from HOROSCRAPES by Doug Skinner. Absurdist Texts & Documents #31.
Tag: Doug Skinner
Back to the Future!
Part Oulipian exercise, these meticulous scrapings reveal the future in all its sublime absurdity. The author approached the horoscope in his morning newspaper as if it were a puzzle, like the crossword or sudoku. By scraping out the middle part, and joining the beginning and end, he received a hidden message.
Reading outside the lines here one discovers an alternative fate more interesting than the fluff dispensed by run-of-the-mill soothsayers. Indeed, these predictions are pithy, profound, and astonishingly accurate.
In HOROSCRAPES, Doug Skinner offers up 366 clever twists of fate—something for every sign—guaranteed to alter forever how we view the universe.
Who knows what the future holds?
Doug Skinner knows.
HOROSCRAPES
by Doug Skinner
ABSURDIST TEXTS & DOCUMENTS NO. 31
$15
Perfect-bound paperback, 66 pp.
ASTROLOGY / WORDPLAY / HUMOR
Alphonse Allais —Hip! Hip! Hooray!!!
ALPHONSE ALLAIS is the driving force (or should we say farce?) behind Black Scat Books. Allais 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, invented conceptual art, and created the earliest known example of a silent musical composition: Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man (1884). Truly ahead of his time (as well as ours), Allais is needed now more than ever. His mischievous work remains fresh, funny, and always surprising.
We hope you’ll celebrate this special day with a festive drink and a few good books!
Hip! Hip! Allais!
Poet Edith Doove reading a rare edition of Allais’s Captain Cap at Plymouth Arts Centre (UK).
____
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Black Scat Books will publish Ms. Doove’s collection Mince early next year.
.
“This is utter nonsense!!!”
Over 120 pages, featuring Jake Alexander, Alphonse Allais, Alain Arias-Misson, Mark Axelrod, Paulo Brito, Norman Conquest, Farewell Debut, Fiona Duffin, Tom La Farge, Allen Forrest, Ryan Forsythe, Eckhard Gerdes, Rhys Hughes, Janne Karlsson, Teri Lee Kline, Richard Kostelanetz, Jhaki M.S. Landgrebe, Michael Leigh, Terri Lloyd, David Macpherson, Samantha Memi, Monika Mori, Yarrow Paisley, Sheila Pell, Jason E. Rolfe, Doug Skinner, Wendy Walker, Carla M. Wilson, and D. Harlan Wilson.
In the wings, some special things (sixth edition)…
Black Scat’s Absurdist Texts & Documents series is divided into sets of six titles each. This year we’ll be closing out the fifth set with AN INCONVENIENT CORPSE by Jason E. Rolfe (#30) and HOROSCRAPES by Doug Skinner (#31). Both gems are imbued with the mischievous spirit of Alphonse Allais.
Indeed, we launched the series in the summer of 2012 with Allais’s story MASKS, and the great French absurdist remains the guiding light behind Black Scat Books–suitably sublime and obscure. You’ll find plenty of evidence in the just released trade paperback SELECTED PLAYS OF ALPHONSE ALLAIS.
Next month we’re publishing a novel by a talented young writer, Suzanne Burns.
“Sweet and Vicious is an inspired exploration of Waldeinsamkeit and (post)romantic angst that turns the mundane into something beautiful and wild. Burns is a gifted writer.” –D. Harlan Wilson. Coming October 15th, just in time for Halloween.
Need we say more?
Artist Terri Lloyd (THE LITTLE RED BOOK OF COMMIE PORN) returns with a new monstrosity that’s in preparation as we speak. For now, the nature of the book must remain under wraps to avoid causing panic. We can only report that it’s another collaboration with Norman Conquest. (Clearly these two don’t know when to stop.)
The grand “utter nonsense” issue of BLACK SCAT REVIEW (#9) is going to be our biggest issue yet. Publication date TBA.
Looking ahead to 2015, you’ll discover books by Mark Axelrod, Eckhard Gerdes, Alain Arias-Misson, Farewell Debut, Carla M. Wilson, Doug Rice, Richard Kostelanetz, and other luminaries.
HAPPY FALL!
Alphonse Allais—LIVE!—On Stage!
OK, that’s hyperbole, but here’s the next best thing to Allais’s reincarnation.
Please take your seats…STANDING ROOM ONLY.
This long awaited collection of rare theatrical texts includes original translations—never before published in English—of ten monologues, three one-act plays, and twelve shorter dialogues, skits and burlesques drawn from Allais’s columns in such publications as Le Chat Noir and L’Hydropathe.
In addition to Doug Skinner’s fascinating notes on the texts, you’ll find an appendix of scarce photographs from the Paris production of “Le Pauvre Bougre et Le Bon Génie.”
Here’s a peek at the Playbill…
This unique collection of absurdist gems is proto-Dada at its most delicious!
Available in a trade paperback edition; 124 pp. Illustrated. $12.95
Move over, Jarry!
Oulipo Pornobongo 3. The doors are open. . .
Pleased to announce the 29th volume in our Absurdist Texts & Documents series: OULIPO PORNOBONGO 3; ANTHOLOGY OF EROTIC WORDPLAY.
Featuring constrained works by Maria Schurr, Tom La Farge, Paulo Brito, Lucy Selleck, Doug Skinner, Paul Forristal, Ellen Nations, and Norman Conquest.
A titillating anthology—provocative, funny, and uncommonly satisfying.
You can order a copy in print ($15) or the digital edition ($5.25) by clicking HERE.
Let us seduce you…
BLACK SCAT REVIEW #8. Featuring seductive works by Suzanne Burns, Doug Rice, Steven Teref, Kurt Cline, Charles Holdefer, Doug Skinner, Paulo Brito, Jhaki M.S. Landgrebe, Tara Stillions Whitehead, Maria Morisot, Fox Harvard, Charlie Griggs, Monika Mori, and Tom Whalen. Titillating art, photography, poetry and fiction.
70 pages, full color, perfect-bound.
CLICK HERE to order either the print edition ($16) or the discreet digital edition ($5)
Black Scat Review #8 —Seduction— Now Available!
Here’s the one we know you’ve been waiting for. It features seductive works by Suzanne Burns, Doug Rice, Steven Teref, Kurt Cline, Charles Holdefer, Doug Skinner, Paulo Brito, Jhaki M.S. Landgrebe,Tara Stillions Whitehead, Maria Morisot, Fox Harvard, Charlie Griggs, Monika Mori, and Tom Whalen. [cover photograph by Fox Harvard]
Titillating art, photography, poetry and fiction.
70 pages, full color, perfect-bound.
CLICK HERE to order either the print edition ($16) or the discreet digital edition ($5)
If you’ve missed a previous number, back issues are available here.
Summer Scatastic!
Here’s a look ahead at some of the goodies coming your way in the next few months.
In August we’re bringing you a major new novel by Tom Whalen, The Straw That Broke—a stunning work of speculative metafiction— filled with wordplay and literary hijinks. This is seminal post-cyberpunk fiction with wicked Oulipian twists, crafted by a master of experimental fiction.
On Labor Day, Mao Zedong’s clandestine Long March reaches its revolutionary climax in The Little Red Book of Commie Porn. A collaboration between California artists Terri Lloyd and Norman Conquest, this outrageously funny collection of satirical art & text is unlike anything we’ve ever published. Indeed, the book is nearly impossible to describe and must be seen to be believed.
Another literary event you won’t want to miss: the first English translation of the Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais, compiled and translated by Doug Skinner. This special illustrated edition makes a nice companion volume to Allais’s Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks. This new collection includes 24 works: eight monologues, three one-act plays, plus short skits, dialogues, and burlesques. For fans of the absurd, this is a must-have.
For armchair travelers who enjoy going nowhere in wickedly clever fashion, there’s David Slavitt’s absurdist chapbook Walloomsac: A Week on the River. It has already received advance praise from R. H. W. Dillard: “…I haven’t had this kind of significant fun since I stayed up ‘til dawn…breathlessly reading Pale Fire for the very first time.” This one’s a real treat.
Coming in September. we’re thrilled to be publishing Suzanne Burns’ experimental novel Sweet and Vicious. This new work by the gifted young author of Siblings and Misfits and other Heroes, is sure to enhance her reputation as one of the most innovative contemporary American writers.
And just in time for Halloween… the third volume of Oulipo Pornobongo: Anthology of Erotic Wordplay. The collection includes works by Maria Schurr, Paulo Brito, Tom La Farge, Lucy Selleck, Doug Skinner, Ellen Nations, Paul Forristal, and others.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss out on these and other forthcoming titles.
blackscatbooks.com 