Today is what would have been J.G. Ballard’s 85th birthday. To celebrate, we have quite the Ballardian line-up on the site. Here, though, is a very special piece written by none other than David Cronenberg…
Our second Cover Reveal of July features another book with an enthusiastic recommendation from horrormeister Stephen King – Consumed, the debut novel from cult film director David Cronenberg.
“Can I just say, before we go, that if I were a white man, I would love to look like you” – This was the point very early on in my career in marketing that I was pretty convinced that I would lose my job the next day. One probably shouldn’t say such things in what was meant to be a very serious interview with director turned fiction author David Cronenberg. My first marketing campaign was for Consumed, one that I elbowed my way into having been a fan of Cronenberg since I watched The Fly when I was way too young (and as a result had recurring nightmares for years about Jeff Goldblum’s jaw falling off in my hand). Read more…
This Christmas we’ve decided to make your present buying a lot less stressful by asking the 4th Estate team to hand-pick books for all your relatives. Hopefully this will mean less umming and ahhing in the bookshop, and more oohing and ahhing on Christmas Day…
By Jeff VanderMeer.
Like many readers, I’m extremely curious to read iconic film director David Cronenberg’s first novel, Consumed. How will that imagination be expressed solely through the written word? How might his expertise in movies create unique approaches to literary technique? Especially considering how broad and deep that film oeuvre has become.
In honour of Lena Dunham’s admirable frankness about her own sex life, 4th Estate brings you some of our very favourite, very alternative sex scenes:
The long-awaited publishing of Consumed gave us a chance to interview its writer, the director and king of venereal horror, David Cronenberg. In this wonderfully in-depth yet satisfyingly broad interview, we speak about the book, Cronenberg’s processes, how similar writing prose is to directing, film, existentialism, the advancement of technology and, nausea. Read more…
David Cronenberg is finally unleashing into the world Consumed, a dark, visceral piece of fiction sure to shock, unsettle and remind you why he’s the king of the body horror genre.
Consumed is exactly what fans of Cronenberg’s films would expect from his first novel: hypnotic, darkly comic, with vividly drawn characters moving through a landscape that at first seems alien, only to become frighteningly familiar. Read more…