Blood of Mugwump: A Tiresian Tale of Incest (Black Ice Books)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.64 (590 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B00DF87I7C |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 139 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-09-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"How does language create/destroy identity?" according to Amazon Customer. A hallucinatory descent into the meaning of family, of body, and of language. This book is not meant to be read quickly, though its small size may lead some to believe otherwise. While Faulkner wrote exquisitely long, baroque sentences about time and place, threading the reader down long corridors of meaning and allusion, in "Blood of Mugwump" Rice uses short bursts of truncated clauses, chipping away at the skin of the reader until, well within the anti-gravity of the story, you no longer understand what's going on and yet you do, you do, in this primal, in. "Faulkner would turn in his grave" according to Arthur Gideon. if he knew what Rice was doing with his "Cady," the family, and the literary legacy. He'd probbaly turn in his grave with delight. Rice says this book was almost impossible to write -- maybe he shouldn't have written it. It's pretty unreadable, like language poetry, but I give him three stars for some damn fine images and perverse sexual longings.This isn't a novel. It's more like a prose poem. I've read some other works by Rice in literary zines and he's getting more and more obscure, and writing about the same characters in this book.The photos are a nice . Matthew L. Moffett said a feast for the brain. Based on the technique alone, this novel is a feast for the brain. Most if not all of the text was appropriated from various sources and is seemlessly woven together in bizarre patterns. The narrator is pulled along, forced to discover and re-discover him/herself and the family background as s/he continually switches from male to female and back again. It is disturbing, funny and touching, and often all at the same time. I read this over a month ago and I still find myself asking questions and re-investigating this work. A must-read for anyone interested in
A frenzied sexual virus, genetically conveyed, mutates and possesses the meat of Doug's and Caddie's bodies forcing them to love each other in unspeakable, yet classical, ways. All the while, the familial matriarch - Grandma Mugwump (a woman who once-upon-a-time really was a man) - feeds on the flesh of young Doug. None of this autobiographical fragment is in Rice's original words. In Blood of Mugwump Rice cannibalizes the likes of Joyce, Faulkner, Burroughs, Eliot, and a whole host of dead angelic others.. Rice's parasitical language is akin to the acts of those naked 18th century pirates of desire. Once through the looking-glass, Doug realizes that Caddie (a polysexual Faulknerian nightmare of a sister) is more terrifying and holy than your average saint. (Not to mention the grey and muddy bodies that have washed ashore and that the Mugwumps have eaten.) Quirky flesh and cryptic desires created by a mysterious looking-glass (that refuses to reflect reality) have driven the Mugwumps beyond the thunderdome into their own house of incest.Now, trapped inside a kinetic body that is always changing from male to female, Doug Rice (the youngest Mugwump) sets out to discover himself in his sister's body. The blood of the Mugwump clan of Catholic, gender-shifting vampires has become infected by decadent words and confused memorie
None of this autobiographical fragment is in Rice's original words. A frenzied sexual virus, genetically conveyed, mutates and possesses the meat of Doug's and Caddie's bodies forcing them to love each other in unspeakable, yet classical, ways. . (Not to mention the grey and muddy bodies that have washed ashore and that the Mugwumps have eaten.) Quirky flesh and cryptic desires created by a mysterious looking-glass (that refuses to reflect reality) have driven the Mugwumps beyond the thunderdome into their own house of incest. Once through the looking-glass, Doug realizes that Caddie (a polysexual Faulknerian nightmare of a sister) is more terrifying and holy than your average saint. Rice's para