Category: absurdism

A COLLAGE NOVEL FOR THE AGES

When a tsunami of smut floods the city of London, the Anti-Smut Brigade is at sixes and sevens. Scotland Yard yanks Sir Reginald Fuzz out of retirement, for he  is their last best hope of saving the Empire.

Can the foremost moralist, expert on the perils of porno, and ex-chief of the Anti-Smut Brigade (par excellence),  stem the tide of this degenerate invasion?  

Or… will Great Britain go to hell in a handbasket like the Roman Empire? 

Time is running out.  Big Ben is ticking . . .

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR FUZZ AGAINST SMUT

“Time Trip Incarnate! I thought my fingers (and brain) would explode—this classic Infernal Machine is reignited!… Magnificent!”
—Nile Southern, author of The Candy Men: The Rollicking Life and Times of the Notorious Novel Candy

“Fuzz Against Smut reanimates what has become an endangered subspecies of comedy: madcap, manic, wildly absurd, sublimely subversive humor. (As exemplified by – among others – the Marx Brothers, Lenny Bruce, William Burroughs, Terry Southern, Lord Buckley, and Akbar del Piombo.) This is a zany, quirky and very funny book, an antic fable for our fractured times and a balm for weary minds.”  —Gregory Stephenson, author of Alias Akbar del Piombo

“In 100 years, hipsters will take college classes on Terry Southern, Roland Topor, and Derek Pell. This book will be required reading. Playing the long game, Pastormerlo and Pell’s masterstroke does for smut what Trump did for infectious diseases.”  —Paul Rosheim

“The original ‘Fuzz Against Junk’ text was funny and its images were engaging; this takeoff is even funnier, and more deeply and intricately illustrated. A topnotch homage.”  – M. Kasper

“FUZZ is a wonderland of literary confusions that will enrich your soul.” —Doug Rice

“A fun read.” —John Coulthart

Fuzz Against Smut: The Saga of the Anti-Smut Brigade
Angelo Pastormerlo & Derek Pell, with collages by Norman Conquest
Absurdist Texts & Documents #48
Paperback, profusely illustrated; 105 pp., $15

Rare Fuzz postcard

Spring Fever!

Spring Fever hath sprung with the special “Goddess Issue” of TYPO—packed with an international cast of luminaries: Tim Newton Anderson; Tom Bradley; Anton Chekhov; Norman Conquest; Caroline Crépiat; R J Dent; Max Ernst; Eurydice Eve; Luc Fierens; Leonor Fini; Théophile Gautier; Harold Jaffe; Amy Kurman; Lo; Michael Maier; Dmitri Manin; Elena Marini; Lilianne Milgrom; Opal Louis Nations; Marty Newman; Claudio Parentela; Angeleaux Pastormerleaux; Paul Rosheim; Jasia Reichardt; Doug Skinner; Phil Demise Smith; Tabarin; Lono Taggers; Corinne Taunay; Shyam Thandar; Stefan Themerson; Konstantin Vaginov, and Gregory Wallace.

IN THIS ISSUE:

·     TYPOGLYPHICS

·     THE LOVES OF PHARAOH

·    GODDESS OF NOIR

·     MAX ERNST & LEONOR FINI LOVE LETTERS

·     MEXICO’S SURREALIST GODDESSES

·     SEXY PRINTER ORNAMENTS

·     THE LOUIS XIII JOKESHOP

·     CONJOINING WORDS

·     SEMANTIC POETRY

·     THE WOMEN OF ROME

·     A BILINGUAL ACROSTIC REBUS

and much more

TYPO #5: The International Journal of Prototypes
edited by Norman Conquest
trade paperback; 152 pp., illustrated; $20
ISBN 979-8-9894330-5-6

DOUBLE YOUR TREASURE

We invite you to double your treasure with this pair of backlist beauties.

CHARLES CROS: COLLECTED MONOLOGUES

Charles Cros was one of the most brilliant minds of his generation, equally adept at poetry, fiction, and scientific inquiry. He wrote smutty verses with Verlaine, synthesized gems with Alphonse Allais, contributed wild prose fantasies to Le Chat Noir, and experimented with color photography and sound recording, only to die young, poor, and alcoholic. Not incidentally, he also invented the comic monologue for the actor Coquelin Cadet. This edition collects all of Cros’s monologues—masterfully translated & introduced by Doug Skinner—and includes performance notes, plus two biographical essays by his friend and colleague Alphonse Allais. 

UPSIDE-DOWN STORIES

Charles Cros and Émile Goudeau were quintessential Bohemian poets. This first English translation of their inspired collaboration of “Upside-Down Stories” satirized hot topics of the 1880s such as as divorce and capital punishment with bawdy humor and wild flights of fancy. These nutty gems will surprise & delight contemporary readers.

“THE SHEER PLAYFULNESS OF CERTAIN FANCIFUL PARTS OF CROS’S WORK MUST NOT LET US FORGET THAT IN THE CENTER OF SOME OF HIS FINEST POEMS, A REVOLVER IS AIMED AT US.”—ANDRÉ BRETON

Raunchy Wordplay

This scandalous little work appeared in France under the title “Letter to La Présidente.”

Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) was a novelist and poet, one of the champions of Romanticism. In 1850, he and his friend Louis de Cormenin visited Italy, so he wrote his friends back home a letter about their adventures. The result was a rollicking “filthy letter,” packed with jokes, slang, obsolete words, literary allusions, puns, alliterations, neologisms, Spoonerisms, verses, outrageous metaphors, and Rabelaisian lists. It was published privately in 1890, and became a clandestine classic.

A FILTHY LETTER
Théophile Gautier
Translated from the French by Doug Skinner,
with an introduction & notes on the text
Pocket Erotica Series #28
74 pp., 4 x 6 inches;
979-8-9894330-7-0

Just in time for the holidays!

We proudly present the 15th volume in our grand Alphonse Allais Collection. Here is France’s greatest humorist in top form. This first English translation of WE ARE NOT SHEEP features 44 witty tales, PLUS four extra stories, translated by Allaisian scholar Doug Skinner, with his erudite introduction and complete notes on the text.

If you’re looking for laughter—(and, hell, who isn’t?)—this delightful edition is a gift that will long be remembered.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALPHONSE ALLAIS (1854-1905) was a peerless French humorist, celebrated posthumously by the Surrealists for his elegant style and disturbing imagination. In addition to composing absurdist texts for newspapers such as LE CHAT NOIR and LE JOURNAL, he experimented with holorhymes, pioneered conceptual art, and created the earliest known example of a silent musical composition: FUNERAL MARCH FOR THE OBSEQUIES OF A DEAF MAN (1884). Ahead of his time (as well as ours), Allais is needed now more than ever. His mischievous work remains fresh, funny, and always surprising.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

DOUG SKINNER has contributed to Black Scat Review, The Fortean Times, Strange Attractor Journal, Fate, Weirdo, Nickelodeon, Cabinet, and other fine publications. Black Scat Books has published several books of his stories, cartoons, and songs, as well as translations of Alphonse Allais, Charles Cros, Alfred Jarry, Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, Luigi Russolo, Caroline Crépiat, and Corinne Taunay. Other translations include Three Dreams (Giovanni Battista Nazari, Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks), The Cocktail Hour (Marcel Requien and Lucien Farnoux, with Gaylor Olivier, Corps Reviver), and Principles of Cerebral Mechanics (Charles Cros, Wakefield Press). 

He has written music for several dance companies; his scores for actor/clown Bill Irwin include The Regard of Flight, The Courtroom, The Regard Evening, and The Harlequin Studies.

TV and movie appearances include Great Performances, Martin Mull’s Talent Takes a Holiday, Mike’s Talent Show, Ed, Crocodile Dundee II, several of George Kuchar’s videos, and a smattering of commercials.

His albums That Regrettable Weekend, It All Went Pfft, and An Afternoon in the Arboretum are available on Bandcamp.