The Ravens\’ Head:Disability, Myth & Magic

Ladies and Gentlemen –

Cold Albion has been quiet, and quiet for a reason. I am having a book published, and frankly, I\’m busy writing the bloody thing. Closer to the time, look for exclusive content here and pop over to Modern Mythology to see explorations of themes linked to the book!

Have a gander, and please do spread it around!

Be Seeing You.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – LONDON 5TH SEPTEMBER 2011

Weaponized is proud to announce the publication of ‘The Ravens Head’ a powerful new book by author Craig VI Slee.

Once upon a time, the first story was told – somewhere deep within the fields of memory, a vision was transmitted from one person to another. Once upon a time, a tale touched you and changed your world. It transported you somewhere else and left its fingerprints upon your life, and then when others saw the marks, you told of how they came to be. Over time, you wrapped yourself in stories, tattooing them upon the skin of your existence to make sense of all that happened. When others offered you stories, you took them gladly and spliced them with your own, until you could no longer discover where yours ended and theirs began.

Who exactly is it that tells your tale, guides the monologue and direct your actions? How much of your world is actually your own, and how much of it is painted scenery put there in the years before you were born? What is actually wallpaper over Plato’s cave walls, put there to soothe humankind and conceal the bare, unyielding rock?

What happens when you boil it all down and you are left with ash, ground down to the bone and struggling under the weight of loss and incomprehension?

Welcome then, to The Ravens’ Head.

A story about stories, about the search for the language of the birds, the tongue of the Angels – it chronicles the life and work of a man engaging in the oldest quest. The quest to become more human than human, and recover his nature from the mob-spectacle known as “reality.”

The Ravens’ Head is part travelogue, part mythic narrative and part journey inward into the depths of consciousness itself. Written by a figure steeped in mythic landscapes and tales, it presents a unique take on life and the notions of disability and impairment.

Focusing on the inescapable notions of physicality and sensation, it examines the conventions of power and control – revealing them to be nothing but stories and charms to ease the discomfort of life in an indifferent universe.

A furious exploration of the connections between poetry and communication – between stories, myth and magic, it serves as a gateway into the world behind the wallpaper; through the metaphors of ancient myth and personal experience, it opens doors for the reader to examine their own life and partake in a glorious phantasmagoria of inspired creation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
CRAIG ‘VI’ SLEE or MR. VI if you’re feeling formal, lives in the North of England in a place charmingly nicknamed ‘Hanging Town’. Crazed spastic: poet, storyteller and philosopher, he embraces a peculiar life of furious seizure.

Gripped by the ecstatic awe and dread known by the ancients as wôdh, he makes deals with the grandfathers of ravens and counts the Furious Host as blood brothers. He sits at crossroads in the middle of the night and knows the scent of blood and frost as well as he does mead and woodsmoke.

He’s more than a little bit dead. He drinks dark ale and smoky whisky and can send you places by the power of his voice. The waters of the dream-sea flow in his veins and pain is the herald and gateway of his vision.

He made a deal with the Devil in the grounds of a thousand year-old church, giving up his soul for skill with words. Or he conjured up the Headless One and ignited the immortal fire, and he walks without walking, striding through your dreams and over the graves of giants.

At least, these are some of the stories they tell of him. He has a beard and a hat, and if you asked about them and called him a sorcerer, he couldn’t possibly comment. But he does like cats, which is nice.

ABOUT WEAPONIZED:
Weaponized publishes experimental forms of fiction, prose and art that offer new ways to experience stories and myth. They are passionately committed to finding unique narrative hybrids that challenge, engage, inform and inspire readers.

The imprint was founded by FoolishPeople, FoolishPeople create film, theatre, music and books and curate and engineer immersive experiences that have the power to raise the numinous within the spectator. FoolishPeople are currently shooting ’Strange Factories’ in Prague, a ground breaking immersive film that will be toured and presented within an immersive event created by FoolishPeople that explores the early history of cinema and film via the touring traditions of Phantasmagoria and theatric arcana.

Since its launch in August 2010 Weaponized has published FoolishPeople scripts ‘Cirxus’ and ‘Dead Language’ by John Harrigan, ‘The Sparky Show’ by Xanadu Xero and ‘Forum’ by Richard Webb and ‘Citizen Y’ written by John Harrigan and James Curcio and ‘The End of the Word As We Know It’ by Wes Unruh.

‘The Ravens Head’ is published by Weaponized in February 2012.

Artwork by P. Emerson Williams

PRESS CONTACT For further information please email press@weaponized.net