Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- goreletter:scream_musings [2013/11/29 11:18] – marnzen
+++ goreletter:scream_musings [2013/11/29 12:07] (current) – marnzen
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+THE GORELETTER
+Arnzen's Weird Newsletter
+http://www.gorelets.com
++++ Vol 1.1, Sept. 26, 2002 +++
+**Scream Musings**
+----
+==== MISSION ====
+Here you can expect the unexpected.
+Like many writer's newsletters, one
+intention of The Goreletter is to share
+news of interest to my readers. But I
+will also approach this as a creative
+workspace, not as a dull publicity tool.
+From strange poetry to offbeat
+departments to essays on writing and
+the web, The Goreletter will be full of
+weird ideas worth mulling over.
+Don't be fooled by its name: The
+Goreletter is not intended to be gory
+(though it might be). Nor is it
+associated with Al Gore. The title
+simply signifies that it complements my
+web site at: http://www.gorelets.com
+Feedback encouraged. Sign the
+gorelets guestbook and let me know
+what you think.
+On to the unpleasantry…
+-- Michael Arnzen
+====BLATHER====
+To "blather" means to chatter foolishly.
+But the word sounds more like "bloody
+lather" to me, so let's scrub up….
+"Scream Musings"
+:
+So long as you're screaming, you know
+you're alive. Your first word is a
+scream. Your last word, often, is a
+scream. Screaming is nothing more
+than baby talk with the volume cranked
+up. In other words: something like
+whalesong.
+:
+Fact: We all don't scream for ice
+cream.
+:
+Screams cry out to others -- to alarm
+them or ward them off or bring them to
+assist us. But we are always the one
+who hears them loudest.
+:
+Edward Munch, expressionist painter
+of "The Scream," somehow captures
+the sound of a wailing man in the
+pigment. You can hear it if you're in
+the museum that houses the actual
+painting. But you must put your ears
+against the canvas and strain quite a
+bit to hear it. Even then: all you'll hear
+is a whisper. If you do hear the
+scream, it's too late. You have
+certainly gone mad and your senses
+are no longer to be trusted.
+:
+Do you truly listen to the Scream
+Queens? Should you?
+:
+Paper cuts aside, I've never seen a
+reader scream while reading a horror
+novel.
+:
+Screaming is an art. Screams are a
+matter of maximum volume at
+maximum air current at maximum
+pitch. All stops are out with the scream
+-- all ten fingers are chording the
+organ, Nosferatu-style. There's music
+in it. This is a truism that opera singers
+and metalheads share.
+:
+Screaming is part of animal's everyday
+language. The monkey screech is
+perhaps the closest thing to a primal
+scream among animals. Cats hiss
+when they're scared, but how do we
+know they're not actually screaming
+when they're meowing with gusto? Do
+you ever scream back? Should you?
+:
+Which is correct? Is it
+"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" or
+"Aaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" or "Arrrrrrrrrrrghghgh!"?
+Which is best: "Doh!" or "Oh!" or "Ow!"
+or "No!" Are screams ever >really<
+more than one word? Do ALL CAPS
+make these words any louder? Does
+removing the exclamation point rob
+them of their urgency?
+Perhaps handwriting best captures the
+erotic nature of the scream: the
+bleeding of ink into the page; the to
+and fro of fat and thin lines as the pen
+presses into and out of the paper,
+recording the ebb and flow of the
+writer's panic; the missing words and
+misspellings and ink stains blotted by
+sweat and tears.
+:
+Screaming is ambiguous so it's hard to
+really know what to do when someone
+walks up and screams at you for no
+apparent reason. You scream for
+pleasure as much as pain. You
+scream for attention as much as for
+silence. You scream when you're
+scared and you scream to scare other
+people.
+:
+!
+====SNIPPETS OF THE STRANGE====
+"Am I the only lesbian goth in
+London?" -- headline spotted on
+slashgoth.org, July 18, '02
+"Parachutes for the car are optional.
+Their ultimate goal is to drop a
+Greyhound with forty people inside."
+-- slashdot.org, Sept 19, '02
+====INSTIGATION====
+TWISTED PROMPTS
+FOR SICKO WRITERS
+Craft a scene where a doctor explains
+to his patient why he must break his
+bones. Include an unexpected tool.
+A killer is holding a conversation with
+his (or her) weapon of choice in a busy
+public setting. What's on their minds?
+Script the dialogue.
+Write the diary entry of a madman;
+begin by detailing some event (whether
+personal or in the news) that actually
+occurred in your life today. Even if you
+actually went insane, fictionalize it.
+====NIGHT OF THE GIVING DEAD====
+Please support literacy, so that more
+people can read the depraved and
+corrupt ideas of dark imagineers and
+frighteners everywhere. The Horror
+Writers Association has partnered with
+Proliteracy World-wide to sponsor an
+online auction of wonderful horror
+genre related items, ranging from
+getting your name in a famous author's
+book, to rare editions of impossible to
+find miscellany. I've donated a few
+nice things, short of bodily organs. It's
+a good cause, after all.
+Shocklines.com is sponsoring the
+event until 10/9. Here's a direct link:
+http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/shocklines/
+And here's a hot new link to go right to
+the "Arnzen Horror Lot" in the auction,
+which features true rarities, and a
+curious spare copy of my first novel,
+Grave Markings. [But I >swear< I did
+NOT take a bite out of the book! Check
+it out for a chuckle)]:
+<del>cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1565790011</del>
+If any Goreletter subscriber wins the
+bidding on the Arnzen lot, I'll reward
+you. Send me an e-mail with your
+name, address and the secret
+password -- "*deleted*" -- in it and I'll
+supplement your bounty with a
+personalized copy of another hard-to-
+find Arnzen book, magazine, or other
+oddity from my private stock.
+C'mon, get your weird out. Bid on it
+before 9/30 and help people figure out
+what all those squiggles on paper
+mean, would ya?
+====OUR ODD TRIPLE FEATURE====
+"But you NEED the deviants, Judge!"
+For your next movie night, rent:\\
+LENNY\\
+THE PEOPLE vs. LARRY FLINT\\
+AND JUSTICE FOR ALL\\
+====NOT DEAD YET: PRINT REVIEWS====
+Here's a cool magazine you probably
+haven't seen: QUICK FICTION. This
+slim, pocket-sized edition of literary
+microfiction features fifteen stunning
+tales under 500 words a piece. Issue
+#1 features stories like Richard
+Pearse's "Cat Custody" -- in which a
+couple's absurd squabble over the
+cat's attention turns deadly -- or Beth
+Bayley's remarkable "What Tim
+Haynes Found" -- a letter to the future
+discovered in an attic, written by a
+group of teens who share a unique
+secret.
+QUICK FICTION is a steal for the 2-
+issue subscription price of only $6.
+Issue #2 is due to be mailed any day
+now. Visit <del>jppress.org</del> for more
+info on this wonderfully brief literary
+journal. Celebrate the short-short!
+====WEIRD SITES OF THE MONTH====
+Happy Little Clots:
+<del>thegoldenageofgrotesque.com</del>
+Web Search for Unknown Kadath:
+http://www.cthuugle.com/
+Trick-or-Treat, Smell my Severed Feet:
+http://www.stupid.com/
+====GORELETS====
+"3 Sporting Haikruel"
+BATTING CAGES
+fathers with young boys\\
+writhe in wrought iron cages\\
+evading the bats\\
+GUTTERBALL
+head needs some polish\\
+skull galumphing down alley\\
+missing the bone pins\\
+KITTENNIS
+catgut strung racquet\\
+far too heavy to volley\\
+dangling the feline\\
+====ARNZEN NEWS====
+Flying Discs of Despair: Check out the
+neat t-shirts, mugs, and, yes, frisbees
+that DarkVesper Publishing has put
+together to support my upcoming book,
+FREAKCIDENTS, at
+<del>darkvesperpublishing.com</del>
+Speaking of FREAKCIDENTS, I just
+received a great blurb (cover quote)
+from James Morrow about the book:
+"Welcome to the barbed brain of
+Michael Arnzen, where every axon is a
+steel trap, every dendrite a hidden
+snare, every synapse a cul de sac, and
+every myelin sheath an elixir enabling
+us to find affirmation in ugliness and to
+smile whenever the dog eats God's
+homework."
+-- James Morrow, Nebula and World
+Fantasy Award winning author of THE
+ETERNAL FOOTMAN and THE LAST
+WITCHFINDER.
+You'll find the above tattooed on my
+forehead. I'll lift my bangs and flash
+the audience with it before fiction
+readings. And it'll be a riot if I ever go
+in for brain surgery.
+A handful of my short stories have
+been posted on <del>fictionwise.com</del> -- the
+premiere e-book distributor for sci-
+fi/fantasy/horror -- and I've had the
+honor of being a best-seller in their
+horror and crime categories for the
+past month. They'll be distributing my
+Bram Stoker Award finalist from y2k,
+PARATABLOIDS: Poetry Based on the
+Weekly World News, as an e-book
+sometime next month. So keep your
+eyes peeled. (You can borrow my
+stainless steel peeler. The good one
+with the rubber grip.)
+YOUR BONUS for reading: Fictionwise
+offers "15% off" discounts on a special
+list of e-books for readers of
+Gorelets.com. The list of discounts is
+updated >weekly<:
+<del>fictionwise.com/fwa/4004/</del>
+Some free stuff out soon this month:
+"The Curse of Fat Face"\\
+++ Vestal Review\\
+http://www.vestalreview.net
+"In the Middle"\\
+++ Insolent Rudder\\
+<del>insolentrudder.org</del>
+"Eyeless" & "Microbescope"\\
+++ Sidereality\\
+<del>sidereality.com</del>
+"Exhaling You"\\
+++ The Dream People\\
+http://dreampeople.org
+Lots o' Halloween stuff to come around
+next time.
+====NEW AT GORELETS.COM====
+Readers who have been following my
+site have noticed that I've been playing
+around with "Flash" animation a lot
+lately -- as in the "Disco Inferno" e-
+poem I published on the site last
+month. Gorelets.com's front page now
+features an interactive "handheld PDA"
+that brings to life the previous Gorelets
+logo. It lets you read different things
+when you click on the buttons with your
+mouse. It's still under development,
+but if you click on the skull face icon or
+the logo for "Gorelets" itself on the
+main screen, you'll get some
+interesting results. Feedback on this
+experiment is appreciated.
+Subscribers can sneak preview more
+of my multimedia madness at:\\
+http://www.gorelets.com/demos/demos.htm
+====COLOPHON====
+Thanks for scrolling so far down. Look
+for issue #2 shortly before Halloween.
+If you're an e-mail subscriber, forward
+this issue to a friend. If you're a PDA
+channel reader, beam it to someone.
+This is a new project and I need you to
+help spread the word.
+If you're tired of this noise, then plug
+your ears and UNSUBSCRIBE at:\\
+<del>gorelets.com/phunp/maillist/goreletmail.php</del>
+---
+All material in The Goreletter is:
+© 2002 Michael A. Arnzen, unless
+otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
+Permission is granted to forward the
+entire contents as a whole, without
+alterations. For reprint permissions,
+please contact arnzen@gorelets.com.
+This newsletter is formatted in one
+skinny column to accommodate
+handheld computer users. If you own
+a PDA, try The Goreletter as a free
+Mazingo channel at:
+<del>mazingo.net/pc/subscribe.php?site_id=1552&src=111</del>
+====PITHY MORBID THOUGHTS====
+"Life does not cease to be funny when
+people die any more than it ceases to
+be serious when people laugh."
+-- George Bernard Shaw (died 1950)
+----
+{{page>gfoot&nodate&nouser}}