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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
This deranged textual diarrhea is definitely not for the faint of heart. If you ask me what happens in this atrocity of a 'novel', I honestly wouldn't know what to tell you. On second thought, maybe 'textual diarrhea' is an apt description for the kind of writing Guyotat is attempting here. Like a diarrhea, it's purgative, 'somewhere' in the territory of disgust and waste, purgative, a thing that definitely 'happens' to you that takes temporality and your own ego out of the picture completely (i.e. at some point you're just clutching the porcelain throne and hoping for the best) and above all, strangely liberating. What about the style? What I picked up on is that in comparison to much of Sade's stuff (to draw but the most obvious parallel) the sequence of sexual acts and sexually charged performances depicted in this novel are not ritual-pornographic at all. If anything, I'd say they're clinical in nature (mainly in part due to its frequent employment of 'micro' descriptions). These encounters, though degrading and gross, also seem strangely devoid of compulsion or malicious intent. Not to be missed either is the droning meditative tone that pervades throughout the entirety of the text and the parable-like nature of the setting (the desert, characters occupying functional-roles, signs of direct dominion and visible compulsion, recurring descriptions etc.,). In fact, it all reminds me of Aleksei German's Hard to be a God!
(Whatever you do, definitely don't recommend this novel equivalent of a gratuitous arthouse film to your nephew or niece, however forward-thinking you assume they are)
If language were a living organism and were one to torture it, these are the noises it would produce.
(Whatever you do, definitely don't recommend this novel equivalent of a gratuitous arthouse film to your nephew or niece, however forward-thinking you assume they are)
If language were a living organism and were one to torture it, these are the noises it would produce.
challenging
tense
fast-paced
I suppose a reprint of Guyotat's long out-of-print Eden, Eden, Eden is as good a reason as any to re-read it. Immediately upon entering Guyotat's world one quickly realizes there is no use for characterization or psychology.
In Eden's universe, along with Guyotat's earlier Tomb For 500,000 Soldiers, characters are reduced to mere bodies, useful only insofar as they serve a function; to torment or be tormented, to kill or be killed, to fuck or be fucked.
Guyotat's world is a horrendous schizophrenic hell of endless brutality, and his style (unique here in Eden, consisting of strict, visceral language) allows for no respite, for the book consists of one single, sprawling sentence, mutilated and torn by a barrage of semicolons, em dashes, slashes, and so on. Language is Guyotat's weapon, and he wields it ruthlessly, torturing the reader as his figures torture one another, with no rest to be found. No period in the entire book is to be found to allow the reader to draw his breath, steel himself, and continue to suffer the trial. He must endure, laboring with the same tired, exhausted, shaking breath.
There are only two copies left from the publisher. If you're interested, I believe the book is only available on Abe Books, so pick it up before it goes out-of-print again so it won't cost over $100 like my Creation Books edition cost. With that said, this book is absolutely not for the faint of heart, or the weak of conscience or stomach
In Eden's universe, along with Guyotat's earlier Tomb For 500,000 Soldiers, characters are reduced to mere bodies, useful only insofar as they serve a function; to torment or be tormented, to kill or be killed, to fuck or be fucked.
Guyotat's world is a horrendous schizophrenic hell of endless brutality, and his style (unique here in Eden, consisting of strict, visceral language) allows for no respite, for the book consists of one single, sprawling sentence, mutilated and torn by a barrage of semicolons, em dashes, slashes, and so on. Language is Guyotat's weapon, and he wields it ruthlessly, torturing the reader as his figures torture one another, with no rest to be found. No period in the entire book is to be found to allow the reader to draw his breath, steel himself, and continue to suffer the trial. He must endure, laboring with the same tired, exhausted, shaking breath.
There are only two copies left from the publisher. If you're interested, I believe the book is only available on Abe Books, so pick it up before it goes out-of-print again so it won't cost over $100 like my Creation Books edition cost. With that said, this book is absolutely not for the faint of heart, or the weak of conscience or stomach
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You will know in thirty seconds if you’re going to find this book readable. It’s a nonstop barrage of violence of all kinds, like Blood Meridian if it never relented.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War