Burnt Offerings

Burnt Toast#7, 1991

If the United States of America invaded Australia (something they'd currently find logistically difficult) and stuck us all into hard labour concentration camps I'd probably be one of the first to keel over and lie unmoving till they dragged me away. Not the very first of course, just high on the list.

This realisation come on me whilst dismantling a tree recently, only a part of my long and finally successful quest to find a watchable copy of The Exorcist video. A movie about which, at one stage, I was under the distinct impression that Someone up there didn't want me to see. And, incidently, my thanks to JB for working the three hours without complaint, and putting up with my frequent rests as I thought dark thoughts about horror authors doing horrible things to characters. And knowing full well that what I was going through was nothing compared to what people in my favourite genre go through, or indeed what some people in reality go through, those just slightly less lucky then I.

I mean, there's a war on, people are dying, and here I am bitching about a tree.

But there is always war, always pain, and it is civilisation's job to make us forget, and horror's job to make us remember. Human nature is simply not built for wide-spread harmony, and the fact that I could sit there and think nasty things is, I suppose, a triumph of a civilisation that has a place for someone as sheltered and non-physical as I am to succeed. Not that I thought that at the time of course (or even before I started this editorial. I thought it was going to be about the relationship between fiction in print and fiction on the screen, as typified by The Exorcist. Who's writing this thing anyway?).

This issue of Burnt Toast isn't about reality as such, the things that civilisation hides, though reality will intrude on occasion, and it won't be pleasant, but that is it's nature. It is, in fact, dedicated to a very clever man who died some ninety-three years ago, but who will be long remembered. Someone herein will raise the point that this tribute may not be well regarded by the man we are honouring, but it is a sincere tribute none-the-less. And I'm afraid that with this 'bumper' issue I'm now going to take a bit of a rest from burning toast, if only for a month or two (so keep sending the contributions and entries). Just to give me a bit of time to read a book, catch up on my own fiction, sleep. Maybe I'll even get in some exercise.

Nah.