Carlton Mellick III
Carlton Mellick III (July 2, 1977, Phoenix, Arizona) is an American author currently residing in Portland, Oregon. He calls his style of writing "avant-punk," and is currently one of the leading authors in the recent 'Bizarro' movement in underground literature[citation needed] with Steve Aylett, Chris Genoa and D. Harlan Wilson.
Mellick's work has been described as a combination of trashy schlock sci-fi/horror and postmodern literary art. His novels explore surreal versions of earth in contemporary society and imagined futures, commonly focusing on social absurdities and satire.
Carlton Mellick III started writing at the age of ten and completed twelve novels by the age of eighteen. Only one of these early novels, "Electric Jesus Corpse", ever made it to print.
He is best known for his first novel Satan Burger and its sequel Punk Land. Satan Burger was translated into Russian and published by Ultra Culture in 2005. It was part of a four book series called Brave New World, which also featured Virtual Light by William Gibson, City Come A Walkin by John Shirley, and Tea from an Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan.
In the late 90's, he formed a collective for offbeat authors which included D. Harlan Wilson, Kevin L. Donihe, Vincent Sakowski, among others, and the publishing company Eraserhead Press. This scene evolved into the Bizarro fiction movement in 2005.
In addition to writing, Mellick is an artist and musician.
“I see her body as an arousing work of architecture. A sky-scraping building that I wouldn’t mind laying over a mountain to inject my whale-sized shank through its front entrance, knocking the doorman out of the way and flooding the lobby once I am finished with her.”
“[he]. . . hated God . . . actually, he just hated Christians . . . He never met God. Why should he care about somebody he never met?”
“The world is still new . . . it seems old to us, but only seems because our lives are so short . . . our human race has been around for such a brief amount of time that the universe hasn't had the chance to detect us yet. One blink is all it needs to miss our dance through actuality.”
“ My thinking-of-kitties smile!”
“I bet He’s only sad for the part of me that belonged to Him.”
“The God of this planet was not worth the religion.”
“Closing your mind to religion is no different than the close-mindedness thatreligions can cause.”
“Maybe I’m drunk right now, even though I don’t remember drinking anything.When I’m drunk, I say things without thinking. Drinking numbs you from your ability toreason. It makes you forget your own character and become a crazy. Maybe I am acrazy now; I’m going through so much chaos these days that reality is hard to grasp.”
“The Silence took your friend."Nobody says What’s the Silence?Satan Says, "It is a creature that came out of the walm. Large as a lake, this creature,but it’s not made of water. It is made of sound. And it feeds off of sound, or anythingthat makes sound, or anything that can hear sound. It will empty this entire world ofsound if we let it. It claims this side of town its territory. Anybody that’s out on the streetis at risk. It will eat anything that it hears and your friend must have been something itheard. He will never come back. Nobody ever escapes from the stomach of Silence.”
“Nowhere and oblivion were completely different things/places to Richard Stein. Forhim, oblivion is when something goes into nothing and nowhere is the place wheresomething can come out of nothing.”
“When I say something like "back when I was in highschool," I usually mean: "back when I was supposed to be in high school.”
“That is the moral of this story, kids. No matter how many people try to stomp on your happiness, you have the power to do whatever you want with your life.”