Double-crested cormorants with turtle friends at Lake Roland, Baltimore County, Maryland. © 2021 Sean Stewart
cormorant trio with turtles
Posted by sean on April 7, 2021
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2021/04/07/cormorant-trio-with-turtles/
the black dog – neither/neither
Posted by sean on April 2, 2021
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/the-black-dog-neither-neither/
A Set of Lines review
The writer Rebecca Gransden posted an incisive review of A Set of Lines on Goodreads. Excerpt below:
There is a shorthand inherent in tackling dystopian themes, and Stewart moulds a knowing backdrop, using that shorthand to create a scaffolding which amplifies the atmosphere of benumbed melancholy. Throughout, there is an overwhelming sense of longing underneath the surface, a longing obfuscated and perhaps suppressed for so long, that its very function is being forgotten. The unconscious mind and its rebellion against passivity in the face of the denial of human wants and dignities is very present in this novel.
Posted by sean on February 14, 2021
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2021/02/14/a-set-of-lines-review/
spectral rabbits
In an ongoing series depicting the After People world, GPA archivists report on an infestation of spectral rabbits, as seen through the eyes of one G. Hogg—a disgruntled groundhog just woken from her months-long nap.
Posted by sean on December 25, 2020
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/spectral-rabbits/
a word was unfolding
I made this erasure earlier this year as part of a collaborative inquiry with Archivist NG into the origins of the Ghost Paper Archives. Full text in lined form appears below the images.
An erasure made from a sibylline text created by splicing together excerpts from two public domain texts. Sources: The Night-Side of Nature, or Ghosts and Ghost-Seers by Catherine Crowe. B. B. Mussey & Co., 1850 (courtesy of Project Gutenberg); The Dissociation of a Personality, a Biographical Study in Abnormal Psychology by Morton Prince. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1906 (courtesy of Internet Archive).
a word was unfolding the present
as the present is hypnosis
one being involved in the other
when the victim of action she was a spirit
what loss is to happen
what has happened
what peculiar circumstances
since last fall
this condition we do not know
but that certain thing
telling frightful lies
the worst condition
all experience the moment to feel mortified
however they tell these lies to only one person
and her friend falls into doubt
at a much later date I had opportunities,
his Creator a hundred times might say
we admit this and witness that, for more reasons
in automatism they sleep,
early beginnings exercise the here
in prophetic dreaming
seeing in dreams
may be spontaneous
time and phenomena form no obstruction
to the dreamer things near and far are later
in the nothing mirror self
and nothing to connect what took place
she knew she was the future
such phenomena interest him
man has lost his faculty of seeing
but in sleep the body in a state of passivity
even normal minds split in two
by shutting the senses
we perceive the spirit
when freed from impediments
they enjoy original design
the mirror of two minds at one still moment
receives in dreams rays from above
foretaste of the condition
at this date history has been opinion
the mental ancient life
the original state dubbed from his Creator
that unexpected process
the waking pain self
transformed into the slang of “It”
for his sensuous organs she had the objects
his soul field post-hypnotic
mirror pointed out
everything was reflected
a doubling is induced
a spirit no longer independent
a condition to perceive
degraded and distracted
by the multiplicity
Posted by sean on December 14, 2020
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2020/12/14/a-word-was-unfolding/
ship of fools
I recently participated in Surrealist provocateur Merl Fluin‘s flash fiction game, Ship of Fools. My contribution is entitled ‘Sea Legs’. You can read all of the responses here.
Posted by sean on December 13, 2020
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2020/12/13/ship-of-fools/
2020 in books and music
The less said about this year the better (at the moment and in this space, at least).
My current total of books read for the year stands at 136 and I’m sure I’ll finish a few more before year’s end, though they probably won’t make this list, so I’m posting it earlier than usual. I will update later if this changes. As it turns out I read more books last year, but I suspect I spent more actual hours reading this year due to the circumstances. I think I read more longer books this year, which probably accounts for the difference. Once Goodreads provides my year-end stats I can compare number of pages read and see if this is the case (Update: turns out my suspicions were off the mark—so far I’ve read about 10,000 less pages this year than my total for last year. Definitely not going to make up that difference in the next couple of weeks).
Concentration was definitely a problem this year. As a result I found myself switching between books, starting and stopping books, and completely abandoning books more than usual. But reading remained my top leisure activity and provided a safe refuge from the chaos and negative energy in the world.
If you’re a Goodreads user you can view my entire list of books read here.
Top reads (in order within each genre by date read):
Note: in most cases links are to my Goodreads reviews, not all of which are actual reviews)
Novels/Novellas:
The Box Man / Kōbō Abe (review)
Wide Sargasso Sea / Jean Rhys (review)
The Atrocity Exhibition / J. G. Ballard (review)
The Doll / Lukas Tomin (review)
Dézafi / Frankétienne (review)
The Golden Cut / Merl Fluin (review)
The Diary of Mr. Pinke / Ewald Murrer (review)
Mount Analogue / René Daumal (review)
Rogomelec / Leonor Fini (review)
Mangled Hands / Johnny Stanton (review)
The Model / Robert Aickman (review)
The Narrator / Michael Cisco (review)
The Undying Present / Syd Staiti (review)
The Warren / Brian Evenson (review)
Yesterday / Ágota Kristóf (review)
Such Small Hands / The Bridges / Tarjei Vesaas (review)
Malicroix / Henri Bosco (review)
The Left Hand of Darkness / Ursula K. Le Guin
Short Stories:
All of Your Most Private Places / Meghan Lamb (review)
Secret Hours / Michael Cisco (review)
The Sleep of the Righteous / Wolfgang Hilbig (review)
Waystations of the Deep Night / Marcel Brion (review)
Unreasonable Hours / Julio Cortázar (review)
The Delicate Prey and Other Stories / Paul Bowles (review)
Morbid Tales / Quentin S. Crisp (review)
The Doll Maker and Other Tales of the Uncanny / Sarban (review)
The Sea-Rabbit; Or, the Artist of Life / Wendy Walker (review)
The Unsettled Dust / Robert Aickman (review)
The Earth Wire / Joel Lane (review)
Poetry:
Autumn Sonata: Selected Poems / Georg Trakl (review)
A Certain Plume / Henri Michaux (review)
Coma Crossing: Collected Poems / Roger Gilbert-Lecomte (review)
The Last Gold of Expired Stars: Complete Poems 1908–1914 / Georg Trakl (review)
Drama:
Complete Plays / Sarah Kane (review)
Cross-Genre:
The House of Illnesses / Unica Zürn (review)
Nights as Day, Days as Night / Michel Leiris (review)
The Star Opens Slowly / Casi Cline (review)
Desire for a Beginning Dread of One Single End / Edmond Jabès (review)
Wasteland / New Juche (review)
Literary Anthologies:
Man in the Black Coat: Russia’s Literature of the Absurd / Oberiuty (review)
Nonfiction:
The Trouble With Being Born / E. M. Cioran (review)
Mutations: The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk / Sam McPheeters (review)
Comix:
The Portable Frank / Jim Woodring (review)
Nijigahara Holograph / Inio Asano
Gast / Carol Swain (review)
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters: Vol. 1 / Emil Ferris (review)
________________________________________________________________
MUSIC
I listened to a lot of mixes this year, as opposed to full albums, so I’m keeping the list short, tailored mostly to bands whose songs I keep replaying. I will note that not much has changed with my favorites over the past few years. Occasionally a new band gets added to the heavy rotation roster, but it’s often within an existing favored genre. Nearly everything Justin Broadrick touches continues to floor me. The drone doom and wider post-metal genres in general are popular zones, supplemented with frequent forays into ambient, post-punk, industrial, and retro trips to hardcore, punk, and 80s alternative rock. Much like with my reading tastes, a solidification seems to have occurred. I blame middle age.
The (very) abridged list of what got me through 2020, in no particular order (links in most cases direct to artist Bandcamp pages):
True Widow
Emma Ruth Rundle
Helms Alee
Thou
Jesu
Final
Transitional
Scorn
Nadja
Pelican
Seefeel
Dead Can Dance
Posted by sean on December 13, 2020
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2020/12/13/2020-in-books-and-music/
tree of many trunks
Posted by sean on November 24, 2020
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2020/11/24/tree-of-many-trunks/
A Set of Lines ebook edition
At long last the ebook edition of my novel A Set of Lines is available. The book can be downloaded—free for a limited time—in a reader’s choice of all the usual formats. Many thanks to GPA archivist-technician Nathan Grover for his amiable tenacity in making this happen. For more information on A Set of Lines, including how to order the paperback edition, please visit Ghost Paper Archives. Reviews of the book can be found on Goodreads and at A Wild Slim Alien.
Posted by sean on November 17, 2020
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/a-set-of-lines-ebook-edition/
the sleek ones
In a new post on the Ghost Paper Archives site, three GPA archivists collaboratively ruminate on the arrival of ‘the sleek ones’.
Posted by sean on November 13, 2020
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2020/11/13/the-sleek-ones/
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