Thursday 1 October 2009

Amazon - 5-star reader review - Steve

click to buy updated version
***** Steve:

A strange, entertaining read,
November 10, 2008

This book was not as predictable as I orginally thought it was going to be, I underestimated the writer when I thought so. There seemed to be no limits as to where this story might go, and it went a lot of places. The writer did not put his imagination on a leash to walk through pages of easily discernable metaphors for corporate abuse. Yes, there's the bukakke shooting down from all directions and the constant degradation, but that's just the setup. The true heart of the story lies in the events that take place within the story. A story so weird and alien, written in an amazing style of prose, it'll be impossible for me to forget.

Monday 9 March 2009

Necroscopic Unlimited (Tracy Crockett) - new book review

Bukkakeworld
Written by Mike Philbin


Bukkakeworld..... Bukkakeworld....What a freakin term that is. Bukkake... And what the hell is a Bukkakeworld? Let Mike Philbin explain it to you by checking out one of the most mind fucking tales you'll ever encounter. Mike Philbin has a way of describing things that come across at first glance to just be vile and unnecessary. Yet all he is merely doing is showing us a way of perceiving things that are already laid out in front of us and dealing with them accordingly.

For example, You get to work in the morning. You do your equipment checks then ya check in with the boss man. Things are looking up for ya. Today looks like it's going to be a good day, you tell yourself. Then for some anal reason the customer from yesterday didn't like where you put their stuff causing your boss to add to the spunk of society. You dredge through the rest of your day avoiding spunk from the douche bags from First State Bank closing down early to do their paperwork. To hell with staying open during the glass door listed hours.. You're on their time remember?

Philbin does explain and show us that there are alternatives, different decisions we make in life that can alleviate the amount of spunk digested in on a daily basis. But is there ever truly an ally, if you will, in this hunt for ultimate supremacy? Mike seems to think so. He gets it. Why don't you? Like when you're deciding on a high up in whatever it may be, the choices you have before you are a douche bag in one hand and a pile of shit in the other. Which would you rather have?

Bukkakeworld is without a doubt a beautifully written story, albeit a visually disturbing one. There were many a time while i was reading this I felt as if I should put the book down and go take a shower. It makes you feel dirty. But most importantly I believe it makes you wake up and perceive things around you in a completely different way from here on out. I must give thanks to Mike Philbin for saying what I've felt on numerous times throughout my life. And thanks for wiping the spunk out of our eyes.

Monday 5 January 2009

so, now I'm a prophet of doom

New from the net:
New York writer Lawrence Dagstine could read only so many ludicrous comments about my book JUly 2008 Silverthought Press novel "Bukkakeworld" on the Shocklines forum before he felt compelled to pen this response:

Bukkakeworld is not a pornographic book. It has nothing to do with cum. That is a metaphor. If anything, this book is a prediction to what has already happened in corporate society -- look at the amount of layoffs and the shame of Wall Street THANKS to the likes of people who work on, and command, Wall Street. That, in itself, is an example of Bukkakeworld (actually, allegorically speaking, the book is almost a prediction which came true)... not some guy cumming. Not some girl taking it.

And he's right. Bukkakeworld is about the death of the individual. Prophetic? Well, let's hope not, because that's a really terrible world.

Sunday 9 November 2008

FaceBook - Vanguard Book Club - new bukkakeworld review

the title of this post just about says it all. Here's the (rather glowing) review copy, you can click on the link to join the debate.

I.E. Lester reviews Mike Philbin's Bukkakeworld on the Vanguard Book Club

Bukkakeworld is a twisted satire of modern corporate life - one where the metaphors of office life are made disturbingly manifest. Any feeling you have of being spat-on (or worse) from the on-highs of the executive levels are made real. For in Bukkakeworld you are continuously bombarded by human semen - all the time and from all directions. So much so you even fear drowning (literally). This is possibly the most distasteful book I have ever read.

That said, Philbin has managed to make this readable - it would have been so easy for him to sink into endless new metaphors all describing ejaculations without gluing (sorry for the image) them together into a recognisable plot. He hasn't. He's stayed focused and told a story, one that he drags you deeply into by making you the central character.

This placement of the reader at the heart of the narrative is the book's greatest strength. Everything is "You". He's telling you your actions, your feelings, your very thoughts. It's your face the cum splatters onto, your eyelids it glues together, your food that has a thick milky coating it.

He's not telling you a story inasmuch making you live it. He's forcing the prose into you by any means necessary, hammering it into your brain, making you soak every drop in through your pores. You feel each drop of semen, each new humiliation.

But he also offers "You" a way out - a way to become more than "You" might be. And this is a simple (although somewhat surreal) love story. He offers up an angel who seems unaffected by the dripping malaise of Bukkakeworld.

At the start of this book I feared it would descend into an adult's only Thesaurus entry for semen - how many different terms can we come up with? He does include quite a number with - "man-fat" I think being the most comical. But you stop looking after a while and just go with the flow.

The one thing that best sums up Bukkakeworld the place is that the lead character "You" is so accustomed to his pitiful role in the world that when a fresh dollop of human semen lands in his face he is not awakened. It's a place where such a thing is so commonplace that it's just accepted - a part of regular life. Bukkakeworld is a semen-encrusted 1984.

This book hits you square in the face - with sticky, salty unpleasantness. Philbin does that to you. He holds nothing back. But also you don't get the feeling he is just out to shock. We could all do that - "Fuck! Shit! Cock!" These words by their very nature can shock. Peppering text with them just to offend, just to make people pay attention is simple but without meaning. Philbin doesn't. His language is the way it is for no other purpose than to tell his story. And it's not a story you are ever likely to forget.

Friday 5 September 2008

first 5 star Amazon.co.uk review

it happened, there's now a 5 star of Bukkakeworld on Amazon.co.uk

I bought this recently not really knowing what to expect, and then got immediately sucked in and finished it in a couple of sittings. It's a very unusual book that reminded me in places of Chuck Palahniuk, in others of J.G. Ballard, but is still entirely its own thing with its own voice. Weird and dark, but if you like that sort of thing (as I do!) then its definitely worth getting.

excellent, somebody got it.

Wednesday 6 August 2008

first reader review

Review source: Goodreads.com
Stevester rated it: 07/28/08

Read in July, 2008
recommends it for: People who enjoy surrealism and strange horror

This book is weird. Very weird. This is the first Philbin novel I've read. I liked the stories he posted on his website, so I decided to give something more of his a try. I was not disappointed, this book is much stranger than I imagined it would be.

Yes, you'll (it's entirely written in second person) be drowning in a lot of bukkake, with lots of different descriptions and metaphors for it, but there's a lot more that goes on in Bukkake world. I don't like giving away spoilers, so you'll j...more This book is weird. Very weird. This is the first Philbin novel I've read. I liked the stories he posted on his website, so I decided to give something more of his a try. I was not disappointed, this book is much stranger than I imagined it would be.

Yes, you'll (it's entirely written in second person) be drowning in a lot of bukkake, with lots of different descriptions and metaphors for it, but there's a lot more that goes on in Bukkake world. I don't like giving away spoilers, so you'll just have to read the book to find out what it is. You might go back in time to fuck your granny, but I won't promise it. But all of it is guaranteed to be disurbing, unforgetable strangeness.

Highly recommended for people who like surreal and bizarre horror.

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Andy Laughton interview

BUKKAKEWORLD:
Mike Philbin interviewed by Andy Laughton

Andy Laughton: Of all the extended metaphors you could have used to symbolize corporate aggression/oppression, why choose semen? The word "cum" appears in Bukkakeworld 270 times. Was the concept of semen raining from the sky the genesis of the book, or did you choose the metaphor after deciding on the plot? Which came first (pun intended), the metaphor or the plot?

Mike Philbin: Cum in the face is the perfect metaphor for how the human being is treated by the money-making enterprise. It happens also in the military. Human rights are a joke. Either you're shat on by your superiors or you're a pawn of your trade union. You're shat on either way. And sperm is better then faeces. There's nothing more annoying or insinuating than having those salty five ounces glancing across your face whenever you try to make a creative point against the corporate mindset, again and again and again.

Laughton: Building on that image, could you explain your idea of the corporate mentality that this book rails against? Surely not all corporations are bad? What are you fighting against with Bukkakeworld, and why?

Philbin: My aim with this book was to replicate each working day where you're a name and not a number. This thesis was actioned by writing chapter one, copying it twenty or so times, then slowly changing the content of each chapter that would represent (what should have been) the same working day. I wanted to set up a sense of continuation of each drab day within the framework of some sort of dramatic narrative.

Laughton: Cats or feline imagery are everywhere in this book. Why cats? Is this a not-so-subtle attempt to inject some femininity to offset all the cock and cumshot imagery?

Philbin: Cats are cute. In Oriental business, cats are reveered. Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman was a bonus. Kittens' paws are so soft, yet they sheathe the claws that can rip your flesh off—kittens are the perfect corporate icon.

Laughton: In Bukkakeworld, you've employed a narrative style (second-person) that is largely the ugly duckling of literature. Why did you choose to write BW in second-person? To me, it personalizes, makes me feel uncomfortable, and hints that maybe I'm a part of the problem. Is BW a call to action? Do you think the book would be nearly as effective in first-person or third?

Philbin: Well, it really is a book about you, the corporate lackey, the number, the faceless. You. Yes, you are a part of the problem. In a sense, we are all a part of the problem. We're a complacent army whose war has yet to reveal its uglier face.

Laughton: My favorite passage in the book is the singsong call and answer of what the protagonist is doing versus what Kitten is thinking (butterflies in the sunlight)—Kitten sees our hero in great distress but is unmoved by this, her thoughts peaceful and playful, for the first time hinting to the reader that greater things are hidden in that little cat. Is this just a good piece of writing or is there a more important message there?

Philbin: My suspicion is that if I died tomorrow the literary world would be a better place. Right?

Laughton: Building on that, it's no secret that you're a controversial figure in many circles. How much of that is affectation or self-perpetuated? Do you think you take any of the Philbin hate into your writing process? You've already symbolically "killed" your Hertzan Chimera identity, so you tell me—would the literary world be a better place without Mike Philbin?

Philbin: Hang on, I've just gotta put on some mood music to get me into the zone... That's better. What's not important is that a writer dies. All writers die. The important thing is the culmination of their death. Not whether it was valid or justified (like if they deserved that the shrieking mob of naysayers got to them) but if it followed a spectacular writing life. Well, I'm working on that last bit, day by day. I just don't suffer mind-washed morons very well—get your own ideas, follow not the herd.

Laughton: Is there anything you won't write about? What's too taboo for you? You strike me as one of the most fearless writers I've read, so what do you fear?

Philbin: [blank stare as the music takes hold] There's really nothing to say to this. People think, "Oh, Mike Philbin, he's such a rascal, he's such a scamp. I wish he would fuck me up the ass with a rolled up copy of one of his thin books." Actually, no they don't, but I'd like to think that me writing this might make more people go outside and talk among their comrades and ask what their own elected government is doing to them in that ass every fucking day.

Laughton: From the covers to the formatting, Bukkakeworld and Planet of the Owls show some striking similarities. Was this simply a design decision, or are the books in some way connected in terms of content? Are they parts of a whole or two distinct books with only looks in common?

Philbin: There's a distinct dichotomy going on between New World Order and Perceived Alien Threat. Very soon we might see a culmination of this global effort. And it'll not be very pretty for planet Earth. The coming events might make the content of even Bukkakeworld and Planet of the Owls pale into insignificance. Yes, there's Stanislaw Lem-like subtexts in the books, there has to be—otherwise they're just too stupid for even me to bother writing.

Laughton: I'm sure you've had to explain what "bukkake" is to someone who was unaware of the concept before—what was the most memorable reaction of someone when you defined the term for them?

Philbin: When someone goes, "Japanese delicacy... right." And winks. But they're stepping back as they wink. They're afraid. And reader fear is where I'm most excited. Not fear as in they get a girly-little cheap three-act narrative thrill as the panting antagonist chases their third-person heroine or hero down corridors of dark cliches blah de blah de blah. But the other fear—the I DON'T WANNA OPEN THAT BOOK fear. And they still do. Because that sorta fear is irresistible.

Laughton: Can someone ever really escape from Bukkakeworld, or is this all there will ever be?

Philbin: The Corporation will eat all of mankind, if we're not careful. As a race, we're about to find out how mortal we are. Whether any of us survive is just the toss of a coin at this point.

Bukkakeworld novel from Silverthought Press, NY

S I L V E R T H O U G H T P R E S S
independent publisher of speculative fiction


Cover photograph © Robert Standish

[read excerpt]

When you’re drowning in the corporate world, you’ll need a mentor to keep you from going under.



Bukkakeworld is the conscious evolution of the staid three-act narrative horror genre. It’s a book about YOU, the corporate lackey, the indentured, the subordinate. Stuck in a job you cannot stomach, under a manager you want to annihilate, in a corporation that wants to grind you into nothing more than human grease to lubricate its inhuman profit-making machine.

You are not alone. There are literally millions of you all over the world, the true Samaritans of contemporary democracy. You take it in the face every working day of your life. There seems to be no respite from your suffering, no reward for your hardship. But even in the depths of your drowning desperation, there is a light, a tiny light, beaming out to save you.

She looks nothing like you. She is clean and tidy. The constant drizzle that rots everything it touches doesn’t seem to settle on her. She has a light in her eyes, like a terrorist bomb exploding very, very slowly. Frame by frame, a new star blooming. She is your corporate messiah. But who is her little furry companion, Kitten? And what of the sinister chrome-like Glimpsers? How do they tie in to a swirling narrative that drags you through a death camp of corporate revelation?

Bukkakeworld is a savage indictment of the corporate mentality, a challenging, twisted book that assails the underpinnings of modern society and does so much more than spit in your face.