1.
REPTILE (FILM)
I thought Netflix’s Reptile (2023) was top-notch. The critical consensus that the film is tired and unoriginal is just more confirmation that noir is going through a moment in the discourse. We’re at a bit of a low-point.
Of course, Reptile is ‘unoriginal’ — if you’re referring to the basic premise. It’s a genre piece. No, the problem with Reptile is that it’s out of step. The vanguard of crime fiction at the moment is the cozy, which is everywhere and lauded, and set against a broader renaissance in horror stories. This sort of polarisation is the order of the day. Thus films like Reptile, which is somewhere in the middle, now fall short.
To be clear, I’m not particularly aggrieved by all this. While the cozy is my least favourite crime genre, it’s nice to see horror fiction thriving. The trick, I think, is to either work with the moment —transgress from within— or ignore it entirely.
There are tools available to facilitate both paths.
2.
SONIC YOUTH (PHOTOGRAPH)
Speaking of transgressing from within, I recently spotted this photo of peak grunge-era Sonic Youth. For years they were the experimental edge of pop music, then briefly they skirted the white hot middle, then they retired into their own eternal aesthetic:
3.
PATREON (APP)
The new Patreon app looks good to me. I’m only on the platform as a consumer, but watching the CEO talk the other day (see below) I think he has a better handle on the problem than most. As a writer, I’m split amongst a bunch of platforms, many of which are at cross-purposes to my own work and mental health.
NB: The new app also seems to have fixed long-standing Android bugs around audio playback.
PS: I would shoot myself if I had to work alongside someone this high energy.
4.
HEAT VS CASINO (TRIVIA)
An annual reminder:
I was a teenager when this happened and I did not give a shit. Saw both at the cinema and tbh, it was just another month in just another year.
See also: The Rewatchables episode on Casino is really good.
5.
BAHAMIAN RHAPSODY (Short Story)
James Ellroy biographer Steven Powell has great piece of short fiction in Apocolypse Confidential. It’s great, combining the bawdy vibes of Ellroy with Ian Fleming’s Bahamas and music industry sleaze.
6.
NEW FICTION (Facts)
Very strong showing for Fremantle Press this month with two new releases that are completely up my alley. David Whish-Wilson is hands-down the most underrated crime novelist in Australia. I’m new to Warner but Summer of Blood is about two Australian cops looking for a missing student in psychedelic 1960s San Francisco. Say no more.
7.
CURRENTLY READING (Books)
Currently reading Deliver Me by Elle Nash and finishing up City of Dreams by Don Winslow.
8.
THE SHY RETIRER (Short Story)
Last week’s story is based on one of my favourite Arab Strap songs. The lead track off their best record (2003’s Monday At The Hug and Pint), ‘The Shy Retirer’ is about what its like to be young and clubbing. My story is specifically based on lyrics from the end of the song:
And if we ever make it home
I'll tell you all the things that shaped me thus;
Something forged in a phonebox but lost in a restaurant
It’s a tremendously dark record, but it’s also very funny and human. I remember reading once that vocalist Aidan Moffat told their record label that all the names mentioned in the songs were aliases.
Then years later, he admitted that he never changed any of them.
Sometimes, you have to be this person to make your work.
— IAIN
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