ZONES OF TOTAL PERMISSION

We learned the men had been burned to death while planning Christmas vacation. It was 2013, I was living in Madagascar, and my friends and I were sitting around discussing what part of the island to travel to for the holiday. This lynching, shocking and unusual in Madagascar, was relevant because the men had spent … Continue reading ZONES OF TOTAL PERMISSION

The trucks are placed just so, arranged like sigils, forming a portal through which Llewelyn Moss falls. The underworld is less a place and more a point of view, available only to the initiated who have eyes to see: an office building downtown with a missing floor; men speaking in hushed tones two booths down at the greasy spoon; a party of non-locals checking into a single-bedroom suite at the motel advertising “FREE HBO”. And Moss, as soon as he crosses that threshold in that bright Texas dark, is initiated. He is also cursed. The tragedy of his story is that no matter where he goes, as long as he draws breath, the people around him–loved ones, acquaintances, accomplices, bystanders–will die. “… fastened to a dying animal / It knows not what it is; and gather me / Into the artifice of eternity…”

No Country for Old Men -- Jacob Everett is the editor-in-chief and publisher of APOCALYPSE CONFIDENTIAL

“YOUR HANDS ARE COLD WHEN YOU THINK OF CHRISTMAS”: ON BLAST OF SILENCE AND HOLIDAY NOIR

1. Blast of Silence is a film that seems to operate as a sort of death by one-thousand cuts executed by hands from two distinct bodies. One cutting hand is the tinsel glinting knife of the “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” flavor of holiday film. Fitting that a Christmas hurricane hit New York as director/writer/lead … Continue reading “YOUR HANDS ARE COLD WHEN YOU THINK OF CHRISTMAS”: ON BLAST OF SILENCE AND HOLIDAY NOIR

THE SMELL OF TOWELS

My mother was always very cold before she died, and one of the last of many purchases my father made to keep her comfortable while her mind and body wasted away was a towel warmer. Our house was freezing—my father kept it that way—and she would sit day after day in the La-Z-Boy chair in … Continue reading THE SMELL OF TOWELS

THE EXEGESIS OF THEODORE ROSZAK

"Despite what you find in my bibliography, I am not a nonfiction writer who turned to fiction, but a novelist who got diverted into nonfiction when I could not get my novels published… All my writing has to do with the demonic element in modern science and technology…" -- Theodore Roszak, St. James Guide to … Continue reading THE EXEGESIS OF THEODORE ROSZAK

SEEPING EYES, TEETH OF WIRES, LIPS OF DISCORDANCE

I. I-84 and Holy War Winter in New England has always been regarded as beautifully magical despite it being quite unforgiving at times, but what people don’t tell you is that there’s actually something that we’ll just call the Connecticut Clause. This exception we’re pioneering here is for acknowledging that Connecticut has a unique existential dread permeating … Continue reading SEEPING EYES, TEETH OF WIRES, LIPS OF DISCORDANCE

THE MOTHER OF WAR

I. -- For the 19th century Sikh theologian Bhai Avtar Singh Vahiria, the Devi is void, hole, nullity— bindu, sifr. The creative womb, the primordial nothing, zero, empty in itself; penetrated by God’s will, it birthed the chaos of multiplicity. Sikh martial scripture says the first thing God created was the sword. The sword is … Continue reading THE MOTHER OF WAR

THE GOD OF CHAOS LAUGHS ALONE: ON DAMIEN LEONE’S TERRIFIER 2

Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2 begins where its predecessor left off: in the office of the Miles County coroner, where Art the Clown, presumed dead of a self-inflicted bullet to the brain, has awoken. Fluorescent lights flicker. Radio static whines and whirrs. The coroner, sputtering blood, drags himself to the telephone. He dials 9-11. Help is … Continue reading THE GOD OF CHAOS LAUGHS ALONE: ON DAMIEN LEONE’S TERRIFIER 2

BODY: THE ROOT OF ALL PEOPLE

Excerpted from Escape Philosophy: Journeys Beyond the Human Body by Roy Christopher, out via punctum books “I wish I could peel away your humid, human skin And attach you to me, parasitically.” — Milemarker, “Insect Incest” “The body, like most things, is a tool. The body’s morality depends on its user. The body’s morality is … Continue reading BODY: THE ROOT OF ALL PEOPLE

THE LOVE SONG OF ELIOT NESS

The man was grabbed off of a street corner in broad daylight. He was a large man with big hands, spectacles, and a mustache. He did not necessarily look like trouble, but inside he was certainly troubled. His name was Dr. Francis Sweeney, and on that afternoon in August 1938, he was kidnapped and brought … Continue reading THE LOVE SONG OF ELIOT NESS