John Morse Writings
In addition to visual art, John Morse is a prolific writer. Thanks to the wonders of Amazon Publishing, these pieces are now available to the public.
Click on the book cover images, below, to purchase your own electronic copy.
Gun
by John Morse, 2016
(From the Amazon synopsis:)
Nothing interests a killer quite like killing. Everything else? Meh.
In a sordid, sorry journey of woe and destruction, a gun joyfully narrates a disturbing tale of people and places encountered on travels around America. A Rick Steves’ travelogue it’s not.
Like most misanthropes, the gun views the world with almost blinding cynicism, though it’s at least able to find delight in the occasional suicide or murder. It really is the little things.
Nonchalantly perched on the edge between life and death, the gun examines the human condition with the ease of someone with not so much to lose but as an eagerness to give ’til it hurts.
Takers? Anyone?
Straw Men
by John Morse,2015
(From the Amazon synopsis):
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — isolated, insular and cursed with a populace every bit as mean as its winters — may be the creepiest place in America.
Topping the list of creep factors is the area’s near cultish devotion to the decorative scarecrows that each fall adorn virtually every front yard and porch across the U.P. So when the straw men begin disappearing in one small town, it’s considered close to sacrilegious.
Despite the determination of locals, slippery maneuvering keeps the two most likely suspects just out of blame’s reach.
Are the events the antics of pranksters or could there be something much more frightening at work?
’Toño
by John Morse, 2014
(From the Amazon synopsis:)
Cocky and charming, a New York hustler happily burning through his youth tells how his world turns upside down when he falls into the orbit of ’Toño, a muscular wall of sexual heat operating an obscenely lucrative call boy ring on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
His sordid tale of love, lust and deep dysfunction reveals the disturbing science behind ‘Tono’s business, which the narrator soon realizes is a sticky web of money and violence ensnaring him as both perpetrator and victim.
Set against the surreal backdrop of 9/11 and its aftermath, he chronicles his headlong dive into the debauchery and seemingly certain doom with wit, brilliance and an unsettling insouciance. As he haplessly admits, “Desire is addiction and I was hooked.” Spoiler alert: Don’t expect a visit to Betty Ford.
Other Writings
Articles, Blog Posts and Other
Follow the links, below, for the full text of the additional writings:
Winning poem of the 2018 New York City Department of Cultural Affairs annual Poetweet contest
Marina Abramović at the Museum of Modern Art, May 2010, for adobeairstream.com
Beauty from Blight, January 2010, “Big Ideas” feature in Atlanta Magazine, January 2010
Fargo Dispatch, August 2009, for adobeairsteam.com
Let’s Go!, “Socrates Sculpture Park” 2006, Yale University Press
The Surrealist Next Door, September 2010, Introduction, Curator’s Statement (unpublished)