Category Archive: Fiction
House of Names by Colm Toibin
"I don't know why everyone is SHOUTING..." (Orestes pursued by the Furies - William Adolphe Bouguereau,1862)
Irish novelist Colm Tóibín’s 2016 re-imagining of the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father, Agamemnon, his return from Troy and the bloody aftermath, starts well. The longest, first part is narrated by Agamemnon’s enraged wife, Clytemnestra, and her ghost narrates the shortest, part five. Clytemnestra’s voice is the best, capturing something of the remote, wild affect of the ancient Greek verse we know:- “We are all hungry now. Food merely whets our appetite, it sharpens our teeth; meat makes us ravenous for more meat, as death is ravenous for more death. Murder makes us more ravenous, fills the soul with satisfaction that is fierce and then luscious enough to create a…
Continue Reading →The Man on a Donkey
Christ Walking on the Waters by Sergius von Klever
By H. F. M. Prescott (1952) David Foster Wallace started his speech “This is Water” with that old but salutary saw,“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’” In 16th century Britain and Europe, the Christian religion was like water to fish. To doubt the existence of God would be…
Continue Reading →Neil’s Story
Neil’s Story: A Regretful Refugee (ISIS Imprint) (2017) In this haunting, beautifully-written autobiography of one man’s encounter with a strange and hostile culture, the author shows how Australia’s lack of empathy drove him abroad to do good works in the Levant. It’s a unique clash-of-cultures tale, combining the innocence of Australian youth with the intricate and knowing wisdom of an ancient, sacred culture. Neil describes his formative years under the brutal Victorian regime, where he was forced into indentured servitude as an apprentice mechanic. Eventually he escaped this living hell for the promised lands of the Sunni-controlled part of Syria. Prakash was…
Continue Reading →Six Types of Ennui
"Moral Ambiguity" by Ian Sane
“Dear The Varnished Culture, As requested, we enclose a transcript from our media monitoring service of the interview promoting Scumworld’s exciting new series. Invoice to follow. Thank you for your request. Yours sincerely, Ian Churl, Vice President (Marketing) Scumworld Digital services” WEDNESDAY, 12 APRIL 2017 From ‘Marla Knob Today’ with host, Marla Knob MK: I’m talking to Toby Carving, start of the new television series debuting on Scumworld over this Easter weekend, Six Types of Ennui. Toby, welcome. TC: Thank you. MK: Congratulations on the series. TC: Thank you. MK: Tell me, how did the intriguing title come about? TC: I…
Continue Reading →Gwen by Goldie Goldbloom
Gwen by Gwen
(2017) It is difficult to see, from reproductions of Gwen John’s paintings, why her lumpy daubs are thought by many to be better than the skillful if dull portraits painted by her brother, Augustus John. Goldbloom is at pains in Gwen, her novelised version of Gwen John’s life, to say that it was so, that even Augustus knew it. Nor is it easy to understand, at this distance, just why women found those lumpy bawds Augustus and the sculptor Auguste Rodin to be utterly irresistible, but again, apparently they did – or at least the artistic ones like Gwen and Dorelia (the mistress…
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