April 18th Newsletter

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Torn Light Records
1855 N Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60647
312.955.0614
Open Everyday
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  • Adolfo Bioy Casares – The Invention Of Morel
    Adolfo Bioy Casares – The Invention Of Morel
    $15.00 | ,

    Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of the Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Harry Crews – The Knockout Artist
    Harry Crews – The Knockout Artist
    $18.00 | ,

    A favorite of longtime Harry Crews fans, The Knockout Artist (1988) portrays Eugene Talmadge Biggs, a young boxer from rural Georgia whose champion rise is diverted by a vulnerability, or […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Jan Kerouac – Baby Driver
    Jan Kerouac – Baby Driver
    $18.00 | ,

    “Was it January or February? The coconut fronds waving, shining like green hair in the sun, gave no clue.” Fifteen-year-old Jan is pregnant, gamely living off rice and whatever fish […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Knife-Woman: The Life of Louise Bourgeois
    Knife-Woman: The Life of Louise Bourgeois
    $35.00 | ,

    The first major biography on artist Louise Bourgeois brings the life and work of an iconic twentieth-century artist into sharp focus Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) was one of the most important [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Pierre Guyotat – Idiocy
    Pierre Guyotat – Idiocy
    $18.00 | ,

    Pierre Guyotat was one of the most radical and uncompromising writers of the twentieth century, a literary successor to Sade, Bataille, and Genet whose visceral fictions and bold experiments with [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Synths, Sax and Situationists: The French Musical Underground 1968-1978
    Synths, Sax and Situationists: The French Musical Underground 1968-197…
    $31.00 | ,

    At the dawn of the ’70s, in a country still reeling from the aftershocks of World War 2, an underground movement of rock musicians resolved to tear it all up […]

    GENRE: Art Rock / Krautrock / Prog / Psych, Non-Fiction
  • Mary Shelley – Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds
    Mary Shelley – Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers…
    $23.00 | ,

    The original 1818 text of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, with annotations and essays highlighting its scientific, ethical, and cautionary aspects. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has [...]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Barry N Malzberg – Revelations
    Barry N Malzberg – Revelations
    $19.00 | ,

    Marvin Martin is angry. Night after night, he strips the guests that appear on his talk show of their pitiful pretensions, their commonplace hypocrisies, but how long has it been […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Norbert Wiener – The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society
    Norbert Wiener – The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and …
    $19.00 | ,

    For the 75th anniversary, a new edition of The Human Use of Human Beings–the landmark book that delves into the relationship between humans and computers, and presciently anticipates many [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Annie Jacobsen – Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins
    Annie Jacobsen – Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of C…
    $24.00 | ,

    “When diplomacy fails, and war is unwise, the president calls on the CIA’s Special Activities Division, a highly-classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, black operations [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen
    Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen
    $34.00 | ,

    “The definitive, authorized, and first-ever biography of Terry Allen, the internationally acclaimed visual artist and iconoclastic songwriter who occupies an utterly unique position [...]

    GENRE: Folk / Country, Non-Fiction
  • Simon Critchley – Mysticism
    Simon Critchley – Mysticism
    $19.00 | ,

    A probing, inspiring exploration of mysticism not as religious practice but as a mode of experience and way of life by one of the most provocative philosophical thinkers of our […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Timothy McVeigh
    Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Timothy M…
    $25.00 | ,

    Presenting startling new biographical details about Timothy McVeigh and exposing stark contradictions and errors contained in previous depictions of the “All-American Terrorist,” this [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Donna Haraway – Manifestly Haraway
    Donna Haraway – Manifestly Haraway
    $20.00 | ,

    Electrifying, provocative, and controversial when first published thirty years ago, Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” is even more relevant today, when the divisions that she so eloquently [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Marlen Haushofer – Killing Stella
    Marlen Haushofer – Killing Stella
    $15.00 | ,

    Left alone for the weekend while her husband and two children are visiting her in-laws, the narrator of KILLING STELLA recounts the addition of her friend’s daughter, Stella, into their [...]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Gershom Scholem – Origins of the Kabbalah
    Gershom Scholem – Origins of the Kabbalah
    $30.00 | ,

    With the publication of The Origins of the Kabbalah in 1950, one of the most important scholars of our century brought the obscure world of Jewish mysticism to a wider […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake
    Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake
    $25.00 | ,

    The landmark book that situates Blake’s poetry within the intellectual movements of his day and unlocks his symbolism for modern readers. Since it was first published, Northrop Frye’s [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Nothing Happens: Chantal Akerman’s Hyperrealist Everyday
    Nothing Happens: Chantal Akerman’s Hyperrealist Everyday
    $28.00 | ,

    Through films that alternate between containment, order, and symmetry on the one hand, and obsession, explosiveness, and a lack of control on the other, Chantal Akerman has gained a reputation [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Nicolas Devil & Jean Rollin – Saga de Xam
    Nicolas Devil & Jean Rollin – Saga de Xam
    $55.00 | ,

    In the annals of alternative comics, few works are as venerated, or as underseen, as Saga de Xam, the legendary French graphic novel by Nicholas Devil and Jean Rollin. Originally […]

    GENRE: Art/Photography
  • Deforrest Brown – Assembling A Black Counter-Culture
    Deforrest Brown – Assembling A Black Counter-Culture
    $20.00 | ,

    In Assembling a Black Counter Culture, writer and musician DeForrest Brown, Jr, provides a history and critical analysis of techno and adjacent electronic music such as house and electro, showing [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction, Techno / House / Electronic
  • Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons
    Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons
    $20.00 | ,

    In his short 37 years, John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons embodied at least several different roles in one tormented but glorious life. By day, Parsons’ unorthodox genius created a [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Severo Sarduy – Cobra
    Severo Sarduy – Cobra
    $17.00 | ,

    The late Severo Sarduy was one of the most outrageous and baroque of the Latin American Boom writers of the sixties and seventies, and Cobra was his finest creation. Originally […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections
    Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections
    $16.00 | ,

    With mass poisonings, global warming and other tidings of contemporary civilization threatening the planet, shouldn’t we begin to reconsider our unthinking attachment to it? Feral House’s new [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House
    Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House
    $16.00 | ,

    Altered State–now updated—is the definitive text on ecstasy culture, using a cast of characters to track the origins of the scene through psychedelic subcults, underground gay discos, [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction, Techno / House / Electronic
  • The Decadent Reader: Fiction, Fantasy, and Perversion from Fin-De-Siècle France
    The Decadent Reader: Fiction, Fantasy, and Perversion from Fin-De-Sièc…
    $38.00 | ,

    In fin-de-siècle France, progress and material prosperity coincided with widespread alarm about disease and decay. The obsessions of our own culture at the end of the millennium resonated in a [...]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Claude Cahun: Cancelled Confessions (or Disavowals)
    Claude Cahun: Cancelled Confessions (or Disavowals)
    $34.00 | ,

    First published in 1930 by anti-fascist, avant-garde publisher Éditions du Carrefour in Paris as Aveux non Avenus, Cancelled Confessions (or Disavowals) is Claude Cahun’s wildly radical answer to [...]

    GENRE: Memoir, Non-Fiction
  • Samuel R. Delany – Big Joe
    Samuel R. Delany – Big Joe
    $20.00 | , ,

    An uproarious and scandalous Southern picaresque by the master Samuel R. Delany. A chance encounter with two older fellows at the movie theater has the young vagabond Ligie on his […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Kathryn Harrison – Poison
    Kathryn Harrison – Poison
    $12.00 | , , ,

    Francisca de Luarca, the daughter of a silk grower, is a dreamer of fabulous dreams – dreams in which the work of her father’s silkworms is woven into robes for […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • A Most Dangerous Method: The Story Of Jung, Freud And Sabina Spielrein
    A Most Dangerous Method: The Story Of Jung, Freud And Sabina Spielrein
    $10.00 | , , ,

    In 1907, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung began what promised to be both a momentous collaboration and the deepest friendship of each man’s life. Six years later they were bitter […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Patrick Brantlinger – Bread & Circuses
    Patrick Brantlinger – Bread & Circuses
    $8.00 | , , ,

    Lively and well written, Bread and Circuses analyzes theories that have treated mass culture as either a symptom or a cause of social decadence. Discussing many of the most influential […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Heiko Julien – I Am Ready To Die A Violent Death
    Heiko Julien – I Am Ready To Die A Violent Death
    $30.00 | , , ,

    Heiko Julien’s cutting edge hybrid prose/poetry debut. CCM, 2013 Softcover Edition. Light general wear

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • David J. Getsy – Queer Behavior
    David J. Getsy – Queer Behavior
    $25.00 | , , ,

    Scott Burton (1939–89) created performance art and sculpture that drew on queer experience and the sexual cultures that flourished in New York City in the 1970s. David J. Getsy argues […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • C.A Conrad – The Book Of Frank
    C.A Conrad – The Book Of Frank
    $8.00 | , , ,

    Praised by poet Anne Waldman as a “voyeuresque surreal portrait,” The Book of Frank is also, in the words of poet-critic Alan Gilbert, a “candid portrayal of human cruelty and […]

    GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive
  • Frederic W. Goudy – The Alphabet
    Frederic W. Goudy – The Alphabet
    $15.00 | , , ,

    Traces the developments of the alphabet and lettering from ancient times, and presents a variety of lettering styles which have evolved Dorset Press, 1989 Hardcover Edition. Light general wear.

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Fluxus And The Essential Questions Of Life
    Fluxus And The Essential Questions Of Life
    $35.00 | , , ,

    Fluxus—from the Latin, meaning “to flow”—was a radical, international network of artists, composers, and designers in the 1960s and 1970s noted for blurring the boundaries between what we term [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography, Non-Fiction
  • Dennis Bernstein & Warren Lehrer – French Fries
    Dennis Bernstein & Warren Lehrer – French Fries
    $600.00 | , , ,

    Exhibited internationally including at the Georges Pompidue Centre’s L’image Des Mots exhibition, and as a solo exhibit at the Pieter Brattinga Gallery in Amsterdam. Copies of French Fries are [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography
  • Animism In Art And Performance
    Animism In Art And Performance
    $45.00 | , , ,

    This book explores Māori indigenous and non-indigenous scholarship corresponding with the term ‘animism’. In addressing visual, media and performance art, it explores the dualisms of people and [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography, Non-Fiction
  • Giovanni Lista – Theatre Futuriste Italien Vol I & II (as-is, TEXT IN FRENCH)
    Giovanni Lista – Theatre Futuriste Italien Vol I & II (as-i…
    $12.00 | , , ,

    An anthology of Futurist theater works, wonderfully illustrated. La Cite, 1976 Softcover Edition. Noticeable discoloration to wraps of both volumes and edges of pages. Substantial glue breaks at [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography, Non-Fiction
  • Giovanni Lista – L’Art Postal Futuriste (TEXT IN FRENCH)
    Giovanni Lista – L’Art Postal Futuriste (TEXT IN FRENCH)
    $20.00 | , , ,

    Giovanni Lista’s survey of mail art within the Futurist movement. Lavishly illustrated. Jean-Michel Place Publishers, 1979 Hardcover Edition. Light discoloration to edges of pages/boards. [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography
  • Justin Green – Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary
    Justin Green – Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary
    $70.00 | , , ,

    A lost classic of underground cartooning, Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary is Justin Green’s autobiographical portrayal of his struggle with religion and his own neuroses. Binky Brown is [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography
  • William Wegman
    William Wegman
    $40.00 | , , ,

    Large softcover catalogue published on the occasion of the William Wegman exhibition in the Rooseum – Center For Contemporary art, Malmo March 7 – May 10 1998. Rooseum, 1998 Softcover [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography
  • Thomas Hine – Populuxe
    Thomas Hine – Populuxe
    $10.00 | , , ,

    “The decade from 1954 to 1964 was one of America’s great shopping sprees: never before were so many people able to acquire so many things, and never before was there […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Now Jump: Inaugural Festival of the Nam June Paik Art Center
    Now Jump: Inaugural Festival of the Nam June Paik Art Center
    $45.00 | , , ,

    “This catalogue was published to commemoration of the inaugural Festival of the Nam June Paik Art Center that took place on October 9, 2008. NOW JUMP, the title of the […]

    GENRE: Art/Photography
  • Luigi Russolo – L’Arte Dei Rumori (TEXT IN ITALIAN)
    Luigi Russolo – L’Arte Dei Rumori (TEXT IN ITALIAN)
    $30.00 | , , ,

    Luigi Russolo’s seminal manifesto/essay on the art of noise. Carucci Reprint of 1916 Softcover Edition. Writing on front wrap. Noticeable foxing/discoloration to both wraps and pages. TEXT [...]

    GENRE: Art/Photography, Non-Fiction
  • Daryl Easlea – Everybody Dance: Chic and the Politics of Disco
    Daryl Easlea – Everybody Dance: Chic and the Politics of Disco
    $12.00 | , , ,

    Few narratives in pop encompass Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Madonna, Duran Duran, Diana Ross, Johnny Mathis and Led Zeppelin. This story is one of them. Chic, led by […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction, Soul / Funk / Disco
  • The Electric Muse Revisited
    The Electric Muse Revisited
    $12.00 | , , ,

    Folk music has been evolving and adapting for centuries, but in the 1960s and 70s came an extraordinary period of change and innovation. Rock musicians borrowed from traditional songs, while […]

    GENRE: Folk / Country, Non-Fiction
  • The Arab Avant-Garde: Music, Politics, Modernity
    The Arab Avant-Garde: Music, Politics, Modernity
    $10.00 | , , ,

    From jazz trumpeters drawing on the noises of warfare in Beirut to female heavy metallers in Alexandria, the Arab culture offers a wealth of exciting, challenging, and diverse musics. The […]

    GENRE: International, Non-Fiction
  • Catherine Zimmer – Surveillance Cinema
    Catherine Zimmer – Surveillance Cinema
    $12.00 | , , ,

    In Paris, a static video camera keeps watch on a bourgeois home. In Portland, a webcam documents the torture and murder of kidnap victims. And in clandestine intelligence offices around […]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction
  • Jacques Boyreau – Supertrash
    Jacques Boyreau – Supertrash
    $10.00 | , , ,

    SuperTrash is the mutagenic sequel to Trash: The Graphic Genius of Xploitation Movie Posters (2002, Chronicle), the book that became a prophecy of the lasting influence of grindhouse and a […]

    GENRE: Art/Photography
  • Perpetrator Cinema: Confronting Genocide in Cambodian Documentary
    Perpetrator Cinema: Confronting Genocide in Cambodian Documentary
    $12.00 | , , ,

    Perpetrator Cinema explores a new trend in the cinematic depiction of genocide that has emerged in Cambodian documentary in the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries. While past films [...]

    GENRE: Non-Fiction