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Irish Times
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Oddbody by Rose Keating: Superbly crafted horror stories about having a body and being a woman
Oddbody Author : Rose Keating ISBN-13 : 978-1837261864 Publisher : Canongate Guideline Price : £14.99 A clue – and more than a clue – to the nature of Rose Keating's aesthetic can be found in the title of the fourth story included in Oddbody, her debut collection: Bela Lugosi Isn't Dead. If you know your subcultural history, you will be aware that Bela Lugosi's Dead is the title of the 1979 Bauhaus song that originated Goth Rock. The lyric '[F]lowers/bereft in deathly bloom' gives a fair sample of the foundational Goth vibe. A certain quality of deadpan camp; a theatrical morbidity; flowers, graveyards, bats at twilight, love lies bleeding; a sonic landscape of skeletal post-punk rattle and boom. The Goths – late descendants of the 19th-century decadent movement – are still with us: street romantics of lace, leather and eyeliner, here to remind us that life and death are, if they're anything, aesthetic phenomena. Bela Lugosi , in full Dracula drag, duly appears, undead, in Bela Lugosi Isn't Dead. Bela, or his cinematic ghost, is the intimate companion or pet of a 14-year-old girl, Saoirse. 'We're sick,' Bela tells Saoirse, in the story's opening lines, as they wake up in her bedroom. Mam bustles in: 'Up.' Bela disports himself, bursts, stinks, transforms into a bat. Mam doesn't bat an eyelid (sorry) until, halfway through the story, she finally says, 'I think this needs to stop […] I remember what this was like, at your age […] But Saoirse, I'm sorry. It's not healthy. He is bad for you.' A stricken teenage girl haunted by the ghost of Bela Lugosi-as-Dracula; the whole thing treated, by every character, with imperturbable matter-of-factness, as if it's an accepted part of life, of growing up. The suggestion – via mention of the 'overexposed' photo of Dad that 'Mum keeps on the mantlepiece' – that Bela is the externalisation of unmanageable feelings: grief, adolescent malaise, adolescent morbidity. The story is deadpan, even as more death (in this case of Saoirse's cat, Ginger) obtrudes, even as Bela guides Saoirse towards fantasies of resurrection and repair. Or are they, in fact, realities? READ MORE Bela Lugosi Isn't Dead is a neat example of Keating's deadpan expressionism. The title story, Oddbody, works similarly. A second-person protagonist is followed around, haunted, hectored, entertained, by a ghost; in the world of this story, having a ghost is normal, if socially fraught, like being depressed, or – another possible metaphor here – being on your period. 'Did you bring your ghost to my flat?' asks the protagonist's unpleasant boyfriend, Ben. 'Do you have any idea how inappropriate that is?' The ghost urges 'you' to consider suicide; viciously criticises 'your' body ('Look at the bulging waves of cellulite rippling across the inner thighs'); is, nonetheless, familiar, even beloved. The tightness of its embrace 'feels so very much like being held'. It should by now be obvious that Keating isn't just a prose Goth. Her stories draw on another powerful tributary – specifically, feminist arguments about the fates of the female body under patriarchy. The ghost, in Oddbody, sounds like depression – and the story works beautifully as a dark and funny account of that state. But equally, the ghost sounds like the messages that patriarchy whispers and shouts to women. 'It's not a bad ghost,' the protagonist insists to Ben, 'I'm fine, really.' At one point, 'the ghost has given in to diffusion'. It's everywhere – like depression; like a ruling ideology. Expressionism – see Kafka – works by literalising emotional states or political ideas. The 10 stories in Oddbody are all expressionist in this sense. In the funniest story, Squirm, a young woman named Laura is taking care of her father; her father, formerly human, is now a large segmented worm who lives in a soil-filled bath. Nobody in the story thinks this is strange. 'Is there something wrong with him?' asks Liam, a man Laura meets on a fetish website. 'He's a worm,' Laura replies. Liam, driving them through the countryside, says, 'Look, sheep.' In Kafka's Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa's family suffers social embarrassment at the fact that Gregor is now an insect; Keating riffs on this surrealist insight to tell startling, funny, alarming stories about what happens to our feelings when they collide with the social world, and about how that social world can mould our feelings, especially if we are women. # [ Short stories from Kafka to the Kafkaesque: making strange again Opens in new window ] In Next to Cleanliness, a young woman undergoes a 'cleanse' supervised by a charismatic doctor; it strips her down to her skeleton. In Eggshells, women lay literal eggs; it is a social faux pas to lay one at work. The stories in Oddbody are superbly crafted – though they might perhaps best be read one at a time (a certain sameness is detectable if you read them one after the other). The prose is confident, witty and perceptive. These are sharp and memorable horror stories about the most ordinary horrors: having a body; having a heart; being a woman in the 21st-century West. Kevin Power is assistant professor of English at Trinity College Dublin
Forbes
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Peter Murphy Finds ‘Clarity in Chaos' on New Solo Album Silver Shade
Peter Murphy It took Peter Murphy over a decade to release his new album Silver Shade. But as the legendary British singer explains, his recent return with new music — his first since 2014's Lion — wasn't the result of pressure or a plan. To him, Silver Shade arrived because it was the right time. 'Some of it had been taking shape quietly for a while, fragments, ideas,' says Murphy, who is best known for his work in the pioneering and influential Goth rock band Bauhaus. 'But the full shape of it only came together when it felt right. Also, again — due to the nature of the music business — between the making of the album and the actual release date, some time passes…which is what happened with this album. The songs came in their own time, naturally.' Silver Shade, which came out on May 9, is Murphy's finest and strongest work to date since he began his solo career in 1986 after Bauhaus' initial breakup. In comparing this new record with the preceding one, the singer says: 'Lion had its own tone, raw, dense, a kind of focused burn. That was nine years ago. With Silver Shade, I was in a different place. Older, somehow clearer in my intent. I didn't want to repeat myself. This time, I wanted more space in the music, more air between the parts. It's still intense, but the intensity is quieter, more internal. So yes, the process was different with new collaborators, a different kind of energy driving it.' Like with Lion, Silver Shade was produced by Youth of Killing Joke fame, who Murphy says brought a certain discipline and unpredictability. 'He knows how to capture a moment without polishing it too much. He's not afraid to strip things back or push them forward if needed. He helped shape the record's atmosphere without getting in the way of the songs themselves.' The new record, which features guest appearances by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Tool's Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor, is not a conceptual work, says Murphy. 'Each song stands on its own,' he explains, 'but when you listen to the record as a whole, there's a feeling that ties them together. A sort of emotional continuity, even though each track explores something different, they all come from the same source, naturally. There is definitely a thread, though it's not obvious in a literal sense. The songs came from a certain place, a place of tension, change and reflection. I'd say the themes are about navigating through confusion, finding clarity in chaos.' Silver Shade opens with the electrifying danceable rocker 'Swoon,' which immediately hits the listener. ''Swoon' captures that moment of intensity," Murphy says, "but it's almost detached, it has that driving beat, that hypnotic rhythm that pulls you in, but there's something off-centre about it. The song isn't built on resolution. It's the sound of something being carried away, not necessarily in control, just moving. It came from a place of urgency, a need to get something across without overthinking it. Trent really understood that feeling, so his vocals tie in perfectly.' The title of 'Hot Roy,' another pumeling and driving rocker from the new album, is a reference to a schoolyard game; the lyrics also mention David Bowie and Mick Ronson. 'The rhythm is in your face, but it's got this tension running through it, like a secret under the surface,' Murphy says. 'You can say that 'Ronno' and 'Zigger' are nods to Mick Ronson and David Bowie, though not in a literal sense. It's more about their spirit, that influence they had on all of us who came up in the era of glam rock. The names in the song are a kind of homage, but more than that, they represent an attitude, that combination of glam, rebellion, and mystery.' A trace of Bowie-esque glam rock could be heard on the rocking title song, which also features Reznor. 'One of my oldest (in a sense of time) friends and writing partner, Paul Statham, was important in 'Silver Shade,'" explains Murphy.'It sums up that idea of contrast: light and dark, clarity and confusion. It's a place where things don't fully make sense, but they're still beautiful in their own way. The production gives it a lush feel, but it's haunted by a certain melancholy. It's like standing in a space that's neither here nor there — the in-between." Murphy describes 'The Sailmaker's Charm' as the closest thing to a ballad on the new album, but it's also not a typical one. 'It has this romanticism to it, but also a kind of wariness. It's about being drawn to something or someone, but knowing that the charm could turn. It's a tug-of-war between attraction and skepticism.' Somewhat autobiographical, the hypnotic synthpop track 'The Artroom Wonder' draws from an experience in Murphy's youth when he heard a Bowie song at school. 'I was just coming out of the artroom, and I heard a piece of music which affected me deeply. I remember it to this day. It turned out to be 'Cygnet Committee' by David Bowie. This was very much in my mind when I was creating that track. The chorus is like a memory you sing out loud so it doesn't disappear.' Murphy's songs tend to feel cinematic, and the sweeping "The Meaning of My Life" is no different with its poetic lyrics and the singer's powerful delivery. "I suppose it is more expansive, more contemplative. It's asking questions that don't necessarily have answers, and that's exactly the point. We get caught up in the search, but maybe the search is the point itself. The song moves between hope and doubt." Ahead of Silver Shade's release, Murphy put out the arresting and beautiful single 'Let the Flowers Grow,' a duet with Boy George. Its creation began when Murphy came across musical fragments by George, who was also working with Youth, and decided to expand on them with the Culture Club singer. 'It's always interesting to see how these things evolve when they come into a different context. George has got such a distinct voice; there's nothing else like it. Also, we both come from that same 'outsider' space in a way. There's a natural respect because of that. The collaboration worked because there was no pretense; we just let the music happen. It was about connecting on a creative level and letting the song grow into what it needed to be.' MILAN, ITALY - NOVEMBER 22: Peter Murphy of Bauhaus performs on stage at Fabrique Club on November ... More 22, 2018 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images) In a solo career now going on almost 40 years, with the occasional Bauhaus reunion sprinkled in, how does Murphy view Silver Shade in the context of his discograpby? "I don't tend to rank my own work, honestly. Each record comes from a different place and time, different life, different lens. Silver Shade isn't trying to compete with what came before. It stands on its own. 'That said, I do feel it's one of the most focused and distilled things I've done in a long while," he continues. "There's no excess. Everything's intentional. It carries the weight of experience but doesn't lean on nostalgia. It looks forward. So, if someone said it's among the strongest in the catalog, I'd understand that. But as always, that is for listeners and fans to decide.'
