Abattoir Jack by Christopher Neilan ISBN 9780953317233
Published by Punked Books in paperback on 1st December 2009 priced £6.99
At the age of 22, Jack is going nowhere. Stuck in a New Mexico backwater, slicing dead cattle for a living, he is ready to seize any opportunity to make something of his life. So when his workmate Ed tells him about the $25,000 stashed in a bus station locker in San Francisco, and when he meets and falls for the beautiful De S’anna, a sweet Italian supernova of sweat and lips and purple-black hair, the two events propel him into a journey of love, drugs, madness and determination as he tries to make real those two seductive mirages, the accidental fortune and the perfect love. Christopher Neilan’s debut novel is a coruscating tale told in vibrant, visceral prose. Funny, sexy, poetic, thrilling and endlessly inventive, Abattoir Jack is a very impressive achievement.
Christopher Neilan began writing seriously when he realised it was unlikely that anyone would pay to hear him play guitar, and yet more unlikely that anyone would pay to hear him explain in detail his favourite Tom Waits songs. He has been ‘working’ in TV comedy since 2005, when Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, writers of Peep Show, managed to get him a job on a sketch show.
He has written several short stories, has worked for producers Phil Clark (Peep Show) and Ash Atalla (The Office), and has been affiliated with a number of terrible short films (and a few alright ones). He plays his guitar at night and works behind a bar. He’s studying an MA and he does not have a car. He’s moved three times in three years but he’s not moved very far. Christopher has a degree in Film Studies from the University of Kent, a diploma in Filmmaking from the Brighton Film School, and has one pair of jeans that fit rather well. He lives in Brighton.
Abattoir Jack is the first novel to be published by Punked Books, a new paperback imprint for trade fiction and non-fiction.
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The Metarevolution by Grant Bartley
The Metarevolution is a revolutionary manifesto about revolutions. It is both a theory about the nature of change throughout history, and a prescription of what to do about it. The touchstone idea for The Metarevolution is that no matter how well thought-out any ideology may be to start with, there are always limitations which only become clear as its ideals are applied. History shows that radical changes too often lead to disaster or to corruption as these limitations are revealed, or as thinking stagnates when it needs to change. How can we overcome these limitations for present and future revolutions? And how can we overcome the failure to ultimately progress which this basic cycle of history demonstrates? By looking at the ‘hypothetical’ example of a coming global ecological revolution, and many examples from history, The Metarevolution analyses what goes wrong with cultures in following their ideals, and reveals the metarevolutionary response. This is to create a subculture which pursues an on-going deep critique of ideology, the aim of which is for humanity to continually evolve its ideals. In following this metarevolutionary programme we will continually redirect ourselves towards the best world we can create for ourselves. So a metarevolution is the most intelligent thing the human race can do for itself… and The Metarevolution needs you.
Grant Bartley is the assistant editor of Philosophy Now.
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