Author: christophernosnibor

Writer, ranter, purveyor of postmodern fiction; 50% of the Clinicality Press editorial team, editor at Aural Aggravation, contributing editor at Paraphilia Magazine, and music reviewer for Whisperin' and Hollerin' and Shout4Music. Sleep is for wimps.

Strong Feelings Expressed with Strong Words: ‘Paper Cuts’ by Constance Stadler

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Constance Stadler has been nothing if not prolific of late, producing a clutch of chapbooks that have demonstrated her remarkable capacity to weave magical and often potent word-webs. Impressively, quantity has not been at the expense of quality. If anything, her words grow stronger with each publication as she continues to perfect her craft.

So when she says that ‘Paper Cuts’ is her strongest work to date, she’s absolutely right. This isn’t mere hyperbole, but emblematic of her acute awareness, not just of herself, but of the world around her. It’s this awareness that fills her poetry and imbues it with a rare humanity.

What’s most apparent with Stadler’s latest offering is that it sees her truly pushing herself as a writer. This self-challenging manifests not only in terms of the expression of deep, heart-felt emotions, but in terms of her range of expression and voice(s). Not that she is ever less than magnificently eloquent: the fierce intellect that is Stadler’s trademark informs every word in this collection. Indeed, it is this intellect and the aforementioned awareness that enables her to glide seamlessly between densely-weighted epics such as ‘Bed and Breakfast,’ an intricately detailed piece that is more like a painting executed with the smallest, most painstaking of brushstrokes, to brief snapshots, the likes of ‘Fallows.’

However, as ever with Constance’s writing, she’s at her best when she’s channelling the purest of emotions, and there’s much love and much anger here, in almost equal measure. As titles such as ‘A Love Dismembered’ indicate, there’s a forceful passion behind both, and through this she reminds us just how close opposite feelings really are to one another, and how readily joy can become pain, love turn to hate, tenderness to violence. Moreover, she expresses with a rare clarity how these conflicting emotional states not only co-exist, but can be experienced simultaneously. It is this that places this collection of poetry in the realm of not just true art, bur great art. The reader cannot take these poems a mere observer: no, to read Stadler’s words is to feel. This isn’t simply art: this is life.

‘Paper Cuts’ is out now as a free e-book on Calliope Nerve Media.

Plagiarism? Pastiche? Clinicality Press Push it with ‘The Bastardizer’

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So perhaps I’m rather biased where this book’s concerned. After all, I was one of the first to adopt ‘clinical brutality’ as a mode of writing, and I’m not wholly disconnected from all that Clinicality Press does.

Nevertheless, I knew that I had in my possession something special when I first saw an early manuscript for ‘The Bastardizer.’ Really, it packs some clout from the very start, and the plot’s got more twists and turns than I care to count. Yet there’s a lot more to it than plot. Indeed, it’s all in the telling. Like ‘Columbo,’ it’s not about getting to the end, it’s the circuitous route that makes it really interesting.

Crime fiction is huge right now, and while I really dig the ‘classics,’ the pulp masters like Mickey Spillane, much of the contemporary stuff coming through is painfully cliché, and, worse still, ball-achingly long. Tess Gerritson and her ilk really aren’t a patch on McBain or Chandler. And while Ellroy has the clipped narrative down brilliantly, I’d much rather have seen ‘American Tabloid’ done in half the word count. The simple fact is that I’ve always much preferred the punchier pulpier stuff. Under 200 pages with really succinct narrative and snappy dialogue was always what did it for me.

It was reading Stewart Home’s ‘Slow Death’ that proved to be a pivotal moment for me: that a book was a revelation to me, in that it showed how it was possible to be at once clichéd and innovative. Insofar as parody and pastiche are concerned, Home’s early works scale truly admirable heights. So when I saw ‘The Bastardizer,’ I knew it had to be.

While perhaps not as trashy in its style as Home, or as superabundant in its use of cliché, Thunder’s debut at once reinvigorates and exhausts the well-worn detective / crime fiction genre, presenting a classic pulp first-person narrative with a contemporary and deeply misanthropic twist. Thunder doesn’t make any attempt to be a likeable or sympathetic narrator, but given the series of loathsome characters he comes face to face with, his stance seems justified, and in comparison to these other characters – even the good guys, including the intelligent but foul Roger Gash, he’s positively chummy.

The concept of clinical brutality emerged in the late ‘90s. It wasn’t hip to get factual in the middle of an action sequence back then. But this is the post-CSI generation. ‘The Bastardizer’ pushes the idea of incorporating technical biological detail to the point of absurdity, and yet delivers its mockery with a completely straight face. I daresay this will confuse a few people.

Similarly, I daresay the whole ‘Michael Jackson’ element of the story will prove problematic for some. Yes, a central thread of the story sees Thunder on the hunt for a missing man called Michael Jackson. Much dark hilarity ensues. What makes Thunder’s narrative unusual – apart from the attention to the most curious of detail – is his tendency for digression. In fact, it’s often easy to get carried away on the epic and often rather bizarre diversions and forget about the plot. This is perhaps as well, as there are points when the plot is clearly secondary to the action and the narrative form, and the ending comes as nothing if not a surprise. Yes, its far-fetched, but no more far-fetched than, say. Spillane’s ‘The Body Lovers.’ Of course, that’s the whole point. It’s designed to be ridiculous just as the extreme violence is designed to shock. What’s more it, succeeds.

Mediocre crime fiction it ain’t. If the prose was any more hard-boiled, demolition companies would be buying up copies of this book and using them as wrecking balls. I’m not kidding when I say this book should be huge. The question is, is the world ready for it?




‘The Bastardizer’ by Bill Thunder is out in August as a pocket edition on Clinicality Press, and will be followed by a trade paperback edition Spring 2010.

Wot a Fine Pear! A Juicy Example of Rebranding for Idiots

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I make no bones about the fact I’m rather a pedant, and a stickler for things being correct. The misuse of words (and punctuation) sends me absolutely loopy, with ‘random’ used to mean ‘a bit unusual’ being a particular pet hate of mine.  Not without good reason, I don’t think. I perceive the spread of incorrect use as being emblematic of a wider and deeper issue in society, that the ‘dumbing down’ that’s affected every part of our culture and society is equal parts ‘don’t know’ and ‘don’t care.’ Often, in pointing out that something is misspelled or an incorrect word used, I’m told that ‘it doesn’t matter’ or that ‘no-one will notice’ or that ‘people will get the meaning.’ Maybe they will: maybe they won’t. Why take that chance? Specific words have evolved with specific meaning in order that we can communicate complex concepts with clarity and without ambiguity.

One thing that’s really been grinding my gears recently is the proliferation of rebranded alcoholic beverages made with fermented pear juice. Yes, perry. In order to sell it as a trendy drink for semi-literate bozos, the manufacturers have taken to advertising it as ‘pear cider.’ It’s abundantly clear from both the Brothers and Magners adverts that their target markets are young, cool, ‘irreverent’ and above all stupid. But more than anything, the promotion of ‘pear cider’ annoys the hell out of me simply because it’s wrong! Fermented grapes produce wine, not grape beer or grape cider. Fermented honey produces mead, not honey wine or honey cider. So, perry, being a drunk unto itself is perry.

I despair, and wonder what else could find itself being renamed in order for fuckwits to get a grasp on what it is so they’ll buy it thinking it’s something new and exciting. Perhaps rebranding bitter as ‘dark lager’ is the way forward (and yes, I appreciate that despite having the same basic ingredients, the two are completely different on account of lager typically being brewed using bottom-fermenting yeast strains and bitters using top-fermenting yeasts and being brewed at a higher temperature). How about making pipes fashionable by calling them paperless, filterless, never-ending cigarettes? Could cream become ‘extra-thick milk’? Pavements come to be called ‘foot roads’? How about ‘hand-socks’ in place of gloves? Personally, I think its time to relaunch vinyl as ‘large hard-format MP3 discs.’ The undigital revolution starts here!

And if you’re loving my work, there’s more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk

Critical Acclaim

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Well sales and the adulation of a legion of fans is all very nice, I’m sure, but critical acclaim is where it’s at. That’s generally because the latter is, more often than not, the route to the former.

It’s always interesting to see what critics – and readers, for that matter – make of a piece of work, and with a book as unconventional and challenging as ‘THE PLAGIARIST’ this is amplified. So it’s gratifying to see that Paige Lovitt at Reader Views managed to get a handle on it and make some quite complimentary comments in her review over here: http://www.readerviews.com/ReviewNosniborThePlagiarist.html.

World domination must surely be only a short way off now…

The Pleasure of Pain of Being Chronically Misunderstood

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Do you ever feel as though you’re gravely misunderstood by the majority? Feel frustrated by the complete inability of the everyday person to get even the smallest grasp on what you’re on about what you’re about? Of course you do: these feelings are common to most people at some time, ad is one of the reasons people who share not only opinions but levels of intellect gravitate toward one another in the main. It’s how society works.

As a writer, I experience these feelings of disconnection quite acutely. I tend to submit work to zines and publishers in waves, and as a consequence tend to receive rejections in waves, which punctuate the steady trickle. It doesn’t bother me per se: after all, it’s all material for my book of rejections that I will one day undoubtedly publish.

Some of the rejections I receive are quite nice: well-written and considered. One that landed with me a few weeks back suggested that the paragraphs were disproportionately long for the story. Ok… it also criticised the fact that ‘the story has to rely far too much on the reflections of the narrator.’ Given that that was the point of the piece, I found this a rather odd criticism, but at least it showed that they’d read it. On the other hand, the ‘not what we’re looking for’ and ‘sorry not for us’ rejections aren’t simply impersonal and generic, but strike me as being pointless and lazy. I know these people are busy, but really… again, the problem I find is that too few publishers – even of free e-zines – are willing to take risks, and many are excessively prescriptive in what they are ‘looking for.’

No, this isn’t a sour-grapes rant about the volume of rejections I get in a competitive market. The point is that I write the kind of stuff I like to read, largely because too few publishers are putting out the kind of stuff I like to read, and I’m quite sure my tastes aren’t so niche that I’m a market unto myself. Moreover, I suspect that a lot of the things I do intentionally are often misconstrued, and perceived as ‘errors’ or shortcomings rather than virtues.

Returning to my point about gravitating toward the like-minded, it’s fair to say valuable lessons can be learned from spending time out of one’s selected circle, however (even if it’s only to be reminded why you gravitate toward the people you do). As such, it’s worth taking the risk of being misunderstood from time to time. By posting my Michael Jackson conspiracy piece in a place where it would be read by those unfamiliar with my work, I’ve been able to infiltrate a new audience. Have I gained a new readership? Doubtful, but I’ve succeeded in winding a few people up and derived much amusement from the fact that they clearly can’t tell that I’m taking the piss.

So to pre-empt any criticisms that may be levelled at my short film ‘Into the Earth’ I should perhaps state here and now that yes, the sound quality is supposed to be a little shaky, degraded-sounding, semi-mechanised and in places lacking clarity. It’s intended to create some distance between myself and the piece, and, more importantly, to echo the themes of decay and degradation in the story itself (which, incidentally, has been rejected by the half-dozen places I’ve tried it so far, although no-one’s been more specific than that it’s not for them). And yes, the footage is supposed to be repetitious: that’s the whole point. It wasn’t that I only had a couple of minutes of footage and was feeling lazy.

Enjoy!

   

Going Soft on the Hard Sell – and Michael Jackson Continues to Cause Trouble

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A few days on from the publication of ‘Before the Flood’ I should probably be using this blog space to really push it. After all, as this is a little self-produced pamphlet that I’ve funded myself, I run the risk of not only growing despondent over my lack of success, but out of pocket to boot if I don’t shift at least enough units to break even (which at the time of writing, I haven’t). However, I really struggle to bring myself to do the hard sell. I think I’m generally pretty adept at self-promotion – on-line, at least, if not so much in real life – but it’s ventures like this that make me realise why a career in marketing wasn’t for me.

One reason I often flag when it comes to promoting a new publication is because a) I really don’t feel all that comfortable pushing it b) I’m always well into the next project (or, as is more usual, well onto my next project which is already three on from the one that’s hitting the virtual shelves. I’m certainly not one to sit back and take a breather when one thing’s complete. Life’s too short.

In the case of ‘Before the Flood,’ there are pieces I’m writing that are demanding a lot of focus and energy that are taking shape and I’m also putting a fair amount of time into the Clincality anthology, which is showing all the early signs of being a truly amazing book. Watch this space…

In addition to all of this, I can’t help but be continually distracted by the media insanity that continues a little over a week since Michael Jackson’s death. I know, I should just turn it off, but I have my reasons, because, believe it or not, does actually affect me. Well, sort of.

How does it affect me? You’ll not find me playing my Jacko albums on a loop for the next few weeks (I have none, and while I think ‘Billie Jean’ is a great song, don’t really rate his work), or bawling in the street, that’s for sure. However, the situation has actually presented me with something of a problem. I recently received a draft manuscript for a novel that Clinicality Press are planning to put out later this year or early next. I love the book, but thought a few changes would be of benefit. I suggested changing the name of one of the characters to Mike (or Michael) Jackson. The author agreed to this, and a fortnight ago passed me the next draft containing some substantial revisions based on my suggestions. Days later, what happens? So, does the book stay as is, or it is better to revise again? One of my friends suggested that the name should be changed to Paul Gadd to see if it has the same effect, and while I’m tempted, I wonder just how freaked out I’d be if the book does have some kind of curse?

So, anyway, the pamphlet’s out (and can be obtained via the link below), there’s another on the way in September, there are still copies of ‘Lust for Death’ available, and I’m still deciding what to do with ‘THE PLAGIARIST: THE MOVIE.’ As I said, never one to sit back and take a breather….


http://christophernosnibor.co.uk/aboutus.aspx

Today’s the Day… Flooding the Market

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Today is the
day that ‘Before the Flood’ is officially unleashed. Although the same
number of pages as its predecessor, ‘Lust for Death,’ it’s priced
fractionally cheaper in line with reduced production costs. This is not
indicative of lower quality, however. An epic monologue on existence,
art and life, ‘Before the Flood’ is a unique prose piece. This pamphlet
is strictly limited to 25 copies and can only be purchased via THIS
LINK: http://christophernosnibor.co.uk/aboutus.aspx

Get it while it’s hot…..

CN

Nothing like a good conspiracy theory… the Michael Jackson media frenzy

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Well, it’s true, there’s nothing like a good conspiracy theory, and this is nothing like a good conspiracy theory. However, I thought I’d spin something out just for the hell of it and see how it went down, fully expecting it to get completely buried in the media blizzard that has become the death of Michael Jackson. And while it might not be setting the blogosphere alight, ‘Is Michael Jackson Really Dead? And if so, Could Kanye West be to Blame?‘ is proving to be by far the most successful thing I’ve written to date, at least in terms of hits. And while I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this – after all, having been thrown together in a couple of hours, I don’t think it’s my best writing and I’d much prefer a piece like ‘Blogging and the Myspace Generation: Gatecrashing Someone Else’s Therapy Session‘ to be widely read, or, better still, to be recognised as a writer of fiction, I really oughtn’t grumble. After all, all any writer wants is to be read…

Everything that’s wrong with today’s world – part 1 in a very occasional series

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Sometimes, when I’m lost for ideas or looking to add new contacts who might be interested in my work, I’ll peruse MySpace profiles. Sometimes I’ll go through my friends’ friends, others I’ll check out the recommendations. MySpace also has in its homepage a tab for ‘people’ (along with celebrity updates (which include insightful status updates from the likes of Russell Brand – ‘Just posted a new vid on…’ and Lady Gaga ‘I love korea!! Xoxo’), music, etc.). I’ve no idea how these people get selected, but occasionally check their profiles either by clicking in error, or through curiosity. They never fail to disappoint in their inherent shitness. Bland, egotistical posers one and all, and the majority are borderline retarded.

The sad fact is that these are average, everyday people, and as such largely representative of our society (at least the 16-35 age bracket). This short article marks the first in an occasional series. When I’m feeling lazy or pressed for time, rather than try to summon the bile and expend the energy trying to create an articulate critique regarding an issue that, for me, represents things that are wrong with the world today, I’ll simply copy and paste someone’s ‘about me’ blurb to make my point by way of illustration.

So, to kick off, I would like to introduce you all to Mr Edward Nigma…

Sports dnt like many take 2 much effort lol!!! i like all motor sports mostly bikes tho.(well watchin them) Scared Of spiders a hate the things more than 4 legs just aint normal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol Happiest When in bed out with ma mates or on ma bike or just messin about doin random stuff lol. Things i hate!!!!!!!!!!! a hate traffic cops(fat pricks in a shiny car wae hats on WANKERS!!!! ) , sundy drivers, gd weather bikers and scooters. Tattoos most of ma tattoos have a reason bhind them well apart from ma clown it was just random lol and a must add they r addictive and a want more!!!!!!!!!!! if any 1 wants 2 buy me some just say lol .

In the news: Rowling THE PLAGIARIST and there’s no place to hide!

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As a child I thought that the news was boring, but I’m a fairly keen observer of current affairs these days, which means I’ve grown old and boring or have come to realise how the stories in the news have a bearing on my own life. It’s not always the big headlines that are the most relevant or interesting to me – in fact, the opposite is true, and more often than not the real news is buried beneath the smokescreen that passes as news much of the time. In the past few days, I’ve uncovered a couple of particularly intriguing stories.

The first concerned me greatly as a blogger, a part-time corporate whore and a full-time fervent anti-corporate ranter who believes strongly in free speech and the individuals’ rights to privacy (something I’ve written on variously in the past in a number of different places so shan’t go over the same ground again here). Now, I’m not so blinkered in my anti-corporate / smash the system stance that I think employees have the right to disclose information that could compromise national security or would offer the possibility of insider dealing or other such illicit activity, and can appreciate that certain acts can constitute an abuse of power or position. Other than that, though, I say it’s open season.

The public has a right to know what (mal)practices go on and how customer or taxpayer money is spent. And so on.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/16/20090617/ttc-bloggers-have-no-right-to-privacy-sa-6315470.html

So I’m rather pro-mole, and have posted a few articles that might not go down too well in certain quarters. But while ‘exposing’ overseas sweatshops and promoting fair trade is considered positive, speaking out against the erosion of workers rights at home is viewed as bad form in the days of the minimum wage. We’re supposed to be grateful for our statutory sick pay and not mind increasingly shit conditions, discrimination and our employees checking out our activities on Facebook and using them against us in the workplace.

Blogging, then, is a public, not a private pursuit in the eyes of the law, so publish and suffer the consequences. I can of course see where they’re coming from. But is posting a blog really all that different to talking in the pub? You may be seated around a table with a bunch of mates beefing about what a cunt the boss is, without realising that some members of senior management are at the next table (probably beefing about what a cunt his boss, or your boss is). Can such an eavesdrop be used against you? Thankfully not, at least not officially. But as in situations where the interviewer tells the black guy, the guy with the tattoos or the guy in the wheelchair that he’s not being offered the job because another guy with identical credentials or a girl with similar credentials and a big rack gave a better interview, there are ways round what’s strictly legal that make discrimination impossible to prove.

As such, a blog may be posted for an intended audience, but one accepts that there is a risk that unintended audience may also find it, which is why privacy settings exist and why many people write pseudonymously. That the safety of anonymous blogging has been removed by law is a concern because it represents a further erosion of privacy. So who’s being protected by such precedents? Not the individual, that’s for sure… what’snext? Monitoring of email? Cameras watching us at every turn? A DNA database? Oh yeah…

The other article that caught my eye relates to a lawsuit being filed against JK Rowling and her publishers, Bloomsbury.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090615/media_nm/us_britain_potter_plagiarism

Now, I’m not exactly entirely opposed to plagiarism, at least in certain (theoretical) contexts, and I think our litigious culture has gone beyond compensating injustices and has become a way of life for many. I strongly believe that claiming exclusive ownership of something as vague as an idea is iffy at best. I’m also of the opinion that there are only a finite number of plots when reduced to the most fundamental of fundamentals, and that no-one can really claim the ownership of words.

But I’m no fan of Rowling either. I’ll admit that I have managed to not read ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,’ and I’ve certainly not read ‘The Adventures of Willy the Wizard,’ so cannot comment on the alleged similarities.  Of course, very few people have read or even heard of the former, and this is why it’s an interesting case.

It could be that the late Adrian Jacobs’ son is simply after a spot of fame and out to make something from his father’s book when his father failed to do so. Whatever, I consider it unlikely that they’ll win the case, simply because it would be hard for an average Joe to be able to beat the battalion of top-flight lawyers Rowling and Bloomsbury will be able to draft in. To represent them, and moreover, proving that Rowling had any knowledge of Jacobs’ obscure text would be nigh on impossible. But it’s the relative obscurity of ‘Willy the Wizard, ’ even more than the connection between the two writers in the form of agent Christopher Little that makes me wonder if there might actually be something to the Jacobs estate’s claim. After all, if you’re stuck for ideas and running out of time to produce something and the pressure’s mounting, you’re not going to turn to a well-known source for inspiration are you?