ACRA/MISC: Tales from the Gutterground #2: The Runaway Chaotic, Sporadic, Traumatic, Make-it-Up-As-You-Go-Along-Story Game (Part III)

Tom Russell milos_parker at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 18 22:06:10 PDT 2007


Wow.  Huh.

I really want to say something intelligent; this story is exactly the
kind of story that cries out for discussion.  The rhythmic use of
words, the way the creepy sexual subtext is suggested, the pure
visceral wonked-out impact of this-- it's like poetry or film.  It's
exactly the kind of thing I like to prat on about.

But in this case there's just too much of it, and I think Arthur has
created in this issue what his villain had attempted to create: a
perfect story.  A story that you want to talk about, but that you
can't, because to talk about it would ruin it, would destroy that
special intangible quality.  A story that operates not on an
intellectual, detached level, but rather on an instinctual one.  This
is not a story that should be torn apart, but rather one that just
must be experienced.

After experiencing it, I'm left to ponder not an intellectual or
thematic issue, but rather an emotional one: I'm left to figure out an
emotional state that I don't have an easy name for, that can't be
sorted out.  It's exhilerating and terrifying at the same time.
Exactly the thing that every writer or filmmaker hopes to one day
achieve, and is most often achieved when working within the language
of dreams and hallucinations.  Emotion freed from logic.  Terror freed
from flesh.

I've always liked Arthur's work, and I've especially enjoyed his more
recent surreal phase.  But perhaps I've always overlooked him, because
it never occured to me before now that he might, perhaps-- and I say
this without hyperbole-- be the closest thing to a genius that RACC
has ever seen.

==Tom




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