Pavilion Digest: August 2009

[remarck]

Name: Keith Cramer
Source: unca20091009.htm
Harlan,

I confess I don't like the cover. I do not like swastikas, reverse swastikas, or anything that looks like Nazi propaganda.

Additionally, I don't like the font with that picture. I also don't like seeing your name above, or below, or around, a swastika.

NOW, having written that, I'l also say:

I can see why you like it. The Nazi uniform, floating there, begging for a face. Any face. It could be any face filling that space.

But what woudl blow me away. What would redeem the cover in my eyes: YOUR FACE THERE.

-Keith

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[Barney Dannelke]

Name: Barney Dannelke
Source: unca20091007.htm
*** Harlan *** Well, sure. It's perfect in the "why and how is this bear standing on this beach?" sense for a book cover. Anybody who sees a cover like that in the places in bookstores you tend to be shelved and doesn't say, "What the fuck?" and then PICK THE BOOK UP has a truly deadened sense of curiosity.

So, in that sense - Mission Accomplished.

My concern, again, ***MY*** concern, is the new readers you may find in your signing line. I mean, I'm not 100% in love with your OLD signing line - and I know over half of them by name.

But what new readers and looky-loos and whackadoos this cover draws out, well, I've had a pretty good taste of good old American town hall crazy this week and I'm not looking forward to having them show up in YOUR signing line in MY twilight years.

But, as always, it's your call.

With a little trepidation and a fuck-ton of respect,

Barney

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[Barney Dannelke]

Name: Barney Dannelke
Source: unca20091009.htm
*** Harlan *** Well, sure. It's perfect in the "why and how is this bear standing on this beach?" sense for a book cover. Anybody who sees a cover like that in the places in bookstores you tend to be shelved and doesn't say, "What the fuck?" and then PICK THE BOOK UP has a truly deadened sense of curiosity.

So, in that sense - Mission Accomplished.

My concern, again, ***MY*** concern, is the new readers you may find in your signing line. I mean, I'm not 100% in love with your OLD signing line - and I know over half of them by name.

But what new readers and looky-loos and whackadoos this cover draws out, well, I've had a pretty good taste of good old American town hall crazy this week and I'm not looking forward to having them show up in YOUR signing line in MY twilight years.

But, as always, it's your call.

With a little trepidation and a fuck-ton of respect,

Barney

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[remarck]

Name: Keith Cramer
Source: unca20091007.htm
sorry

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[remarck]

Name: Keith Cramer
Source: unca20091009.htm
sorry

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[Kloes]

Name: Lars Klores
Source: unca20091007.htm
Harlan, there have been times when if you had asked my opinion, I would have told you to back off. This is not one of them. The cover is the perfect face for a book which "puts cats among pigeons," and I do not think it is in the least offensive.

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[Kloes]

Name: Lars Klores
Source: unca20091009.htm
Harlan, there have been times when if you had asked my opinion, I would have told you to back off. This is not one of them. The cover is the perfect face for a book which "puts cats among pigeons," and I do not think it is in the least offensive.

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[Lyn]

Name: Lyn
Source: unca20091007.htm
Sorry.

I do not like the cover, and it certainly would not inspire me to buy the book.

For whatever it's worth.
Probably nothing.

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[Lyn]

Name: Lyn
Source: unca20091009.htm
Sorry.

I do not like the cover, and it certainly would not inspire me to buy the book.

For whatever it's worth.
Probably nothing.

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[Cindy]

Name: Cindy
Source: unca20091007.htm
Harlan,
No way-- should you back off from that cover. It's compelling-- and horrifying. I would have to read that book... HAVE TO read that book.

Damn right-- hold the course--it fuckin' rocks.
Cindy

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[Cindy]

Name: Cindy
Source: unca20091009.htm
Harlan,
No way-- should you back off from that cover. It's compelling-- and horrifying. I would have to read that book... HAVE TO read that book.

Damn right-- hold the course--it fuckin' rocks.
Cindy

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[Douglas Harrison]

Name: Douglas Harrison
Source: unca20091007.htm
I think the cover serves the title brilliantly, with the swastika positioned right behind the spot where that "fish-head in aspic" would go.

As for it being a dangerous image, what's dangerous is facists not being called on their shit.

D.

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[Douglas Harrison]

Name: Douglas Harrison
Source: unca20091009.htm
I think the cover serves the title brilliantly, with the swastika positioned right behind the spot where that "fish-head in aspic" would go.

As for it being a dangerous image, what's dangerous is facists not being called on their shit.

D.

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[Kris Nelson]

Name: Kris Nelson
Source: unca20091007.htm
First off, I must say that I love the title - Billy Mummy meets King Crimson? Did you ever get into "Lark's Tongue in Aspic" by King Crimson, Harlan? (That title inspired by the musical work "The Lark Ascending", written in 1914 by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. It, in turn, was inspired by George Meredith's 122-line poem of the same name about the skylark. Whew!)

As for the cover itself, I don't think there is anything offensive about it at all, other than the natural revulsion many might have for Nazi symbols. (And well might they be revulsed!) But as something to draw the eye and make the average book-aisle denizen draw in a quick breath I think it is just fine. The music/noise groups Throbbing Gristle and Death in June both used Nazi costumes in stage shows to gauge audience reactions to seeing such things. Surely no one who has read "A Prayer for No One's Enemy" or knows your connections with Judaism will think you are making an endorsement.

And does (please excuse my ignorance) the fact that there is no head on the Nazi have something to do with the Fish-head in the title?

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[Kris Nelson]

Name: Kris Nelson
Source: unca20091009.htm
First off, I must say that I love the title - Billy Mummy meets King Crimson? Did you ever get into "Lark's Tongue in Aspic" by King Crimson, Harlan? (That title inspired by the musical work "The Lark Ascending", written in 1914 by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. It, in turn, was inspired by George Meredith's 122-line poem of the same name about the skylark. Whew!)

As for the cover itself, I don't think there is anything offensive about it at all, other than the natural revulsion many might have for Nazi symbols. (And well might they be revulsed!) But as something to draw the eye and make the average book-aisle denizen draw in a quick breath I think it is just fine. The music/noise groups Throbbing Gristle and Death in June both used Nazi costumes in stage shows to gauge audience reactions to seeing such things. Surely no one who has read "A Prayer for No One's Enemy" or knows your connections with Judaism will think you are making an endorsement.

And does (please excuse my ignorance) the fact that there is no head on the Nazi have something to do with the Fish-head in the title?

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