had invigorating dinner last night with old friend talking about writing and publishing and all such things. it has been a strange two months of real life difficulties and starting to get feedback and at the same time realizing just how much the narrative direction changed over the summer; book two, which i had hoped to just plow right into, now needs reconsidering.
add to that the real life stuff and i am out of the headspace for the moment. devastating, in a sense, to be so disconnected. i have cleaning supplies piled in the hall and a kitten on this desk and a mess of paying work long-neglected on the floor. no never-never land for me for a bit.
however, was reading old interview with china mieville when he was talking about early influences and he mentioned prince of darkness—which i have not thought of in ages but i saw many times in high school and college. what’s it about? people used to ask, and i would say satan in a jar. ’nuff said. but it is more layered than that . . . and it made me think of those years, what i was into, what i still am into.
i have not thought about joel-peter witkin in ages. somewhere in my parents’ house there is a monograph of his, one of the first art books i ever bought, back when i was in college. but my fascination with d’agoty is in the same vein.
i just read that witkin has to go to mexico for his corpse-work, because of restrictions here; thankfully words don’t require quite so much travel.