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

[Arthur Spitzer]

Tom Russell wrote:
> 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.


Ah, thanks for the very, very flattering review...

I think calling this the perfect story is a bit of
a hyperbole though.... but I'm glad you like it...

I'm not sure what I think of this story...  It's not
quite the same as the vision in my mind... like all
my stories there's a lot I'd like to change after I
post them....

I guess I won't really be able to judge this till I
complete the whole saga...

I'm hoping actually that the other issues will be
better than this one... hopefully this won't be
the peak...

But like the rest I'll be writing them with a 'just get
it over with' attitude... so it could all end very
badly....

I would have thought though that the unreliable narrator
thing would have pissed you off... :)

> 
> 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.

Thanks... but I'd certainly put a lot of other RACC writers ahead of me
on the genius list...

> 
> ==Tom

Arthur "I'm not sure if I can handle that much Ego Stroking" Spitzer