Chris Mitchell "The men opened Maruja’s door and another two opened Beatriz’s. The fifth shot the driver in the head through the glass, and the silencer made it sound no louder than a sigh. Then he opened the door, pulled him out, and shot him three more times as he lay on the ground. It […]
Phra Peter Pannapadipo – Phra Farang: An English Monk in Thailand
Chris Mitchell What would possess a middle aged English businessman to give up his wealthy, comfortable lifestyle in London and become a Buddhist monk living in one of the poorest districts of Thailand? In Phra Farang (Thai for "Western monk"), Phra Peter Pannapadipo, formerly Mr Peter Robinson, tries to explain what led him to such […]
Richard Powers – Plowing The Dark
Chris Mitchell Plowing The Dark is nothing if not a novel of ideas. Set in the 1980s and 1990s, Richard Powers’ novel juxtaposes two parallel narratives – one concerning the rise of virtual reality, computer generated simulation that reached to become indistinguishable from reality – and the other concerning Taipur Martin, a American taken hostage […]
Swans : Swans Are Dead : Swans’ Song
Chris Mitchell on the end of Michael Gira’s intense, undefinable and deafeningly loud musical outfit SWANS The history of music is littered with the debris of those who paid dearly for being different. From the Stooges through to Suicide and the Birthday Party, there are countless individuals and outfits who have, in retrospect, redefined the […]
Patricia Duncker : Hallucinating Foucault : Insanity Clause
Chris Mitchell gets philosophical with Patricia Duncker about her novel Hallucinating Foucault “Madness, death, sexuality, crime; these are the subjects that attract most of my attention.” So said the late French philosopher Michel Foucault, one of the century’s most audacious intellectuals, who died of AIDS in 1984. Only Foucault’s books remain as a reminder of […]
Martin Millar : Love And Peace With Melody Paradise : Do It Yourself
Chris Mitchell talks to Martin Millar about his pro-traveller novel Love And Peace With Melody Paradise and how setting up his own website has brought him new readers What do you do if you’re an author who’s published several novels to widespread critical acclaim and then get unceremoniously dumped by your publisher? You’ve guessed it […]
Stuart Walton – Out Of It
Chris Mitchell Given the jacket cover emblazoned with dayglo euphemisms for getting altered and the obligatory chortling review quotes from numerous lad mags, youd be forgiven for wondering at first glance if Stuart Waltons book is a paragon of research sobriety. But rather than being another cheap cash-in on the still-burgeoning UK drug scene, Out […]
Tony Wheeler – Lonely Planet Unpacked
Chris Mitchell Lonely Planet: the world famous travel guidebook company which has scores of writers in the field at any one time and scores more desperately trying to get a job with this coveted organisation. So the logic behind Lonely Planet Unpacked is sound – given that LP has a veritable travel anecdote treasure trove […]
Bill Bryson – Mother Tongue
Chris Mitchell Mother Tongue is one of Bill Bryson’s earlier books and a superbly manageable and amusing treatise on the English language – where it came from, what it’s doing and where it’s going. It’s the sort of complex subject that needs the lightness of Bryson’s touch to give an obviously affectionate and enthusiastic overview […]
Alan Gurney – The Race To The White Continent
Chris Mitchell This is one book not to be judged by its cover. It features a photo of Shackleton’s ship Endurance, even though the venerable explorer barely gets a mention in Gurney’s book, and even then only at the end. As the title suggests, The Race To The White Continent is more concerned with the […]
Alan Moore – The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Chris Mitchell Take several classic 19th century literary characters – Allen Quatermain from "King Solomon’s Mines", Captain Nemo from "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", The Invisible Man, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, among others – bring them together as an ego-ridden but intriguing outfit under the auspices of the British Secret Service, set them within […]
Neighbourhood Threat: On Tour With Iggy Pop – Alvin Gibbs: The Song Of Leonard Cohen – Harry Rasky
Chris Mitchell Tour diaries have a particular squalid glamour all of their own. First person accounts of frequently excessive life on the road have become a mini-genre within the slew of books about pop music, Hammer Of The Gods and Pamela Des Barres’ I’m With The Band: Confessions Of A Groupie being two of its […]
Irvine Welsh and the UK Drug Debate
Chris Mitchell ponders the impact of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting on the UK drug debate [Spike note – this article was written in December 1997 for the now defunct Canadian online magazine Can Say. With the recent furore in the UK after seven Conservative Shadow Cabinet ministers admitted smoking pot, it seemed worth republishing. Despite there […]
Lawrence O’Toole : Pornocopia : Talking Dirty
Chris Mitchell meets Lawrence O’Toole, author of Pornocopia: Porn, Sex, Technology and Desire It’s a well-worn joke that any dinner-party discussion of the Internet will inevitably include a mention of finding pornography while on- line. As Lawrence O’Toole points out in his book, Pornocopia: Porn, Sex, Technology And Desire, the Internet has been the biggest […]
James Gleick: Faster
Chris Mitchell Faster is a survey of the speed of modern life. Subtitled "The acceleration of just about everything", its a book which takes time out to stop and think about the breakneck pace at which we live our lives and the ramifications of doing so. Unsurprisingly, technology has played a big part in increasing […]
Kodwo Eshun: More Brilliant Than The Sun
Chris Mitchell Technology is often seen as having a negative influence on music. Ever since the advent of sound generated by machines rather than traditional instruments, there have been dire predictions about the death of the Song. More Brilliant Than The Sun takes the opposite attitude and celebrates these strange new technologically-based forms of music, […]
William Gibson: All Tomorrow’s Parties
Chris Mitchell William Gibson is never going to be able to live down being the sci-fi author who coined the term "cyberspace". First used in his debut novel Neuromancer which was published during the early 1980s, it was soon picked up on as an uncannily accurate description of the then-emerging Internet. His latest novel is […]
Kevin Kelly – New Rules For The New Economy
Chris Mitchell Despite its dry title, Kevin Kelly’s book isn’t just another self-styled business bible for the information age. Instead, it’s an overview of what he terms the “network economy”, which is not only superseding the old paradigms of the industrial economy but transforming how we live. The network economy has been brought about by […]
Charles Leadbeater: Living On Thin Air
Chris Mitchell Thanks to the globalising effect of new technologies, Britain is transforming from an industrialised economy to a knowledge based economy. Unlike previous generations, many of us make our livings not by producing anything tangible but through the absorption and analysis of information. This, maintains Charles Leadbeater, is the advent of a new economy […]
Jane and Anna Campion: Holy Smoke
Chris Mitchell Holy Smoke is the novel of Jane Campions soon to be released film, starring Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel. Its an odd project, not only for being published before the films release (which says something about the literary pretensions of the director), but also for being a collaboration between two sisters. Challenging the […]
John Baxter: George Lucas: A Biography
Chris Mitchell Throughout his film-making career, George Lucas has continually pushed back the boundaries of technology in order to realise his ideas on the silver screen. John Baxters biography of the man is not only an account of Lucas personal history but also the transformative effect Lucas fascination with technology has had on the entire […]
Kruder And Dorfmeister : The K&D Sessions
Chris Mitchell Despite the rise of dance music in the 90s to the point where it’s arguably overtaken rock’n’roll as the defining sound of popular music, remixing is still something of a dirty word. It’s unsurprising given the way pedestrian remixes are continually used as filler on singles and even albums when an artist has […]
Erik Davis: TechGnosis
Chris Mitchell It’s traditional to think of technology as the epitomy of rationalism, functioning with the mechanical precision of mathematical logic and mindlessly performing laboursaving tasks for its human creators. But Erik Davis argues that the use of technology within our lives has managed to generate a whole new mindset of myths and mysticism which […]
Bruce Sterling: Distraction
Chris Mitchell If the novel of ideas has found a refuge within the 20th century, it’s within science fiction. Sci-fi lends itself perfectly to complex speculation about the future and what’s in store for the human race. The only problem is, sci-fi novels tend to function on such galactic-spanning levels that characters get reduced to […]
James Adams: The Next World War
Chris Mitchell James Adams is the former defence correspondent for the Sunday Times and the author of several books about the changing role of the world’s military forces in the post-Cold War climate. The Next World War examines the impact of technology on the future of armed conflict and the decisive importance of what has […]