…And the Angel with Television Eyes
$0.99
Price: $0.99
(as of Nov 10, 2024 12:43:49 UTC – Details)
…And the Angel with Television Eyes explores the region where fantasy meets reality. This surreal journey of self-discovery and transformation at once questions the nature of our world, and redefines it in the context of 21st century pop culture and technology. It takes a writer of John Shirley’s talent and audacity to bring together elements as disparate as Shakespeare, Nietzsche, on-line role playing games, soap operas, and classic mythology – binding them together, creating a heady mélange on, above, and below the streets of Manhattan.
5 reviews for …And the Angel with Television Eyes
Show all
Most Helpful
Highest Rating
Lowest Rating
Brian Leach –
Let Shirley steal your eyes
Hello if you haven,t read any John Shirley this is a good book to start with the story builds slowly and gives you some idea of what an astoundingimagination Mr Shirley is possessed with
Worldreels –
DON’T TOUCH THAT REMOTE
John Shirley constructs a concealed world, existing side-by-side with the world visible to the normal human eye. We all know that a similar world must exist within the sub microscopic, quantum realm of which we are all composed. Shirley populates his concealed world with creatures who feed off the souls of mankind. Environmentally, these creatures are vulnerable to the electromagnetic emanations man uses in his radios, cell phones, TVs and radar. Their message to mankind is `clean up your environmental act.’ Max, the main character, begins as a soap opera star whose ennui drives him to quit his TV role playing. He accepts the larger task of unraveling the role concealed within his being. The Angel with TV Eyes changes Max’s perspective of his dream like visions describing a concealed world. At an earlier date Lord Greymark had been dissolved into pure information and implanted in the womb of Max’s mother. Max’s pursuit of a larger than life role triggers his revelation as Lord Greymark, a 12 foot entity concealed within the jaded actor’s soul. Lord Greymark possesses great power that he uses to extinguish the fires of Thanatos, a character representing death and vowing destruction of all that is good in man. Just as the pictures on a TV are converted from unseen waves, the vision of the Angel with TV Eyes flows via holowaves from within the quantum realm. This posits a reality which few can either detect or receive on their vision screen. By personalizing a character with TV eyes John Shirley creates an entity directed from within this hidden reality. A story that begins with a cast of bud-like human characters soon blossoms into a bouquet of revealed Spirits constructed of plastic, metal and electronic switches. As the evolution of man is expressed through DNA, so the Spirits evolve by means of vibratory packets-a non genetic form of evolutionary record keeping. Thus the author posits another method the unseen Spirits are using to throw the evolutionary dice. What the Spirits seek is the same as what man seeks-companionship.
A.Martello –
Love this book
Love this book. Every few years I re-read it! Captivating ethereal story that lets loose your imagination. The author has a nice flow and is easy to understand.
Katie McConnell –
Acid for my Imagination
I LOVED this book. The imagery and the mysticism fit together in such a beautiful dissonance, I couldn’t put it down. John Shirley is an expert wordsmith. The way he described the sculptures, I felt like I could close my eyes, reach out and touch it in my mind’s eye.There were a few places where it moved a little slowly, but hey, what book doesn’t have it’s more plodding passages? I have to give this book 5 stars.
Paul Lappen –
Very weird and very good
Max Whitman is a moderately successful actor in present-day New York City. Cast member on a soap opera, he seems to have acquired a stalker who dresses exactly like his TV character. One day, the stalker is found dead in the middle of the street. Indications are that he was dropped from a great height.In preparation for a big audition, Max agrees to spend some time in a sensory deprivation tank. His soul is taken to a place of tall buildings made of energy and hears voices talk to him like he is someone named Lord Redmark. Max also meets neon colored snakes in glass tubes, and harpies who look human, except for their wings of blue-black vinyl and mini-TV cameras for eyes. A door seems to have been opened between “here” and “there.” Max starts talking like Lord Redmark, and, more than once, he is attacked, in midtown Manhattan, by these vinyl-winged harpies.Quantum theory speculates about each physical body having an interrelated body made solely of subatomic particles, a “soul.” Such bodiless beings do exist on their own, and they are called plasmagnomes. They are divided into two factions, one of which is ready to declare war on mankind. Man’s computers, cell phones and other electromagnetic generators are causing real problems in the plasma world. Antoinette, a friend of Max’s, does human-looking metal sculptures. More than once, he sees what looks like her sculptures coming to life. Max is taken deep beneath the streets of Manhattan, where he meets people who have turned into various beings. Their true, plasmagnome self has been awakened; Antoinette becomes one of them. To put it simply, reality is being turned upside down and pulled inside out.John Shirley seems to make a habit of exploring parts of the human psyche that few other writers even wish to visit. In a way, this book is vintage John Shirley; very weird and very, very good.