A review by levi_masuli
Ultraviolins by Khavn De La Cruz

3.0

Demented 'post-modern' stories. Ultraviolence (from Burgess's Clockwork orange) is without doubt Khavn's specialty, vividly more evident in his films. The chilling gore, the dark and grim survival-of-the-fittest ambiance of his films, however, are only nominally present in this collection of stories. The 'post-modern' element in the stories of course make them interesting, but the treatment of violence almost bordered on what Fredric Jameson called the 'waning of the affect'; that is, Khavn exploited violence too much to the point that its essential brutality has disintegrated. Violence is not only a source of fun for the author, but the author also interpellates the reader to participate in the 'fun'. To put simply, 'Ultraviolins' transformed violence into a hobby, a recreation, literally, like reading a book.