This Young Monster

by Charlie Fox

This Young Monster is a hallucinatory celebration of artists who raise hell, transform their bodies, anger their elders and show their audience dark, disturbing things. What does it mean to be a freak? Why might we be wise to think of the present as a time of monstrosity? And how does the concept of the monster irradiate our thinking about queerness, disability, children and adolescents? From Twin Peaks to Leigh Bowery, Harmony Korine to Alice in Wonderland, This Young Monster gets high on a whole range of riotous art as its voice and form shape-shift, all in the name of dealing with the strange wonders of what Nabokov once called ‘monsterhood’. Ready or not, here they come...

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Art, Queer, LGBT, Criticism, Art History

272 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2017

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular collection of essays – actually, not so much essays as sublime, feverish phantasmagorias that pull apart the distinctions between fiction, fact and surrealism, exploring the intersections of pop culture, queerness, self-image and what it means to be (or feel like) a monster. This Young Monster opens with a letter addressed to the Beast (of Beauty and the fame, of La Belle et la fame) and closes with a series of diary entries about Arthur Rimbaud. My absolute favourite was 'Spook House': in the form of an imaginary screenplay, it's like being educated about horror classics by costumed characters and trick-or-treating kids while immersed in a setpiece that's a combination of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Over the Garden Wall and Simon Hanselman's Megg, Mogg & Owl. Fox is an omnivorous consumer of media, a connoisseur of both high and low culture; the essays in This Young Monster reference mainstream TV shows and horror movies nearly as often as they do outsider art and arthouse cinema. This book made me want to read and see and hear everything mentioned, it made me want to write and create and rejoice in my own monstrousness. Exhilarating.

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[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ensayo maravilloso, sorprendente y sobre todo repleto de curiosidades. Nos habla de lo monstruosa que puede ser la diferencia, el cambiar, el crecer y lo hace con una carta a La Bestia, muchos actores, directores, fotógrafos e incluso una visión de Alicia en el país de las maravillas de en que se ha convertido su propia vida.
Las referencias son realmente impresionantes!

[Bert · Rating 4 out of 5]

... I wanted to test the definition of 'monster' and mess it up and feed it different substances... (p.242)


“Charlie Fox writes about scary and fabulous monsters, but he really writes about culture, which is the monster’s best and only escape. He is a dazzling writer, unbelievably erudite, and this book is a pleasure to read. Fox’s essays spin out across galaxies of knowledge. Domesticating the difficult, he invites us as his readers to become monsters as well.”
Chris Kraus

[t · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting essays unfortunately dampened by my dislike of Fox’s narrative voice… came off as try-hard heavy-handed (not to mention overdone) stylisation rather than a unique or monstrous approach to academic writing.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

han babler mye, men pluss for bilder i boka (bortsett fra det ene penisbildet som kom littt for brått på halv åtte på morran på en tettpakka 31-buss)

[Tensy Gesteira estevez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro para leer muy despacio.

[Jesse]

From John Waters: By the Book:

What’s the last great book you read?

My friend Bruce Hainley had told me about a new book coming out called “This Young Monster,” by Charlie Fox, but I had forgotten all about it until the publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions in London sent me this beautifully designed French-flap-style paperback original. Good God, where did this wise-beyond-his-years 25-year-old critic’s voice come from? His breath of proudly putrefied air is really something to behold. Finally, a new Parker Tyler is on the scene. Yep. Mr. Fox is the real thing.

A Parker Tyler comparison? I can't resist that!

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really, really wanted this to be a clever, in-depth analysis of specific elements of the horror genre. It wasn't. But hey, not the book's fault if it's not what I want. The kicky, smart-arse, look-at-me prose style was very much not my cup of tea. But Charlie Fox clearly knows his stuff, even if he does insist on writing it as an experimental play script for some reason. I'd read more from him if it was written in a less show-offy style.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece of wide-ranging knowledge; esoteric essays that speak in nothing but profundity - wizard-level writing. Baffling, brilliant and beautiful.

[Sonia Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lurid green cover and bared canine teeth on the Brow Books edition of Charlie Fox’s This Young Monster is a portentous precursor to the nine essays contained within the collection – each of them fixated with the idea of ‘monsters’ in reality and fiction.

Read the rest of my review on Kill Your Darlings: https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/a...

[Pol · Rating 5 out of 5]

bueno pell de gallina visca les ficcions i la capacitat d'alguns per crear-les. Assaig dens que va fort i tira constantment d'una esllavissada de referents noms links anys ffff la veritat és que m'he tornat boig entre google youtube llibre. Se't gira feina en acabar cada capítol però bastant emocionant si més no. top top

[Izzie Hingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stuff!!!
Think I will be dipping into this often- I skimmed some of the essays as I didn’t know the reference points well enough but some essays were powerful and felt so fresh. Yay non-fiction

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giddy collection of essays-come-revery, with a wonderful watching/reading/research list to add to the known references.

[Mark Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever feel like a book has been written JUST for you and your taste? That's exactly how I felt about this book of essays. Just the topics alone - and the central conceit of the Queer and the Monster and how much they overlap is something that I've always resonated with and loved (and Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film is a book that I've also read and loved on the topic, but obviously much more focussed and more chapters than personal essays).

This Young Monster, however, is a series of freewheeling essays, generally covering a main topic within each essay, as well as subtopics, but freewheeling because some are "standard" essays (I say "standard" as the voice is always unique and snarky and original in them) but some are essays in the voice of others (Letter to Beauty and the Beast, an essay-as-a-play featuring Klaus Kinski, Letter to Arthur Rimbaud).

But it's the topics. My little gay heart sang: monstrous queers, Buster Keaton, Diane Arbus, Fassbinder (my favourite essay), Leigh Bowery, Alice, Larry Clark, Cameron Jamie. And of course all adjacent people/things you can imagine coming up within that world come up: David Lynch, horror films, Matthew Barney, etc. There's a 9 page bibliography of every piece of art mentioned throughout the book.

Does the style sometimes grate - a tiny bit, but the voice and its exuberance carries it and the essays are well-researched and linked together internally and throughout. A really rather excellent book.

[Ezze Dodo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a hot minute to attune to Charlie Fox's writing style but after snorting a few lines I quickly felt as if I was joyriding on an author's psychedelic trip around his childhood interests and 90s suburban youthdom. What was immediately clear is how much material the author has ingested, spitting back out diverse reference points from the classic to contemporary, alongside a smattering of ITV daytime-telly inclusions like Lost Boys (1987) and Over the Edge (1979). I never thought I would come across someone else who had watched these films, let alone loved them.

While the author did tend to typecast monstrosity within the realms of queer, white and male— I don't see this as negative and this does not detract from the book's brilliance. I don't agree with battering authors for writing from their own ontology as opposed to (perhaps dangerously) broaching other experiences he may not be privy too. He did not claim to write THE book of young monsters, rather ones that inhabit his lifeworld. I actually found the book most interesting for its allusion to the author's life, but refusal to directly confront it. A must-read from a wickedly cool young talent with limitless potential.

[sevdah]

I really wanted to like this, which in itself is a bit weird. Did Eileen Myles spark my desire by uploading a picture of the book on her bathroom floor next to her naked feet? I'm not saying it didn't. My main problem with it was that it was written in a way that would work (only?) in a very specific situation: a horror fan getting lost on her way to the SF/F section in a bookshop sees this collection and opens it at random. Every second essay was designed with our subject in mind: "Ei dude - criticism is like, um, totally cool! Dude!" (an editor for all those catchy phrases wouldn't hurt, they're not too foxy.)
Bonus points for our author is definitely very interested in his subject of monstrosity and his passion is a nice thing to sense in those pages. In terms of finding new connections or introducing a fresh way of seeing (i.e. in being a good critical text), it had very little to offer.

If you're that sci-fi fan who doesn't usually read essays or criticism - this truly is for you, dismiss all my bitterness and proceed to reading it.

[Archie Hamerton · Rating 5 out of 5]

probably the best book i’ve read this year. moves confidently between its sources, from Arbus to Lynch, looking at forms of deviancy and monstrosity. Fox is particularly strong on anarchic bodies, particularly puberty and the adolescent monster; i would’ve liked to have seen more on diseased bodies as societally monstrous (could’ve been a nice way into some classicism) but his incredible familiarity with queer culture makes this an exceptional read, and one i found myself annotating almost every page

[Julesreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn’t stand and ultimately skimmed/skipped the last fifty pages — the play and the outro. I didn’t like the intro either At least not as a diary entry/letter to beast from Beauty and the beast (kept calling it “beastie” that was an annoying affect) — but the content was good. But the rest of the book is really great about monstrous artists making monstrous art about freaks bc they too are freaks; and it’s about adolescence as a monstrous period and this flowing in and out of these concepts. I can see why John waters gave this a plug.

[Sam P]

I don't feel comfortable rating this yet, just because it was not what I expected (note: this is entirely on me for not paying adequate attention to the blurb). On it's terms, I would say its 4 stars. On my terms, probably 3 stars. To its credit, despite me not being the target audience and not being familiar with the majority of media it talked about, it still managed to be entertaining. I do have a soft spot for monsters.

[jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is beautiful to see that writing is possible. Creative non-fiction can be written. It can exist. It can be published, and it can be loved. Monsters are not my biggest interest in the world, nor have I watched most of the films or read most of the books mentioned within This Young Monster. But I now have a reason to - a web of connections and ideas linking each option.

I really enjoyed this, holding it and taking it with me to read wherever I went. A good keep in your bag book.

[Alexandra Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the chapters are fives, some are threes, but over all beautifully written and thought provoking. I love a good monster, and a bad monster, and people who use that imagery to express themselves. The main frustration is that Fox is often talking about images that are not in the book. Desperately needs an illustrated edition.

[Ben Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compendium of essays about the art, film, poetry and celebrity of monstrousness, that quality of being which maybe best defines our own troubling times. I'm a fan of pretty much all the work discussed here, and Charlie Fox makes for an erudite guide around these cultural spooky houses.

[aedan · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style but this triggered a sort of fascination with freaks that I’ll have to learn more about. Started this because it had a harmony korine mention and I was not disappointed about learning about more monsters than him.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dizzying.

[Gary Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up to 3. Not quite what I was expecting.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fox develops a wonderful cosmology of referents, personalities, and creative works in this essay collection.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking genius.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Maarten Raskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

just amazing!

[Chaserrrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adore these monumental love letters to monsters, outsiders, and queers. My Bible.