New Year readings and writings
KIDS STUFF. I have just written my first story for kids. It’s called STUFF and has been brought out online as part of the launch of 3PM magazine. Andrew Gallix of 3AM and 3PM magazines says, STUFF is ‘an allegory full of humour and scathing satire. Think Brothers Grimm meet George Orwell.’
Here’s a bit of STUFF:
“When the box of stuff arrived in the huge grey palace of the central committee, the officials prodded and sniffed the contents, before passing it on, perplexed, to the scientists. In air-tight rooms with reinforced glass windows, the stuff was burned, frozen, melted, cut, blended, squashed and exploded with careful measurements being taken. As the scientists gathered their results, they became afraid. So did the central committee as they read the report. They had no choice but to present their findings to the glorious leader — a big old man with a deep voice and grey hair from the burden of ruling the country all his life. ‘What?’ he raged, ‘a thing of no use, it is not possible!’”
Read STUFF in it’s entirety here. N.B I also did the Illustrations, and if you like them, you can buy them as T-Shirts HERE (not kidding).
POMO KILLS ME. In Memoriam David Foster Wallace. EDINBURGH REVIEW ARTICLE (extract)
31 January 2010
The article from which this very short extract is taken was written by myself and appears in full in the new Edition of The Edinburgh Review. With reference to David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers, Don Delillo and others, it charts the rise and the limitations of Postmodern fiction.
PO-MO KILLS ME
In memoriam David Foster Wallace
Why can’t I be a postmodern writer? Why can’t I embrace irony and write ‘mash-up’ novels? Or put the world in quotation marks and ironically ‘deconstruct’ daily life? Am I just dated, quaint? Why do I still stick to this outmoded form called ‘telling stories?’ Throughout my years attempting to write I’ve constantly had to assess my work against the provocative ideas of the influential postmodern author David Foster Wallace. His suicide last year, after years of complex negotiations with his own style and subject matter, has led me back to question the role of postmodernism in fiction.
My long, troubled history with po-mo started in artschool (I graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1990). My education was a living example of the total transformation that swept through the art world at that time and left fiction reeling in it’s wake for over a decade. With po-mo, writing stories became impossible, risible. Recently, I’ve had to go back to where it all started to find out where I, and maybe even postmodernism, went wrong.
I entered Glasgow School of Art straight from high school, young, naïve, wanting to be a painter. Neo expressionism was in vogue, with painters like Stephen Campbell, Peter Howson and Ken Currie in the international spotlight; all painting bold, larger-than-life canvases of brave and bold (and often working class) men, expressing the power of the imagination and their unique artistic selves. It was all rather daunting. Madonna bought works by some of these artists and many talked about them in terms stolen from the 50’s and Jackson Pollock – the solitary artistic genius, the no-sell out existential soul, the artist against the world. That someone like Madonna could pay the price of a mortgage for these paintings that were supposed to be profound expressions of human truth and dignity was deeply unsettling to me.
In rebellion, I preferred trash. I was into Warhol and Pop Art. I had questions about gender and politics; my art was more about questioning than expressing. I was, at that time, a Trotskyite, my parents had been hippies and I grew up witnessing the death of their dream. I was also confused about my sexuality; all around me sex was being used to sell everything from cars to cola. I felt that art should in some way address these very troubling issues. I struggled, and failed, at making little paintings about big questions. My images were always invaded by advertising, I felt that photos torn from fashion magazines said more about this thing called ‘me’ than anything I could express. I was a failure; my ‘self’ was just too confused, too superficial.
Enter a visiting theorist who delivered the first of many lectures on something that the art school had thus far protected us from. I recall a sense of panic-attack realisation as he discussed Jean Baudrillard’s Simulation and Simulacra, and Frederic Jameson’s Post Modernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. It was revealed to our scared and impressionable minds that Jackson Pollock and the great painters of his era had been used as pawns in the cold war and been covertly funded by the CIA. Self-expression carried the mark of an American colonialist mindset, the rampaging western male ego. The way forward was to stop feeding the machine the myth of the artist/genius and to take apart the mechanisms of Art, exposing its complicity in consumerism. The word was Deconstruction. The old certainties were dead. The grand narratives of modernity were in crisis; Marxism was a corpse and Feminism had become a caricature of itself. It was the End of History, The Death of the Author. The artist and the author were what had led us into this human tragedy called modernity.
I don’t know if those lectures were the start of the revolution at Glasgow School of Art but these apocalyptic revelations had a devastating effect upon me. Starting, yet another, unfinished collage experiment with pages from Marie Claire and text by Marx, which my painting tutors condemned, I decided to open myself to the many doubts. Within a month I had abandoned painting, given up on Trotskyism and re-started my life, taking photographs and writing ‘texts’. I re-styled myself as a postmodernist and felt I was making a stand against the rampaging western ego of self-expression.
CONTINUED…
EDINBURGH REVIEW - http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/edinburghreview/
Essayist and critic William Hazlitt once commented: ‘To be an Edinburgh Reviewer is, I suspect, the highest rank in modern literary society.’ Numbered among our nineteenth-century contributors were Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle and William Ewart Gladstone; more recently, James Kelman, Janice Galloway, A.L. Kennedy, Kei Miller, Tom Leonard, Meaghan Delahunt and Tracey Emin have all contributed to the journal.
The current editor, Brian McCabe, continues the practice of presenting work by established and emergent writers. Under his editorship which began in 2006 while he was Writer-in-Residence at Edinburgh University, each issue offers a view into a particular culture or region.
INTERVIEW 3 AM MAGAZINE.
If you ever wanted to know who or what inspired the character of Saul, what effect the hippies had on me, what’s wrong with the Art world and what’s right with people then ceck out this exhaustive interview that Andrew Gallix of 3AM put me through. I think it’s the best I’ve ever had, it’s a discussion of all four of my books and why it is that I’m writing. It inspired me, so hope fully it will do something for you too.
3AM magazine. More Thanatos than Eros
THE TIMES T2 . Article on the history and psychology of the Menage a Trois by Ewan Morrison.
“The magic of a ménage à trois.” A menage is usually associated with tortured bohemians driven by wild passions — but for one man it was a surprisingly calm and positive experience”.
Related links. Celebrity Menage a trois.
MENAGE - REVIEWS
Stuart Kelly Scotland on Sunday 5th July.
‘Ewan Morrison has swiftly established himself as the foremost chronicler of the more perplexing and unconventional contemporary relationships… Ménage is an accomplished, often poignant, novel. …the novel strives to go beyond corrosive irony and world-weary cynicism to recapture a sense of the possibilities of love.’
Matt Thorne. The independent.
‘The link between art and madness is a tired theme, but Morrison makes it fresh by rooting his story in such a richly realised vision of the early nineties… It is a mark of Morrison’s considerable talent that his exploration remains fascinating, and that watching his characters’ fantasies (and sanity) crumble is just as interesting third time round as it’s ever been before.’
Doug Johnstone. Scotsman. 3rd July.
‘A shrewd and insightful look at a complex love triangle… Frightening, funny, perceptive, emotional and honest, Ménage is an excellent piece of work from a clearly gifted writer.
Alan Bissett. Author Death of a Ladies Man.
‘Menage is a triumph. The density of the psychological relationships; the connections between art, love and madness; the cleverness of the structure, the sheer believability of these screwed up, solipsistic people. The weight of it. A huge, brave feat.’
LA Martinson. The Erotic Review.
[Menage] is an attempt to see how we can keep desire alive in daily life; how we can negotiate a pathway between sexual desire and emotional intimacy. An attempt to ask how important sex is and what we’re willing to risk for it. And, more importantly, what we’d be left with if we risked nothing at all.
Sunday Herald - summer reads
A fast-paced, poignant tale about the arrogance of youth and insane, all-consuming love.
Alan Brown. Sunday Times Ecosse. 5th July
‘A good read but it does come across at time a bit like Jackie Collins for Guardian Readers ….Personally I find that his work, menage in particular, can make one feel ancient and suburban.’
Waterstones, Edinburgh.
Menage is a gripping read .. a steamy exploration of regret, sexual tension and a whole truckload of juicys tuff. Buy this and see what all the fuss is about. Ewan Morrison is one of Scotland’s – and Britain’s finest authors. ’
ESSAY Here’s my essay Death of a Nihilst or Obituary for a Nobody, which reveals the background for the novel Menage. In this months 3AM magazine.
BOOK LAUNCHES AND EVENTS
You are invited to the launch of Ewan’s new novel, menage, at Waterstones, Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow on the Wed 8th of July at 6.30. Ewan will be in discussion with writer and biographer Rodge Glass who has very recently won the SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD for his biography of Alasdair Gray.
You are also invited to the Edinburgh launch at Waterstones
west end, 128 Prince Street, Edinburgh on Thursday July 9th at 6pm.
FILM EVENT. I will be introducing a documentary on Francois Truffaut (Jules et Jim et al) at the Glasgow Film Theatre, as part of their 50 year anniversary celebrations for the French Nouvelle Vague. Monday 6th July 6.30 pm. TRUFFAUT EVENT.
My ‘Book of a Lifetime’ - Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller - 400 words on how the book influenced me appeared in the Independent on the 26th June. CLICK HERE: TROPIC
Here’s my Top ten books that are about the Menage a Trois. As featured in The Guardian Weds 24th June.
These Include Kerouac, Sontag and the book of Genesis. If you think I’ve missed any of the greats (She came to Stay by De Beauvoir has already been pointed out) then please add to comments.
New and wonderful things are going on at 3AM MAGAZINE. First up is an article on my experiences of the British Art Scene in the 90’s entitled For the Love of God (or how not to be a YBA)
The short story CLEAN SHEETS AND A VIEW OF THE HUDSON is online with THE BEAT magazine.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/23/ewan-morrison-menage-trois
If You would like to view from Film Clips or listen to some audio recordings and interviews about or featuring text from ‘Menage’, then visit my new AUTHORSPLACE site. On there you will also find links to other Random House authors and be able to check my schedule.
My FIVE TOP TIPS for writing sex scenes appeared in The Times (21st June) as part of a debate WHO WRITES THE BEST SEX - on whether women can write Erotica or not, sparked by comments made by the new owner of the Erotic Review owner Kate Copstick. Times article by Kathy Lette.
You can also see THREE VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE that I shot myself, that involve readings from Menage ( I’m doing Voice Over too.)
A new short story entitled DOGS can be read on the fine online literary magazine DOGMATIKA
Ewan has a short Flash fiction in FLASH MAGAZINE the International Short Story Magazine.
Vol. 2 No. 1 (Apr. 2009) Includes stories by:
Roberta Allen, Dave Eggers, David Gaffney, Rodge Glass, Francesca Haig, Kobus Moolman, Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Matt Thorne, Gee Williams
MENAGE. Ewan’s third novel will be released in July 2nd 2009.
The Duchess, Zarathustra and ‘O’ - those were the names they had for each other as they marched hand-in-hand round Hoxton in 1993. Three young iconoclasts living in glorious squalor, dole scrounging, shoplifting, doing drugs and swapping clothes and beds. They survive on the fringes of the Young British Artist scene convinced that they are making their lives into an artwork, even greater than those of the other great artists’ menages a trois of the twentieth century - from Henry, June and Anais to Duchamp and his many tangled love triangles. Years later and Saul, Dot and Owen have each been blown in different directions by the explosion of that one year of debauchery and excess: Dot is now an internationally renowned artist; Saul, the mad Nietzschean visionary, has vanished from the world and is rumored to have become a homeless drug addict; and Owen is an art critic, heavily burdened with guilt over what he feels he caused to happen to the other two. 2008. A big retrospective of Dot’s work is put on and Owen is forced to face images from their past. Dot and Saul, too, are drawn back together. But as all three are reunited things become complicated - Dot has a child from a broken marriage and so their union of three is now of four. And Owen’s feelings of guilt and jealousy resurface, threatening to bring them back to the conflicts that led to Dot to the brink of suicide only then to catapult her to stardom. Is the menage a trois a way to live? Or is it just a dream, a work of art, impossible in reality? “Menage” is a Jules et Jim for the jilted generation. A tale of heroin chic, fake mustaches, shoplifted sherry, pot noodles and a love so powerful that it constantly threatens to destroy the lovers.
To pre-book a copy go here - MENAGE
BOOK FEST APPEARANCE
Ewan will be reading from Menage at this years Edinburgh International Book Festival alongside author and co-conspirator Alan Bissett (whose new novel Death of a Ladies Man is highly recommended)
EWAN’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Check out my top choices at this very well maintained Blog by hip and wise author Will Ashon
Link: VERNALAND
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
I am very pleased to see that the 19050’s American classic Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is currently experiencing a renaissance with the re-issue in paperback of all of Yates back catalog and of course the movie with Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet. Revolutionary Road was the inspiration and model for Swung. Rev. Road is about two proto-betanicks struggling with conformity in 1950’s America, and coming to the painful realisation that there is no escape and they are maybe just like their neighbours. Ewan wanted to do something similair with Swung and Gen-x. Swung started from the question: ‘would it be possible to re-set the conflict in rev.road in the present- given that we live in a time when there are no remaining jobs-for-life, when taboos around sex have all but vanished, abortion has become easy and acceptable and ‘rebellion’ has been reduced to consumer choices that signify rebliousness.
In the 90’s Ewan bought Rev. Road eight times as he was always loaning it out and then the borrowers would loan it on again. There was a kind of secret fraternity of fans. It’s a great book and ahead of it’s time.
Here’s the book link
and heres the movie link
and the trailer link
And here is the Richard Yates Archive link
ONLINE VIDEO INTERVIEW. ABC AUSTRALIA. 11 minute interview with Ewan on books, inspiration, love etc. Click here to stream it.
21st OCTOBER. Ewan appeared in the BBC ARTS PROGRAM “IMAGINE” presented by Alan Yentob. The 50 minute program is an exploration of ‘the love story’ and includes interviews with Sarah Waters and Adam Phillips and a section about the Le Prince Maurice Prize in Mauritius that Ewan was shortlisted for.
To view the programme on iplayer click here IMAGINE
ANOTHER MAGAZINE has just released MESSENGER a chain-written story BY Ewan Morrison, Will Ashon, Chris Manby, Stella Duffy, Alison Macleod and Matt Thorne.
go to http://www.anothermag.com/
go to literature, go to the far right and open NEW ANOTHER DOCUMENT and click on DOWNLOAD ANOTHER DOCUMENT. Another document is a damn fine literature magazine within a magazine. This edition contains photographs by Katy Grannan, Malerie Marder and Tanyth Berkeley and a story by AM HOMES and writing by ALAIN DE BOTTON
DISTANCE - Ewan’s second Novel - the story of a long distance relationship - was released on June 29th (Jonathan Cape)
The Times ****
“A writer of serious intent and prodigious talent…In lesser hands, the besotted dialogues and communications between Tom and Meg might begin to grate, but here the author makes them utterly compelling… On this form, Morrison is one of the finest novelists around”
The Sunday Telegraph ****
Top 50 Summer reads 2008.
The List. Camilla Pia ****
“Incredibly compelling reading…. an often overpowering, whirlwind romance peppered with hilarious, snappily rendered critiques… bittersweet anecdotes and, perhaps most interestingly, some searing attacks on and celebrations of modern Scotland. Morrison keeps the reader’s spirits up and gripped to every chapter with an abundance of witty lines, bittersweet anecdotes and an underlying sense of hope, which keeps Distance from becoming too sinister.”
Doug Johnstone, author, Tombstoning and The Ossians
“Distance is a remarkable, penetrating look at the nature of love, the psychology of sex and the role of delusion and fantasy in relationships.”
Arena
“The absorption of two lovers can make the reader feel like a gooseberry… Morrison leaves you aching for their reunion.”
The Daily Mirror
“A transatlantic romance is brilliantly stretched to breaking point… Secrets and lies mount on two continents, as a face-to-face confrontation inevitably looms.”
Independent: Jonathan Gibbs
“Morrison seems on the button with the mundane routines of long-distance love.”
Financial Times, Melissa McClements
“Morrison can be insightful…This, together with philosophical musings about the nature of affection, bring weight to bear”
Scotsman
“The much anticipated follow-up to Swung, takes off in a rush, a headlong dash, a slipstream of heat with the force of irresistible suction. Giddy, off-kilter and wholly absorbing, it features two lovers, besotted, reeking of lust and loss, in the wake of a week of powerful sexual-cum-psychological intrigues in New York City and beyond.”
TO READ EWAN’S GUARDIAN ESSAY ON STUTTERING got to:
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/family/story/0,,2286988,00.html
to read of EWAN’S WEEK AS A PRINCE MAURICE NOMINIEE go to:
ttp://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4120501.ece
Ewan is very pleased to have found this critical perspective of the first two books on the british council website. Scroll down and there’s a page long review.
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth5689e3e00cac21b16eykv4276073
RADIO INTERVIEW WITH IRVINE WELSH
Ewan and Irvine Welsh interviewed each other and chatted about their new novels on BBC RADIO CAFE on 21/07/008. To stream the interview go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cm7v8
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY - SPECTRUM MAGAZINE. Cover Story 31st March. - Ewan went on a PICK UP ARTIST course in London (how to pick up women) - and this was the result…
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/Pickup-schmuck.3926010.jp
Also check out ewan’s weekly column: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Ewan-Morrison-39Little-white-cowboygeared.3858848.jp
SHORTLIST- LE PRINCE MAURICE AWARD FOR THE MOST OUTSTANDING LITERARY LOVE STORY
SWUNG has been shortlisted for the annual literary prize known as Le Prince Maurice. The two other authors shortlisted are James Meek for ‘We Are Now Beginnning Our Descent’ and Salley Vickers for ‘The Other Side of You.’ The winner will be announced at a ceremony on the island of Mauritius in June.
Here are links to the two other authors.
http://www.canongate.net/JamesMeek
For more got to: http://www.princemaurice.com/press/pressrelease/CLPMPrize08Shortlist.pdf
ITALIAN IMPRINT OF SWUNG
On Feb 28th Swung appeared in Italy with the publishers Fazi Editore. The novel in Italian is called SCAMBISTI.
Keep an eye out for an essay by Ewan on Love in La Republica. and also a Q&A appearing in the forthcoming edition of Italian womens magazine ‘Anna.’
THE GERMAN IMPRINT OF SWUNG
was released on 24th March 08 under the title SWINGER. The publisher is C. Bertelsmann.
http://www.randomhouse.de/cbertelsmann/
A large interview is being published in ‘Brigitte’ Magazine, Germany.
REVIEWS SWUNG: The Novel
Ewan Morrison’s first novel SWUNG (Jonathan Cape)
was published on April 5th 2007.
PRAISE FOR SWUNG
“Sometimes - very rarely - a book is just so good that a string of gushing superlatives still seem to be damning it with faint praise. Swung is that kind of a novel, genuinely groundbreaking in its scope and insights, highlighting that its author is one of the most gifted and accomplished writers to have emerged in recent years” - Irvine Welsh
READ IRVINE WELSH’S ENTIRE GUARDIAN REVIEW HERE:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2061343,00.html#article_continue
‘A devastating book. As Real as it gets. Sexy, dark and unbearably moving.’ Alan Bissett.
‘Seedy and undeniably erotic, this is the best book on sex since John Updike’s ‘Couples’ - Arena Magazine
‘A surprisingly gripping and sensitive read…Swung is a smart peice of fiction, stunningly executed for a literary newcomer, with characters that are both real and sympathetic. Morrison adds very little padding to his sentences allowing his expertly fleshed out characters to the drive the book and the result is a moving, compassionate responce to modern neurosis.’
SUN HERALD (sydney, Australia)
“That rare thing - a serious book about sex. Ewan Morrison’s brave, dirty utterly honest account of the psychological side of swinging is a complete delight.” - Matt Thorne
‘Swung isn’t especially prurient, or even that erotic. It’s more concerned with grey matter than pink bits - a funny and disturbing phsychosexual dissection from a writer with considerable literary gifts.’ MELBOURNE AGE
‘Morrison, a sometime swinger, is a sufficiently solid writer to know that sex without emotion is narratively very dull indded. Though sex is it’s language, this is a novel about ageing and settling and messing things up again, with heart enough to make it hurt a little.’
THE OBSERVER
‘There is a direct line from Douglas Coupland’s generation-crunching debut novel and Swung… the move from Generation X to generation XXX is seemingly complete… In documenting an aparrently minor pursuit Morrison has served up a generation’s epitaph… Swung is a good read but not a happy read.’
Colin Waters. Scottish review of Books
‘As “Swung” begins, there is a worry that it will exhibit the kind of name-dropping, know-it-all post-modernist tendencies that are too irritating to endure. However, Morrison reveals a far subtler agenda. Beneath the boredom there remain yearnings and struggles, there might just still be spheres of genuine experience…What Morrison does is to re-establish an intimate bond between reader and character through a kind of sustained interior monologue, verging at times on free association.’
Henry Archer. TIME OUT 4 stars.
Read the full review here: http://www.timeout.com/london/books/review/book/376/ewan_morrison_swung.html
‘Swung is an amazing debut novel with a genuinely fresh take on the human condition and the mess we all make of our lives. It’s a literate, smart, compassionate and complex look at how people struggle to untangle the threads of sex love and longing which bind us. It is by turns hilarious, frightening and heartbreakingly moving, and it shows Morrison to be an extraordinarily gifted writer with an incredible future ahead of him.’ - Doug Johnston
‘What happens to Generation X when the time comes to settle down and grow up?….Morrison’s accomplished short-story collection, The Last Book You Read also told of jaded, solipsistic chatacters who turn to sex in the last hope of finding an authentic or meaningful connection. They invariably came away unsatisfied, but over the course of a novel you’ve got more chances to find what you’re looking for and Morrison just about keeps alive the possibility that David and Alice will come through their increasingly unconventional sexual experiences a closer and stronger couple.’ THE INDEPENDENT. Laurence Phelan May 8th
“Ewan Morrison has a rare, enviable talent, like Vonnegut, like many of the best, he writes like he hates the world he lives in but sympathises with the people in it - no matter how many mistakes they make, how many people they hurt, how many times they almost give up. Despite being on one level a book about sex, Swung seems to me be more about how people cope with growing older and realising they won’t achieve the perfect life they once hoped for. It is as much a soft lament as an ecstatic howl.” - Rodge Glass. Author: No Fireworks
“The Self confessed ‘erudite purveyor of filth’ certainly knows how to make a buzz. With this novel about Glasgow swingers that sound should turn into a veritable cacophony.” - THE LIST Magazine
“Morrison has translated his experience as a scriptwriter skilfully into a style that is by turns nervy and reflective. Unuttered thoughts and spoken responses intercut-rapidly, observing and observed, each clinging to the other in the bid to explain the truth of a scene. Morrison is very good at sex. He’s aware of what to take seriously and what to laugh at - (he) ensures that (the characters) approach the glimmers of hope which grace the books final pages with the honest, nervy indecision that they deserve. Swung is a book of real ambition, a wide ranging exploration of human needs that starts from the most unexpected of websites.”
THE HERALD
“A searching new novel about love and trust.”
THE SCOTSMAN WEEKEND
“Extraordinary. While the sex in the book is frankly depicted it doesn’t actually feel like a book about sex. It’s more about people burdened by the heavy weights of economics, history, and (sexual) politics.”
THE LIST
“(A) fantastic debut novel - Morrison knows what h’s writing about, he experimented with swinging for a year, and used his experiences to create a perceptive and touching fictionalisation of a topic which many folk see as simply perverted.”
THE BIG ISSUE
“It’s as dirty a debut novel as Adam Thirwell’s brilliant Politics a few years back and just as funny and thought provoking - Morrison has the authenticity of a man who has lived the life and Swung is a heavyweight read - but, luckily, you can hold it in one hand!”
DAILY SPORT. Book of the Week April 14.
“Morrison writes about endless sex without missing a beat, partly because his warm, witty, poignant novel is as much about 21st-century consumption as its is consummation.” Metro Newspaper
“A racy romp - not for the faint of heart, this psychologically involvimg story certainly makes for an eye-opening read.” Easy Living Magazine
