WHERE do you find this stuff?? Eww!

Kate | July 19, 2005 7:38 AM

I've known about Carlton Mellick and this book for a while. Another of his books, Razor Wire Pubic Hair has been on my Amazon wishlist for a while.

marydell | July 19, 2005 10:44 AM

Well, in NYC, you probably would not be the only one on the subway with that book. I figure it's probably also big in San Fran.

Jim - PRS | July 19, 2005 2:09 PM

Jim, now that I think of it, maybe I do want to be seen riding the subway holding the freakiest book I can find. It'd probably keep the loser next to me from trying to chat me up.

marydell | July 20, 2005 1:16 AM

Carlton Mellick seems to design all of the covers (not just the ones for his own books) for Eraserhead Press.

I think the one he did for Chris Genoa's FOOP! is defintely the tamest one he's done. But it's still a very good cover. And a hilarious book too.

But riding the subway with a book called FOOP! is NOT a good way to keep the losers from chatting you up. A bunch of people asked me what I was reading when they saw the title.

Laura | July 20, 2005 4:09 PM

How uncool of me not to include a link!

FOOP!

and

Chris Genoa

laura | July 20, 2005 4:15 PM

Whoa! Menstruating Mall?

enygma | July 21, 2005 10:45 PM

Laura, thanks for the recommendation. I'm adding Foop! to my wishlist.

When I wrote this post, I had to try and figure out how to describe Mellick's writing. I knew it was a kind of speculative fiction, but pulled the word "bizarro" out of thin air. Then I took a look at Chris Genoa's blog and saw that he and authors like him have come up with their own genre: Bizarro Lit.

After browsing Mondo Bizarro, the movement's message board, I'm impressed with the various authors' enthusiasm for organizing. However, wouldn't that take them away from being the "misfits of the literary world" and move them more toward legitimization?

marydell | July 23, 2005 12:23 AM

I just recently discovered Mellick. Razor Wire Pubic Hair is not bad, in a dystopian, Kathy Acker sort of way.

I plan to read more.

But yes, I did think twice before adding some of the titles to my publicly available wishlist. Heh heh.

maya | July 24, 2005 1:55 PM

I've looked at the Bizarro message board too and am also impressed with the energy the authors there seem to have. It's good to see a bunch of young writers like that with so much enthusiasm for what they're doing. Kind of refreshing, in a Bizarro kind of way.

laura | July 24, 2005 3:00 PM

I was just digging around on the Mondo Bizarro bulletin board again and found this in a post by Jeremy Robert Johnson:

"Never underestimate the value of a German woman's exposed genitalia on your book cover, coupled with the word Satan."

So that's whose ass that is.

marydell | July 27, 2005 9:36 AM

Although I oppose Gothamist on principle (it's a blog about NYC, where I am employed, but I'm not cool and hip so most of their content covers parts of the city I never knew existed), here's an interview with above-mentioned Foop! author Chris Genoa [via Bookslut].

marydell | August 20, 2005 6:55 AM

Carlton is a sinister person. His writing is not for those that wish to read stuff like Harlequin Romances. Alot of his stories evolve around a proto-human psych that has grown adapt to surreal and crazy circumstances and realities. I think what makes Carlton's work stand out is that they often put the reader in a state of relation with the characters, the good as well as the insane (see Menstruating Mall. Nevertheless, there is nothing to be lost for reading his books. I for one have read all of his books, and they are a rarity that keeps you thinking well after the books are put down. Don't be concerned about what other people think if they see you on a subway reading his books. If people frown, then so what. Let then sit and simmer in their puritancal pipedreams of what "proper reading material' really is.

M.Frost V | August 25, 2005 5:40 AM

m.frost v, I must not have explained myself well enough. I could care less if people frown at me on the subway, so long as they don't talk to me or talk about my reading material within earshot.

I'll never forget the time I was on the train reading Nersesian's The Fuck-Up. The cover is designed so that you can only see "uck-up" when the book is closed, but the whole title is visible when the book is open. Some old biddy across from me didn't like it and had no problem announcing it to the entire car. Screw you, you hag.

Since then, I've been self-conscious about the books I carry in public.

marydell | August 28, 2005 10:01 AM