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--- goreletter:stop_making_sixth_sense [2013/11/24 20:02] – [PITHY MORBID THOUGHTS] marnzen
+++ goreletter:stop_making_sixth_sense [2013/11/29 11:36] (current) – marnzen
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+THE GORELETTER:
+Arnzen's Weird Newsletter
+http://www.gorelets.com
++++ Vol. 2 #1, Sept 7, 2003 +++
+**Stop Making Sixth Sense**
+----
+====BLATHER====
+Blather. Wince. Repeat.
+The Sixth Sense
+[Haley Joel Osment: "I see dead
+people."]
+They say there are just five senses, but
+that's not true. There are six: sight,
+sound, smell, touch, taste, and seeing
+dead people.
+But wait: isn't seeing still seeing, even
+if it's seeing what nobody else can
+see? And why couldn't Bruce Willis
+apply his own five senses and realize
+he was a ghost when he couldn't see,
+hear, smell, taste or touch himself?
+Wouldn't that be a form of blindness,
+rather than seeing?
+Okay, it's only a movie (The Sixth
+Sense, 1999). And I should say that I
+really enjoy all stories about psychic
+phenomena to some degree. But I'm
+pretty skeptical of real world ESP.
+Folks who claim to have some "power"
+that the rest of us don't have seem oh
+so 15th century.
+As a teacher, I've encountered
+students who claim to be psychic who
+still raise their hands and ask
+questions or who still somehow
+manage to fail final exams. Uncanny!
+I do believe in intuition and I recognize
+that some folks are more tuned into
+their senses than others. But if there
+were a sixth sense, everyone would
+know about it and there would be no
+debating whatsoever. There would be
+schools in refining it. The government
+would have a branch of ESP warriors
+that would put Phillip K. Dick novels to
+shame. And the sense would already
+be widely exploited by pornographers,
+prostitutes, and movie moguls, whose
+business it is to turn human sensations
+into cheap thrills for profit.
+[Horny Joel Osment: "I see //sexy//
+people!"]
+Also, given the likelihood of handicaps
+in any given population, we would have
+our share of notorious blind seers, deaf
+hearers, noseless smellers, tasteless
+tasters and insensitive feelers. Do you
+know any? Do they have their own 900
+line?
+"Sensing" is a matter of interpretation.
+Have you ever eaten a meal that
+tasted like cardboard to you and like
+manna to someone else? Same thing
+goes with any sixth sense. One
+person's ghost is another person's
+imaginary friend. This is how working
+psychics make their bread and butter:
+on uncertainty and the degree to which
+phenomena are open to interpretation.
+While I will agree that there is always
+more than meets the eye and that the
+human sensorium only gives us a
+partial view of "reality," psychic
+phenomena usually isn't some scary
+power, but a wish-fulfillment. I guess
+this is obvious. Maybe you even
+knew that I was going to say that....
+Nevertheless, there are two
+psychological definitions of a sixth
+sense that I accept: proprioception
+and synesthesia.
+"Proprioception" is actually discussed
+in the poetry textbook I use in my
+classes, as an example of the "sixth
+sense." It's actually scientific.
+Proprioception is a sort of peripheral
+"vision" of the body. It's all about body
+orientation; a sense of balance and
+movement that you don't always
+consciously recognize or respond to.
+It's the autonomic sense, the one
+responsible for "feeling" things like, say
+the knucklebones popping in your
+fingers or the muscles tightening in
+their sleeves of flesh. Proprioception is
+what state troopers test when they
+make drunks close their eyes and
+touch their nose with their fingers.
+Think of phantom limb phenomena --
+that sensation we all get after we lose
+our leg in a freak boating accident.
+We've all been there. We feel our legs
+moving even when they're no longer
+attached at the hip! That's
+proprioception at work.
+Or how about when your arm "falls
+asleep" as if it had a mind of its own? It
+buzzes like crazy, sure, but did you
+ever stop to consider all those
+nightmares that sleeping arm has
+about barbells and immunization
+shots? Proprioception again. You can't
+pronounce it but you've got it.
+Some scientists claim the sixth sense
+is not so much an "extra" sense as it is
+a combination of what we already
+have: a "synesthesia." Like anesthesia
+(which means a lack of sensation) this
+refers to an anomalous brain disorder
+where the lobes gets their wires
+crossed and the senses seemingly
+synthesize, or fuse together. You smell
+numbers. Rock songs taste like
+barbecue sandwiches. You can
+actually feel your lover's voice in your
+eardrum, gentle as a fleshy cotton
+swab....
+Wait. That's the sickth sense.
+[Staley Joke Osment: "I hear dead
+people...and they're groaning!"]
+In any case, these extra sensory
+perceptions are really what fiction
+writers and poets are after: ways of
+describing unreal phenomena that both
+feel as natural as the muscles under
+your skin and yet also bring your
+senses to life in a new way. You don't
+need six of them to experience it.
+Writers use metaphoric language,
+"synthesizing" sensory adjectives with
+nouns they don't rightfully belong with,
+like "sharp cheese" or "bitter memory."
+The sixth sense, whether it exists as a
+mental power or not, is always already
+housed in the imagination. And the
+imagination often doesn't need to
+make //any// sense at all.
+[Scaley Joe Osmental: "I see living
+dead people. And they taste like
+chicken!"]
+====ONLINE GIZMO OF THE MONTH====
+"The Gender Genie"
+Paste a snippet of text into this online
+form at BookBlog.net, and -- applying
+an algorithm from groundbreaking
+linguistic research -- the Gender Genie
+will determine whether the writer is
+male or female!
+How is this possible?!
+In a nutshell, it assumes that men write
+more about objects than women, who
+tend to write more often about
+relationships. Whether that's hogwash
+or not, the Genie is apparently right
+% of the time. Are you?
+Check to see if you're unknowingly
+writing in drag. Or test one of those
+ambiguously-gendered author names
+and/or suspicious-looking
+pseudonyms. Or do some detective
+work on your Instant Message buddies.
+The Gender Genie won't grant any of
+your wishes but it's lots of fun to, um,
+fool around with.
+<del>bookblog.net/gender/genie.html</del>
+====INSTIGATION: TWISTED PROMPTS FOR SICKO WRITERS====
++ Do something devilish with a
+character who is a glass blower.
++ Describe a seance from the
+viewpoint of the spirit realm.
++ Begin a piece by describing a
+disturbing piece of art.
+Instigation is now a WEEKLY
+department in Hellnotes newsletter:
+http://www.hellnotes.com
+If you publish something instigated by
+this department, let me know at
+arnzen@gorelets.com and I'll mention
+it here!
+====NOT DEAD YET: PRINT REVIEWS====
+Headhunter, by Tim Curran, is the first
+chapbook published by Dark Animus
+Press and it's quite an impressive
+debut. The story -- about an encounter
+with evil in the deepest jungles of
+Vietnam -- is a knockout war fable and
+a very satisfying tale of horror,
+combining old school supernaturalism
+with modern day shock. The cover art
+by Les Peterson is simply gorgeous
+(and he offers copious interior illos to
+accompany the story). The bonus short
+story in the back of the book -- "Friday
+Night Freak Show" -- illustrated this
+time by GW Thomas -- is a lot of dark
+fun, providing a well-earned comic
+relief from the unflinching horror of the
+novella in the book proper.
+Tim Curran is fairly new on the horror
+scene, but his work is appearing
+everywhere in the small press these
+days and everything I've read by him
+has been genuinely good. If you
+haven't read him yet, and you're
+looking for a good war story, pick up
+Headhunter and you won't be
+disappointed.
+Headhunter is probably as much about
+a mythic "devil that hunts heads" as it
+is about the horror of the Vietnam
+experience. And for all its spookiness,
+every sentence in this book drips with
+dark realism. The story rings so true to
+'Nam and yet it's a fantasy story about
+the dreams and nightmares of the
+grunt soldier cast into the jungle. From
+its grim "reapers" of green facepaint to
+the Vietnamese legends and ghost
+stories, this book jumps right into the
+battlefield of fear.
+Curran knows how to write
+atmosphere. Headhunter will
+decapitate you with its breathless
+power. Tim Curran's metaphors zing
+like bullets past a Kevlar helmet -- they
+come out of nowhere and almost take
+your head off. His characters sound
+like they've been there, dug into the
+muck of a war that nobody wanted. If
+you only know Vietnam from the
+history books, this novella will scar you
+and I don't think you'll ever look at that
+war -- or any conflict -- the same way
+again.
+Because of its unforgettable brutality,
+this is not an easy novella to read, but
+that's also precisely why you must read
+it. It'll traumatize you and haunt you
+long after you've put it down.
+Headhunter is an important addition to
+the literature of the Vietnam war -- and
+certainly to the horror genre. Tim
+Curran will win a lot of fans with this
+one. Headless, I now count myself
+among them.
+http://www.darkanimus.com
+[A discount coupon for Headhunter
+appears elsewhere in this issue!]
+====WEIRD SITES OF THE MONTH====
+Know Your Dead
+Who's Alive and Who's Dead?
+http://www.whosaliveandwhosdead.com
+Dead or Alive?
+http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf
+Celebrity Death Beeper
+http://www.celebritydeathbeeper.com
+Dead People Server
+http://www.dpsinfo.com/dps/index.html
+====GORELETS: Unpleasant Poems====
+Fun with Ganglion
+Tie to stick and tease\\
+or tickle the imaginary cat.\\
+Dry on rack, break off branches\\
+and serve as garnish with lung.\\
+Suspend from thin wire in aquarium;\\
+fool the fish with your human seaweed.\\
+Ball up and bind; use to sponge-paint\\
+pink patterns on living room wall.\\
+Chew like gum; violently cough\\
+when clowning with the kiddies\\
+and slip gently free from jaws before\\
+tugging maniacally as a magician\\
+on the rainbow of wet tourniquets\\
+spooling from the mouth.\\
+====ARNZEN NEWS====
++ CyberPulp Digital Paperbacks tells
+me that my e-chapbook of twisted
+poems about sports, SPORTUARY,
+will be available by Sept 15th.
+In his review for THE DREAM
+PEOPLE, writer Gary West summed it
+up wonderfully: "Sportuary is the
+culmination of what could happen if
+sport and the win at all costs attitude it
+breeds were to go unchecked, and the
+dark side were to take over. Plus, it is
+one hell of a fun read...."
+Featuring original color paintings by
+Marcia Borell, this thirty page e-book
+will be just three bucks!
+(While you're waiting for Sportuary,
+you might want to pick up Bruce
+Boston's $3 poetry book at CyberPulp,
+called Head Full of Strange. I loved it!)
+<del>cyberpulp.netfirms.com/</del>\\
+<del>cyberpulpbooks.com/</del>\\
+<del>gorelets.com/demos/sportuarysampler.htm</del>\\
++ I've learned that two of my pieces
+from last year were listed as
+"Honorable Mention" in the latest
+volume (#16) of The Year's Best
+Fantasy & Horror (edited by Ellen
+Datlow and Terry Windling; a must
+read every year!). The pieces
+recommended are "Halloween Pie" (a
+poem from Rogue Worlds #7) and
+"Tugging the Heartstrings" (a short-
+short from Flashquake #2.2). The
+latter is still archived online if you
+missed it:
+<del>flashquake.org/archive/vol2iss2/</del>\\
+<del>fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?a=jump&u=/ebooks/eBook16421.htm&id=4004</del>
++ At Horrorfind convention, two
+publishers handed me hot-off-the-
+press copies of magazines I appear in,
+both debuting new formats. Flesh and
+Blood magazine, which features my
+ode to mortuary work, "Heartfelt" (issue
+) debuted in all its full-sized, glossy-
+covered, bright-colored glory this
+month. And Kevin Donihe's magazine,
+Bare Bone (issue 4), which has always
+been sparse in its "bare" white cover,
+has now gone to color illustrated
+covers in a perfect-bound format that
+not only looks really sharp but is really
+substantial in size for the price. If you
+haven't read these horror magazines
+yet, you're really missing out on some
+great stories and poems. Both
+magazines are available through the
+venerable shocklines.com bookstore,
+or you can read about them here:
+<del>horrorseek.com/horror/fleshnblood/issue13.htm</del>
+<del>users.chartertn.net/mbs/kldwriter/
+</del>
++ Many people have recently reported
+communication problems with Dark
+Vespers, the publisher for my
+upcoming book, Freakcidents. To be
+safe, I recommend you place your pre-
+order through shocklines.com because
+Shocklines Bookstore will not charge
+you until the book is actually shipped. I
+am confident that this book will be
+available eventually.
+http://www.shocklines.com
++ Disappointing news: I'm sorry to
+report that Grave Markings Extreme --
+the sculpted leather-bound Tenth
+Anniversary Edition planned for my
+Stoker-winning novel -- has been
+canceled by Double Dragon
+Publishing. (If another publisher picks it
+up you'll be the first to know.) DDP,
+however, still plans to release the e-
+book version of Gorelets: Unpleasant
+Poetry at the same time that the print
+version comes out from Fairwood
+Press. Either one is really special.
+Forthcoming this Halloween!
+http://www.fairwoodpress.com
+http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com
++ Thanks to every HWA member
+reading this who has nominated The
+Goreletter for the Bram Stoker Award
+in "Alternate Media" so far.
+http://www.horror.org/stokers.htm
+====OUR ODD TRIPLE FEATURE====
+"Studies in Exploding Heads "
+For your next movie night, rent:\\
+Scanners (1981)\\
+Mars Attacks (1996)\\
+Wild Zero (2000)\\
+====BONUS GIZMO: CONTEST EDITION!====
+Last issue, I announced the debut of
+The Sickolodeon --
+<del>http://www.gorelets.com/premium/</del> --
+and gave free "Bitpasses" to winners of
+a guessing game. It was such fun, I've
+decided to run another one! And this
+one's even more difficult....
+To win, you have to beat my Giant
+Monster in a battle to the death. What
+the hell am I talking about? Go to this
+web site and be sure to follow the
+directions closely. (Note that you must
+use your last name to play):
+<del>gorelets.com/gorelets/geoblie.html</del>
+====DATA + ERRATA = DRATTA====
+Did you know you can search and
+browse back issues of The Goreletter?
+If you're a new subscriber, check out
+what you've missed at:
+<del>gorelets.com/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi?f=list&l=goreletter</del>
+Did you know that a horror poem is
+hidden in the virtual PDA on the front
+page at gorelets.com, and that a new
+one is slipped in there every couple of
+weeks?
+http://www.gorelets.com
+Congrats again to Cathy Buburuz, Pam
+Kimmell, and Marge Simon for winning
+the "Snippets of the Strange" contest
+last issue.
+====BOO COUPONS====
+It actually pays to scroll this far down.
+LAST CHANCE: CEMETERY POETS
+This is the final month to take
+advantage of this exclusive discount.
+Visit the hidden page below to take
+% off CEMETERY POETS, a unique
+-page long hardcover collection of
+work by 17 different poets. You get
+tons of dark poetry, a collection of
+vignettes, and even a special section
+of poetry by all the poets, drawn from
+the "Fridge of the Damned" virtual
+fridge magnets from gorelets.com. This
+is a really special book. Order before
+Oct 1st before this opportunity is gone
+forever:
+<del>gorelets.com/demos/cempoesale.html</del>
+FICTIONWISE ARNZEN EXCLUSIVE
+Enter the info below at check out and
+receive 20% off any Arnzen e-books in
+your shopping cart at Fictionwise.com:
+Coupon Code: Arnzen2003
+One time only. Expires 9/29.
+Otherwise, continue to shop for e-
+books at this special 15% off page for
+Goreletter subscribers, which is
+updated weekly. This week's features
+include the "Monsters" anthology
+edited by Martin Greenberg and "I,
+Vampire," the classic anthology of
+mock interviews w/monsters edited by
+Forrie Ackerman!
+<del>fictionwise.com/fwa/4004/</del>
+SHOCKLINES BOOKSTORE
+Shocklines.com is giving Goreletter
+subscribers a break on Tim Curran's
+book, Headhunter (reviewed in this
+issue). Until October 6th, if you enter
+coupon code GORELETHEAD2 when
+you check out, you'll get the book for
+just $7 (that's 30% off!).
+<del>store.yahoo.com/shocklines/hebytimcubli.html</del>
+http://www.shocklines.com
+FLESH AND BLOOD PRESS
+Get any available back issues of Flesh
+& Blood magazine for 30% off. Free
+shipping and handling on all
+purchases. Make payment to Jack
+Fisher with a note mentioning this
+discount and send to: Jack Fisher, 121
+Joseph St., Bayville, NJ 08721
+<del>fleshandbloodpress.com</del>
+DARK ANIMUS DEAL
+Mention "The Arnzen Special" to
+publisher James Cain when you
+subscribe to Dark Animus magazine,
+and you'll get a 5 issue subscription for
+a 4 issue price. Subscriptions costs
+$25 US and can be paid via PayPal to
+skullmnky@hotmail.com. Learn more
+about this weird Aussie mag here:
+http://www.darkanimus.com/
+====COLOPHON====
+All material in The Goreletter is:
+(c) 2003 Michael A. Arnzen, unless
+otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
+Permission is granted to forward the
+entire contents as a whole, without
+alterations or excisions. For reprint
+permissions of individual pieces,
+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>
+Subscribe, unsubscribe, and shout out
+about The Goreletter at:
+http://www.gorelets.com
+Our surrealist product endorsement:
+http://thesurrealist.co.uk/priorart.cgi?ref=The+Goreletter
+====PITHY MORBID THOUGHTS====
+"People always think that a man
+commits suicide for a reason. But he
+may very well commit suicide for //two//
+reasons." -- Albert Camus (died 1960)
+----
+{{page>gfoot&nodate&nouser}}