Acceptance: Danse Macabre

The editor of Danse Macabre magazine, that living mausoleum, that outré oubliette, that Boschian panopticon, of literature and art is an absinthe-addled, Toulouse-Lautrec-stung genius who goes by the moniker of Adam Henry Carrière. The journal is an hypnotic labyrinth of rococo corridors, often Louis-the-XIV-like and heavily populated with ghoulish variants of memento mori and skeletal divinities. However, various niches, cul-de-sacs and charnel twists suffer from a lusty anachronism, and so you never know exactly what you will find in these intoxicating, gold-tongued, demented halls.

If you have no idea what I said in the above paragraph, then you understand how I feel when I visit (or, more accurately, get entrapped by) Danse Macabre. I have a PhD in philosophy and much weathered experience with stygian art, and I still have no idea how to navigate Carriére’s fantastical dungeons, either physically or conceptually. But of course I cherish the confusion. It is the essence of his genius that he keeps us readers akimbo and spinning on the carousel of craziness, and at the same time edified, enlightened, and paradoxically purged of our blights of dullness and mediocrity.

Nothing, nothing, nothing is like Danse Macabre. No one who reads poetry on the internet is a true cognoscenti of online fare until they have plunged into DM at least a few times. Carrière notified me of my acceptance in a mass email to all contributors for the upcomging issue 58, or “cinquantotto” as he refers to it somewhere. The theme is “Skin,” and the preview page I found has some nasty images from great works of classic art: lots of nudity, skulls and some flogging, too. I’m not sure which of the three poems I submitted was accepted. If I want to find out, I have to visit DM 58, which is scheduled to appear on June 1. Of course, this is one of the techniques Carrière uses to lure the unsuspecting into his dungeon.

Maybe the best way to acclimate to the DM experience is to start with the blog, which is half-sane and relatively unnerving:

http://dmdujour.wordpress.com/

Well, actually it is unnerving, but in a lesser-daemon kind of way. For instance, I scrolled down through the blog and found a vignette called “Charon” by a “Lord Dunsany.” It starts this way:

Charon leaned forward and rowed. All things were one with his weariness.

It was not with him a matter of years or of centuries, but of wide floods of time, and an old heaviness and a pain in the arms that had become for him part of the scheme that the gods had made and was of a piece with Eternity.

If the gods had even sent him a contrary wind it would have divided all time in his memory into two equal slabs.

To see my previous review of Danse Macabre, go here:

Owl's first taste

To visit the journal, go here:

The New DM Web Address

(If that doesn't work: http://www.dansemacabreonline.com/ )


Say your prayers before visiting, or you will never say them again.

And be sure to read Issue 58, due out on June 1!!

Owl

PS: If you want a hint of Carriere’s bedeviling voice, below is the acceptance letter for DM 58, if it can be called that.

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Subject: Contributor Publicité - DM 58 SKIN

Dear friends,

Skin, our 58th Danse, will descend on the ether Friday 1 June ... and YOU are on the Danse card!

You will get more than your video booth's worth of the coloratura in this issue ...

We blush with pride in presenting Ellen Orner's new translation of Shostakovitch's Jewish Folk Poetry
We are seduced by new poetry from Paris by Jennifer Reeser
We unbutton fabulous fictions from Londoner Grace Andreacchi and DM du Jour's notorious Chef de partie, James Kendley
We unveil more exclusive delectations dans français et persan from Ali Abdolrezaei
We take a walk on the wild side with Boyslut's Devlin De La Chapa, Canada's Penn Kemp, and Israel's KJ Hannah Greenberg.

E più venuto!

But unwrapping the shrouds of the unearthly cannot be accomplished without your help. Your artistic endeavors help make DM the bespoke destination for coloratura letters online. In turn, the value-add of the DM brand to your oeuvre depends on your helping us spread the word beyond our thousands of monthly readers worldwide. So do unsettle those friends, family, and frenemies with unapologetic shout-outs about your tantalizing contributions this month ~ and the unrivaled buffet of the macabre in SKIN!

{And don't forget to bookmark our new address @ www.dansemacabreonline.com}

We hope this finds you all in good Summer verse and the best cheer.

--
Sincèrement,

Adam Henry Carrière
Verleger / Herausgeber, DANSE MACABRE
An Online Literary Magazine™

New issues monthly, on first Fridays ~
... For your daily dose of the coloratura, visit DM du Jour
... Subscribe to our daily bon mots, gallimaufry, and shout-outs on The Book of Faces.

Copyright (c.) 2006 - 2012 by Adam Henry Carrière / Lazarus Publishing LLC.
All Rights Reserved.
ISSN 2152-4580

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