by Crad KilodneyTo read a book of Crad Kilodney's today is to be transported back to a simpler, perhaps better time, where all one needed to be a writer was a typewriter, access to a small printing press, and the desire to stand on street corners selling your book, with it's prurient and silly title, to anyone who you could convince (in 1982) to part with $2.50. Of course, I didn't read Crad Kilodney in the 80s (I was seven when this book was released), but discovered his genius just before he retired from the street, and have been on a slow hunt for his work on eBay and in used bookshops ever since.
Sex Slaves of the Astro-Mutants contains six short stories, which are made up of the usual Kilodney tropes; there are the silly titles ("The Extremely Sane Postal Workers of Yellowknife", "The World's Dullest Story", and "Duh", to say nothing of the title story itself), and sillier character names (Dr. Biff Zorkulon, Wilmot and Penelope Proviso, Osgood Bean, Butch Masters and his midget assistant Oafie, Dr. Ignatius Duh, Professor Eigenvalue, and Zoltan Greep), not to mention the silly non-twist endings, somewhat reminiscent of the classic Kilodney story "Lightning Struck My Dick", not included in this book.
Kilodney was either just having fun with his stories, or he saw in them some level of authorial truth which my impoverished reading of them has yet to uncover. Either way, his stuff is a treat to read, if taken in very small doses. Sure, it's juvenile and silly, but that's completely the point.
1 comment:
He's a great author. I'd like to add that many of his comical works obliquely point to the not-so-funny fact that life too often is tragically absurd. Also, have you read his serious love story CATHY? It's a realistic story that moved me deeply when I read it.
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