what rhymes with chaos?

Can you hate the artist but love their art?

I have a conundrum, my dotcomrades. I recently read a post by one of my writing heroes that made me want to transform his body of work into a paper-mache sculpture of his own severed head. Frank Miller’s work has been an inspiration to me ever since I was a kid. His work on graphic novels like Sin City is nothing short of legendary. Miller was among the forefront of writers in the 1980s that convinced wider audiences that comic books weren’t solely a medium for brightly coloured, cliché-ridden characters. His work demonstrated that comics could be an excellent medium for communicating gritty, grisly stories. 

"You know what makes me mad? When people think I am a graphic novel adaptation of that quirky 90s sitcom 'Spin City.'"

However, around a week ago, Miller wrote this post discussing his opposition to the occupy movement. Fair enough, everyone’s got a right to their opinion. But he then proceeds to call them ‘louts’ ‘thieves’, ‘rapists’ and ‘pond scum’ and furthermore make the insane argument that because ‘America is at war with Islamicism’ then all other struggle is basically a waste of time. It’s one thing to disagree with a political movement, but to so hatefully vilify them and then start making insane Islamophobic connections is quite another. I mean, I'm strongly opposed to the values of the American Tea Party movement, but I'm not going to go around addressing them with awful and unjustified slurs. Particularly when they are weird and crazy enough to embarrass themselves on their own without needing my help. 

 

"Yeah! Cut funding to education! Who needs it?"

I now look at Miller's work with a feeling that I would describe as a combination of 'cute little puppies being shoved in a blender' and 'listening to Duck Sauce's Barbara Streisand on repeat for 36 hours.' Is it really possible to enjoy the output of an artist, which is an indubitably brilliant collection of work, whilst hating its creator who, according to recent evidence, is something of a fuckwit?

I’m reminded of a costume party I attended a few years ago when a Michael Jackson song came on the stereo and everyone proceeded to whoop and holler and dance around the living room until some girl ran towards the stereo yelling “NO! TURN THAT OFF! HE IS A PAEDOPHILE!” I have to be honest, she seemed a little crazy, and not only because of the Britney Spears costume she was wearing. A bunch of people turned to her and said, "Relax, it's just a song!" But maybe she had a point. Lately I feel like that girl dressed as Britney Spears. And not in a closet cross-dressing kind of way. 

There are plenty of other examples. Bill Murray, famous for both his extraordinary body of work and his idiosyncratic approach to the movie industry (he doesn’t have an agent, manager or email) has a record of domestic violence. Jack Kerouac was infamously racist, the Nobel prize winning author V.S. Naipul recently made some insanely sexist remarks and James Brown also had a history of domestic abuse. You can see him drunkenly-sort-of-half-denying-it-in-between-singing-his-own-songs-and-wearing weird-giant-yellow-glasses here:

  

I'm not able to separate the art from the artist. Every time someone puts on 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' a part of me lights up and wants to dance whilst my guilt complex simultaneously kicks into overdrive. I feel like I'm placing one hand on the world's largest diamond and the other in the hand of a rabid crocodile (crocodiles can get rabies, right?) What about you, residents of internetland? Can you happily sing along to Wonderwall despite the fact that Liam Gallagher is a pretentious, arrogant git? I'd love to hear your thoughts (just not the really weird ones, even I have my limits).

In conclusion: seriously Frank, what the fuck. 

 

CHARLES DARWIN VS 99 BOTTLES OF BEER

"Yeah, ah, gimmie...white russian, heavy on the Russian. Oh man, I need a kebab...HOLY CRAP I love this friggin' song! Wit my mind on my money and my money on my...Yo! Alexander that chick was sooooo checking you out..."

This story has been lurking on my hard drive for a while, so I thought I'd give it a digital airing just for kicks. I've been focussing so much on finishing up my YA novel and working on the next adult novel, (tentatively titled Adonis Comma Coma), that I haven't done much in the way of short fiction for a while. I thought it only appropriate to post a story about Charles Darwin in a drinking competition on a religious holiday.

Enjoy.

Or don't, what the hell do I care?

HARLAND'S DICE

Download Harland's Dice by JM Donellan

CARAVAGGIO. ORWELL. ABORTION. XBOX.

I had an abortion this week. I was halfway through my follow up novel (for adults at least, my kids book is done and dusted) when I made the difficult decision to prematurely end its life. It was entitled Junk Quay: A Modern Ghost Story. Basically it was a story about blues music and quantum mechanics. This guy featured pretty heavily:

So far I haven't had any christian fundamentalists at my door, but I'm keeping plenty of death metal albums, gay porn and hardmount prints of Piss Christ on hand to ward them off if neccessary. The good news is that this has given me the chance to dive straight into my next book which I was much more excited about anyway. Expect God in a Coma to hit shelves sometime before the end of the world.

Lately I've been accused by many people, my girlfriend among them, of being a self-promotion whore. I justify this by the fact that this is my first art baby. I'm a bit like that annoying friend you have who's just had their first kid and starts working it into every single conversation you have with them by the most implusible segue imaginable:

You: Hey, have you read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart? I think, for me, it epitomises the pinnacle of African literature and perfectly encapsulates the feeling of fear and confusion that faces a ancient culture dealing with the plague of European colonisation.

Them: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS PHOTO OF MY BABY???

You: Uh...yeah I think you should me one last week...

Them: Oh! That was when he was three months and THREE days. This is him at three months and SIX days! Doesn't he look so grown up! Look at the way he's looking at that Caravaggio print on the wall, I think he really has a basic grasp on critiquing and appreciation Baroque era Chiaroscuro painting!

"waaaah! Caravaggio's excessive use of shadows
exemplifying chiarsocuro painting displeases me! I'm having a pre-naptime existential crisis!"

In any case, it's only two weeks until the Australian release of A Beginner's Guide to Dying in India and in preparation I've been drinking too much and spending an unhealthy amount of time playing xbox, much like my literary heores George Orwell and Anthony Burgess did before the release of their respective masterpieces.

    "I pwned yr droids with my l33t skillz!"

I've been asked if I'll sign copies when it is released. People, seriously, I will lick, bless, baptise and sign in my own blood any copy you want to obtain in exchange for your not very hard earned cash. 

People outside of Os-Tray-Lee-Arg can already get it here: AMAZON.COM:http://is.gd/4EcCk or here:THE BOOK DEPOSITORY (UK/EUROPE): http://is.gd/4EbWt

Both stores ship anywhere in the world except Sarah Palin's house. Plus they have heaps of other amazing books like the Bell Jar and Of Mice and Men that TV characters sometimes mention in a very obvious and unnatural way when the lazy script writer is trying to make them appear educated in the space of the few minutes of content between coke commercials.

If you write a review for me I will be forever in your debt. Seriously I'll give you a kidney or something. It may not be MY kidney, but nevertheless...

INTELLECTUAL CELEBRITY GOSSIP FILE: RICHARD DAWKINS + JESSICA SIMPSON

Well now, Richard Dawkins has become a real A-list of late, ever since his massive success with the god delusion he’s been seen partying at the Viper Room with Lindsay Lohan, Yasmine Bleeth and Robert Downey Jr. Friends say he’s been hitting the ‘party powder’ a little too hard, but the real news is the recent announcement that he’s dating Jessica Simpson.

 

The doe eyed couple have been spotted at several A-list venues,holding hands, discussing the political and sociological benefits of a secularised society, and giggling. While they haven’t been shy in front of the cameras, they also haven’t been too public about their relationship. A close friend had this to say:

 

comment taken from a friend during her recent publicity shoot.

“Well, you know, those two kids are just taking it easy. They really get along, but obviously the issue of religion is a big one, I mean, like, just the other day Richard was saying: ‘Sugarcheeks, do you not think it imbecilic to invest faith in an invisible, intangible deity whose supposed existence has negatively influenced the various strata of society for millennia?’ and then she was all like: ‘Baby, the expression of a belief in an intangible deity is not the cause of the behaviour of isolated extremists okay? It’s just, like, how those particular individuals manifest their own violent insecurities behind a flagship. Now what movie should we see Hannah Montana or Transformers 2?”

 

Rumour has it that Dawkins and Simpson eventually agreed on Transformers 2, but only on the proviso that they got popcorn AND choc tops.

Some celebrity experts have even suggested that wedding bells may not be too far off, but the pair are coy about this, Simpson has commented:

“Well, if we were talking about it, and I’m not saying that we are, but if we were, then obviously Richie wouldn’t want to have it in a church, so we might compromise and go somewhere with the illusion of spirituality that is actually completely soulless, like a scientology chapel.”