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Post by weirdmonger on Dec 16, 2007 15:04:02 GMT
Dementia 13 started in 1989 and finished 1994, with 14 issues. Examples of 3 covers below. Pam Creais, from Sidcup, Kent, was the 'master'mind and exponent of raw enthusiasm here. She actually visted the BFS Convention the time before last (I'm told), and still maintains friends within the scene. Contained work by Joel Lane, Conrad Williams, Mark Samuels, PF Jeffery, Mike Philbin, Simon Clark etc. Artwork: Pam herself I believe: Artwork: Dom Ganzelli Is that an early example of a smiley just above? Artwork: Mike Philbin
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Post by redbrain on Dec 16, 2007 16:37:01 GMT
Contained work by Joel Lane, Conrad Williams, Mark Samuels, PF Jeffery, Simon Clark etc. My involvement with Dementia 13 started after Mark Samuels gave Pam the original manuscript of my first Dagon article. She wrote to me, asking for permission to reprint it. After re-reading the piece, I thought I can write something better than that - so I did. I think that, thereafter, I contributed to most issues.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 16, 2007 17:16:26 GMT
I love the covers, particularly the first and second. Ian Westlake rings a bell - I used to enjoy his short-shorts in Pieces Of Mary. And yes, these have that 'raw energy' thing about them. Unlike a certain small press publication from the same period which I dug out this afternoon which is altogether more refined. Does the name Aklo mean anything to you, Des? Thought it might
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Post by marksamuels on Dec 17, 2007 15:41:10 GMT
Crikey! I'd not seen the cover of issue two before. I often wondered what Pam's artwork was like. Hideously deranged. I like it. Oh no, now Dem's mentioned AKLO and we're all doomed. (I made it into the very last issue, when it mutated from staples into a superswank Tartarus Press hardback containing my essay about Arthur Machen, Oscar Wilde and Bosie Douglas. A bizarre menage-a-trois indeed!) I loved AKLO. Mark S.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 17, 2007 16:08:42 GMT
Mark, you're safe - from me, at least. I only have the first four. But here's a taster. Mark Valentine & Roger Dobson (eds.) Aklo (Summer, 1991). Alan W. Lear - Ruinous Lilies Edward Holroyd - Arthur Machen: Londoner John Gale - The Poet Who Fell In Love With The Moon S.T. Joshi - A Look At Lovecraft's Fantastic Poetry D.F. Lewis - The Mentioning Alexandra Zaina - Baron Corvo: Prolegomena To A Reassessment Mark Valentine - Count Stenbock, Storyteller Count Stenbock - Viol D'Amor Roger Dobson - Was M. P. Shiel The Man Who Lost His Way? Simon MacCulloch - Dreamer Arthur Ransome - A Night At The New Bohemians Ron Weighell - Mater Dolorosa: A Fragment Article heavy with a smattering of fiction, Mark Valentine & Roger Dobson laid it on the line in their first editorial: "It is our intention to continue covering (as well as authors in the field of the fantastic) those who were part of Arthur Machen's circle, and also writers of that most opulent literary era, the 1890's. In these two spheres there is much unjustly neglected writing" Aklo March 1988. it would take someone far more knowledgeable of the yellow books than me to do Aklo justice, but you'd get articles on Montague Summers, Richard Middleton, John Gawsworth - M. P. Shiel was something of a favourite. Somebody give Aklo its own thread and I'll try and join in. illustration from Aklo IV © the bride of demonik
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Post by helrunar on Oct 23, 2020 13:12:39 GMT
What a wonderful thread--both for the gnarly cover scans of Dementia 13 issues, and even more so for the tantalizingly fugitive entries on Aklo. Chrissie's gorgeous drawing gave me an extra thrill. A zine that featured articles on such topics as MP Shiel and some sort of trifecta between Machen, Wilde and Bosie Douglas is truly right up my twisty haunted little country lane. I imagine the issues are now made of that substance into which ancient zines eventually mutate, Unobtanium (a word favored by my late teacher C. A. Cador). I wonder if any of the contributors ever discussed the work of Theo Marzials. Marzials was included in Martin Secker's pioneering anthology The Eighteen Nineties (published 1948) but his most (in)famous work dates to the 1870s: blogs.bl.uk/english-and-drama/2013/08/theo-marzials-a-bad-poet-but-possibly-the-british-librarys-darling.htmlI'm sure nobody would have disputed Marzials' self-acclaimed title of darling of the Department. cheers, H.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 23, 2020 16:42:08 GMT
Aklo sure is a great title.
I never gave the term much notice. Only after reading Moore's take on it I thought it an intriguing concept. A language which warps the users take on reality is such a clever - and in hindsight obvious - idea. One of the rare cases where the next writer builds successfully on an established concept.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 23, 2020 18:01:31 GMT
Hi Andreas,
I have not read anything by Alan Moore in which he discusses Aklo specifically. I think it's one of thousands of references that may have shown up in one of his comic book sagas I have read.
The theory you mention sounds a lot like Kenneth Grant's view of Lovecraft--that the language itself is a gateway or even a "virus" which mutates reality for the reader, possibly shifting time and space itself to bring one "through the gates of the silver key" or "beyond the city of the singing flame." Interesting idea, in some ways pioneered by Aleister Crowley in his volume Magick in Theory and Practice. In the introduction to that work, Crowley sets forth his view of writing and publishing books as powerful magical acts.
cheers, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Oct 23, 2020 19:45:07 GMT
Hi Andreas, I have not read anything by Alan Moore in which he discusses Aklo specifically. I think it's one of thousands of references that may have shown up in one of his comic book sagas I have read. The theory you mention sounds a lot like Kenneth Grant's view of Lovecraft--that the language itself is a gateway or even a "virus" which mutates reality for the reader, possibly shifting time and space itself to bring one "through the gates of the silver key" or "beyond the city of the singing flame." Interesting idea, in some ways pioneered by Aleister Crowley in his volume Magick in Theory and Practice. In the introduction to that work, Crowley sets forth his view of writing and publishing books as powerful magical acts. cheers, Steve It was used in Neonomicon and later in Providence. The language as a gateway to the reality of the Old Ones, which at the end replaces humanitys reality. I never read Grant. I have a hazy recollection that Jack Vance also made language to his topic in The Language of Pao. I don't know the plot any longer. Now that I think about it, it is often a topic in supernatural fiction. Like the language of angels.
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