Fraser Burnett


Ten short story collections by male authors whose surname begins with the letter B

1. RED CAVALRY by ISAAC BABEL
Bleak true tales of a Russian Jew, who joined the Cossacks, and fought in Poland after the First World War. The cold and dirty misery, mixed with casual violence and death is pretty depressing, but hey, so's life. cf. CIVIL WAR STORIES

2. THE TERMINAL BEACH by J.G. BALLARD
The title story reads like a concrete embryo of the themes that would haunt THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION, 'The Illuminated Man' is his novel THE CRYSTAL WORLD in digest, and 'Deep End' is another of his chilling/relieving tales of universal entropic catastrophe. Doesn't get much better than this.

3. BOOKS OF BLOOD VOL I-III by CLIVE BARKER
From the child-eating, and piss-eucharist of 'Rawhead Rex' to the ape-rape of 'New Murders in the Rue Morgue' Barker's debut was definitely striking. Special mention must be made to the stunning 'In the Hills, the Cities'.

4. NOHOW ON by SAMUEL BECKETT
Features three short novellas written near the end of Sam's life. Very spare, very dry, very insightful, very sad, and very funny.
"A dead rat. What an addition to company that would be! A rat long dead."

5. CIVIL WAR STORIES by AMBROSE BIERCE
Bitter Bierce has many collections to choose from, each one worth a neb, especially his weird tales, but this cheap collection from Dover Publications contains some of his heaviest tales, drawn from his own experiences at the frontline of the American Civil War, as well as his most famous story, 'An Occurrence at Owl-Creek Bridge'.

6. LABYRINTHS by JORGE LOUIS BORGES
Ignoring the classic tales therein, I would just like to draw notice to three less discussed pieces, namely: 'The House of Asterion' an original perspective upon an ancient tale, 'Borges and I' a vignette about a blind man looking at himself, and finally 'Kafka and his Precursors ' a brief, and accessible essay of delightful literary erudition.

7. THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN by RAY BRADBURY
'A Sound of Thunder', 'The Fog Horn' and 'The Pedestrian' were the stories that switched me from comic books to word books. I still read comic books, but I mix and match more now. I struggle to read Bradbury nowadays, but when I was a kid, he was king.

8. NINE HORRORS AND A DREAM by JOSEPH PAYNE BRENNAN
Have you ever seen the film 'The Blob'? It was ripped off directly from Brennan's tale 'Slime'. Like a bit of the oh-so-groovy Cosmic Horror, then why not take a walk in 'Canavan's Backyard'? And once you escape that, settle down next to 'The Calamander Chest' that you managed to buy for a steal...

9. NIGHTMARES AND GEEZENSTACKS by FREDRIC BROWN
A collection of mostly short-shorts, included in King's DANSE MACABRE reading list. His three tales of 'Great Lost Discoveries' are worth the entry price alone, they may read like 200AD's Future Shocks, but these guys were here first. Fredric Brown also wrote the novel THE SCREAMING MIMI which Argento, sort of, based 'The Bird With the Crystal Plumage' on, fact-pickers.

10. RESTLESS NIGHTS by DINO BUZZATI
By rights CATASTROPHE should be my Buzzati choice, however, I've not finished reading it, so, instead we're stuck with RESTLESS NIGHTS. Thankfully, it contains one of Buzzati's finest tales, 'The Seven Messengers', a tale as absurd, and entertaining as one of Zeno's paradoxes.


Fraser Burnett has been recording as Fordell Research Unit since 2003. His straight-edge clean living lifestyle continues to inspire all who meet him. He is also one of the handful of people known to support Cowdenbeath football club.


Dave Miko


Top 10 list for the chocolate monk website

1. Highbridge Park in Manhattan, New York...
a slanted maze that’s in an ongoing state of flux …with views of and access to and views of the Highbridge Aqueduct… the oldest bridge in New York City

2. Ghost Parking Lot Project 1978-2003, Hamden Plaza Shopping Center in Hamden, Connecticut...
a project by SITE … in the parking row closest to the road and furthest from the stores in a shopping center a group of cars was covered in the asphalt of the rest of the parking lot … a haunting and evocative image to my developing brain

3. Willow Lake in Queens, New York…
between a subway train storage yard, several highways and Flushing Meadows Park…former site of the World’s Fair… a meager group of trails that feel especially interstitial in the web of the city… a good place to think….

4. Highland Park in Brooklyn/Queens, New York…
once three reservoir basins now overgrown with paved path encircling.

5. Newtown Creek Nature Walk in Brooklyn, New York…
along the one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the U.S. a cement trail wraps around a sewage treatment plant… pretty chill park..

6. Barren Island/Dead Horse Bay/ Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York…
this place has it all… too much to list.

7. As if East Shore Road continued across county road 511 where a train track must have once existed near Long Pond Ironworks State Park in Hewitt, New Jersey…
here there is a chanel cut through rock for a long ago train… now a spooky soggy path or trap.

8. Cascadilla Gorge Trail & Ithaca Falls, Ithaca, New York…
the gorge trail is a nice way to walk from downtown to collegetown… the falls are nice to swim in in the summer or visit while frozen in the winter majestic and right in town.

9. Beverly Pizza House & Bloodroot Restaurant, both Bridgeport, Connecticut…
nice places to visit or eat.

10. Yuzo Sakuramoto…
a wonderful thoughtful person that lingers in the shadow of much that is interesting in nyc… if you are lucky you might catch him selling books on first ave. at east seventh Thursday through Sunday afternoons.


 Dave Miko is an artist living in New York.