Published Works
“The archetypal descent into hell can provide a paradigm for the representation of trauma, which is often theorized as being unrepresentable. Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves (2000) models the experience of psychological trauma on the archetypal descent into hell, or katabasis”
“It’s two years since my younger brother Michael, aged twenty-one, dropped out of a science degree to join the French Foreign Legion. Since then, we have spoken exactly twice. The first time was a six minute phone call. The second time, he Skyped from a run down hostel in Nîmes.”
“Over the next five hours, I follow the river northwards along the Xuhui Waterfront, the wind hounding down on top of me. The tactile chill of trance music inspires me to drop another tab in a public toilet along the riverfront. Later, the lights of the buildings across the river flare up, become fire-like, despite the cold.”
“The rain stops. The night closes in, the tunnel of my torch’s throw distance shortens. There is something ancient out here, something eternal. Neither alive nor dead, like the stars whose light is yet to reach the frozen boreen. Older than the first words that shaped flesh and thought into what we would become.”