mood (Regel-era Maurizio Bianchi comes to mind). This novel is a detritus mosaic of anonymous Tweets, discarded suicide notes, bitmapped horrors and GIF gnosis: a 21st-century Noh drama where the masks have been replaced with emoji icons. The blank, aimless, and mostly inarticulate characters that flit into and out of sight like desiccated sylphs between the decimated bones that make up the skeletal narrative of the book are so sketchy and insubstantial (the narrator amongst them) that they make the Damned of Bret Easton Ellis’ books look like paragons of personality by comparison, and the one thing they seem to all have in common is a yearning for self-destruction and a desire to copulate with death (in some cases, quite literally). Of all the short chapters which make up this rumination on the transient and the ephemeral, I think my favorite are the three that list a long number of GIFs: they remind me of prose versions of Dennis Cooper’s infamous GIF novels, and I almost wish that the whole book had been written in this style.”
Thanks again for that amazing review and for your thoughts, James. I’ll try and get something to you this weekend!
I have Bianchi’s Regel LP on luscious red vinyl and will play it as I read Thomas’s book, thanks for the tip!
Hi!
Thank you for today’s post! And thank you for the book, obviously, Thomas Moore! I love ‘A Certain Kind of Light’, I find it truly inspiring no matter how many times I read it so I’ll definitely purchase ‘In Their Arms’, too!
Please tell me about his opinion and the fate of the video when it’s time! I’m all excited!
The party yesterday was really awesome. They’re this… ‘folk-punk’ band called Bohemian Betyars, they’re amazing live. The only drawback of the concert was that it took place in a rather small concert room and it became crammed and airless quite quickly. But oh well, I suppose.
How was your day now that you’ve sent the video on its way?
Hey. Oh wow – thanks so much. I’m thrilled that you dug my first novel so much. That’s totally made my day. Thank you!
Hey, Dennis! Thanks a ton for this. You’re the best. Also – I totally forgot to mention in the post but the lists of gifs in the book actually came from the series of the Everything Is Fucked gif says that I started posting here in 2013 onwards, so this place needs another thank you for letting me use it in the development of the book.
Seriously – just thanks for everything, my friend.
When my box of copies arrives there will be one winging its way to you in Paris of course.
There was one Grammy ceremony where Dave Grohl made nasty remarks about electronic music, and a bunch of rockists came out of the woodwork on Facebook to post photos of acoustic guitars and say “Some of today’s top recording artists wouldn’t know what to do this.” Well, would Dave Grohl or Adele know what to do with a pair of turntables, a sampler and beat-making software? If you think it’s easy to make electronic music, try sitting down with software and making an album as good and inventive as the Aphex Twin’s SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS or the early Chicago acid house singles. You can still see some of the same discourse in David Crosby’s recent attacks on Kanye West. I don’t like West’s recent music and think he’s become a douchebag celebrity, but his early albums clearly show that he’s got talent as a rapper and producer. Does it matter that one of his best songs, “Through the Wire,” is essentially Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” sped up with his vocals added on top? How is that different from Led Zeppelin ripping off old blues songs?
@Thomas Huge congratulations to you on all of your hard work! The excerpt is really wonderful–I’m looking forward to picking up a copy!
Dennis, the number of characters in the piece was my first guess…I shouldn’t have over thought it. Hope all is well!
Bear
Thank you, Bear. Really nice of you to say. Hope you like the book.
Here are this week’s Gay City News reviews: the surprisingly good LOVING (http://gaycitynews.nyc/loving-close/) and THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES (http://gaycitynews.nyc/beyond-bars/).
@ Thomas, congratulations on what is sure to be a very big deal! I’ve just ordered my copy and cannot wait to devour its insides.
Today I was back at work for a few hours. I’d been away that long, the system’s forgotten all my details and I couldn’t log on to my computer. So begins the daily Kafkaesque nightmare of office life but hey, it’s nice to say hi to people around the place I guess.
@ DC, the Cosey Fanni Tutti Day is a hair’s breadth from being complete and should be on its way to you tomorrow, yay!
Awesome – thanks Ben!
Thomas! I’m so happy this thing is finally in the world! Congrats and love my friend.
This book is devastatingly great and I would offer my highest possible recommendation to anyone reading this!
Dennis, the GIF piece yesterday was just gorgeous, I keep returning to it.
MANCY – Thank you, my friend. You know that means a lot coming from yourself. Thanks for being awesome. Talk soon.
Hello Mr Moore — congratulations on this. Being a big fan of your work, I really look forward to reading this book. It’s been in my book cart for a week as I’m saving dollars for it. Soon enough though. If I start teaching queer theory class, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose your work. Absolutely love your writing.
Dennis, I disappeared from the blog for a week. So I don’t know how I got here. Curious. Enjoying busy days and autumnal weather thing here. New York fall is amazing. Very happy. All best to you until I get to see you here in person.
H – ah wow – thanks for what you said about my work. You’re very kind and I appreciate it. The New York autumn sounds beautiful.
Thomas – So excited for your novel! Glad to see the good reviews already rolling in and I enjoyed the excerpt. Going to order a copy from my local bookstore in the next day or so. Congrats, man!
Thanks, Jeff! Yeah, I’ve been blown away with some of the really thoughtful reviews that have been coming through. Thanks a lot, man.
Hey Dennis – Excited to hear about all your projects and that you have a little well-earned breather. Looking forward to seeing the Xiu Xiu video.
Has Michael given you a copy of Novi Sad yet?
And did you know that Robbe-Grillet’s first novel A Regicide was recently translated into English and published in the UK by Calder Books?! (If so, have you read it yet?) Not sure how this news slipped by me. I just found out and ordered a copy. Really excited to check it out. Maybe something worthy of a post here?
@ DC, if you see this in time: I emailed you the CFT Day just now x