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Hal Duncan

Hal Duncan Quotes

Fiction writer

Hal Duncan, born on October 21, 1971, is a renowned fiction writer from Scotland. His works are known for their unique literary style and rich imagination, which have won him a dedicated readership.

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Famous Hal Duncan Quotes

“I kissed the boys and made them cry ... in ecstasy.”

Boys Ecstasy Kissed

Book:Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites

Source: Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites

“Maybe there’s no secret essence inside me or you or them or anybody, nothing except what we choose for ourselves. No fate, no future, no past... except what we choose. No slaves and masters for the soul, only whores and politicians.”

Soul Spirit Destiny Fate

Book:Vellum

Source: Vellum

“So they watch over us like gods of old. Our patron sinners.”

Book:Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites

Source: Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites

“Well, I myself, while sometimes unkempt by nights of drunkenness and debauchery, am quite convinced a man’s good character is marked by his impeccable attire.”

Character Drunkenness Debauchery Attire

Book:Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites

Source: Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites

“I miss Jack and Joey and Thomas. Nobody ever wonders if the dead grieve for the ones they leave behind, it seems, but I miss them, even if I’m not sure that they ever existed. If my whole world up until I found the Book was just the fantasy of a dead man wishing he was still alive, maybe they were only ever little parts of me that I snipped off and carved into a human shape to keep me company in that dream of life.”

Book:Vellum

Source: Vellum

“I wish I had the strength to make an outcast of myself.”

Society Outcast

Book:Vellum

Source: Vellum

“You know about psychosis, Doctor. You should recognize the symptoms. Grandiose delusions. Religious mania. Paranoid violence. Sounds like society to me.”

Book:Vellum

Source: Vellum

“So, fuck ’em, we say. Fuck the mundane of Mainstream, the elitists of Literature. We’re GENRE FICTION and proud of it, proud to wear that brand painted on the backs of our biker’s jackets.”

Literature Proud Mainstream Mundane Brand Genre Fiction Elitists

Book:Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

Source: Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

“This is the fiction that I’m referring to as rhapsody, this stitching of mimetic representation, oneiric imagery, ludic rules, allegoric morals, satiric critique and diegetic story into complex quiltings of narrative.”

Science Fiction Genre Rhapsody

Book:Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

Source: Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

“Losing maturity in one’s fiction for the sake of marvels and monsters can also mean losing propriety, and that’s not always a bad thing.”

Fiction Monsters Maturity Propriety Marvels

Book:Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

Source: Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

“Jack in and jerk off, kid! You too can save the world ... from those evil, bug-eyed commies from space!”

Save The World Jerk Off Commies From Space Jack In

Book:Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

Source: Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

“So what if it’s Achilles’ mother who can have a son that’s greater than its father? What if it’s Io, too? What if it’s any girl, every girl? Any woman? Every woman, Anna. Sure and can’t any son be greater than his father? Isn’t that what it’s all about, what makes us all go on? Ye can’t look at the sheer bloody-minded defiance of a wee babe screaming its lungs out at the terrible injustice of the world and not have hope. Every generation of us, all born kicking up a racket, revels every one of us. So who’s the son— the child— that’s greater than its father? I’ll tell ye who it is, Anna. Humanity.”

Humanity Greatness Achilles Io

Book:Vellum

Source: Vellum

“– No SF novel ever won the Booker, growls a prowling clansman on his way into the SF Café. The librarian swings a shotgun from inside her longcoat, blasts the bullshit axiom from the air. Screw the Booker, she thinks. She’d rather have a hookah.”

Science Fiction Genre Man Booker

Book:Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

Source: Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions

“With undead armies, psychotic angels and exploding airships, Scar Night is a gripping, ripping yarn which rattles along at a great pace. Tether all that to the knock-out image at the heart of the novel-Deepgate, a Gothic city built on a network of chains over a great abyss-and you have urban fantasy at its best.”

Heart Night Cities Fantasy Novel Angel Built Army Chains Pace Scar Urban Abyss Gothic Psychotic Gripping Exploding Undead Yarn Airships

Author:Hal Duncan

“I'm sort of exploring where pacifism and socialism come into conflict. How do you reconcile a passionate rejection of might and violence with an attitude of "nil paseran" - "none shall pass" - in the face of fascism?”

Might Faces Attitude Violence Conflict Passionate Socialism Rejection Fascism Exploring Reconcile Pacifism

Author:Hal Duncan

“Homophobia's just one form of abjection, and wherever you have a marker of deviance - skin colour, gender, gender identity, disability - you get the same mechanisms of prejudice.”

Form Identity Skins Prejudice Gender Colour Just One Disability Mechanism Homophobia Gender Identity Markers Deviance Abjection

Author:Hal Duncan

“Prejudice validates itself as righteous abhorrence of the criminally deviant. So Christian homophobia is just a metonym of that abjection in general.”

Christian Prejudice Righteous Homophobia Abhorrence Deviants Abjection

Author:Hal Duncan

“The conflict between pacifism and socialism ultimately reflects a greater quandary of how one engages with such a system.”

Greater Conflict Socialism Pacifism

Author:Hal Duncan

“A 3K word story might well be done in some caffeine-and-nicotine-fuelled 36 hour session, and at the end of it, there'll be a few passes of editing required, but I basically have a polished draft.”

Wells Ends Done Stories Might Hours Editing Session Polished Caffeine Nicotine

Author:Hal Duncan

“Where names of people or places would mean little to a contemporary reader, I figured "translation errors" could create interesting new meanings.”

People Mean Littles Names Interesting Reader Errors Contemporary Translations

Author:Hal Duncan

“I wanted to do justice to texts that are in verse in their original, so I tried to invest my version with a comparable poetic power; hence even more literary fireworks there.”

Wanted Justice Originals Versions Poetic Verses Fireworks

Author:Hal Duncan

“I started thinking about the endless bullshit about quotas, and how certain types of character are fine "as long as it's important to the story," and so on, started thinking about the absence of the abject.”

Thinking Long Important Character Stories Certain Fine Type Absence Endless Bullshit Quota

Author:Hal Duncan

“Movies, novels, TV shows - these are the water fountains of today. We thirst for stories which speak to us by representing us, but we go to the water fountains in the centre of town looking for that, and we're turned away, sent to the ghetto.”

Stories Shows Today Speak Water Novel Tvs Towns Thirst Tv Shows Centre Fountain Ghetto Representing Water Fountain

Author:Hal Duncan

“Most of my influences from outside the commerical strange fiction genre came in with university, discovering James Joyce and Wallace Stevens, Blake and Yeats, Pinter and Borges. And meanwhile within those genres I was discovering Gibson and Shepard, Jeter and Powers, Lovecraft and Peake.”

Fiction Influence Strange University Genre Discovering Power Of Love Blake Joyce Borges Lovecraft Yeats Jeter Pinter

Author:Hal Duncan

“I've got a number of stories written so far in that mythos, more lined up to be written, and a narrative arc taking shape between them. I was experimenting with releasing the stories online for Paypal donations, so the existing ones are currently available via the blog for free download, but the ball didn't keep rolling in terms of meeting the targets I was setting.”

Stories Term Numbers Written Shapes Balls Meetings Available Setting Settings Narrative Online Target Rolling Blogs Arcs Donation Downloads Paypal

Author:Hal Duncan

“Destiny can sometimes be history coming back to bite you in the arse.”

Sometimes Destiny Bites Coming Back Arses

Book:Scruffians!: Stories of Better Sodomites

Source: Scruffians!: Stories of Better Sodomites

“Words command us. Names define us. Definitions bind us. Words are where we keep our sacred secrets.”

Names Secret Sacred Definitions Command

Author:Hal Duncan

About the Author

Born: October 21, 1971
Known for: Fiction writer
Quotes: 27

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Stories Genre Abjection Character Conflict Destiny Fiction Homophobia Might Names

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Books & Sources

Rhapsody: Notes on Strange FictionsRelated source material

VellumRelated source material

Scruffians! Stories of Better SodomitesRelated source material

Scruffians!: Stories of Better SodomitesRelated source material

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