A ‘pataphysical post-apocalytpic novella in 3 movements
· Paperback: 130 pages
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 1-934289-63-9
http://www.blazevox.org/bk-ma.htm
What would happen if words, disguised as characters Balboa Pettibone
and She-singer, could hallucinate and time travel? mIEKAL aND, one of
our most intrepid verbal explorers, takes us into the world of genre
fiction and sets it spinning into an “irreality” as iridescent as myth
clothed in neon language. The sideways feints and flourishes of
aND’s words lead us through a minefield of future decay, artfully
finding glimmers of beauty and eros even in the most blasted lang-
scapes and bone-scrapes. In a world where “a blackened sky corrupt[s]
the horizon,” “snakes of anger” war with “snakes of confusion,” and
“there are no curtains between darkness and its opposite,” the beauty
of the words themselves offer joy in apocalyptic circumstance. And
courtly love wins the day.
Maria Damon
There is a secret travelogue through the irreal estate of the 20th
century, a picaresque that passes down the arcades of the Invisible
Cities, across the plains of Flatland, through the Gardens of Priapus
to the foothills of Mount Analogue. Between the lines of Bystander: An
Irreality, mIEKAL aND has thoughtfully printed you a map for the next
leg of the journey. Pack your sieve and your bicycle; it’s a long trip.
Darren Wershler
_Bystander: An irreality_ is indeed an irreality or sobreality so vivd
it brings senses to a full function and merges the one into the
implications of the text. What I experiencet wasnt prose or poetry in
its common definition. Its written just and laconic. Exactly the
amount and texture of information needed to hook the right senses and
teleport one inside. Psy-fi and a metaphor for the webbed chronology
of thought and remembered events, reconstructed map of communication.
After digestion i found a brain map that emerged, map of how thoughts
are layed and georgraphical x-ray of how they settle and drift with/
within time. The process of reading or rather drinking pleasantly
hurts the neurons, like adrenaline that spreads from the head to
appendages. I want to repeat the journey on my own after watching
Balboa….
Alexandra Zavylova