Morbid Books
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Signed personal copy. 1 of 300.Visit product page →
Contains lyrics featured from the record, "Music for the Poorly Educated" by Surrealist Temple Band, featuring Insecure Men, and other poems.
An experiment in poetry as popular entertainment, these Surrealist texts were composed for members of the public by "Tumbleweed" Parker from 2014-2018 as a "Literary Prostitute" or "Poet for Hire".
Includes the best work commissioned in London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Brighton, Edinburgh, Hull, Hay-on-Wye, Ledbury, Cheltenham, Stratford, and on the internet.
Thanks to Shakespeare and Company for use of the bathroom. -
Jeremy Reed hit us, as with his poetry, like a bolt of lightning. Some time at the end of 2018, we received a manuscript from him out of the blue, and were not initially enthused by the idea of a poetry book at all, let alone one about Lou Reed, a musician already admired. But from the first line of the first poem, ‘Lou’s Cheeks’, it was clear that this manuscript was written not just in awe of him, or in service to him, but as a mirror made of glass and neon, a pop-art collage that says more about the author than it does the subject.Visit product page →
So if you came here primarily looking for information about Lou Reed, we recommend you head to the rock biographies in Fopp or wherever you buy your legends nowadays.
“Everyone's books about me are bullshit except Jeremy's. It takes one great outsider to write about another.” – Lou Reed
The legendary Jeremy Reed (no relation) shines white light on Lou in his new book of poetry. -
Signed personal copy.Visit product page →
Over a decade ago, Nina Power’s One Dimensional Woman appealed to a new generation of feminists and critical thinkers.
PLATFORMS is a confessional essay-poem “in this season in microhell, in this jetlag of the heart.” Dissecting her own existence with philosophical enquiry, she wonders if “everyone must tend towards masochism or sadism?… or can one proceed, sexually, socially, without these ideas altogether?”
Addressed to an unnamed lover, this automatic, surreal text was composed on a psychedelic New York train journey in 2019, where the ghosts of her friends and tormentors are visible through the window: Kierkegaard, alcohol, Kant wrestling with the spirits, her late friend and contemporary Mark Fisher. -
A surreal, slapstick nightmare set in the end-times of countercultural journalism.Visit product page →
In search of France’s superstar philosopher who has mysteriously vanished, Lester Langway, a young, bedraggled freelance reporter for the failing London style bible Down N Out! magazine, is sent to Paris to solve a hallucinogenic detective mystery involving demonic Kantian philosophy, identity politics, the history of Surrealism, secret societies and mind control. Both a scathing satire and a sincere romance, My Week Without Gérard is so squarely at odds with the culture it mercilessly lampoons, it’s little surprise the author writes under a pseudonym.
“Any book with bathroom drugs, coffin sex, awkward romance, conspiracy theories, thinly veiled characters based on people I know in contemporary euro society, and my bloody death scene, has a spot on my bookshelf.”
– Rick Owens
“Essential reading for any of the disposable maggots who ever worked in fashion or new media.”
– Tim Sizebank, Down N Out! magazine
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ivan Boris is the pen name of an author, journalist and poet. This is his first novel published in the English language.
"Lavish first edition." HERO Magazine -
In the Temple of Surrealism’s fourth annual bulletin, we bring you news that the human race is in grave peril due to the mutation of a common virus we identify as MASS HYSTERIA. Also known in medicine as Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI), MASS HYSTERIA sweeps through all societies that do not heed the calls of our LEADER, and the messages and attitudes of the SURREALISTS.Visit product page →
It may surprise you to learn that until the Temple’s landmark enquiry into the subject, commissioned especially for A Void #4, there were no immutable laws of MASS HYSTERIA. Many “experts” could not even agree on basic principles, such as whether the disease is fundamentally ethereal, psychic, psychosomatic, biological, or if it exists at all.
After only a couple of hours researching the current global outbreak, however, our genius managing editor and head of experimental research at the Temple, Chairman Lev Parker, had the mind-blowing revelation that there are common properties that can be observed in all outbreaks of MASS HYSTERIA:
The more severe the hysteria, the less willing a sufferer will be to accept a diagnosis of MASS HYSTERIA. (This shall henceforth be known as the Iron Rule of M.H.)
MASS HYSTERIA can only be transmitted via the medium of abstract symbols: written and spoken language, and visual signs communicated by other humans. (Our trials with saluting monkeys yielded inconclusive results.)
Since transmission takes place on the symbolic plane of representation, folks who are not sufficiently educated in abstract thought are more vulnerable to MASS HYSTERIA.
Babies and the severely mentally impaired are unable to perceive or process language so they are, mercifully, immune to it.
Narcissistic personalities are particularly susceptible to MASS HYSTERIA due to their inherent inability to think on a level above the personal.
The narcissist is a more likely spreader and intensifier of MASS HYSTERIA, since the narcissist is biologically programmed to draw attention to himself via the contaminated symbols of the hysterical group’s cohesion.
Not all cases of MASS HYSTERIA are symptomatic. It is possible – indeed, common – for passive or ostensibly neutral members of a community to unwittingly infect others with poor thinking habits.
When cases of MASS HYSTERIA are reported, those who resist a diagnosis of MASS HYSTERIA are most likely to be infected next, if they are not already contaminated.
On the plus side, MASS HYSTERIA is hardly ever fatal in isolation. The symptoms are largely psychological/ behavioural, and include irritability, paranoia, panic attacks, and new superstitions appearing out of nowhere.
The more MASS HYSTERIA there is in a society, the stronger this disease becomes. The larger the pool of infected recipients, the more powerful its grip over individual minds. The more hysterics there are in a society, the more they are likely to display symptoms such as uncontrollable shouting, random acts of cruelty when they think nobody is looking, and taking an active role in mob justice.
When a population reaches a critical mass of hysteria, it can achieve “herd immunity” to vaccines. By this point, symptoms will include the fetishization of power and authority, and the total subjugation of individual will to the energy of collective passions. The more irrational and cruel a society becomes, the more logical, kind and morally right its population will believe itself to be. The only way to flush out MASS HYSTERIA from such a society is by forcible extermination, psychological warfare, and/or waiting and hoping that future generations are less hysterical than their parents.
Given our frightening discoveries, this anthology will educate you about the dangers of the deadly virus before we all go mad. A Void #4 therefore serves as a learning pack that gives you a brief history of the deadly mind plague, presented with deliberate ambiguity, from obscure angles, alongside artworks by the sensible and sane. While there is no definitive test for MASS HYSTERIA at present, we present you with a handy, yet convoluted diagnostic tool to help you determine if you or one of your loved ones is coming down with the “Idiot Flu.”
FEATURING
Trevor Blake
Boyd Rice
Whale Song Partridge
Nina Power
Adam Lehrer
Darja Bajagić
Anna Sebastian
David Icke
Michael William West
Valya Korabelnikova
Ilya Permyakov
Polina Tsvirko
Joan Wayne Gacy
Eric Acosta
Sisi Savidge
Bill Knott
L Ron Hubbard
Annika Holland-Tierney
MaryAnn Kozlowski
Penny Metal
Curly Joe
Samuel Lees
Jeremy Reed
Melissa Lee-Houghton
Kate Giffin
Curtis Yarvin
Kenneth Anger
Ben Marks
Nicholas Pell
Paul Marsh
CIA declassified files
Mads Brügger
Supervert
Trusting fully in our members’ ability to diagnose psychiatric disorders in line with Chairman Lev’s directives, the Temple has set up a hotline so you can report cases of MASS HYSTERIA in the community safely and anonymously. We promise that the Temple’s inhouse detective agency, run by former military personnel, will investigate each case you bring to our attention thoroughly.
Where MASS HYSTERIA has been discovered in a friend or loved one, we offer an intensive course of mind deprogramming devised and hosted personally by Chairman Lev at the Temple’s luxury headquarters, the Betty Fjord Clinic in Norway. Over the course of seven days and nights (or perhaps years), our inhouse team of Surrealist counsellors will devise a personalised spiritual journey for each patient at our MASS HYSTERIA CLINIC.
At the only therapeutic course ever devised to treat MASS HYSTERIA, patients will be inducted into gnostic rituals, they will be encouraged to drink mind-cleansing potions, and they will discover their true, non-hysterical selves, in group character analysis. Based on our observations of a patient’s individual progress towards a fully Surreal mindset, our guides may use more traditional methods to break through to the warped minds of our guests, such as reducing the diet, physical exercise, floor scrubbing, and the joys of the Temple’s administrative paperwork.
All patients will be provided with personalized copies of the Temple’s core Surrealist recovery texts when they arrive at our welcoming compound. Each student will demonstrate their progress in mind deprogramming by giving memorized readings of key Surrealist passages to their group and writing devotional poems to our Leader. This will normally be followed by dinner and a barn dance, where Chairman Lev or one of our special guests will give a lengthy and stirring keynote speech.
For the avoidance of doubt, transport is included in the cost of attending our MASS HYSTERIA CLINIC. Wherever a barmy loved one is stranded on the planet, except for very specific jurisdictions, we will send a car with blacked-out windows to pick them up and escort them straight to the insane, bewildering enclave that is the Temple of Surrealism.
BE SURREAL. SAVE MINDS
Designed by Penny Metal
Edited by Lev Parker -
1 of 500 copies. Signed by editors.Visit product page →
On Holloway Road in north London is the black door of Ram Books, a smut emporium with over 100,000 vintage titles. This astonishing place became A Void magazine's power centre when we upscaled our priorities to cater for obscene tastes.
In the basement is a rare collection of Soho Bibles, rough handmade items from the 1960s featuring lurid stories and homemade photographs, printed on a mimeograph machine. When the owner showed us a typescript from his prize collection, we couldn't help but notice a rather ghastly face on the tatty cover. Posing with her tits out for a home shoot is a woman believed to be the Moors Murderer Myra Hyndley. Perhaps her first and only published erotic work, we reproduce it as a historical rather than pornographic item.
For maximum DISCIPLINE and PLEASURE, we provide you:
STOYA naked bondage shoot and in conversation with LEV PARKER
STEWART HOME bondage photo shoot by ITZIAR BILBAO URRUTIA
LOUISE EBEL as Valentina shot by MICHAEL WILLIAM WEST
SUPERVERT “Is porn problematic?”
NIKOLAS SCHRECK exclusive extract from THE MANSON FILE 3rd edition
URBAN CHICK SUPREMACY CELL porn shootout
THE MISS BANKS COLUMN
GRAVE DESIRE with Morbid Nun Karolina
SOCIETY OF THE SPANDEX by GUY DEPORN
DR OLI CARTER tells the story of the Soho Bibles and porn legend Mike Freeman
KARINA BUSH escort fiction in Bangkok.
MYLES JACKMAN Obscenity FAQ
THE YORKSHIRE WHIPPER revealed and photographed.
MIKE FREEMAN, I Pornographer Except
ERIC PATTISON 1960s gay London photos introduced by JESS KOHL
DETECTIVE CONSTABLE MICHAEL HAMES The Dirty Squad
RON JEREMY on Fluffers
MORBID SOULMATES personal ads
PRISON SEX APPEAL
Plus more sexy stories and photos in 100 page glossy format.
To eat up such a feast of the eyes, we expect our readers to be lions of the loins, explorers of subtle temperatures and moods. We want you to cum away from the experience like a dishevelled man in a mack exiting a peep show to find Soho hit by an atomic explosion!
Editor: Lev Parker
Designer: Penny Metal
Consultants: Itziar Bilbao Urrutia, Dr Oli Carter, Dr Helen Wickstead, Dave @ Ram Books -
1 of 300 copies. Signed by editors.Visit product page →
Featuring an exclusive interview with the Tate Modern bomber, Alexander Art, complete with police transcripts.
Charles Manson's legacy as the man who terrified America is re-examined in a new true crime essay that blasts cold water on the "Helter Skelter" bullshit.
Stewart Home addresses your insecurities about radicalism and the avant-garde in "Ask a Shamanic Communist."
King Mob and the Situationist International's David and Stuart Wise trace their revolutionary consciousness in a personal essay/call to arms: "Welcome to Future Ecocide!"
Wilhelm Reich: time to reboot the orgone machine.
Simon Crump, author of My Elvis Blackout, defends his recent direct-action protests.
The Sick and the Damned: A Manifesto
George Russell, The Drum Sander
Collaborative Poetry Swing Club featuring Florence Lenaers/L. Parker, Dominic Jaeckle/The Literary Establishment, Jasmine Parker/Rosie Woodhouse, Carl Gercar/Stephanie Dotto, Edmund Davie/L. Parker, and S.J. Christmass!
Design by Penny Metal -
1 of 200 copies. Signed by editors.Visit product page →
EDITORIAL
To paraphrase Tolstoy, each literary magazine stinks in its own way, although there are some startling consistencies between all the titles, which makes our job of vaulting them all in one go easier than it should be.
Political magazines rarely have good poetry except when Simic or Ashbery are in them, and not a single literary magazine has interesting politics.
It’s sickening to think that the art form Dada and Surrealism emerged from is now almost exclusively a conformist vehicle for toadies, funded by government agencies and universities run as businesses.
Literature has sealed itself off from fundamental problems with the world because literary culture is based on the delusion that once a poet has had their work published, there are no problems in the world. At least not political or economic ones. While we don’t like didactic or propagandist poems, we wanted to create a magazine that aids the emancipation of thought from the doctrine of liberal capitalism that other poetry magazines explicitly or implicitly propagandise.
Another problem with literary magazines is their obsession with individual status and total lack of regard for what Breton termed “collective revelation.” Most of them exist purely to furnish the CVs of their contributors. For this reason we have made the decision to promote collaborative efforts (including translations) and not to publish any single-author poetry in the first edition of A VOID, unless it’s been created using an Oulipian-style constraint or new form. Many of them were composed hastily, as a kind of parlour game. If there’s a theoretical justification for this horseplay, it’s to reclaim poetry as a form of entertainment, and to relinquish the fallacy that an author can ever be in control of language, a material structure owned by no person or institution.
In addition to works of literary creation, we promote with extensive interviews two comrades whose work is too shocking for polite society: the author and philosopher Supervert, and the artist Dan Mitchell. We met up with one of the UK’s smartest cultural critics, Owen Hatherley, to talk about architecture and blogging. The legendary punk fanzine editor Tom Vague was ambushed by our fictional gonzo journalist Lester Langway, whose actions we do not condone, and whose words we do not trust. Finally, we lament the passing of Oulipo maestro Harry Mathews, who died before he could see this monument built partly in his honour.
As well as being iconoclasts, all our interviewees are independent artists who were chosen for their ability to promote our work on their social networks.
To find out more about our publisher Morbid Books, visit morbidbooks.net -
A LOST CLASSIC, the debut novel of legendary poet Melissa Lee-Houghton was nominated for the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2019, but then vanished into a black hole of obscurity due to distribution failures.Visit product page →
With both author and publisher living destitute at points between its release and now, it was thought that the remainder of the 500 copies had been lost.
The remaining 100 numbered copies have been discovered and are being rereleased in 2024 with the assistance of Cargo Records.
From the original press release:
A story of love between two people and heroin Melissa Lee-Houghton’s debut novel is destined to become a classic of degenerate literature. It ranks alongside Trainspotting and Burroughs’ Junkie as a classic text on drug addiction and destitution.
Independent press Morbid Books is releasing a limited first edition of 500 copies, half with a colour cover designed by the graphic artist Shane Wheatcroft, the other half black and white—a nod to the dual personalities who narrate the book. -
The first book by an ambulance driver with extrasensory perceptions, Takeaway, was acclaimed as a miniature masterpiece by readers and authors upon its release in 2017.Visit product page →
"Vital," Benjamin Myers said... "Takeaway recalls Hogarth and Dickens in its depth and colour."
While the author's local newspaper, the Hackney Citizen noted that "Takeaway has a literary finesse, with its numbered lines recounting poetry or even Bible verses." A lot appears to have changed to the world since the first text of Takeaway appeared in 2017.
Now Tommy Hazard is back with new insights and tales from the frontline of human imperfection, including his unique view of the coronavirus pandemic. Includes the original text plus new material—Takeaway: Black Death Edition catches up with Tommy Hazard since he left the reader gasping for breath in the back of his ambulance.
Essential reading for anyone who speeded through the original 88-page Takeaway and wished it was longer, all those who have requested a copy since it went out of print, and new readers who have yet to experience the amusing, frightening, and ultimately reassuring voice of Tommy Hazard. -
Stewart Home is a prose machine but when his settings malfunction sometimes poetry spews out instead. He is the author of fifteen novels including the pulp/avant-garde classics "Pure Mania," "Defiant Pose," "Blowjob," "Cunt," and "69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess."Visit product page →
His work since the late 1970s has included interventions and manifestoes in the Neoist movement such as the Art Strike, and a non-fiction history of avant-garde movements, "The Assault on Culture: Utopian currents from Lettism to Class War."
This is the first collection of his poetry, song lyrics and snippets from his mother Julia Callan-Thompson's diary entries. -
LIMBO NOTEBOOKS is a collection of drawings and stories by Saul Adamczewski, co-founder of the Fat White Family and Insecure Men. Contains portraits of characters Saul met during his Adventures in Limbo tour, reflections on his exploits in Paris while his masterpiece album remained in limbo, and writing that reveals the soul of a self-proclaimed genius.Visit product page →
Printed in a first edition of 500 copies on eucalyptus paper, Limbo Notebooks is a boutique zine for connoisseurs of the avant-garde and curious fans of Saul's pioneering musical endeavours. -
BE COMPETENT!Visit product page →
THE COMPETENCE MOVEMENT is a post-industrial music, film and literary collective founded in 2023 by artists whose works were derailed by the pandemic. To quote from The Competence Manifesto, “The gulf between the complexity of systems and the human’s ability to navigate them has never been greater…”
MUSIC FOR BASIC FUNCTIONALITY is a digital music album of lectures on how to navigate the collapse of western civilization via social psychology, political theory and personal experience. Set to electronic and psychedelic music by members of The Underground Youth, Patheticist International, Surrealist Temple Band, Dada Jung Riley and Morbid Books, the album was recorded in three days and showcased at the 8MM Bar in Berlin in February, 2023, as a demonstration of competence in practice.
MUSIC FOR BASIC FUNCTIONALITY: A USER’S MANUAL is the physical release: a 64-page printed magazine that can be read in isolation or in conjunction with the musical lectures. Comes with free streaming and music downloads from thecompetencemovement.bandcamp.com
Featuring original material by:
Craig Dyer (The Underground Youth), Ian F. Svenonius (ESCAPE-ism & The Make-Up), Saul Adamczewski (Fat White Family/Insecure Men/Patheticist International), Daniel Hand (White Devil Disco/Surrealist Temple Band), Adrian Charvat (Dada Jung Riley), Tommy Hazard (Morbid Books), "MrPikes," Olya Dyer (The Underground Youth), Owen Godbert (Through the Eyes of Ruby), Luke Mayes (Rick Owens/Owenscorp), Anna Sebastian (Morbid Books), Palina Tsvirko & Lev Parker (Morbid Books/Surrealist Temple Band).
Published by Morbid Books
