Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 11:00:22 PM

Login with username, password and session length

2023: A Trilogy

Started by BJBMK2, October 04, 2017, 11:11:43 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

BJBMK2

Anyone read this yet? I know there's a KLF thread somewhere in Oscillations, but if anyone's read this, you'll know it probably deserves it's own thread.



Despite being a big fan of Drummond and Cauty, and virtually everything they've done, can't say I enjoyed this too much to be honest. There are flashes of inspired Discordian craziness, but...the whole thing feels very anticlimactic. The constant self referencing and self mythologising, which I know is a recurrence in there work, is taken to an annoying degree. The story within a story that references this story that breaks the fourth wall to that story and so on and on it goes until it just stops and your left with a curious feeling at the end, that it was all a bit...pointless.

It tries way too hard to be an updated Illuminatus (to the point of nicking whole scenes and character names, not to mention THE pivotal character in the whole thing), that it forgets to have any identity of it's own. The satire is pretty weak and on the nose too.

In the end, it just has no atmosphere. For me, it doesn't work in the way that great fiction should work, in the sense that you forget about the authors voice and just lose yourself in the story, the world created. Throughout 2023, your constantly being reminded that your reading a book by the KLF, about the KLF. It takes you out of the story. Case in point, Bad Wisdom, one of Drummond's other books. You don't really need to have a degree in KLF lore to understand that book. You could have never heard of Bill Drummond, pick up Bad Wisdom, and just enjoy it as a mad story about some blokes trying to get to the North Pole.

Can someone please tell me how wrong I am and that it's actually a masterpiece? I REALLY wanted to like this, I had it pre ordered virtually soon as you could pre order it. But I don't think I'll be reading it again sadly.

dmillburn

I was really hoping you'd be saying lots of good things about it as I've got it sat beside me but despite being a huge fan of Bill and Jimmy I can't seem to summon the will to start reading it at all, mainly because all the feedback I've heard even from big KLF fans, has been pretty discouraging. Like you I was really excited for it too, to the point of getting a copy stamped at the midnight thing they did for the launch in Liverpool in August, but now I keep putting reading it off as I think it's going to just end up a disappointment.

I had a similar situation when someone gave me a dvd for my birthday of the film "Monsturd", about a half human, half faeces killer monster. I've never taken it out of the shrinkwrap as because right now, without having ever seen it and based on the cover alone, it's my favourite ever film. I know it will never live up to my expectations and if I open it and actually watch it the film it will be rubbish and stop being special. 2023 feels the same - it's currently something I love because it was stamped for me by two of my musical heroes but once I read it and it's not that great it too will cease to be special.


Serge

I've been wondering about this, having enjoyed most of Drummond's earlier published work, but something about it has been putting me off. Based on your posts, I might delay it and check it out in paperback. Or not at all.