Editor's Statement from Vol. 1:
Mass Culture originated at the suggestion of a friend, since I had no fucking clue what kind of publisher would give the time of day to something like “Dumbslut” (p. 18) from an unknown.
America’s attitudes toward sex and death are profoundly unhealthy. Media depictions of violent and sexual imagery are omnipresent, though generally sanitized, artificial, and bloodless—and yet more realistic depictions of such subjects lead to whining and pearl-clutching in the name of illusory abstracts like “human decency” and deeply-instilled myths about children’s innate “goodness.” Thus, the darker thoughts and desires endemic to human nature are camouflaged behind polite and euphemistic talk, the most unavoidably public instances subject to sensationalist distancing or reductive moral example, on top of the additional tendency to polarize complex individuals into simplistic archetypes of “monsters” and “saints.”
Mass Culture, then, serves to emphasize what is beautiful about grotesquery and perversion and what is revolting and horrible about the kind of standard lifestyle, beliefs, and media concoctions that we are “supposed” to find appealing, without resorting to reactionary adolescent contrarianism: any puerile armchair provocateur can make a Xerox collage of spread-beaver porn shots juxtaposed with Dachau inmates.
If you find it in poor taste that I would make irreverent reference to subjects like necrophilia and lust-murder, 1) I frankly don’t give a shit, and 2) you probably shouldn’t be reading this: go pick up a copy of Cosmo and learn how to use a scrunchie as a cock ring.
As a final note: there is power in limited quantities. Any asshole can make a blog. If I wanted it on the internet, I’d put it on the internet.*
—LC von Hessen, March 2011
*And now, some months on, I've decided I want this particular piece on the internet. Vol. 1 is soon-to-be sold out, after all.
27 October 2011
09 October 2011
Illustration for "Kindly Carcass"
A collage I assembled to accompany a short story. The line drawing is by Dennis Nilsen, reproduced from Brian Masters' Killing for Company. Used without permission: though considering Nilsen's continued struggles to publish his memoirs, he might well be quite pleased to see something of his newly in print.
08 October 2011
Aftermath
No relation to the 1994 short film of the same title . . .
Illustration for "Grey-Scaled Icthyoid"
This accompanied a piece about Albert Fish that was written on various substances over a couple of months. The little lass in the bottom right corner is, of course, Grace Budd.
06 October 2011
Mass Culture Vol. 2 - Back Cover
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