Updated: See video below.
Malcolm Mc Neil is up to no good again — I loved it the last time — with a new book of essays, titled Reflux. I take that to mean he’s describing a metaphysical case of esophagitis. In other words, as a toddler of my acquaintance, pointing to the vomitus on her blouse, might say: I fwowed up! And then she laughs. And that makes me laugh. The book’s subtitle? Some Things Just Won’t Stay Down.
The publisher is Apophenia, another term of metaphysical endearment.
Apophenia is an imprint of Paraphilia Magazine, where the essays first appeared. The book blurb is pure Mc Neill:
Some things have slid by unquestioned for so long that somebody had to bring them up.
In this timely collection of short, eloquent stabs at accepted fact, Malcolm Mc Neill finally runs some ID on the wise guy – Homo sapiens – the self-proclaimed ‘smartest’ thing on the planet. With its entourage of sacred cows, naked emperors and woefully inadequate gods, it’s now getting ready to carry its convictions into space. From beef jerky theme parks to one-legged pigs… ticked off cannibals to cast iron drawers . . . stuttering prophets to born again bugs . . . Mc Neill reveals that its claims are far from convincing.
These wickedly erudite skewerings are an informative and surprisingly original way of seeing the most obvious things differently. “It’s a madhouse down here” . . . best find a quiet spot to read and at least have a laugh.”
Reflux is also illustrated with images from the author’s “Menagerie of Sacred Cows, Tall Stories, and Inconvenient Truths Reconsidered.”
