Author Iain Banks announced today on his website that he has cancer of the gall bladder, and is unlikely to live more than a year.

Banks is recognized as one of the most talented and original writers of his generation. His work divides between novels—such as The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road, and The Bridge; and Science-Fiction (written under the name Iain M. Banks)—Consider Phlebus, Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata.

Banks wrote in his statement:

I am officially very poorly. After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that – it turns out – is the least of my problems.

I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I’d started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day. When it hadn’t gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice. Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.

I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.

The bottom line, now, I’m afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I’m expected to live for “several months” and it’s extremely unlikely I’ll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.

As a result, I’ve withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I’ve asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we’ll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.

There is a possibility that it might be worth undergoing a course of chemotherapy to extend the amount of time available. However that is still something we’re balancing the pros and cons of, and anyway it is out of the question until my jaundice has further and significantly, reduced.

Lastly, I’d like to add that from my GP onwards, the professionalism of the medics involved – and the speed with which the resources of the NHS in Scotland have been deployed – has been exemplary, and the standard of care deeply impressive. We’re all just sorry the outcome hasn’t been more cheerful.

Very sad news indeed.
 

 
Oh yes they did!

Roma Downey, the heavily Botoxed actress who plays Mary in The Bible, that monster hit History Channel TV miniseries you might have heard about and her co-producer husband, Mark Burnett (creator of Survivor), have written a new book together.

It’s a novelization of—you guessed it—The Bible and it’s got the very best title EVER in the entire history of the publishing industry… well at least since the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in the 15th century.

Think I’m overstating the case? Try this on for size. THIS is marketing genius:

A Story of God and All of Us: A Novel Based on the Epic TV Miniseries “The Bible”

No shit!!! That really is the fucking title! But if you think that’s funny (I was in tears) wait until you read some of the Amazon reviews. Some of them are absolutely impossible to tell if they’re being arch or just plain stupid!

This anonymous one, though, is a masterpiece of ambiguity, right up to the very end:

When I watched the first episode of the epic TV miniseries The Bible, I remember thinking to myself, “This is spectacular, but what if I want to engage with these stories on a deeper level.” After watching and re-watching and re-re-watching the entire series, it still felt like something was missing…

Thank God for this book! Finally, all the stories from the Bible have been gathered into a single text! Now I can go right to the source to get the news straight from the horse’s (or donkey’s) mouth, as it were. If you want to relive the fall of humanity alongside Adam and Eve, the story is here. If you want to be captivated time and time again as Moses turns water into blood, look no further. If you are looking for THE comprehensive account of just what God has been up to these last 5,000+ years, you must buy this book.

And that’s not all! Recently, a small group of friends and I have been getting together to study the stories here. What a blessing it’s been! We’re even thinking about gathering a larger group once each week and having a few gifted leaders teach us important truths based on this wonderful book. Who would have thought that a single text could be so life-encompassing and applicable.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a perfect resource. I do have a few complaints/suggestions:

- Is there a leather-bound version available? I hope there will be soon.
- I’d like to have even more detail, if possible. Why not add more stories, along with genealogies, poetry and maybe even a few letters?
- What would really be cool is if there was some sort of reference system to allow readers to connect parts of the book to other parts, when appropriate.

Certainly not damning criticism by any means, just some thoughts I had…

I any case, I give this book two thumbs way, way up! If you’ve spent your entire life wondering if there is a God that you can put in a box, consume in small, easy-to-chew quantities and exploit in order to feel some arbitrary (albeit fleeting) sense of meaning and happiness, this is the book for you.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a true representation of the real God, the God who is worthy of your entire allegiance and all your praise, the God who will use both blessing and suffering to transform you into the person you were made to be and who will ultimately give you eternal joy and infinite satisfaction, I’ve heard you can find him in the actual Bible… but really, who’s got the time to read that old rag, or the courage to encounter such a God, for that matter?

“Reid” from Chapel Hill, NC gave the book four out of five stars and raves, “I’ll Never Be the Same”:

I’ve spent my entire life searching. Searching for something…something real. Meaningful. True. I’ve held out hope—-honest, earnest hope—-that one day, I’d find something that would elevate my heart and my mind. Now I have that. I have something to hold on to: The Story of God and All of Us: A Novel Based on the Epic TV Miniseries.

I mean, it should be said that The Bible miniseries nearly pushed me over the precipice of self-actualization; but, putting that in the form of a book, where I can allow my imagination to take the characters and the stories to the next level really helped me discover myself in a way that I never thought possible. That being said, I only gave it four stars because I feel the authors wrote it almost as though I should have some preconceived comprehension of these characters and stories. There were certainly a few gaps. I was confused about the backgrounds of some of the characters. Particularly the Jesus character. I would have liked to know more about his background, i.e., what he was doing with his life before he became a martyr. Basically, I just wish there were more detail. The book probably could have been a lot longer.

Either way, I really hope, no, I NEED the authors to keep going with this. I want a series, like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. I want to know what happens to ghost-Jesus. Does he keep walking the Earth like a slightly less powerful Bruce Banner? Will he travel the ages using his powers for good? Maybe they could do a re-imagining of some of history’s most notorious events and Jesus could use his healing powers and his way with people to prevent them. I mean, imagine if Jesus prevented The Plague or World War II. Maybe they could also do a crossover series where Jesus joins the cast of The Walking Dead...like a good zombie, or something.

Anyways, I strongly suggest reading this book. It will absolutely change your life!

There’s more. Lots more and more arriving daily, no doubt. Unto us this day, a meme is born.

Thank you kindly, Michael Backes!

 
Want to win a signed copy of Weasels Ripped My Flesh!? Of course you do.

How? Just come up with the manliest, the most pulse-poundingliest title for a story that might have appeared in a vintage men’s magazine. Make it wild. The more exploitative, the better. Make it drip with testosterone and post it in our comment section. The DM staff will pick out three of our favorite titles and the winners will each receive Weasels Ripped My Flesh signed by Josh Alan Friedman, Wyatt Doyle and Robert Deis. So man up! You, too girls, show us what you’ve got (Ladies, prove it to the boys that this ain’t just a man’s man’s man’s world).

Imagine holding this in your sweaty little hands:

Weasels Ripped My Flesh! A shirt-ripping, gut-punching anthology of two-fisted writing, ripped from the pages of long-lost men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Outrageous, 100% true tales of sex, crime, combat, jungle goddesses, beatnik girls, LSD experiments, animal attacks ... and nymphos. Always nymphos.

Weasels Ripped My Flesh! Showcasing rare, bare-knuckle stories by some of the toughest writers ever to punch a typewriter: Lawrence Block, Mario Puzo, Bruce Jay Friedman, Robert F. Dorr, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Walter Kaylin, Walter Wager, Jane Dolinger, Ken Krippene and more.

Weasels Ripped My Flesh! Edited by Robert Deis, with Josh Alan Friedman and Wyatt Doyle.”

The contest is limited to residents of the United States and entrant MUST be a subscriber to the Dangerous Minds daily email newsletter (sign up widget at the top of this page). Winners will be announced on Tuesday March 26. Don’t be a pencil-necked geek, go for it!

The winners are:

Winners, please email me your address so you can receive your prize. marcdangermind@gmail.com. Congratulations!

Two out three gone. The needle and the damage done.
 
Richard Hell makes an appearance on Seattle morning talk show New Day Northwest. The host/interviewer is Margaret Larson and I think she’s quite charming.

My first encounter with Richard Hell was seeing his band the Voidoids at CBGB in 1977. The group was intense, complex and exhilarating. In the years following ‘77, I became aware of Hell’s decline into junkiedom. He seemed like a prime candidate for an early death.  Had you told me he’d be appearing on a morning chat show in the year 2013 I would have called you “crazy.” Had you told me I’d be alive and reporting on it, well…

With I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp, Richard Hell now joins Patti Smith and John Lydon among a growing number of ageing punk musicians that have written memoirs of real merit.

Rock ‘n’ roll survival tip number one: Put down the needle and pick up the pen.
 

 
HooGraa!

Last week I read Will Self’s Great Apes for the first time in over a decade. If you’ve never read it yourself, it’s about an artist—Simon Dykes—who wakes up, following a night of sex and drugs, in a parallel universe where chimps have usurped humans in the evolutionary rat race. London is still London (etc) but humanity has become “chimpunity.”

Rather than speak, for example, the chimps “sign,” punctuating their discourse with a series of unforgettable vocalizations (the above “HooGraa!” being a greeting). Rather than walk, they “knuckle-walk,” their naked posteriors proudly jutting out beneath the hem of jackets and blouses. Sexual mores in general are turned inside out, as is evinced in the following passage, wherein Dr Zack Busner (a recurring character of Self’s, here reappearing in a nimbler, furrier, but no less egoistic incarnation) surveys the healthy vision of his ample family—or “set”—embroiled in a morning vista of inter-generational, largely incestuous copulation.

There was a loose queue of males trailing down from the cooking area, more of less in correct dominance order, Henry behind David, Paul behind Henry. Busner wondered idly why David had been allowed first crack at Charlotte, but then as he rounded the breakfast bar at the top of the short flight of stairs, he saw that Dr Kenzaburo Yamuta, the distal-zeta male, was vigorously mating his daughter Cressida by the dishwasher, while Colin Weeks and Gambol awaited their turn.

‘Morning “chup-chup,” Zack,’ Kenzaburro signed, withdrawing from Cressida. ‘Fancy a “huh-huh” fuck here?”

The book is ceaselessly vivid—while reading it your everyday reality becomes temporarily transfigured by the shadow of chimpunity. Equally striking during this reread, was how all of my friends, when I mentioned the book, broke into the same warm grin, usually supplemented with a choice vocalization of two of their own. Great Apes really does unearth your inner chimp!

While there’s no doubt that Self has since blossomed into an even better stylist, I doubt he will ever again hit upon such a succinctly hilarious and profound conceit, or bring as much pleasure to such a wide readership. In short, I think Great Apes is looking increasingly like a classic, and the following South Bank Show, broadcast in 1998 (the year after the novel was published) is an interesting, and enjoyably dated, document of that era.

Here Self comes across as significantly more intoxicated on his own (undeniable) brilliance (and whatever else) than he does nowadays, and at times something of a prat, but he’s also always almost laughably eloquent and insightful. There’s lots of interesting moments, including some even older footage of a very young track-mark ridden Self coming off smack in 1988 for some sad-sack junkie documentary, plus some delightful footage of him discussing Great Apes in front of London Zoo’s chimp enclosure. We remain ridiculously lucky to have him. Chup-chup!
 

 
More after the jump…

 
Quentin Tarantino screenplays re-imagined as Penguin books.

These fabulous designs were made by Sharm Murugiah, a Graphic Designer living and working in London. See more of his work here
 

 

 

 

 
H/T Penguin Books
 

 
It was John Willett’s review of William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch, in the Times Literary Supplement, that led poet and writer, Dame Edith Sitwell to make her famous statement about the book, in 1963.

Willett was a writer, critic and, most importantly, translator of Bertolt Brecht’s plays. His translations so impressed the playwright that it led to their collaboration on the Berliner Ensemble’s historic 1956 London season. Yet, for such a seemingly radical critic and writer, Willett hated Naked Lunch and made his thoughts well known in a review headlined “Ugh!”:

“[Naked Lunch]...is not unlike wading through the drains of a big city . . . [It features] unspeakable homosexual fantasies . . . ...such things are too uncritically presented, and because the author gives no flicker of disapproval the reader easily takes the ‘moral message’ the other way…..If the publishers had deliberately set out to discredit the cause of literary freedom and innovation they could hardly have done it more effectively…”

Appearing not long after the controversial trial and publication of D. H. Lawrence’s infamous Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960, it seemed to many of England’s older and moneyed class that their world was under very real threat from the Barbarians at the gates.

One such figure, was Dame Edith, who upon reading Willett’s review fired off the following missive to the TLS:

To the Editor of the Times Literary Supplement

[published 28 November 1963]

Sir,

I was delighted to see, in your issue of the 14th instant, the very rightminded review of a novel by a Mr. Burroughs (whoever he may be) published by a Mr. John Calder (whoever he may be).

The public canonisation of that insignificant, dirty little book Lady Chatterley’s Lover was a signal to persons who wish to unload the filth of their minds on the British public.

As author of Gold Coast Customs I can scarcely be accused of shirking reality, but I do not wish to spend the rest of my life with my nose nailed to other people’s lavatories.

I prefer Chanel Number .

Edith Sitwell, C.L.

What Dame Edith failed to grasp was that to a generation of young, free-thinking individuals, this letter was the perfect encouragement to go and buy the book.

Though Mr. Burroughs and Mr. Calder had made no small an impression at the Edinburgh Festival in 1962 (though arguably upstaged by the legendary spat between Communist poet Hugh MacDiarmid and Beat writer Alexander Trocchi), it is fair to say, this letter was amongst the best publicity they could have had for Naked Lunch.

Edith Sitwell is sadly neglected today, and her poetry, biographies, and one experimental novel are now mainly left to the reading lists of academics. Yet once, Edith and her brothers Osbert and Sacheverell, were the English Avant Garde—but time, fashion, politics and a World War soon usurped their position.

The poem mentioned in her letter, Gold Coast Customs (1930), was Sitwell’s own (almost Ballardian) tale of the horrific barbarism lurking beneath the artificiality of civilized humans in the city of London.

The following clip is of Dame Edith discussing her life, her parents and Marilyn Monroe, in 1959.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

‘Whaur Extremes Meet: A portrait of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid

The glorious RuPaul
 
Chloe Sevigny
 
Los Angeles-based World Of Wonder productions are marking 21 years in the business of televisual entertainment, and to celebrate they have just brought out a new coffee table book, The World According to Wonder featuring exclusive portraits of practically every person they have ever worked with; from stars like Pamela Anderson, RuPaul, Dita Von Teese, Elvira and John Waters, to many of their behind-the-scenes crew, and even the staff at their popular The WOW Report blog.

The list of portrait sitters for The World According to Wonder‘s photographers Idris & Tony and Mathiu Andersen is huge, and the book (which has been a few years in the making) is very impressive indeed. When I say “coffee table book,” I mean if you stuck legs on this thing, it would be its own coffee table. (It weighs 8lbs!)
 
James St James and companion “Harvey”
 

Chaz Bono and ex-partner Jennifer Elia
 
World Of Wonder have brought us some of the best television of the last 20 years, shows and documentaries like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Becoming Chaz, The Adam & Joe Show, The Divine David Presents, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Inside Deep Throat, Pornography: The Secret History Of Civilisation, Jon Ronson’s Crazy Rulers Of The World, and Party Monster: The Shockumentary (not forgetting Party Monster the feature film, starring Macaulay Culkin as Michael Alig, the murderous king of the NY club kids, which has gone on to influence a new generation of club kids and become a cult classic in its own right). 

Interspersed among the pictures is the story of World Of Wonder itself, eloquently and entertainingly told by the company’s founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato; from its beginnings in 80s New York, its early work with upcoming drag legend RuPaul and British TV station Channel 4, through expansion into full-length documentary features, all the way up to the present day, a slew of coveted awards and its position as brand leader for all things queer/drag/alt on television.

As an early 90s TV junkie, glued to late night BBC 2 and Channel 4—oh those really WERE the days!—this book brings back a lot of good memories (and reminders of forgotten but influential shows like Shock Video and Manhattan Cable) and it is inspiring and instructive to read how these shows came to be, directly form the people that made them. If there’s any message, here, I would say it is “believe in your vision and never take no for an answer” and The World According to Wonder is testament to how dreaming big, and thinking outside the box, can ultimately pay off.
 
Pamela Anderson
 
Sharon Needles
 
You can download the first chapter of The World According to Wonder as a pdf here.
 

 
No Wave underground legend, feminist icon, artist, author, actress, musician and all-around troublemaker Lydia Lunch is now the author of a cookbook, The Need to Feed: Recipes for Developing a Healthy Obsession for Deeply Satisfying Foods, a “hedonist’s guide.”

Via email Lydia answered a few questions.

Dangerous Minds: Our mutual friend, author Chris Campion, told me that you were coming out with a cookbook, and via hoighty-toighty publisher Rizzoli, even, and that seemed somewhat out of character for you. Chris assured me that you were indeed a *most fantastic gourmet chef* and that your culinary skills were a not-so-very well-kept secret. The recipes in The Need to Feed—a Lydia Lunch-esque title if ever there was one—seem to bear that out, but still, how did a cookbook by Lydia Lunch end up being published by Rizzoli? It seems like there must be a story there…

Lydia Lunch: A few bizarre coincidences led up to me pitching the idea to Rizzoli. I had written the introduction to Cesar Padilla’s book Ripped: T-Shirts from the Underground, which they had published in 2010.

I kept seeing it everywhere. Artist Martynka Wawrzyniak, R.Kern’s partner, had originally pitched the book to Rizzoli and worked on it with Cesar. I was on a rare visit to New York shortly after its publication and met with Martynka. She suggested we pitch something to Rizzoli together and was instrumental in making The Need to Feed happen.

Around the same time someone had sent me an article from the TV Guide, in which Michelle Forbes claimed I was the inspiration for her character in True Blood. A witchy vixen who throws orgiastic bacchanals full of food laced with intoxicants in order to celebrate the resultant pandemonium. This inspired me to pen The Need to Feed.

Martynka is Vegan, loves food and to cook, shares my political disgust with the US Food industry and is a brilliant artist in her own right. Acting as editor and co-conspirator, she was able to push forward my politics, sass and vitriol, not the typical fare of a book that deals with food.

DM: And so now you are the proud author of a cookbook.

Lydia Lunch:I wrote the recipes with Marcy Blaustein, a friend of many years who left the thankless confines of the music industry to concentrate on catering in Hollywood, because as she once said “Everyone loves you when you feed them.” She’s just opened her first restaurant in Los Angeles called Eat This on Santa Monica and Hudson.

DM: Since I’ve never been invited to one, what are your dinner parties like? And what is the secret ingredient for a perfect Lydia Lunch dinner party?

Lydia Lunch: A great mix of people, enough time to enjoy the evening (long Sunday afternoons are actually best). Easy, spicy, tasty finger foods, great music, stimulating conversation…A relaxed atmosphere where people leave full of LIFE.

I asked Lydia if there was just one dish that was her favorite from The Need to Feed and she said it would be her jerk chicken marinade recipe:

I Said Jerk That Chicken!

If it’s hot…no doubt I’m going to want to stick it in my mouth. Just the way I am. I love any food that makes me break a sweat. Slowly savoring the healing heat as it penetrates every cell, kick starting the nerve endings and revitalizing the synapses as they gush with endorphins. Gooey good fun! Jamaican jerk marinades are magic to the mouth. The combination of heat, sweet and pungency create a powerful tangy rush of oral delight! Jerk is exotic, deeply penetrating, incredibly satisfying and yet highly addictive goodness. Gotta love it.

1-tablespoon ground allspice
1-teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2-teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4-teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

6 scallions, green tops only, thinly sliced

2 small yellow onions diced
2 large cloves of garlic minced
1 inch of fresh ginger minced
2 - 3 Scotch Bonnet chili peppers deseeded and chopped
1 tablespoon dark-brown sugar

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup olive oil


METHOD:

Toast the allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg in a dry pan on low heat for 1 minute. Transfer to a blender adding cayenne, black pepper, thyme, scallions, onions, garlic, ginger, chili peppers, brown sugar, orange juice and lime juice, vinegar, soy sauce and olive oil. STAND BACK! And blend. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Use as marinade for chicken, turkey, pork or vegetables. Lather both sides of meat in jerk sauce and marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge. Reserve the rest of the marinade for dipping. Grill, broil or bake. Use to brush on vegetables before grilling. Serve with rice and Mango Salsa.
        

Mango Salsa:

2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 mango, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1 small red onion thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro minced
Sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Combine all of the ingredients and allow to marinate and to chill for 1 hour.

*Word of warning: Wear plastic gloves when handling hot chili peppers. Especially Scotch Bonnet…you touch yourself and the neighbors will hear you scream. You touch someone else, they will be calling the police.

 
The Park is a disturbing art book by photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki which was originally published in 1980.

In the early 1970s, Yoshiyuki (not his real name) joined the throngs of voyeurs who would do their “peeping” in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park, but not to peep himself (or so he says!), rather he was there to document the goings on with his camera and infra-red film. It would sometimes take him hours of waiting to get his shot. The photographs were blown up into life-size black and white prints and shown at the Komai Gallery in 1979 along with examples of amateur porn left behind in Tokyo’s hourly sex hotels. Post modern in the extreme—dig the triple transgression of the exhibitionist couplings, the peeping toms and the photographer capturing both—the show was a sensation in Japan.

Eventually Yoshiyuki’s paranoia got the best of him and he quit shooting the peepers, destroyed many of his negatives and began working in family portraiture(!). In 2005 the New York-based Yossi Milo Gallery contacted the artist and convinced him to reprint from the remaining negatives.