Carl Abrahamsson

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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Mother, Have A Safe Trip

My first novel, Mother, Have A Safe Trip, has now been out for a month. It's been very exciting to talk to people about what they think about the book. A mixed bag, but very positive feedback on the whole. I haven't really sent out review copies yet, but will do so soon. (If you have a blog or write for a magazine, please feel free to get in touch.)

I have so far received one great review already though, by Henrik Dahl from UK web site Psychedelic Press. Henrik knows a good book when he sees (and reads) one!

"... Abrahamsson clearly belongs to a tradition of western anti-authoritarian authors leaning towards libertarian or anarchist ideas. Whatever one may feel about the overriding sentiments of Abrahamson’s writings, Mother, Have a Safe Trip is a highly entertaining and thought-provoking novel. Chock-full of psychedelia, the book is also a much welcome addition to the far too few fictional works published dealing with psychedelic culture."

The review can be read in its entirety at the PSYPRESS site.

So far, there have been three different launches for it, and I've had a lot of fun talking about the book and listening to people's immediate feedback and questions. The first one was at the Norwegian Edda evening at Cappelens Forslag, the best bookstore in Oslo. Then followed legendary oasis Rönnells in dear old Stockholm, and now, most recently, very cool occult book- and stuffstore Catland in New York.

Fredrik Söderberg and myself at Cappelens Forslag. Photo: Christine Ödlund.

At Catland in New York. Photo: Phil English

Coming up is a book signing in Copenhagen, at Nekropolis. December 7th, 2013. I will also give a talk there, so drop by if you have the chance.

In preparation right now is an exhibition based on or connected with the book. It will take place at the Martin Bryder Gallery in Lund, and will contain pages and photographs that have been influential and instrumental in the creation of the book. More information about this will follow, but you can note the dates already now: January 11th to February 9th, 2014. The exhibition can travel, so please get in touch if you're interested in arranging something closer to you.

You can order the book from Edda. Very convenient! If you're in the US, you'll save on postage by ordering it from JD Holmes. Thanks.

WWW.EDDA.SE – Great books on subjects that matter and matters that subject!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Edda: Intellectual Party Swedes

There is a new term for young Swedes working in Norway: "Party Swedes". It basically means that you're young, Swedish, work hard in Norway and spend all the money on partying. After Edda HQ went to Oslo this past weekend, there is now an extension of this: "Intellectual Party Swedes". It means that you come to Oslo to work hard with cultural events and then spend all the money on books. La vida loca!

The first event to re-establish the intellectual viking trail this time around was the opening of Edda's own Fredrik Söderberg's exhibition at Galleri Riis. Jag är den som begraver gudar i guld och ädelstenar (I am he who buries gods in gold and jewels) is a phenomenal exhibition. So phenomenal in fact that Edda at the same time released a book called Haus C G Jung together with Galleri Riis to celebrate it. More info about this book can be found at Edda's web site.

The exhibition is a magical trip through the psyche of Carl Jung, complete with both the Küsnacht and Bollingen façades, mandalas, a majestic portrait of Jung and much more. As always with Fredrik's stuff, it's multifaceted, psychedelic and totally über-rich in possible interpretations. If you have the chance, see the exhibition. If not, make sure you get a copy of the book soon – it's selling well and quickly.

Fredrik Söderberg (to the right)

The evening began with an artist's talk, in which Fredrik discussed his point of view, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner and many other interesting people and things together with myself and Swedish radio ace Eric Schüldt.

The later part of the opening evening included a wonderful concert by Fredrik, Christine Ödlund and Andreas Kalliaridis. They were squeezing their Indian Organs sensually and made soothing and cosmic drone music together. Wonderful people present and really good times!

Great artist Sverre Malling and Kjettersk Kjeller's Didrik Søderlind.

Evening number two meant an Edda evening at Oslo's most delightful bookstore and place in general: Cappelen's Forslag (Bernt Ankers gate 4). It was the official launch of my novel Mother, Have A Safe Trip (more on this in coming blog posts, rest assured...), and hosted by club/concept/think tank/etc Kjettersk Kjeller's own Didrik Søderlind. A lot of people stirred up a great energy. To be the center of attention in a wonderful environment like Cappelen's Forslag felt great indeed. Didrik moderated a chat between Fredrik and me about our most recent releases. It felt like a pleasant flashback, as we did more or less exactly the same thing more or less exactly one year ago. Very nice though.

Edda HQ on the road... Proud Intellectual Party Swedes!

And we didn't even have time to finish off properly before it was time to move on to the next attraction... We drifted into the Sound of MU (the venue, not the state of mind), where Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor fame talked about music and magic. And then exactly that happened: Finnish prime primalists Arktau Eos performed at the little venue and transported everyone back to primordial times with their ritualistic droneanza. Amazingly archaic and alluringly alchemic aural adaptions of oscillating oceans osmosically oozing of oneiric orgasms, to say the least.

I was knocked out by their brilliance at the celebrated Equinox festival in London in 2009, so this was a most welcome new injection. Where were we now? At a small club in Oslo's "bohemian" area (which basically means young people screaming on the sidewalk, plastered) but at the same time/space in some Finnish forest or cave a couple of hundred thousand years ago. Brutal! Powerful! Magical... Sisu for fucking ever!

Arktau Eos – Sisu-drenched and primal!

After a good night's sleep (well needed), we then finished off by taking in the majestic Munch 150 retrospective at Nasjonalmuseet. An incredibly great show displaying Munch's very finest paintings, printed works, a recreation of his legendary Berlin exhibit from 1902, sketches etc. Almost too much to take in. That Edvard Munch is one of the originators (unwilling, I'm sure) of Black Metal became very apparent as one drifted through his estheticized morose angst in these jam packed halls (400.000 people have attended this exhibition... I wonder which Swedish artist could draw that kind of number in Sweden?). Very impressive stuff. Many thanks to project manager Rikke Lundgren, who showed us around this very stressed and very last weekend of the massive Munchorama.

Edvard Munch and the Norwegian franchise trolls: ingredients of the true Black Metal psyche.

Then we had simply had enough of Oslo. It's a great place but so expensive that even if you make money you're bound to lose it all on something as trivial as taxi trips, eating or having a beer. To be an Intellectual Party Swede in Norway, you have to come well prepared financially. And if you do, you know you have to go to Cappelen's Forslag and spend all the money you brought. You'll regret it for a short while but you probably won't regret it later (sweet compensation).

Norway, mighty land of wealthy vikings! Thanks for being such great Edda-friends!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Aleister Crowley, Naughty Boy!

Edda Publishing continue in their energetic efforts of bringing out early Crowley erotica in new fine editions. This time Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden has just seen the light of day. Illustrated by Fredrik Söderberg and edited with an introduction by American sexologist Vere Chappell, this new edition is lavish, luxurious and filled with literary spunk... A nice and clean edition of a very dirty book, one could say.

"While at his Scottish retreat Boleskine in 1903, Aleister Crowley decided to amuse his wife Rose and their friends by writing pornography – one new section each day. He concocted a tale that managed to be marvelously creative and utterly repugnant at the same time. No taboo escaped unviolated – sodomy, pederasty, bestiality, necrophilia, urolagnia, and coprophagia all figure prominently in the text. The protagonist is no less than an Archbishop, incorporating the grand tradition of anti-clericalism which had been a feature of popular pornography for centuries. Many contemporary figures were also made objects of satire, although they were also rendered “nameless” by the use of elision, or omitted letters. The overall result is more absurd than obscene, owing more to Cervantes, Rabelais, Sade and Apollinaire than to the run-of-the-mill pornography of the time. Writing a chapter a day, in the evenings Crowley read it aloud to the audience assembled in the household, with the exception of his Aunt Annie. Reportedly this had the intended effect of amusing Rose, and doubtless the rest of the party, especially since some of them and their old friends from Paris were featured characters. Poor old Aunt Annie even ended up having a role in the tale." (Vere Chappell, from the introduction)

Published 2013. 208 pages, 148 x 210 mm, hardbound with dustjacket. Limited to 418 hand-numbered copies (Standard Edition). The first 43 copies are hardbound in a Half French binding and come in a slipcase together with a signed silkscreen print by Fredrik Söderberg (Limited Edition).

You can buy the book straight from the EDDA PUBLISHING web site.

We have very few copies left of Crowley's White Stains, also available through the web site. If you haven't done so already, order one today together with your copy of Snowdrops. They'll enjoy each other's company in your bookshelf!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Real books will rule the techno-zombies

Abrahamsson & Söderberg: Edda Publishing 2013, celebrating two years of existence and ten published titles!

Quite a few people ask me why it's relevant to publish books today. If I were to answer that honestly there would be much criticism of my supposed conservatism and of a lack of understanding the technological platform-possibilities. But it's not that I lack an understanding that's the crucial and slightly heretical issue. On the contrary, I understand the situation perfectly. It's that I choose to act according to what I prefer, based on an evaluation of existing experience – my own. I prefer books to techno-reading to the point where I go against the grain and not only read but also publish more real books.

I have yet to come across one individual who actively spends his or her time fervently seeking out new inventions and platforms on the internet or in new gadgets and make choices based on that. And if they exist, they are professionals paid to do it. But the rest of us consume (that is, are force fed) what's offered on platforms that are new, improved and faster, and we're sort of trapped between realizing the greatness of what's new and that we're not being offered a real sense of choice. It's just basically more of the same in an endless river data-Styx that we have to adapt to in order to escape total ostracism.

A book, however, is all signal and no noise. You're in an intimate relationship with your book in a way you can never be with an e-reader, for instance, in which the thoughts and emotions expressed have been deconstructed into mere data that we can fidget about with. But that's hardly an empowerment for the reader – rather a fragmenting distraction.

One sales point is usually how many books you can carry with you at any time in your little electronic thing. How convenient, but I think and hope most people still prefer to be engulfed by one book at a time. Why a suggested need of carrying thousands of titles that you can flip through mindlessly at your "leisure"? Altruism or enforced peripatetic programming?

The analogy to music "consumption" is perhaps apt: Artists used to put together homogenous albums of their new endeavors, as a totality of what was going on in their minds, in the recording studio or live. Today, technology has split the bigger picture into minute parts, tracks and single songs to suit lifestyle-moodish playlist challenges.

Will that also be the case with books? Will readers skip and skim, and digitally flip through a book because technology facilitates it? Yes, I think so.

Now... You'll probably expect a tirade of how awful this is and how I think everything new and technological is evil and should be banned. But you won't get it.

The real heretical beauty of this situation is that books will actually become even more highly prized, more cherished and appreciated – by a certain few. They will be read with greater zest than ever before, simply because our contemporary culture and lifestyle dictates the exact opposite. Never before has stratification been so apparent in human history. What apparently sets people free is also what enslaves them in the most brutal possible way. Why? Because a fragmented mind is unable to make intelligent and wise choices. Multiply the scenario by a couple of generations brought up on genetically manipulated food and attention span-decreasing technology and you have a pretty accurate overview of the impending apocalypse. Which will, of course, be both televised and streamed.

But, again, those who are smart will continue to read books and will thereby get the bigger picture. How you act when you see the bigger picture is of course up to you. Many of you will likely go empathic and altruistic and go on religious pro-book crusades. Good luck to you. Me, I think I will prefer to cater to the tastes of the dedicated few who appreciate an amalgam of intelligence, wit and learning within the covers of a real, tangible, dear old book. I like those people. And I respect them because they will be the movers, shakers and rulers of the future legions of mindless techno-zombies.