Stefan Baciu on Nether Street Blues

What a literary family! It shouldn't surprise you, as I am the third man in my lineage to write-unfortunately, both my great-grandfather and his father never published their creative writing. You can blame it on the soviets. Or the lack of Substack. Now, I feel stupid for editing my comment. Stupider even than when I realized I made a mistake and said to myself "he might be his brother or cousin" :)) I enjoyed that article. I agree with you in principle, but there are two aspects one must keep in mind, ie (I) YMM-what is graphic and gratuitous for some might not be for others. Think Cormac McCarthy—he even admitted that the graphic violence in his work was a conscious decision. If he were to write it nowadays, he wouldn't have gone for it, because the media is already oversaturated with it. By contrast, the last thing that actually shocked when it came to sex and violence was a scene in Jean Genet's "Our Lady of the Flowers" when he mentions-not describes, just mentions-how he and his lover picked fleas and ticks off each other’s bodies. (II) It all boils down to execution: again, I must resort to McCarthy's use of violence. Blood Meridian's most gruesome scenes are some of its most poetic, in my humble opinion. On the other hand, if you put something by Palahniuk next to it, it seems needlessly edgy.