I once said I could make a blogging career out of commenting on TWANBOC and one could say the same about K-Punk, whose blog has already become one of the most interesting communities on the web. The comments boxes have almost as much traffic as UK-Dance. His iron discipline — or is it an obsessive glossolalia — was an existential challenge to any suggestion of a Lull. But Mark, don’t forget that it was a just that — a Lull — not a termination. Summer innit. People should be dancing, camping, shagging, gardening, not stuck in front of a monitor.
However — Stelfox shuffling off the coil is still hurting. It’s bad enough that he stopped writing — almost as if following too seriously my imprecation to do it for love, or don’t do it at all, him being desirious of retaining his professional status — but what really stings is that he DELETED ALL THE OLD POSTS. Never, I suspect, to be resuscitated. That’s so wasteful it’s almost criminal, but ye gods, it’s hardcore. ‘Course, it’s his game and he can take his toys away, but that’s a ROUGH way to make an exit. Though I guess it’s legend-making and rather admirably committed, in its own way.
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Not me — him. I imagine.
We can only hope we get a taste of his taste and a sample of his selections in the future. There’s no guarantees though.
And on the subject of the welcome return of Luka — Mark gets THIS close to nailing Luka’s genius with the term industrial sublime. I suspect Luka himself doesn’t understand it entirely, since he’s so un-self-conscious in his writing, but he’s a psychogeographer of the old (early 90s) school. His writing is highly redolent of the urban paganism encoded in industrial culture which I showcased in my industrial mix. He captures the transcendence of secret London, of abandoned urban places, the shadowlands of Heathen London, in a way of which Sinclair would approve, and which (IoT initiate) Burroughs would have understood, and more importantly which (Burroughs associate) Phil Hine would doubtless find inspirational. (Something I plan to ask Hine about specifically when I next interview him.)
I prefer the description — or invocation — more satisfying than the poetry, but there’s little doubt he’s blogdom’s pre-eminent prose stylist.
But would it work on paper?