Josh S. Porter’s “The Spinal Cord Perception – A Book Review
Another book review:
Crafting a song lyric is different from writing a novel. The best pop music lyrics, like those of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, or Thom Yorke, are often abstract and wholly imagistic, and are supported by music; the novel is essentially a medium where plot is necessary and where no backup musician can salvage an awkward turn of phrase. This may explain why few lyricists successfully cross into the literary realm (the only example that comes readily to mind is Dylan’s obscure novel Tarantula), but that doesn’t stop them from trying. The latest crossover is Joshua S. Porter, better known as Josh Dies, the vocalist and songwriter of the underground post-hardcore band Showbread. Porter is no Dylan, though he is a decent lyricist, and his first novel, The Spinal Cord Perception, is a competent aping of several Generation X writers, but has enough prose problems to make of interest only to serious fans of the band.
David Rivers, the main character and narrator of The Spinal Cord Perception, is a cynical, apathetic, twenty-four year old substitute teacher. After an mysterious incident involving a classroom full of children at the beginning of the novel, Rivers leaves his home in Georgia for California in an attempt to restart his failed life. He is disappointed too with California’s shallow materialism, and begins to experience hallucinations from his childhood involving a monster he calls the Llapasllaly. As these visions become more frequent and begin to affect those close to him, Rivers begins to question whether or not the monster is just an illusion. The entire novel is narrated in Rivers’s jaded, manic voice, so the reader too is unsure whether the grisly hallucinations are real or not. Rivers and the reader wrestle with this ambiguity until the novel’s thoroughly open-ended conclusion, where the plot is somewhat neatly wrapped up but the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusion about the reality of Rivers’s hallucinations.
Porter’s two biggest influences in The Spinal Cord Perception are Gen X authors Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis, from whom he borrows the graphic, gross imagery and social satire that make up the best parts of the novel. The California sections of the novel, for example, with myriad pop-culture references and laconic descriptions of the characters’ materialism and hedonism is straight out of Ellis’s early work like Less Than Zero (one of the minor characters is even named Brett, a sly nod on Porter’s part). Likewise, the over the top gore of Rivers’s hallucinations seems patterned on American Psycho or any of Palahniuk’s work. The graphic scenes are indeed shocking-Rivers is almost constantly vomiting, and a number of character are violently disemboweled by the monster, including a girl with Down’s syndrome-and sometimes even imaginative, but, unlike Ellis or Palahniuk, it doesn’t seem to have much of a point. The Spinal Cord Perception never really comments on its explicit parts or ties them back to the Ellisesque social commentary; it just revels in them, which, though it may be entertaining, gets tired quickly.
Besides the mostly gratuitous blood and guts is The Spinal Cord Perception’s other major problem: Porter’s writing is, at times, absolutely awful. It alternates between trite-almost an entire chapter is spent rhapsodizing on how “True love is forever,” and, unlike a song, there is no electric guitar buzz to drown out the banal sentimentality-and basic grammatical mistakes. Porter consistently confuses “it’s/its”, and the book is rife with comma splices; either he is pretentiously trying (and failing) to be literary, or he failed English 101 (I should add, though, that my copy is from an early print run by a small publisher; the book is supposedly receiving a major publishing run sometime this year, where hopefully some of those mistakes will be fixed). Fortunately, the writing isn’t uniformly terrible: the California scenes have a terse, manic humor to them, even if they are a bit derivative of Ellis, and the gory scenes are imaginative, even if they are basically pointless. Porter has some potential, and, if nothing else, good taste in what to imitate, but the writing could use a lot more refining if he wants to be taken seriously outside of his lyrics. The Spinal Cord Perception is purportedly going to be published by a major publisher and receive wide release later this year, but only Showbread’s diehard fans need bother to pick it up.
where can i buy this book?
jake
October 26, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I got an advance copy from a friend of mine (signed by Josh Dies), but I think the initial print run is very limited. You could probably try eBay.
Word is it’s getting a major publishing run sometime next year, but I don’t know when that is or how reliable that info is.
Thanks for reading the review!
ryannapier
October 26, 2007 at 11:34 pm
i’ve been trying ebay every day. if you know of anyone that would like to sell the book, i would love to own it. would you be interested in selling your copy?
jake
November 11, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Sorry, I borrowed my copy, and I don’t think the friend I borrowed it from would be willing to sell.
Can’t give you much other advice if you can’t buy it on eBay. Perhaps try emailing the publisher or Josh Porter to see if the book is getting another publishing run any time soon.
ryannapier
November 12, 2007 at 1:30 pm
omg! i need that book
where can i buy it?
i’ll pay anything
jessica
November 26, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Me too…. if anyone finds anywhere to buy it, let ,e know. blasterboy_71@hotmail.com
jake
January 20, 2008 at 2:54 pm
You can buy them at Showbread concerts. That’s where 2 of my friends got their copies.
I agree with this review. I’m 41 pages in and not impressed. Not everyone is an author and he needs to let go of his need for attention.
Showbread has become mediocre just like this book.
Deanna
March 11, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Joshua Stephen Porter’s step into the world of literature has been a courageous, and FAR from futile effort. As I turned the last page of this book, tears filled my eyes, and as they fell from my face, I fell to the floor. The frenzy of emotion was intense, shifting from utter pain, despair, and disbelief, into hope, and joy, and appreciation. Joshua Porter may not be for all readers, but for the few who would dare read this excellent novel with an open mind, I trust you will get something out of it. A new outlook on love, at it’s “rawest,” maybe. The greatest of all things is love, and true love is forever.
The only complaints I could have at this book is that Porter drags some scenes out severely, and overdoes the descriptions to a total excess. I do heavily disagree with Mr. Ryan Napier (Author of this article), on his opinionr that the violence scenes have no point. Consider the following, if you will. When a father catches his son smoking for the first time, what would he rather do, hand the kid another cigarrette so he’ll see its evils, or make him smoke a whole carton so he never wants to smoke again? Of course, anyone with half of a brain could see that if he gives the kid another cigarrette he’ll just be feeding the addiction. When Porter writes the violent and sexual scenes in the novel he is making a similar statement. The more you see this violence, vivid sex and sin, it magnifies its abhorrent nature, the sheer volume of it all can make it disgusting to the reader. Josh wants you to not only see the violence or perversion, but be disgusted by it. By realizing the overabundance of these types of scenes, Mr. Napier, Joshua Porter has already gotten the exact point to you, that he was trying to make.
… and Joshua Porter, is an amazing lyricist.
“…and may raw rock kill you for ever and ever, amen.”
-Jacob Helgeson
(www.myspace.com/outbakjak)
Jacob Helgeson of Ocoee, FL
March 25, 2008 at 4:56 pm
at jacob – i think the reviewer was alluding to the fact that porter’s violence has nothing to do with the story itself, not the fact that he is making a “profound social statement,” but i dont know myself, because i have not yet read the whole thing
and i havent read much of ellis, but ive read several of palahniuks books, and his gruesome violence whatever is just like palahniuk, and in my opinion, even his writing is growing rather tired lately.
im sure there are better books out there (by either of the aforementioned authors, bret easton ellis or chuck palahniuk), but im also willing to bet there are worse out there too
kevin
May 11, 2008 at 7:59 pm
The only reason this book might ever sell is simply because, as far as can be gleaned from Myspace, all their fans are complete suck-ups. They love the book because it might make the band like them more.
They go online and post comments saying “OMG Anorexia Nervosa is the best album ever. It’s so RAW!!”
Only, three months before the album is released.
Nathan Smith
May 16, 2008 at 5:14 am
i went to a concert last night and it wasnt there. nor is it on ebay or half.com
if anyone knows where to get it, email me at emmadaae13@yahoo.com
thanks!
Bethany
May 27, 2008 at 8:47 pm
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