Mettamodernist Debuts New Afrofuturist Book
SHOWstudio contributor, visual poet, artist, creative director and writer Mettamodernist can now add the accolade 'author' to his resume with FICTA GIGAS 841/2, otherwise known as: The Self-Destructive Influences of the ID, EGO, & SuperEgo.
SHOWstudio contributor, visual poet, artist, creative director and writer Mettamodernist can now add the accolade 'author' to his resume with FICTA GIGAS 841/2, otherwise known as: The Self-Destructive Influences of the ID, EGO, & SuperEgo.
Mettamodernist writes on his own terms. Working within his own genre/visual language AfroAbsurdism - a lens through which the artist views all his work from - the normal rules many authors adhere to when writing passages are simply swept away here; particularly in the case of his latest work, ambiguously titled FICTA GIGAS 841/2.
Mettamodernist's book FICTA GIGAS 841/2, aka: The Self-Destructive Influences of the ID, EGO, & SuperEgo, didn't come out of nowhere. In fact, the novel has been somewhat of a passion project for the artist over the last ten years. Refusing to give his readers everything at once, Mettamodernist will instead be publishing the work in order of its segregated acts, with the first chapter 'Season One: Blood' available to preorder on Halloween, ready for its release next March, 2024
'Season Two: Water' and 'Season Three: Bone', will come later - all marking different points in a book that hones in on the dichotomy between our addiction to Accelerationism (the idea that the relationship between capitalism and technology should be rapidly sped up) and our ignorance towards the racial trauma of our past and present. Declaring 'as a society, we are racing toward a new world order built from achieving singularity', the book touches upon an imagined future where 'there's no race, no gender and no individualism', armed with a narrative depicting the consequences of what happens when we refuse to deal with the trauma that got us here in the first place.
Lovecraftian in its tone and message, FICTA GIGAS 841/2 presents an uncanny utopia, leaking through the cracks of society's 'collective complacency'. Some may interpret the work as horror fiction, but much more is at stake here. After all, this literary work deals with too many ideas to be reduced to a singular theme.
A man of many talents, the book isn't the only literary work under Mettamodernist's belt. In November 2022, we collaborated with the artist on a project in response to his book "I'M A THUG, BUT I SWEAR FOR THREE DAYS I CRIED"; an anthology of 11 years worth of Afroabsurdist work. The collaboration saw SHOWstudio and Nick Knight create a unique visual response to the written word using AI prompts, in line with a long-standing commitment to the art form of poetry.
'I pray each page moves you, challenges you, provides catharsis, or serves as your pulpit. I pray these words wear within you, like good vintage. I pray each page provides purpose where passion lacks, and provokes passion where purpose has lost perspective. I pray this changes your life or nothing at all,' noted Mettamodernist at the time of publishing his previous poetry anthology, words that we hope will stay with you as we embark on this next literary chapter bestowed upon us with the anticipated release of Halloween.
'This novel captures the dichotomy between our addiction to Accelerationism as a society and our ignorance towards the racial trauma of our past and present. Instead of healing from and dealing with our racial history and present as a society we are racing toward a new world order built from achieving singularity. One where there’s no race, no gender and no individualism. This narrative depicts the consequences on what happens when we refuse to deal with the trauma that got us here, and how it can create something almost Lovecraftian, and could lead to our inevitable end', the author summarises.
