I've recently come to the conclusion that between reading and writing, the truly creative, magical act is reading, and that writing is the pleasantly tedious process of creating reading material. That's why your comments are so valuable to me. It's the point.
Readers often assume that I thought of all these details before, but each and every one of the comments below reveal something new to me. Remember, as the writer, my perspective has been extremely limited.
Here are some of your thoughts:
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word up on the review. i told you about all good queer lit gave me fever? damn i was popping the aspirin like candy and soaking my feet in ice water after plowing through TTMI!
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so i bought your book yesterday and read it last night (couldn't put it down actually)...damn boy!! fantastic...i plan on reading it again before we actually get down to discuss it...i want to be prepared!! hehe
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"Just wanted to let you know that I rec'd your book yesterday and finished reading it. It's a great read, both funny and tragic and some amazing prose. I even had to pop in my "Placebo" cd's to accompany my reading. Placebo, Nine Inch Nails and Def Leppard are about as wild as I get..LOL Anyway your book brought me back to my coming out days in my early twenties, both as a gay man and as a JW....thanks for that. I wished I had the guts to rip up the NWT in the middle of the K.H. at the time...LOL
As I mentioned before, I am totally comfortable in setting up a booking signing party for our ACB (A Common Bond) group if you ever come to NYC. You have a quality novel. Keep up your writing! I look forward to your next work."
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"Not only is your book AMAZING, but you're also a montrealer. doesn't get any better than that. anyway, i picked up your book at Expozine the other day, and used public transportation time to read it today... and honestly, i nearly missed my metro stop, being so engrossed. it's incredible. seriously. props."
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"between parties and then today too
i didst read the novella
...moved me.
just wanted to give praise to you.
now, it's nestled lovingly between "madness and civilization" (foucault) and "memoirs of a dutiful daughter", upon my bookshelf.
thank you for writing, and for inspiring.
feels like the air has been pretty charged with aggression and really strong emotion lately...is it just me?"
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"When I finished reading Tattoo This Madness In for the second time, I cried. I wept because it was beautiful, but also because I realized what a personal manifesto it is for you. I cried because of all the guilt and shame you shed."
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"I've been meaning to send a missive along your way ever since I blazed through your book. A fine job, indeed.
The book moved with such brevity and confusion - kind of like its protagonist, I guess. It also resonated with the shards of teenager still left in me, and I often felt that it is a book best read by adolescents. Quite a brilliant insight for anyone over the age of 20.
This probably sounds ridiculous, but you should try to shove this book into the hands of Marilyn Manson.
You know: celebrity attention leads to media attention = you could be the next *real* JT Leroy! Ha ha."
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"I read the book and though your style is quite good (keep writing!) it is a bit of a raunch shocker for my mostly born-again readers."
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"i love your book dude,your descriptive writing blows me away."
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"When Damian was in the bathroom and he’s overwhelmed and confused and sick, he totally changes the scene by taking control of what he knows best—smurfs, tattoos and submission. And he was basically branding his disciples, a 17-year-old messiah. I think that’s what makes it interesting. You touch on the confusion and the vulnerabilirty and exploration of being a teenager, then it changes into control and power, which is a side you don’t see often. I like how the scenes play in your head like a movie. It kind of reminds me of the director Greg Araki."
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"I want to say that I have read your book twice and I love it! Not to sound cheesy, but it was great read. And I love the line about the bugs being hit into the windshield, some doing so for suicide."
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"I read your book during my commute home on the train. Good job - you captured the craziness that some feel in trying to get out of the Organization. It's very destructive - maybe that's not a good word - but violent - the animosity really comes through - my opinion anyway. Damian is a tragic character - for me anyway - just sort of all this energy and pent up emotion that just explodes."
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“I finished your book and couldn't put it down. It was really good Daniel, I love how you write. Everything is very curt and direct, I love that style. Oddly enough, in all the chaos of the book I think my favourite character was Alicia, she was very calming and comforting, for some reason I liked that.”
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“I read your book and I enjoyed it. My favourite part was the 'wounds as kisses.' I'm going to send it to a zinester friend in Detroit who I think will like it. Have you ever read Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood? If not, I strongly suggest you do. It's the only novel she wrote (she is a brilliant short story writer) and her main character is a similar (anti?)messiah who works with and against his up-bringing. I thought of it a lot while I was reading Tattoo.
“One more thing I just remembered that I thought was funny. While I was reading Tattoo my brain forgot that DF stood for disfellowship. So, in the scene where Damian is in the hotel room all stoned out with his new friends having sex and the girl was asking him to DF with her, I thought she was asking him to double-fuck her with Zeke. And, as Damian did it, I thought it was such an intimate scene because these two guys were ripping into her and Damian was going right out there, getting so close to Zeke - the gay issue - while affirming his straightness by fucking the girl with Zeke. But, I don't think any of that was really intended. I really should re-read that chapter.”
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"You do acknowledge in the book that the JWs have been persecuted themselves such as under the Nazis. At the same time you show that religious repression can leave a young person with the feeling that they have nowhere to turn to discuss feelings or thoughts that they are having. At the same time it seems to me that your characters don't necessarily reject religion/faith per se."
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On the net:
WARNING! Jehovah' reading this book might consider the violence they plant in young gay people's hearts with their narrow vision of who is deserving of God's love/Jesus' mercy.Considering how often I get to recycle the Watchtower at my local laundromat, I find it ironic that there are not more critiques of that crap - oh right- its not worth critiquing because its so obviously full of feces. This book is definitely worth the 10$ read, even if your not into the Jehovah's crap, or homo punk culture- it is great writing!
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Letting go of everything and starting new isn't easy. Daniel Cox's book speaks the universal truth of repression and struggle, of guilt, shame, fear, and of survival. One doesn't have to be an ex-jaydub to get that. Take it from me: an ex-Muslim and lifelong lesbian-in-denial, whose flee from subjugation, thought not quite as violent on the outside as Damien's, was every bit as complex on the inside. I'm willing to bet there's a little bit of Damien Spitz in everyone.
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TTMI is an exploration into the locus of where blind-faith and the physicality of the flesh clash, how religion and sexuality move in overlapping circles, and how ruptures occur when we question that which we have been taught to never question. At the end of the day, TTMI is an explosive poetic tale, beautifully written and scathing. It is raw, honest and electric. You can smell the gasoline, taste the intermingling of bodily fluids and hear the pulse of Henry Rollins and Black Flag. TTMI is by far one of my favourite books, and it appears as though I'm not alone; the novel has just been been nominated for the Expozine Alternative Press Awards, under the category Best English Book. Congrats to the author!
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this book is an explosive tour de force... like a greg araki movie on 32 hits of lsd... tom wolfe eat your lunch! my views on jews line up pretty closely with cox's views, despite my rather limited exposure to this religion, but I've had a decent-sized fill, and oodles of enough pentecostal Christian indoctrination to choke a horse! its a strong, surreal little novel ... a page turner!
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I can't see how anything written about personal redemption can be anything but powerful for both the writer and the audience. I thank Cox for putting forth this piece that reminds us of the importance of community and self love and that provokes discussion among people about beliefs and religion.And a BIG congratulations to Mr. Cox for his nomination for the Expozine Award of the best English Fiction work!
