16/2/2021
Having become familiar with Lex Jones via his work and on a personal level in recent months, I ve learned a little regarding the influences that inform the state of his imagination, ranging from written fiction to cinema; from childhood toys and cartoons to comic books and video games. That context has lent my reading of
Whistling Past the Graveyard a certain frisson, as not only can I hear Lex s voice in the writing, but I also see where those influences manifest (often chimerically, Lex taking various different tropes and traditions and weaving them together in a post-modern fashion to produce something idiosyncratic).
Walking Contradiction live, where Billie Joe changed the lyrics to “
I m a walking contradiction / and I m bored”, which pretty much sums up both the characterisation in, and my experience with,
The Night of the Dayfish. Within the first three pages our narrator, a nameless aspiring chef, manages to sound both bored and excited by his culinary training, ruminates on how adventure is a bad idea for artists before saying how much he likes danger, and so on. It s a frustrating opening to what bills itself as a memorable, horrifying adventure, as the chef in training seeks out the source of the titular fish and gets more than he bargained for.