The Heart of Darkness by Dominic Lyne
The Heart of Darkness – Published by Artemis Publishers [22-May-2014]
Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Heart-Darkness-Dominic-Lyne/dp/190778517
Waterstones
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/dominic+lyne/the+heart+of+darkness/10820818/
Website
http://www.dom-lyne.co.uk
“Your world is one big game, and because I was never given the chance to play, everything has just been shit. I know I haven’t been in control. But when you filled my head with your explanations you placed an idea in there that all this could have been different. I know for a fact it couldn’t but that notion created a fantasy and now all I feel is a never-ending jealousy for what could have been, and now I’m too old to enjoy it, too bitter. Too jaded. It’s an interesting fantasy but that’s all it could ever be.”
What is reality? Haunted by darkness, Daniel feels alienated from the rest of the world. Through conversations with his therapist, he tries to make sense of the world around him and his inability to do so pulls him deeper into the depths of his delusions.
Will Daniel’s pain be healed? Can Daniel fit into the ‘normal’ world or is normal the real illusion?
* * *
Excerpt:
The body was cold before it even hit the ground. Its corpse lays there empty of all that had once filled it, made it what it was. The blood mixes with the tears of the gutter and pools a dirty crimson.
He looks at it in silence. Words had murdered it; actions had been the aftermath. Words. The mouth had opened without thought; without care he had spat out the venom of anger and they burnt their acid holes into the veil of reality. The scene changed its tone. Everything ended.
Love had died.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says.
Silence.
‘I’m so fucking sorry.’
Silence.
* * *
‘We have already been over this part, Daniel,’ she says gently, pulling her glasses off her face and holding them by one leg. ‘This is how we always start. We need to move on from here.’
‘You don’t understand. How could you?’ Daniel rocks gently in his seat, hunched up, his knees against his chin, mouth chewing at his nails. He makes eye contact. ‘How the fuck could you?’
‘Help me to understand. That is why I am here.’ With a sigh she pushes her glasses back onto her face, repositions herself and makes notes on the pad that had been resting on her knee. Her nails are painted red.
‘Why do you need to understand?’
‘I don’t, but you do. We need to find the root of all this. Then you can move on. Some things are best not holding on to.’
He rocks faster.
‘Calm down, Daniel.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he whispers.
She says nothing.
‘I’m so sorry.’
Nothing.
The rocking stops. He looks her in the eye and curls his lip. ‘Why don’t you fucking say something? Why does no one ever say anything at that point?’
‘It is not for me to forgive you.’
‘I don’t want your forgiveness.’
‘No, you need your own.’
‘Bitch.’
‘Daniel, I am not here to hurt you, nor damage your memories. We need a common ground.’
‘Why? So you can fuck with my head? Change me?’ He snorts a laugh. ‘Save me?’
‘Do you need saving?’
‘You tell me.’
Her pen scratches against paper. ‘So, tell me about the start.’
‘Start of what?’
‘The beginning, your earliest memory where you can now pinpoint your condition.’
‘Condition? You make me sound like a machine.’
‘I am sorry, I will rephrase. Tell me your earliest memory where you felt that you were different from your contemporaries.’
‘I’ve always felt different.’
‘Okay, then pick a memory. The earliest one.’
‘An angry one?’
‘Only if you think it is relevant.’
He sits in silence for a minute. Searching through the battlefield of his mind. Searching through his past as a computer searches for file names. One is selected. He pushes the video into the machine and presses play.
* * *
The butterfly flaps around gracefully. Its wings the purest white. He follows it, chasing its erratic path, laughing to himself as he does so. It rests on a bright red flower and closes its wings together, unaware of his approach. He jumps and cups his hands around it. It tickles his palms as it tries to escape its prison. He laughs, flattens his palms together and tightens their vice like grip. He hears a crunch; he feels nothing.
The butterfly’s crushed body is left to rot in the long grass as he bounds off after another one. Forgotten, dead. A memory that has already been lost. His mind elsewhere, he jumps, becomes careless and all the others escape into the blue sky, rising like snowflakes in reverse.
Then the rain came. The storm clouds had flooded in so quietly and unnoticed that the torrential outpouring they vomited down upon the earth caught him by surprise. The sky had darkened, lightning had forked and the thunder trembled through him. His eyes cast to the heavens, he sees. The figure in the clouds, the shadow staring down upon him, opening its heart, spewing forth tendrils of darkness that reach down to caress him with their icy touch. His mother’s cries for him to return to the car just whispers on the edge of his consciousness. Insignificant to the splendour his eyes witness. Another roll of thunder, deeper, bringing with it the music of the shadows; the low hum, ebbing and flowing around him, pushing its way into his soul.
Arms wrap around him. A scolding voice in his ears as he is lifted from his feet and hurried away. Over the shoulder of his mother, he continues to stare into the shadow. He stares into the heart of darkness. He stares into oblivion, and it stares back at him.
* * *
Soundtrack
The Red Devil Incident - The Heart of Darkness
Available for free athttp://reddevilincident.bandcamp.com/album/the-heart-of-darkness
Tracklisting:
001 – 414 Pieces
002 – Whore
003 – Abuse Me
004 – This is How I Disappear
005 – Borderline
006 – Black Rain
007 – The Heart of Darkness
008 – Love Me [Like They Do On TV]
009 – The Hands Resist Him
010 – 13-11-10
011 – Slipping Away
Music:
The Red Devil Incident - This is How I Disappear
https://soundcloud.com/red-devil-incident/this-is-how-i-disappear
The Red Devil Incident - Slipping Away
https://soundcloud.com/red-devil-incident/slipping-away
Video:
The Red Devil Incident – The Heart of Darkness
The Red Devil Incident – The Crawl (Placebo Cover)
Dom Lyne – Life #7
*
p.s. Hey. Today the blog has another awesome opportunity to introduce and celebrate a new book by one of the fine people who call this place one of their homes away from home, in this case the writer and music artist Dom Lyne, who has kindly put together this initiating post-shaped package for us. Please give 'The Heart of Darkness' your full attention while you're here today, and, of course, consider springing for it if your situation an heart allow. Thanks a lot, and special, great thanks to Dom! Otherwise, there are a still a handful of you who haven't sent me your SPD entries, so please do so when your morning arrives, thanks. The SPD post will appear here on this coming Saturday. ** Postitbreakup, Hey, Josh. Oh, I missed your comment yesterday? Oops, sorry, man. My eyes must have clouded over or that tricky time between correcting the p.s.'s typos and launching the thing did its Bermuda Triangle number again. Or something. I've only had a chance to begin to read Damien's work, but it's really interesting, and I plan to read more and more carefully today between running around making the film happen. Thanks a lot again for the turn-on. And hi Damien, if you're reading this, kudos to you, plus an early happy birthday! As ever, I remind you that I didn't publish my first novel until I was in my late 30s, so, you know, don't fret about the arbitrary 30 deadline, I say. Ha ha, no, our film will be nothing like 'Short Bus'. I don't know what 'Nine Stories' is, so I can't say about that. It has drama, it has comedy, it has musical numbers, it has spectacle, it has ... everything or something. My friend Zac, who's a brilliant, visionary artist, is the director, and he worked on the script with me. Bon day! ** Kier, Yeah, it is sad about the chocolate lady. She was very a cool and unique and character-filled person of considerable local legend here in Paris. Your website is almost real! I'm so excited! Simple sounds perfect! Good, I hope the rain stays away. We're in the midst of a most non-stop sky flood here. Sigils! Lots of love to you! ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. 'Traditional' songwriter in what sense? Because he uses the verse/chorus/etc. framework as a basic operational mode and has an emotive impetus? I think there's quite a bit of experimenting and stretching and push in a lot of his music. Anyway, interesting, and, yeah, I was quite affected by his death too. ** Steevee, Yes, at least in my investigation, the punishment that a lot of the media trolls thought Bieber deserved was rape, especially in prison by gangs. Weird. Oh, I had never had any interest in Bieber at all. And I still don't. But when the onslaught of hatred towards him started, it triggered my deep-set interest in and hatred of the resentment and hostility that erupts so often and so easily in and around the adult-controlled media about/against teenagers. And I wanted to study its manifestation, to try to understand it, to investigate the language the haters employed, etc. I did the same little study re: the Miley Cyrus hatred. Don't know if they used the Cobain vocal track. It doesn't sound exactly like it, but filters can work wonders. ** David Ehrenstein, I see. ** Aaron Mirkin, Hi, Aaron. Oh, okay, yeah, about your not being so happy with that documentary. I certainly understand that. It does sound so intriguing in description. Is the Richard Serra short as good as it could be given the subject/take? I'm really glad to hear you're working on those two shorts. Fall isn't so far away, luckily. That's interesting about the improv-based approach to the dialogue. I'm in the midst of using that method for Gisele's new theater piece. I wrote out a structure, created characters and suggested motivations, etc., and then we had the performers improvise in and around the givens multiple times, giving directions to them and making changes as they tried out different approaches to their parts. Now, the best of the try-outs re being transcribed, and then, over the summer, I will use what they did as a base and then basically refine, revise, rewrite, using that as my material and guide. It's been an interesting way to work so far, but, since it's theater piece, we've had a lot of time to rehearse over and over, so I don't know if that method would be useful in film creation or that it would work at all or might be too uneconomical. Anyway, the shorts sound super interesting. Wow, I did not come across that Herbie Hancock cover. Weird as can be. And kind of, hm, not bad? Thanks! Everyone, d.l. Aaron Mirkin did a great add to the Nirvana covers post by linking us up with a Herbie Hancock, of all people, cover version of 'All Apologies', if you're up for a Nirvana-related adventure. Here. ** Shannon Brown, Hi Shannon. Welcome to here, and thank you a lot for coming inside. Okay, wow, that Thou 'Sifting' track is an incredibly good cover, isn't it? Thank you a ton. Why didn't I find it when I was making that post? I must have gotten through 28 youtube pages before I gave up searching. Anyway, again, thanks, and please come back in here anytime. Everyone, generous visitor Shannon Brown alerts everyone to a great cover of Nirvana's 'Sifting' by the excellent Baton Rouge-based 'Sludge/ Drone/ Doom' band Thou, and I second his recommendation. Go here. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Thanks, man. The covers/videos were really cool, right? And the rooms they were shot in were sometimes at least half of the charm. I'm so busy with the film project that I haven't been listening to music, new or old, that much. Things I've managed to listen to of late are, let's see, the new Xiu Xiu, Swans, Soft Pink Truth, Marching Church. I'm due a new music gathering mission, and I'll start with your current playlist, thanks, man. No, I heard about the new MIA video, but I haven't watched it. Cool, will do today. You take care too, Chris, and have a fantastic day! ** Keaton, Hi. Cool Nirvana paragraph, man. Yeah, I mean, I'm getting better about fashion, I mean, knowing about it and having actual tastes, but it's a weird, hard-to-parse art form, for me at least. 'Sold!': That a good one. Never seen that one. Can't believe I've never come across that one. Outline: how did it go? ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. It is interesting and presumably very sweet or saintly or self-hating or something that that random guy passed along that photo to your mom. Pearl Jam, yuck, sorry. Never never gotten that interest at all. But, you know, all respect to your tastes, man. I totally trust them/you. ** Rewritedept, Yep, the Weatherwax name source is cool, right? Oh, I don't know, the location problem is getting pretty tense and worrisome. We'll sort it out this weekend because we have to. We can't delay the shoot. Something will happen. We start shooting a week from tomorrow. Cool re: the SPD thing. Thanks! Talk soon indeed. ** Done. Please return to your celebrations of Dom's new book, thank you very much. See you tomorrow.