While there are times whenever it’s obvious that the writer has nothing to say on an emotional or intellectual level, readers are often all too ready to dismiss an author’s intention and write off a text as self-indulgent wankery.
Often, I find that the audience least receptive to such literary tactics are ones too in love with definitive interpretations. Ones who demand that the writer explain every line and are suspicious of anyone who wishes to leave it up to the individual to interpret.
The same people also reject T.S Eliot, so fuck them.
The best ones are the ones that offer up more than just another variation on the cut-up technique in that they create a new type of person, a new type of world and a new, common, language.
All of which 404 Error does.
Described in the press notes as “An anti-memoir…”, 404 Error
A collaboration between NYC based RG Vasicek and former neighbour of Nick Cave, Zak Ferguson, this 90-page book sees a nobody called Darius Zielski find out that he has two separate lives: one as an ignored urban dweller in New York and the other as the subconscious in cyberworld. Along the way, he muses on celebrity sexual fantasies, Frank Miller and 404 errors.
Subject wise, we’re in terrain recently explored by the likes of Several People are Typing. However, this goes hell bent for leather into the technological/cyberpunk aspect and ramps up a heavily chopped narrative in order to show the speed of consumption in the 21st century as well as the type of material that the grandchildren of those created by the computer (to paraphrase Richard H. Kirk). It can be exhilarating, blurry in terms of boundaries and frustrating. But it’s never boring, and its representation of Darius is a universal one. The reader can feel their emotions dropping away from them, replaced by numbers and symbols.
Not for everyone but, for those prepared to dive into a new world, it’ll help you navigate the 21st century.
RG Vasicek, Zak Ferguson, 2023, 404 Error: Memoir of a Nobody. Equus Press. ISBN-13: 978-199696498
Often, I find that the audience least receptive to such literary tactics are ones too in love with definitive interpretations. Ones who demand that the writer explain every line and are suspicious of anyone who wishes to leave it up to the individual to interpret.
The same people also reject T.S Eliot, so fuck them.
The best ones are the ones that offer up more than just another variation on the cut-up technique in that they create a new type of person, a new type of world and a new, common, language.
All of which 404 Error does.
Described in the press notes as “An anti-memoir…”, 404 Error
comes along maybe once a century. Be happy to be alive at this very moment…Guaranteed to get you drunk enough to cope with your anti-reality. As for the writers, who are they, are they real, who cares? This book is machine-made. A pocket machine that requires no batteries. Get yours & impress your friends.
A collaboration between NYC based RG Vasicek and former neighbour of Nick Cave, Zak Ferguson, this 90-page book sees a nobody called Darius Zielski find out that he has two separate lives: one as an ignored urban dweller in New York and the other as the subconscious in cyberworld. Along the way, he muses on celebrity sexual fantasies, Frank Miller and 404 errors.
Subject wise, we’re in terrain recently explored by the likes of Several People are Typing. However, this goes hell bent for leather into the technological/cyberpunk aspect and ramps up a heavily chopped narrative in order to show the speed of consumption in the 21st century as well as the type of material that the grandchildren of those created by the computer (to paraphrase Richard H. Kirk). It can be exhilarating, blurry in terms of boundaries and frustrating. But it’s never boring, and its representation of Darius is a universal one. The reader can feel their emotions dropping away from them, replaced by numbers and symbols.
Not for everyone but, for those prepared to dive into a new world, it’ll help you navigate the 21st century.
RG Vasicek, Zak Ferguson, 2023, 404 Error: Memoir of a Nobody. Equus Press. ISBN-13: 978-199696498
🕮 Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and author of A Vortex Of Securocrats.
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