|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 25, 2015 8:57:52 GMT
Think there was a long discussion on the old site Dem. Mind you if the subject is brought up I can go one endlessly about it.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 25, 2015 10:00:35 GMT
Think there was a long discussion on the old site Dem. Mind you if the subject is brought up I can go one endlessly about it. Sadly, Vault Mk I appears to have gone AWOL yet again, can never be certain if and when it will come back. It was upsetting at the time, but best thing we ever did as a board was act decisively and migrate when SL first went tits up, as it's been beset by problems ever since. Congrats on the Terror Tales From The Scottish Highlands appearance, Craig!
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 25, 2015 10:57:49 GMT
Think there was a long discussion on the old site Dem. Mind you if the subject is brought up I can go one endlessly about it. Sadly, Vault Mk I appears to have gone AWOL yet again, can never be certain if and when it will come back. It was upsetting at the time, but best thing we ever did as a board was act decisively and migrate when SL first went tits up, as it's been beset by problems ever since. Congrats on the Terror Tales From The Scottish Highlands appearance, Craig! Yes, that's sad. many good memorizes and great discussions. I find myself repeating things I say continually so in my case it might be just as well. Regarding 'Terror Tales From The Scottish Highlands' that's a tremendous honour. It looks to be a great collection
|
|
|
Post by ripper on Jun 25, 2015 11:23:28 GMT
That's quite a depressing thread, Dem. I am sure that most people who donate old paperbacks don't realise there's a good chance they will be pulped. I think I have only bought 3 or 4 books from charity shops in the last 3 years--there's just nothing over a few years old there on display. Okay, many of the books discussed here on VoE can't be called high literature, but they are all part of our cultural history,and surely are significant in illustrating social attitudes, trends and development, and deserve preserving. Also, if paperbacks of a certain age/condition are being recycled it makes saving them so much more difficult. If charity shops just sell them for pulp without putting them on sale in a shop we have no chance of rescuing them. ABE, Amazon and Ebay are good sources for obtaining books but prices can be silly and postage offputting, making saving books expensive and limiting.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 25, 2015 12:32:30 GMT
That's quite a depressing thread, Dem. I am sure that most people who donate old paperbacks don't realise there's a good chance they will be pulped. I think I have only bought 3 or 4 books from charity shops in the last 3 years--there's just nothing over a few years old there on display. Okay, many of the books discussed here on VoE can't be called high literature, but they are all part of our cultural history,and surely are significant in illustrating social attitudes, trends and development, and deserve preserving. Also, if paperbacks of a certain age/condition are being recycled it makes saving them so much more difficult. If charity shops just sell them for pulp without putting them on sale in a shop we have no chance of rescuing them. ABE, Amazon and Ebay are good sources for obtaining books but prices can be silly and postage offputting, making saving books expensive and limiting. It's simply a tragedy. In the very early days charity shops were great - run by old widow's switching between church galas and tea rooms; bargains everywhere. Now it's almost a mafia. A tangential story: in the very early days of the charity Tsunami I discovered a few first edition crime novels in pristine condition in Oxfam and one with a dust-wrapper. The dust-wrapper in those days (apart from being a thing of beauty in itself) added ten times the value to the book. I asked about the others - they looked brand new but with no dust-wrapper - the lady told me she had thrown them out because they looked a bit dingy. This is the archeological equivalent of saying the Golden Death Mask of Tutankhamen had a bit of dust on it so you binned it. This was the start of the commercially driven charity shop, marketing everything and understanding nothing.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 25, 2015 16:18:22 GMT
That's quite a depressing thread, Dem. I am sure that most people who donate old paperbacks don't realise there's a good chance they will be pulped. I think I have only bought 3 or 4 books from charity shops in the last 3 years--there's just nothing over a few years old there on display. Okay, many of the books discussed here on VoE can't be called high literature, but they are all part of our cultural history,and surely are significant in illustrating social attitudes, trends and development, and deserve preserving. Also, if paperbacks of a certain age/condition are being recycled it makes saving them so much more difficult. If charity shops just sell them for pulp without putting them on sale in a shop we have no chance of rescuing them. ABE, Amazon and Ebay are good sources for obtaining books but prices can be silly and postage offputting, making saving books expensive and limiting. It's simply a tragedy. In the very early days charity shops were great - run by old widow's switching between church galas and tea rooms; bargains everywhere. Now it's almost a mafia. A tangential story: in the very early days of the charity Tsunami I discovered a few first edition crime novels in pristine condition in Oxfam and one with a dust-wrapper. The dust-wrapper in those days (apart from being a thing of beauty in itself) added ten times the value to the book. I asked about the others - they looked brand new but with no dust-wrapper - the lady told me she had thrown them out because they looked a bit dingy. This is the archeological equivalent of saying the Golden Death Mask of Tutankhamen had a bit of dust on it so you binned it. This was the start of the commercially driven charity shop, marketing everything and understanding nothing. As early as 1992, the prophet Drif declared open season on the various charity franchises in Drif's Guide II: How To Find A Book, warning they were killing off the second-hand bookshop just as surely as they'd done for the grimy junk emporiums. As things turned out, the emergence of Amazon & Co. sped up the death process something alarming. Other factors, from my small understanding of the situation, include the rise and rise of the ebook, wholesale "regeneration" = exorbitant rent increases, etc.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 25, 2015 17:36:10 GMT
It's simply a tragedy. In the very early days charity shops were great - run by old widow's switching between church galas and tea rooms; bargains everywhere. Now it's almost a mafia. A tangential story: in the very early days of the charity Tsunami I discovered a few first edition crime novels in pristine condition in Oxfam and one with a dust-wrapper. The dust-wrapper in those days (apart from being a thing of beauty in itself) added ten times the value to the book. I asked about the others - they looked brand new but with no dust-wrapper - the lady told me she had thrown them out because they looked a bit dingy. This is the archeological equivalent of saying the Golden Death Mask of Tutankhamen had a bit of dust on it so you binned it. This was the start of the commercially driven charity shop, marketing everything and understanding nothing. As early as 1992, the prophet Drif declared open season on the various charity franchises in Drif's Guide II: How To Find A Book, warning they were killing off the second-hand bookshop just as surely as they'd done for the grimy junk emporiums. As things turned out, the emergence of Amazon & Co. sped up the death process something alarming. Other factors, from my small understanding of the situation, include the rise and rise of the ebook, wholesale "regeneration" = exorbitant rent increases, etc. Driff, the legend. Forgotten all about him. He's worth a novel to himself. I wonder where he is? ETGOW - Easy to get on with; FARTS - Follows you around recommending the stock; NETGOW - Not easy to get on with; WAD - Worth a detour; WAP - Worth a pilgrimage.
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Jun 26, 2015 5:44:33 GMT
As Dem would tell you, Iain Sinclair's White Chappell Scarlet Tracings features a bunch of book dealers who are thinly disguised versions of Driff, Martin Stone, etc. It also has some pretentious tosh about William Gull contrasting, as I recall, but still a good read for all that. A complete Driff focused novel would be like a British Confederacy Of Dunces, Driff bestriding it all like some Ubu figure.
Odd how he just seemed to disappear - did he jack in book dealing and take up something else, go away somewhere quietly to die, or what? I can't imagine a character that huge being invisible with any ease, no matter where he ended up. Back around 89-91, when I was on Kerrang!, I met the woman who ran the UK branch of Kiss Army, their fan club. Her day job was in PR, and she represented Driff. I discovered this as she seemed oddly knowledgeable about old books for a woman who wanted to shag Paul Stanley. She adored Driff and reckoned he was a big softy under that spiky exterior. I couldn't believe that, but then I didn't know him like she did. It did give me the odd mental picture - which came back to me with delight - of Gene Simmons and Driff in a room together. Icy silence, or the oddest and most bizarre conversation you've ever heard: who needs books when you can imagine that??
Just did a quick google on Driff, and he really has vanished totally - rumours have him in Poland, Spain or Timbuktu; had a breakdown and been sectioned or committed suicide; or bankrupted and on the run from creditors and HMRC. Truly the stuff of legend...
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Jun 26, 2015 21:26:57 GMT
Just did a quick google on Driff, and he really has vanished totally - rumours have him in Poland, Spain or Timbuktu; had a breakdown and been sectioned or committed suicide; or bankrupted and on the run from creditors and HMRC. Truly the stuff of legend... I've heard of Martin Stone, mainly through John Baxter, but not Driff - sounds like quite a character.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 28, 2015 8:07:26 GMT
As Dem would tell you, Iain Sinclair's White Chappell Scarlet Tracings features a bunch of book dealers who are thinly disguised versions of Driff, Martin Stone, etc. It also has some pretentious tosh about William Gull contrasting, as I recall, but still a good read for all that. A complete Driff focused novel would be like a British Confederacy Of Dunces, Driff bestriding it all like some Ubu figure. Odd how he just seemed to disappear - did he jack in book dealing and take up something else, go away somewhere quietly to die, or what? I can't imagine a character that huge being invisible with any ease, no matter where he ended up. Back around 89-91, when I was on Kerrang!, I met the woman who ran the UK branch of Kiss Army, their fan club. Her day job was in PR, and she represented Driff. I discovered this as she seemed oddly knowledgeable about old books for a woman who wanted to shag Paul Stanley. She adored Driff and reckoned he was a big softy under that spiky exterior. I couldn't believe that, but then I didn't know him like she did. It did give me the odd mental picture - which came back to me with delight - of Gene Simmons and Driff in a room together. Icy silence, or the oddest and most bizarre conversation you've ever heard: who needs books when you can imagine that?? Just did a quick google on Driff, and he really has vanished totally - rumours have him in Poland, Spain or Timbuktu; had a breakdown and been sectioned or committed suicide; or bankrupted and on the run from creditors and HMRC. Truly the stuff of legend... Were you on Kerrang! when the Norwegian Death Metal madness escalated into an orgy of murder, desecration and church-burning? I remember one of your reporters receiving a death threat from Emporer for calling them "do-nuts"! I'd not even heard of Drif or Martin Stone when I read White Chappell: Scarlet Tracings - couldn't make head or tail of it, TBH, and found the Ripper content excruciating. At the time I believed one of the book-dealers was based on Dave, the proprietor of a seedy, bug-infested paperback/ porno-mag outlet on Cheshire Street off Brick Lane. I "worked" for him for a time in early 'nineties. He didn't trust anybody to handle the cash, so my duties mainly consisted of informing him when somebody wanted to buy something and, crucially, nipping across to The Carpenters Arms to replenish the beers. Also advising 'Fatso' that shop policy was strictly buy-before-you-try, so either he forked out on that copy of Kinky Milkmaids he'd been ogling for past hour, or kindly vacate the premises. Wages for a Sunday's work were a fiver, which invariably went straight back into Dave's pocket in exchange for a seriously soiled paperback or two (his prices were scandalous). Loved my short spell not-working there (was filling in for his best mate, who'd gone AWOL), and that copy of Vic Crume's The Partridge Family #5: Terror By Night remains dearer to me than life itself. I bumped into Dave about a decade a go. He'd sold the shop to yuppie's and made a pile. Couldn't help but feel pleased for the old reprobate!
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Jun 29, 2015 8:46:46 GMT
Must be honest, apart from two spiked interviews and a couple of reviews, my K! work consisted of two regular columns answering queries and compiling an almanac of past events that enabled me to spend a couple of hours in musty newsprint at the National Sound Archive library before slinking in and out the office quickly with copy before anyone could catch me. Though it must be said that the only friendly types there were Xavier Russell and Morat, so I didn't mind if they said hello. As a result, all that Black Metal silliness passed my by (mind you, the way they went around burning churches and killing each other went beyond silly). Anyone who called them do-nuts is alright by me (bet it was Russell or Ray Zell, though I don't know).
Anyway, back to Iain Sinclair. I like that book, though it is a bit of a dog's breakfast (mine likes iams with some butcher's tripe mix) - Sinclair is a wonderful speaker and writer on real London, but not a very good novelist. The way it jumps about reminds me of how Joe Kenney in his Glorious Trash blog notes that 70's pulp paperbackers tended to jump POV even within a paragraph so that it became disorienting to read. I think they probably did it unconsciously, whereas Sinclair is trying to be arty by doing it. It only works for me because I find it funny he fails. But I do really like the sections on the bookdealers and can forgive him a lot for those. Much as I like his work about London, I get the impression he's one of those people who really wanted to be an important artist, but is really best at talking about stuff, and is a bit frustrated about it and so tends to dress up his talking about London stuff with theory. He reminds me of David Mummery in Moorcock's Mother London.
Dave is possibly the only book dealer to make real money out of a second hand bookshop, sadly...
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 30, 2015 5:21:39 GMT
Dave is possibly the only book dealer to make real money out of a second hand bookshop, sadly... ... and I'll bet even he was short-changed. I think the Kerrang! hack who so upset Emperor may have been Jack Arnopp, whose lurid front-page feature, Arson ... Death ... Satanic Ritual .... The Ugly Truth About Black Metal (27 March 1993) introduced the main players to the wider British audience and, sadly, almost certainly inspired Vikernes & Co to further excesses. We had a longish piece about it all on the currently missing in action Vault MK I ... Have now added White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings to the 'revisit' pile (though not near the top). Was way out of my depth with Sinclair's novel on first acquaintance and studiously avoided the (ahem) "conceptual sequel" , Lud Heat to this day. Am over NW London way today, so, in the unlikely event of finding any hot bookshop action, will report back later.
|
|