Awful, so sorry and vividly familiar.

Thats a great fact! Interesting that kafka inspired poetry - in some ways the most grindingly prosy writer stylistically. Everything sounds like an asbestos manual (which i love about him). A great surrealist though yes!!

A first sentence right there. Rivals burgess.

Thank you so much for mentioning my poems, and in the same breath as Orphic Songs. I'm inspired by them too. A case study in Kafka's advice - 'Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul ... Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.'

I mean, he only applied cauterising heat to the skin of my face, how badly can that really go?

I have a first edition of this book which 12 year old me got his parents to preorder.... never been so excited for a book since!

Simply put them on a horse

my favourite moment is when lorraine gary gets on a boat, sails into the open ocean, unbuttons the top of her blouse and says - to the hormone-sensitive shark vengefully hunting her family - 'come and get me, bitch'

it's like, i know how to foil the shark's plan. stay on land. it is foolproof.