Sean Ashton - Sunsets and Dogshits

Sunsets and Dogshits - Sean Ashton

If Borges had watched Monty Python and smoked weed he would have written this book. And then it would have probably been better. Sadly, Borges didn't watch Monthy Python or smoked weed, so Ashton had to write it instead.

As I happen to be the only person in the world that has actually read it, I figured I would give you a quick review. It was a collection of the bizarre and the absurd mixed with some unconventional art criticism. It was growing on me as I was reading it and I was quite pleased with it eventually. I still think it would work better as a monthly column in a magazine rather than a book you read front to back (and that's how I need to read my books, thank you). It was a good effort intended at a very small audience.

If you live in London and would like to become the second person ever to read this book, let me know - I own a copy. For the rest of you I am going to copy my favourite quote which I found surprisingly spot on considering general absurd atmosphere of the book.

"[...:] what people hide in person the reveal in correspondence. Distance, it seems, affords greater intimacy than face-to-face conversation. This is unsurprising, as many of the things that people say to one another in person are, I'm afraid, simply an attempt to avoid silence. Silence emphasizes the interlocutors' bodily presence, leading to mutual discomfort; they start fidgeting, their fingers drum the table as their minds wander - wander so far that they ask themselves why their bodies have not followed, why, in short, they are still here. Ninety percent of the time conversation is nothing more than a distraction from the embarrassment of having company, of having another actual human being there in front of you."

 

Bang on, eh ? Or maybe it's just me.