Jack's Typewriter

The year is 1896 and England is wiping the soot of the last hundred years from its eyes. Slowly, the shadows are being chased away by new, gas-powered streetlamps; human voices are crossing the boundaries of  time  and space   via underwater cables, and revolutionary new treatments for psychological illnesses are coming over from the continent. This is where author Laura Dietz begins her tale. Her protagonist is Dr Ambrose Genett, a psychiatrist. He is the picture of a Victorian gentleman: stiff, starched and repressed. Unlike his contemporaries, Ambrose knows that his profession is on the cusp of a renaissance – the old ways are on their way out, and any argument to the contrary is an affront to progress. He takes a similar view when it comes to the spiritualist hocus pocus that's been gaining popularity. We meet him as he is indulging in a spot of people-watching at Victoria Station. He's mainly interested in the women, but not in  that  way. "Titillation" is not &q

 10. The Circus of Dr Lao By Charles G. Finney  09.  At The Mountains of Madness By H.P. Lovecraft  08. Dracula By Bram Stoker 07. Frankenstein By Mary Shelley  06. Nine-Teen-Eighty-four By George Orwell 05. Dream Story (Traumnovelle) By Arthur Schnitzler  04. Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte  03. High Rise By J.G. Ballard 02. Slaughterhouse 5 By Kurt Vonnegut  01. Crash By J.G. Ballard

The Dark Chorus  (2019) was four years in the making for Cambridge-based author Ashley Meggitt and its publication is a testament to hard work and commitment. Here is a quick look at this emerging indie writer's debut.  Now, I don't  usually   like an opening line with a semi-colon in it. For me, it's far too early for them -- I'm not quite ready for the level of complexity that they introduce. I want something crisp and concise. So, I was already wary when I read Meggitt's first sentence: "I was born right here in this asylum -- literally into bedlam; delivered into a stark white-tiled cell, in what I've come to think of as The Screaming Room" (2019, p.3). I can't say that the promise of any room described as a "Screaming" one wouldn't keep me engaged, but I was looking forward to the "clear-eyed" writing that was I promised on the book's cover.  Unfortunately, his prose remains stodgy throughout the novel. Meggitt cl

[Update: 02/02/21. This post was made prior to the public allegations made against Marilyn Manson by Evan Rachel Wood and five other women. Like many fans, I am saddened to see the cycle of abuse continue and I sincerely hope that justice is served. While it is important to see that art is judged independently of artists,  I wish to express my support and respect for the women who have come forward and distance myself from their alleged abuser.] "I Was A Snake But I Didn't Realise You Could Walk On Water, Without legs." (The Fall, Genesis. Manson inverts the walking on water miracle, replacing Jesus Christ with The Serpent) Marilyn Manson has proven just how much more he has to offer. This is a blow by blow review of all 42.27 minutes of the God of Fuck's latest instalment,  We Are Chaos , released 11/09/2020.  01. RED, BLACK AND BLUE Ever the polemicist, Manson titles his first track, Red Black And Blue -- a bruised corruption of the Star-Spangled-Banner. His album&#

It's no wonder Manson is excited about his upcoming  2020 album . He's already called it a masterpiece and after hearing his single, 'We Are Chaos', I can believe that we really are looking at one.  On first listen, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with the twanging of an acoustic guitar rather than the much heavier openings we have come to impute from Manson. He has delighted us in this way before, however. In 2019 he released a cover of Johnny Cash's folk ballad, 'God's Gonna Cut You Down', and before that, several acoustic tracks on The Pale Emperor (2015). He gave us then, a preview of a tone which reeks of the American Gothic -- a tone he's returning to now. There's a lot peering out at us in 'We Are Chaos'. From behind the cloistered bass drum, there are guitar slides, tinkling piano notes and a distorted voice message which swims straight out of 'The Telephone' (1990, The Beaver Meat).    (Marilyn Manson and

    Screenwriter M.R. Carey spares no time in plunging into this zombie-ridden post-apocalypse. Carey’s delightfully freakish twist is that his child protagonist, Melanie, is a ‘hungry’ (Carey’s byword for zombie) who maintains human intelligence. She resides on the last citadel of humanity, a bleak military base-cum-research facility, and is kept along with other children like herself to be studied and eventually chopped up by steely, no-nonsense scientist Dr Caldwell (Glenn Close). Angel-faced Melanie and her friends attend school on the base. Their benevolent teacher, Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), treats them with compassion unlike Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine) and his chums who refer to the children as “friggin' abortions”. The film opens as Justineau conducts an animated class reading of the ancient Greek myth, Pandora’s Box. Melanie’s eager hand-raising earns her an approving pat on the head from Justineau, a move that triggers the children’s feeding instin