Average customer rating:
- Changes in translation?
- A very ugly read
- not as good as the first book but
- A must read!
- Longwinded and boring
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Grotesque
Natsuo Kirino
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Out: A Novel
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After Dark
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All She Was Worth
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The Tattoo Murder Case (Soho Crime)
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Bangkok Haunts
ASIN: 1400044944
Release Date: 2007-03-13 |
Book Description
Natsuo Kirino made a spectacular fiction debut on these shores with the publication of Edgar Award-nominated Out (“Daring and disturbing . . . Prepared to push the limits of this world . . . Remarkable”—Los Angeles Times). Unanimously lauded for her unique, psychologically complex, darkly compelling vision and voice, she garnered a multitude of enthusiastic fans eager for more.
In her riveting new novel Grotesque, Kirino once again depicts a barely known Japan. This is the story of three Japanese women and the interconnectedness of beauty and cruelty, sex and violence, ugliness and ambition in their lives.
Tokyo prostitutes Yuriko and Kazue have been brutally murdered, their deaths leaving a wake of unanswered questions about who they were, who their murderer is, and how their lives came to this end. As their stories unfurl in an ingeniously layered narrative, coolly mediated by Yuriko’s older sister, we are taken back to their time in a prestigious girls’ high school—where a strict social hierarchy decided their fates—and follow them through the years as they struggle against rigid societal conventions.
Shedding light on the most hidden precincts of Japanese society today, Grotesque is both a psychological investigation into the female psyche and a classic work of noir fiction. It is a stunning novel, a book that confirms Natsuo Kirino’s electrifying gifts.
Customer Reviews:
Changes in translation?.......2007-10-09
I really enjoyed this book, but it can't be compared to Out. It has Kirino's dark outlook, but it's not a crime novel per se. However, when I read that changes had been made to the english version, I interviewed the editor of the book, and she explained the changes made. The interview appears on my blog, http://literatiny.blogspot.com I hope it answers many of the questions posed here.
A very ugly read.......2007-08-29
I really enjoyed Out and was was looking forward to this next book. What a disappointment. The writing style read like an amateuristic attempt at an interview. I felt no connection or interest in any of the characters, just an increasing sense of distaste as I got deeper into the book. At the end I felt relieved that it was over and dismayed that the author of such a great book (Out) followed up with something so terrible.
not as good as the first book but.......2007-08-25
still worth reading. wraps around itself but doesn't become strangled. it delves deeply into the characters psyche's and how they became what they are, how they died to themselves, and how they died to each other.
A must read!.......2007-08-20
Could not put this one down. A dense psycological thriller, filled with thought provoking social commentary.
I wish more of her books were translated.
Longwinded and boring.......2007-08-17
It can't be compared with Out, Kirino's masterpiece. It reads like a first draft, with long drawn out explanations, much too much about Japanese girls' schools, and completely uninspired descriptions. The chapters are narrated by different characters, all about equally dull.
Average customer rating:
- Gods of Heaven and Earth
- photography from the underside
- Dark and totally twisted photos of abberations of nature...
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Gods of Earth and Heaven
Joel-Peter Witkin
Manufacturer: Twin Palms Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover
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Disciple & Master
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The Bone House
ASIN: 0942642392 |
Amazon.com
Once you have witnessed the dark, sensational visions of Joel-Peter Witkin, you will never be the same again. Witkin gets to you. Here you will encounter hermaphrodites, malformed bodies, Siamese twins, corpses, fetuses, cut-off heads, and self-torturers. Witkin's compositions go far beyond conventional "freak show" tableaux to achieve a sinister and dignified beauty, and he includes numerous art-historical references that add context and acerbic wit. This exquisitely produced collection of black-and-white photographs will take you, as Guy Blaisdell writes in an essay at the end of the book, into "a human afterworld ... one that comes before or after the death of this world--a place where the spirits of the dead live on by sitting as works of art for their portraits, descending into our moment and returning always to their identical selves." Warning: Not for those under 18 and/or easily disturbed.
Customer Reviews:
Gods of Heaven and Earth.......1999-12-24
If one were to draw an imaginary line through the last two hundred years, starting with Goya and the Disasters of War, perhaps pausing briefly with Daumier and then moving resolutely to the trenches of the first world war, some of the lithographs of George Bellows, Otto Dix and Grosz. And if that imaginary line were to pick up the expressionist thread again in Mexico, most particularly with Orozco and Jose Luis Cuevas then I think that Witkin, rather than a shocking purveyor of disturbing images can be seen as the latest -and one of the finest- inheritors of a very solid and well-grounded strand in the history of Western Art.
Sometimes he is even very funny, as when, very conscious of academic art, he mimics Velasquez and Ingres, but then Goya could be very funny, too. Usually however Witkin is about as funny as Goya's impalements or as the trench war lithographs of Otto Dix.
Definitely not a book for the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything crowd" If you like your expressionism with a bite, this is great stuff. If you prefer tame, decorative expressionism there's always Maurice Sendak.
photography from the underside.......1997-04-18
o pushing the role of the photographer as one who photographs the poor, the odd, the strange, the perverse, the sexual underworld in the tradition of Weegee, Arbus, etc.
o pushing the adaptation of famous works of art in the past into modern pieces.
o and if you can't stomach what you find, you should at least be able to appreciate the quality of the photo-manipulation.
o one image from this book seems to have been used in the movie Jacob's Ladder.
Dark and totally twisted photos of abberations of nature..........1996-12-13
Joel Peter Witkin's images are what nightmares are made of...a cast of freaks, standing up...looking through you. We are here, don't pity or humiliate us...we are not nightmares...we are all creatures of heaven and earth
Customer Reviews:
Monsters Of Stone.......2006-04-06
Gargoyles in their manifold glory, from the small, twisted and misshapen, to the majestic and terrible, this coffee table collection of the rooftop monsters of New York is highlighted by text composed by none other than Stephen King. A lovely and atmospheric gathering of these sculpted nightmares, captured at varying angles and conditions of shadow, light, and sometimes in the rain, deftly calculated to heighten the effect of staring these treasures almost in the eye. I find a lot of meaning in this book, too, because, knowing how much I love old stone sculptures and gargoyles and the like, my grandfather gave it to me as a gift while I was home on spring break from college in the year 2000, and it was the last time I ever got to visit him.
Did not catch the many-century old value of these gargoyles.......2001-08-10
This is a coffee table book. But it does not have to be bad. The pictures, by f-stop Fitzgerald, of those gargoyles are interesting, some of them very original, but the introductory text, by Stephen King, is definitely too long for what it has to tell. The only idea of some value is that these gargoyles, and yet some of them are not gargoyles, are alive. Fine. And then what ? Why are they ugly, though some of them are not ? What is their symbolical value on twentieth century houses or buildings in New York or Chicago ? This is not answered.
Originally those gargoyles, a long time ago indeed, were there to protect the buildings they were sitting on, many churches among others, by fending off the real devils and monsters they were supposed to represent, and people believed these monsters and devils did exist in those days. That was the first function. The second function was to teach people (essentially on church porches or inside churches, and they were not gargoyles any more) the dangers of sinning, the devils that were waiting for us or the suffering we may be condemned to. That was a pedagogical function. They were thus alive because they represented some faith, some belief that gave them life.
With the passing away of religion as the center of our life, these values have disappeared, and yet they survive in a less religious value. These gargoyles, these monsters, who are not always monsters, protect our homes against the outside world that is dangerous or against our fears they are supposed to keep out. Pedagogically, they do not teach us religion anymore but they have taken over an artistic value. They have become a decoration, and they are intended to be monstrous or frightening. They are supposed to be a way the people in the house tell us to stay away, they are like shouts from those people directed at us to frighten us away, most of them. But they also have another value. They are references to classical gods, to natural elements, to cultural characters that only exist in our literatures or mythologies. Then they become some kind of showing off ordered by the owner to decorate his or her house to show everyone he or she has some culture : here Jove or Zeus, here Neptune or some Sun-God (p. 121), etc.
What would have been interesting, would have been the following questions. Why are some not frightening at all (p. 116, 86, 78), and why are some not looking at us at all (p. 117) ? Why are some not Christian at all, not western at all ? A Chinese one for instance page 110, if it is Chinese. And finally why are so many just plain nice and friendly, like page 90, or some kind of clown like page 115 ? They probably represent the fantasms, fears, likes and desires of the owners, builders, artists, but they cannot be reduced to nightmares in the sky. They are interesting declarations someone we donýt even know is throwing at us with the hope we may understand, appreciate or like them. In other words they are not cathartic. They are a discourse directed at us and we are supposed to understand it.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
Gargoyles up close & personal.......2000-11-19
This coffee table book is long out of print, but well worth my years of searching! F-stop Fitgerald's photographs capture the true essence of the Grotesque in their natural habitat and illustrate how Mother Nature and Father Time enliven the personalities of these strange creatures rather than detract from them.
Stephen King's essay is entertaining and true to his genre, but don't expect any historical information here. It is purely a showcase for the photographs and that is enough!
Photography, gothic architecture and King...........2000-05-05
I'm surprised to read that this is a hard-to-find book; I still occasionally find copies of it in the bargain bins of large booksellers. That will probably change now that the paperback version is being released.
I really like this book. The photos are simple, but they capture the beauty and mystique of gargoyle images throughout New York and other American cities. I must admit, I bought this bargain book because Stephen King's name was on the cover and because I thought it was a quirky addition to my book collection. However, once I brought it home and started flipping through the pages, I was captivated by the grainy, sometimes eerie images. King's words add some interesting views and anecdotes, but the book stands alone just on Fitzgerald's photos. Some of the gargoyles are menacing, some are macabre, some are playful and some are downright comical. All of them attest to the creativity and imagination of their creators.
This hardcover, 128-page (or so) volume would be right at home on your coffee table (it's an awkward size to try to squeeze into most standard bookshelves). King's writing shares page space for about 35 pages; the book is focused on the pics (as it should be). It's not for everyone; if you don't like "picture books" then stay away. But if you like interesting photos capturing a unique subject, and/or if you are at all a Stephen King fan, this is one to bring home.
good for more than a name.......2000-03-31
personally, i don't even like steven king. actually, i hate his writing. he's a feminist with no talent.
however, despite adding his drivel to these pages, the book is excellent. i enjoy just sitting down and flipping through the wonderful photographs.
a must for any gargoyle lover.
Book Description
Hector Berlioz's Les Grotesques de la musique is the only one of his books that has never been translated into English in its entirety. It is by far the funniest of all his works, and consists of a number of short anecdotes, witticisms, open letters, and comments on the absurdities of concert life. Alastair Bruce's fluid translation brings to life this important composer and bon vivant. He does a wonderful job of conveying all the puns, jokes, and invective of Berlioz's prose as well as the nuances of his stories. He even imitates a Tahitian accent in the translation, as Berlioz does in the original. The notes will give the reader insight into the innuendos and in-jokes that fill the pages. This translation will take its place among other translations of Berlioz's prose writings, bringing to the reader more lively examples of a still misunderstood composer caught up in the musical life of mid-nineteenth century Paris. Alastair Bruce is a London-based management consultant and former treasurer of the Berlioz Society. Hugh Macdonald is General Editor of New Berlioz Edition.
Book Description
Two modern graphic arts vision arias interpret Lovecraft's stories as graphic novels -- and a Kaballah! Includes: * illustrations for The Haunter of the Dark and The Call of Cthulhu * thirty pages of previously unseen drawings and paintings * selections from the controversial Lord Horror series Hard Core Horror and Reverbstorm, which have been evolving Lovecraftian imagery in bold new directions * Material specially created for this volume includes illustrations for The Great Old Ones, * Also new, a kabbalah of Lovecraft's gods with accompanying evocations by Alan Moore, . Moore also provides an introduction and there are cover endorsements from comics legends Neil Gaiman and Burne Hogarth
A terrific book! The strange old man from Providence would have been proud of it. -- Neil Gaiman
I have not seen in many a long series of months or years the kind of continued dedication to the punctilious and meticulous pen and ink work put on board by John Coulthart. -- Burne Hogarth
At its far edge, horror shades into beauty, and it is far beyond that edge that Coulthart takes us, into terrible magnificence. -- Alan Moore, from the book's introduction
Customer Reviews:
But Give Haeckel Some Credit.......2007-03-06
"The Haunter of the Dark and Other Grotesque Visions" touts a bunch of drivel by Alan Moore, who's become pompously undisciplined in his writing, but it is really the showcase for Coulthart. "Haunter" collects two and a half Lovecraft stories in graphic form. Coulthart tries his hand at "Dunwich" but admits he couldn't really improve on Enrique Breccia's in "Heavy Metal" magazine, so stops halfway through the story. (See Breccia's "Lovecraft" for more of his work.) It ends with a nice splash, though. Coulthart's most proud of his "Call of Cthulhu", which is hard to read because he breaks up the frames into odd angles to mimic the "horrible geometries" described in the story. This adds to the mystery of the story and a growing sense of horror as the pieces come together, an achievement unique to the comic medium. However, I'm convinced that Lovecraft's own effects are ultimately dependent upon the written word's ability to conceal things from and gradually reveal things to the reader's imagination, to tease us out of all rational thought. They just can't be equalled in another medium. Another jewel of "Haunter", though, is the portfolio of Lovecraftian "gods" that follows the stories. Coulthart uses the computer to combine, among other things, some of Ernst Haeckel's "Art Forms of Nature" etchings with his own drawing. Coulthart's not the first person to make this connection. It's well known that Lovecraft admired Haeckel's philosophy, and others have dabbled with using Haeckel's illustrations to evoke the creatures HPL describes in his stories. But Coulthart really commits to the connection. One only wishes he had given some credit to Haeckel. After this portfolio (with its nonsensical "evocations" by Moore) comes a collection of controversial "Lord Horror" illustrations. They are both prurient and puerile -- I damn them with my alliteration! HPL is most effective when trying to maintain dignity as well as sanity in the face of overwhelming cosmic terror, which is itself "dignified" in its own horrible (to human eyes) way, just of another, perhaps even loftier order.
BEST GRAPHIC FORM LOVECRAFT EVER.......2007-02-03
Over the years I have come across many illustrated, comic book adaptations of Lovecraft works, and even more Lovecraft "inspired" creations. Most fall short in capturing the cosmic horror that is Lovecraft's trademark. There are two works, however, that succeed
wildly in this endeavor. The absolute best, both artistically and horrificly, is John Coulthart's "The Haunter of the Dark : And Other Grotesque Visions" . The illustrations in this volume fully depict the occult evil and sanity shattering madness that Lovecraft specialized in. Judging by the attention to detail that Coulthart put into his satanic artwork, I would guess that he is more than just a casual dabbler in things arcane. He is also a spectacular illustrator.
The 2nd noteworthy Lovecraft graphic work is not an adaptation of one of Howard's stories. It is one that uses him as a character in his own insane little world. "Lovecraft" , by Hans Rodionoff, Enrique Breccia, & Keith Giffen, is a faithfully wicked & terrifying concept piece.
Buy both books and revel in brilliant insanity.
Book Description
This history of Japanese mass culture during the decades preceding Pearl Harbor argues that the new gestures, relationship, and humor of ero-guro-nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense) expressed a self-consciously modern ethos that challenged state ideology and expansionism. Miriam Silverberg uses sources such as movie magazines, ethnographies of the homeless, and the most famous photographs from this era to capture the spirit, textures, and language of a time when the media reached all classes, connecting the rural social order to urban mores. Employing the concept of montage as a metaphor that informed the organization of Japanese mass culture during the 1920s and 1930s, Silverberg challenges the erasure of Japanese colonialism and its legacies. She evokes vivid images from daily life during the 1920s and 1930s, including details about food, housing, fashion, modes of popular entertainment, and attitudes toward sexuality. Her innovative study demonstrates how new public spaces, new relationships within the family, and an ironic sensibility expressed the attitude of Japanese consumers who identified with the modern as providing a cosmopolitan break from tradition at the same time that they mobilized for war.
Average customer rating:
- A fascinating look at the grotesque's religious implications
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The Grotesque in Art and Literature : Theological Reflections
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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While there has been a growing interest in the use of grotesque imagery in art and literature, very little attention has been given to the religious and theological significance of such imagery. This fascinating book redresses that neglect by exploring the religious meaning of the grotesque and its importance as a subject for theological inquiry.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating look at the grotesque's religious implications.......1998-02-04
Standing always at the edge of society's consciousness is a group of artistic works that repel as they fascinate: the grotesque. Dismissed by the "respectable," and often condemned for their absurdity, incongruity, and perceived immorality, they nonetheless hold powerful sway in the popular imagination. Sordid pagan tales of incest and bloodletting, the medieval carnival, commedia dell'arte--these popular uprisings of the grotesque imagination reveal, through their marginalized position in the cultural scene, deep seated impulses that polite society has suppressed.
Yates surveys four major theoretical approaches to the grotesque-Wolfgang Kayser's grotesque as demonic "other," Mikhail Bahktin's edenic carnival, Geoffrey Harpham's notion of the grotesque as the process of becoming, and Ewa Kuryluk's feminist interpretation of the grotesque as an expression of subdued or oppressed "anti-worlds." Yates uses these theorists to identify major themes in grotesque art that speak to religious impulses: bafflement over the meaning of human existence; the dread of non-existence; man's ability to create; and our perception of the world as fallen.
Roger Hazelton's "The Grotesque, Theologically Considered" seems to express the central insight of this book: that the grotesque, like theology, forces us to reflect on mystery properly conceived. As Hazelton says:
Mystery is not a synonym for residual ignorance which will be dispelled when the sciences get around to it. Neither can it simply be equated with the unknown or unknowable. . . . Theology and grotesque art . . . find a certain affinity in a common persuasion that mystery remains a real and radical feature of our existing in the world-something not reducible to the aims and methods of technical expertise . . . thus compelling other kinds of human response and acknowledgment.
For Hazelton, the grotesque, in expressing the mystery of Being recalls to us theology's enunciation of "that abiding, confiding trust and loyalty called faith."
Also notable in this collection is Wolfgang Stechow's consideration of Hieronymus Bosch, whose Garden of Earthly Delights was placed by Spain's King Philip II at the altar of the Escorial. Bosch has long been a puzzle to art critics and the faithful alike. Praised by a Spanish monk at the time of its completion as a bold representation of man "as he is on the inside," the painting, with Dante's Inferno, ranks among the best commentaries of the grotesque nature of sin. The book also boasts an excellent examination of the gravedigger's scene from Hamlet and a previously unpublished play by Robert Penn Warren, Ballad of a Sweet Dream of Peace: A Charade for Easter.
The only disappointment in the collection is the essay that James Luther Adams wrote in the '70s before abandoning the project for a quarter century. "The Grotesque and Our Future" studiously avoids discussion of the deeper insights about man and religion the grotesque affords, instead confining himself to banal policy pronouncements. He quotes approvingly the call for a "revitalized United Nations" as the antidote to 20th century violence, a suggestion that gains a grotesque irony in the post-Sarajevo era. Surveying the cultural scene, he finds nothing more "typically and pathetically grotesque" than the spectacle of "the president's daughter tutoring two inner-city children at the White House." (One feels Dr. Adams has not looked hard enough.) Given the fact that we seem to be experiencing a uprising of the grotesque in popular music and movies--notice for example, Quentin Tarantino--this essay is a missed opportunity to discuss what the grotesque may say about our culture's future.
Still, in all, The Grotesque in Art and Literature is fascinating reading: well written, insightful, synthesizing various disciplinary approaches in an attempt to gain a view of the whole subject. Moreover, the subject of the grotesque may well become one of great interest to believers in the postmodern era. As American culture itself becomes more and more grotesque, there may be much insight to gain from art and literature that stands on the cultural edge and gazes back to the center.
Amazon.com
Herman Mudgett, who called himself Dr. H. H. Holmes, seemed the epitome of the late 19th century "Golden Age": he was a well-dressed, charismatic, self-made entrepreneur (think Andrew Carnegie). Unfortunately for his many victims, he was also a liar, bigamist, debtor, con man, and murderer. The setting for several of his murders was the bizarre urban "castle" he built in Chicago--a ramshackle construction with mazelike corridors, soundproof rooms, sealed vaults, oversized furnaces, and chutes leading down to the cellar. Holmes's undoing was an insurance scam in which he planned to use a corpse supplied by a doctor to fake his partner's death, but ended up killing the partner, his wife, and his five children. The Boston Book Review wrote, "[Harold] Schechter's account of this charming, repulsive monster is both an astonishing piece of popular history as well as a near clinical analysis of as sinister a killer as this country has ever produced."
Also recommended: Schechter's books about Albert Fish (Deranged) and Ed Gein (Deviant).
Book Description
The heinous bloodlust of Dr. H.H. Holmes is notorious -- but only Harold Schechter's Depraved tells the complete story of the killer whose evil acts of torture and murder flourished within miles of the Chicago World's Fair. "Destined to be a true crime classic" (Flint Journal, MI), this authoritative account chronicles the methods and madness of a monster who slipped easily into a bright, affluent Midwestern suburb, where no one suspected the dapper, charming Holmes -- who alternately posed as doctor, druggist, and inventor to snare his prey -- was the architect of a labyrinthine "Castle of Horrors." Holmes admitted to twenty-seven murders by the time his madhouse of trapdoors, asphyxiation devices, body chutes, and acid vats was exposed. The seminal profile of a homegrown madman in the era of Jack the Ripper, Depraved is also a mesmerizing tale of true detection long before the age of technological wizardry.
Customer Reviews:
Not As Good As Deranged.......2007-07-19
it was a good read but it wasn't as disturbing or as interesting as deranged. i would still read it though , it's really well written
A True Psychopath.......2007-07-07
I read this book a couple years ago, so I can't remember enough about the writing style to comment on it, but as far as I recall it was well written and certainly informative.
What makes me compelled to write a review, is due to the subject matter. Not to downplay such infamous murderers as Ted Bundy or Ed Gein, but Holmes is in a league all his own. This guy had the most elaborate schemes to kill people that I've ever heard of, and he did it in high volume. We're talking potentially (unverified) in the range of 240, or so, people!! He was a true psychopath in every sense of the word, and you really need to read this book, or the other one mentioned, about H.H.Holmes. What you THOUGHT was the worst and most unbelievable horror story you've ever heard, will seem tame in comparison.
Every Bit As Good As I Had Hoped.......2007-05-17
I too bought this book after having found out about H.H. Holmes from reading Erik Larson's The Devil In the White City. I read a lot of true crime books and had never heard of him before, so I had to find out more and I think this book did a really great job in describing his crimes without glorifying them.
Harold Schrecter had a way of keeping me interested even during some parts that could have been very tedious with all of the details, but then I think details are important in cases where you are trying to understand how someone could commit such terrible crimes especially over 120 years ago.
A must read for anyone into true crime and anyone who is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, since the types of crimes this man actually committed belong in one of his tales of fiction.
Definitely 5 Stars........2007-03-03
This is a great book! I read it in two days. Very hard to put down. The writing is terrific. It reads like the best horror mystery. And the subject is interesting. It's at least as good as Thomas Harris' RED DRAGON, and much better than the other Hannibal books. This is the sort of book you wanna take with you on a business trip, or vacation, or to your in-laws house. The other reviews already covered what the book is about; I simply want to add that it's a great read.
castle of horrors.......2006-12-30
H.H. Holmes commited his crimes in the late 19th century in Chicago. It's incredible how Harold Schechter has been able to write such a detailed account on this monster. Another must-read.
The dapper, charming Holmes, as he was described by the people who knew him, was also a liar, bigamist and a murderer. How many people were murdered in his 'castle', no one will ever know. Schechter's description of the castle is chillingly good. It feels like you're hiding in a corner, watching how Holmes is walking around, inspecting every room while commiting his grotesque crimes.
The book could have done without the detailled descriptions of Holmes' travels around the country. It tends to get a bit boring, certainly when, in the next chapter, the investigators revisit the same places. The middle of the book is a bit repetitive. Nevertheless, a well written true crime book.
Book Description
A Pop Ink Book by Charles S. Anderson Design Company
From Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to B horror movie icons to The Addams Family and beyond, macabre misfits have thrived in the fertile soil of American modern-age media and pop culture. Brought to Abrams by the creators of the successful Happy Kitty Bunny Pony: A Saccharine Mouthful of Super Cute, Goth-icky celebrates the American goth, their culture, and the vampires, zombies, skeletons, and other mutants that inspire them.
Containing more than 200 images from the print and advertising archives of Charles S. Anderson Design Company in combination with a sharply hilarious text by Michael J. Nelson, the main writer and host of the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000, Goth-icky is a kitsch and campy testament to America's love of horror. So break out the black lipstick, curl up in your coffin, and get ready for some freaky fun!
Customer Reviews:
Bland and uninteresting.......2007-01-09
This is essentially Pop Ink graphics that have been altered to look 'gothy' with the pithy and boring comments of Michael J Nelson of MST3K fame. I like Nelson - but this is not his best medium.
Can one complain about "bad" kitsch?.......2007-01-05
It may sound odd--I was indeed looking for kitsch, but this turned out to be _bad_ kitsch, if that even makes sense. It looks cheap and kindergarten-ish, not lurid or ambivalent. It's empty, no buzz. The images remind one of bad wrapping paper or greeting cards--not billboards or packages or advertising, the sort of thing I had in mind. Well, it might be your sort of thing, but it wasn't what I was looking for.
Just ok........2006-10-12
Of the 3 Pop ink-Mike Nelson collaborations I've read, this one disappointed me and seems to be the weakest. Mike's humor is there, and the art is ok, but not really the same quality as the others, and it just seemed off-target from what I was expecting. Only the first couple pages are anything to do with taking swipes at Goth culture, and the rest are just Halloween art and horror comic illustrations. It is a good book for getting into the Halloween mood, but it just seemed a bit too blah, especially compared to Happy Kitty Bunny Pony. I still recommend it for Halloween art fans and Mike Nelson groupies, but I don't think anyone else would get much from it.
More obviously photoshopped this time.......2005-12-25
I was very delighted to find this one, while trying to show Happy Bunny Kitty Pony to a friend while at a bookstore. As a fan of macabre and kitsch I value the graphics and was ready to read the silly comments from Michael J. Nelson.
I did however, notice in this volume that some of the graphics appeared more photoshopped than Happy Bunny Kitty Pony. Too many nose rings and eyebrow rings. However all images are wonderfully presented in a vintage style and quite frankly "rock my socks."
Iconic nasties and pulp comic imagery, this is a damn good volume of the hopefully ongoing series.
Smarmy and sophomoric.......2005-12-02
I have a feeling that is what it's supposed to be. Mike, keep up the good work.
Jo Jo
Book Description
Whether you lust after it, loathe it, or feign apathy toward it, fame is in your face. Cintra Wilson gets to the heart of our humiliating fascination with celebrity and all its preposterous trappings in these hilarious, whip-smart, and subversive essays. Often radical and always a scream, Wilson takes on every sacred cow, toppling icons as diverse as Barbra Streisand, Ike Turner, Michael Jackson, and-for obvious reasons-Bruce Willis. She exposes events like the Oscars and even athletic jamborees as having grown a "tumescent aura of Otherness." Wilson's scathing and irresistible dissections of Las Vegas as "the Death Star of Entertainment," and Los Angeles as "a giant peach of a dream crawling with centipedes" pulse with her enlightened rejection of all things false and vain and egotistical. Written with her trademark zeal and intelligence, A Massive Swelling is the antidote for the fame virus that infects us all.
Customer Reviews:
The Definitive Snarky Pop-Culture Bible.......2006-08-07
If you have a love-hate relationship with our celebrity culture, this is a book you must read. Both grudgingly admiring and sharply critical, this book discusses our fascination with celebrities in an always hilarious and sometimes even enlightening way. Topics discussed include Michael Jackson, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the allure of boybands, plastic surgery, eating disorders, drugs, Tina Turner, rock n roll, and Bruce Willis. Every chapter is funny and insightful. And come on, doesn't any book with the subtitle: "Celebrity Re-Examined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease" deserve your $10?
Highly recommended.
Spot-On Commentary on our celebrity-obsessed culture.......2005-10-11
This is a book that sorely needed to be written. It may be several years old, but it was new to me.
With a piercing wit and a sharp tongue, Cintra Wilson cuts down to size some of Hollywood's biggest celebrities. The result is both funny and sad at the same time. Funny, because it's always entertaining to see the rich and famous make fools of themselves in the pursuit of even greater fame, power and money.
And sad, because it's pathetic to see the extent to which some of these people are willing to debase themselves in order to maintain their status once they become rich and famous, especially those that have questionable talent to begin with. Even sadder is the fact that masses of people all over the world idolize them.
With their self-indulgent behavior often disguised from the public or cloaked under a veil of piousness (i.e, Ethan Hawke, Tom Hanks) Wilson reveals how some of liberal Hollywood's biggest names are about as morally bankrupt as the staunchest right-wing conservative.
What makes this book carry even more weight with me is the fact that it was written by someone who describes herself as being "about as liberal as they come". But Wilson's commentary is far and above the type of one-sided and one-dimensional whining about Hollywood and the "media elite" one gets from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett, and other purveyors of right-wing bile.
[Aside: I once saw Bill Bennett walking in downtown Washington, DC; the man's belly was the size of three pregnant women combined. I mean, it was just enormous; someone needs to tell him that gluttony is no virtue (and neither is gambling, for that matter...he he :-)].
But back to my review...
In a few cases, Wilson details specific incidents of outrageous or attention-seeking behavior on the part of certain celebrities, identifying the person by name - Barbara Streisand, Keeanu Reeves, Cher, Courtney Love, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson (Dion and Jackson receive a particularly delicious skewering).
But in other instances, she refers to "a celebrity who shall remain nameless". For example, I would love to know the name of the ogre who for no reason at all drew a gun and shot someone's watch. I wondered why some of them were named while others not. (Threat of lawsuits would be my guess).
Predictably, some of the celebrities' bad behavior involves sexual improprieties. In fact, the book is filled with accounts of people who have literally prostituted themselves for fame.
My one (and very slight) criticism of "A Massive Swelling" has to do with Wilson's writing style, which can only be described as idiosyncratic. She has a tendency to write in run-on sentences, which require several re-readings to understand. However, this is a small complaint and it in no way diminishes the value--and timeliness--of this hilariously entertaining book.
Hip and hilarious prophecy.......2005-06-02
Hip and hilarious pop culture uber-critic, Cintra Wilson, traces the imagery of the last 25 years of American celebrity icons to illustrate the emotionally warping effects of the desire for fame. Wilson takes on Michael Jackson and the fading stars of the Vegas strip to show the disastrous consequences of an unbridled need for public attention and adulation. She compares the rock music of earlier generations to the fly-by-night pop stars of the last 20 years to illustrate how corporate marketing of the arts has drained them of their soul and genuine sexual potency in favor of product endorsement and marketability, however short-lived and disingenuous.
This obssession with appearances-over-content is most evident in Hollywood's current fervor for plastic surgery, now so ubiquitous it's hard to find examples of real bodies undergoing the real aging process. Naturally this affects women more than men as large-breasted supermodels are juxtaposed with petite, ever-virginal female athletic competitors and the spectre of the female form on display in beauty pageants.
However, this is not a feminist diatribe against objectification nor an intellectual's disgust with the banality of America's pop culture tastes (though Wilson is indisputably both a feminist and an intellectual). Wilson's voice serves as something of a moral prophet, condemning both the twisted values of the privileged and of their worshipful consumers. Narcissism and self-loathing (a combination Wilson epitomizes with the likes of Bruce Willis, Barbra Streisand, and Woody Allen) are the hubris of a culture in which one gets fame by being famous (i.e. marketable) rather than by having done anything noteworthy.
Wilson concludes by showing the negative influence of fame on the arts themselves. Since money now instills value and fame has become its own reason for existence, the traditional cathartic purposes of art have been lost almost completely. People seek simply to be entertained rather than to exorcise the truth of the human experience in the relative safety of artistic pursuits. The tragic result is what Wilson astutely calls an audience "now so empty and well trained and schlock-addicted that it is indeed moved by these fatty theatrical dry humps and keeps coming back".
like Tarantino swallowed the Oxford English Dictionary..........2005-04-01
this book is not without its faults. I must admit feeling like a pervert signing it out at the local library thanks to the title and cover picture. Wilson has talent--there's no debating that. At times her prose sparkles with brilliant wit and insight, the cumulative effect being a knife-job on her deserving targets. But she never digs deep enough to get really intimate, relying more on a cursory glance and quick synopsis of a plethora of topics within our diseased societal attraction to celebrity and other issues. Perhaps she knows the topic too well and the plastic world she surveys becomes a part of the style and substance of the story she describes.
The prose in spots is unbeatable but let me express one caveat: Wilson often indulges in description ad nauseam and there are enough capitalized words here to do serious damage to the trachea of a hippopotamus. Strunk and White would probably suffer immediate apoplexy upon reading three sentences. The ending goes into a self-help rant for those needing a final kick between the eyes to really get the message home. In short, 5 stars for the spots of great writing and originality; 3 stars for the bad writing (editor needed) and aftertaste.
One of the funniest, most biting books ever........2005-01-13
This is pure comedy. And pure satire. Cintra Wilson's writing is at once warm and cutting. Her plunge into celebrity culture is illuminating, disturbing and highly entertaining. This is great reading, and you'll want to return to it over and over again. Highly recommended.
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