I don't know how to begin this... firstly, ARX-Han, you don't know how much I loved this book.
To use phrase loosely (and pun equally intended) - if only I could shout my love for it from the rooftops - doesn't do it enough justice; you've opened my mind to a whole other level of literature.
Life is damn busy and I just do not get the time to devote more of it to drowning myself in the enthralling minutes of reading that are brought from your writing, so when I went in pursuit for more of the same and came across your sub-stack and then found that this post existed containing the words "three versions with three slightly different endings", I nearly came in my pants as for me this is equivalent of Anon spending his evenings by himself.
Please, I beg of you, continue on your path for gifting to the world the greatness of this massively underrated work and general neo-genre, you are literature's last remaining hope and, equally, if you read and acknowledge, with more begging I plead for two things: 1) tell me of more similarly amazing writers with this-tone-and-darker levels of psychological transgression, and 2) if this Goodreads list fulfils point one - 'Authors of the /lit/ renaissance' (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/187317) - what, from the list is worth pursuing, I really love this genre but have very little time to delve into 400-500 page novels.
FYI, I figured I should mention now as an edit: I'm one of the hardback buyers from London via Amazon (UK), and again, you will never know how much this book hit me in the feels, I'm not personally afflicted with the subject-matter but its a part of my generation's societal stitching and I'm forever using the /lit/ board as my source of finding read material.
Keith - many, many thanks for your kind words. I am grateful that you connected with my book and also that you liked the style, which I put a great deal of effort into developing (I might call it 'neurofiction' or something similar). It is indeed very challenging to find readers for a dense, complex, indie novel like mine.
Stylistically, my sources of inspiration were of course Houellebecq (e.g. Elementary Particles), and Bret Easton Ellis (their entire ouvre). I'd say Houellebecq is the stronger influence and Elementary Particles would be the book I'd suggest starting with. To a minor extent, albeit much less stylistically similar, I also borrowed from the dense hyper-fixation on detail of D.F.W. and Zero HP Lovecraft's use of computer science metaphors to describe human cognition in his various Twitter threads (his sci-fi short stories 'Don't make me think' and 'The Gig Economy are superb).
I've not read many of the books on the /lit/ list and I'm not sure that any stylistically match INCEL, but I just finished Mixtape Hyperborea, a short novel, and admittedly a very different type of book but one that I enjoyed quite a bit for its sense of poetry and general love for humanity (full review coming later).
PS - If I could trouble you, leaving a review on UK Amazon and Goodreads for the novel would help me out a lot! (copying your paragraph(s) above would more than suffice).
Thought I'd drop you a note to say Happy New Year to you dude and equally to say that I did leave the same review on Amazon - I, again, wish you all the best in your work as a writer (it's a dream of mine to hopefully accomplish releasing something of worth like what you've done with Incel) - as-well, I have since started Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles, it is fucking brilliant so far; I see how you've been influenced and it's inspirational.
Anyway, all the best in this new year man, I continue to eagerly await any new material that comes out of the ARX-Han machine.
I don't know how to begin this... firstly, ARX-Han, you don't know how much I loved this book.
To use phrase loosely (and pun equally intended) - if only I could shout my love for it from the rooftops - doesn't do it enough justice; you've opened my mind to a whole other level of literature.
Life is damn busy and I just do not get the time to devote more of it to drowning myself in the enthralling minutes of reading that are brought from your writing, so when I went in pursuit for more of the same and came across your sub-stack and then found that this post existed containing the words "three versions with three slightly different endings", I nearly came in my pants as for me this is equivalent of Anon spending his evenings by himself.
Please, I beg of you, continue on your path for gifting to the world the greatness of this massively underrated work and general neo-genre, you are literature's last remaining hope and, equally, if you read and acknowledge, with more begging I plead for two things: 1) tell me of more similarly amazing writers with this-tone-and-darker levels of psychological transgression, and 2) if this Goodreads list fulfils point one - 'Authors of the /lit/ renaissance' (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/187317) - what, from the list is worth pursuing, I really love this genre but have very little time to delve into 400-500 page novels.
FYI, I figured I should mention now as an edit: I'm one of the hardback buyers from London via Amazon (UK), and again, you will never know how much this book hit me in the feels, I'm not personally afflicted with the subject-matter but its a part of my generation's societal stitching and I'm forever using the /lit/ board as my source of finding read material.
Keith - many, many thanks for your kind words. I am grateful that you connected with my book and also that you liked the style, which I put a great deal of effort into developing (I might call it 'neurofiction' or something similar). It is indeed very challenging to find readers for a dense, complex, indie novel like mine.
Stylistically, my sources of inspiration were of course Houellebecq (e.g. Elementary Particles), and Bret Easton Ellis (their entire ouvre). I'd say Houellebecq is the stronger influence and Elementary Particles would be the book I'd suggest starting with. To a minor extent, albeit much less stylistically similar, I also borrowed from the dense hyper-fixation on detail of D.F.W. and Zero HP Lovecraft's use of computer science metaphors to describe human cognition in his various Twitter threads (his sci-fi short stories 'Don't make me think' and 'The Gig Economy are superb).
I've not read many of the books on the /lit/ list and I'm not sure that any stylistically match INCEL, but I just finished Mixtape Hyperborea, a short novel, and admittedly a very different type of book but one that I enjoyed quite a bit for its sense of poetry and general love for humanity (full review coming later).
PS - If I could trouble you, leaving a review on UK Amazon and Goodreads for the novel would help me out a lot! (copying your paragraph(s) above would more than suffice).
Cheers m8
Thought I'd drop you a note to say Happy New Year to you dude and equally to say that I did leave the same review on Amazon - I, again, wish you all the best in your work as a writer (it's a dream of mine to hopefully accomplish releasing something of worth like what you've done with Incel) - as-well, I have since started Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles, it is fucking brilliant so far; I see how you've been influenced and it's inspirational.
Anyway, all the best in this new year man, I continue to eagerly await any new material that comes out of the ARX-Han machine.
Thank you, brother.
You've done me a real solid, and your reviews have already helped me to move more books.
I am in the preliminary stages of taking a crack at the next one - a shorter novella, which I hope to write (much) faster than the last one!
Cheers and all the best to you this year as well.
Thank you for the shout-out ARX! It was a pleasure to read and hope others continue to give the book a shot.