This is a very long but amazingly insightful piece from John Cussans, author of Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror and The Zombie Complex. If there was ever a SANS reissue (in some future alternate universe), it would make a great appendix. Similar, I imagine, to what I tried to do with Lethem’s work in SANS: a deep reading that reveals much more than the author consciously put there, while what it does manage to recognize, confirms that the work I intended is there, and is being seen. JC’s article creates an echo of meaning for me, eight years after the fact (SANS was never reviewed, last I checked it had sold a hundred copies). That it took so long maybe indicates how far my cry in the night traveled? Odd, since JC is also from Yorkshire, and roughly the same age.
We must be brothers of the same (hidden) mother…
Enjoy.
A nice and thorough review/analysis, though I admit I’m a bit annoyed by the writer’s cowing to present totalitarian societal trends in order to further his professional career. We need more courage from freethinkers these days, not less.
hard to argue with that; but at least he’s honest about it
Stunning read and I’m only halfway through. I was one of the hundred.
It’s like a standing wave of co-incidences, once again. Thanks Jasun.
You are quite a find. I have been reading Valentin Tomberg with some people I met through the Center for Sophiological Studies, run by Michael Martin up in Michigan. One of them sent me a podcast link about two months ago, and your incredible work has led me to put everything else down and focus on your diagnosis of what it is we’re living through. I have no ask other than please keep doing this work. I suspect I’ll have read all your written work by Christmas! Lethem’s remark about uncanniness and enormous stakes really hits. I was in the gym today in a weights class and Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra came on, and as I’m doing curls to these Satanic but hidden in plain sight lyrics I’m thinking: I’m simply not going to be able to unsee any of this stuff anymore. Thank you for throwing light on this yawning chasm of iniquity in which we are being forced to live… I think.
Like a poem said by a lady in red
You hear the last few words of your life
With a haunting dance, now you’re both in a trance
It’s time to cast your spell on the night