Chus Martinez has junked the discredited literary tradition of actually writing original material. They thought that with such great shit out there in the experimental and transgressive fiction worlds, they’d just hi-jack stuff that grooved them. So Chus gets their point of view over by re-arranging old schlock without the hassle of slaving long hours over a computer keyboard. Students of anti-literature will probably have long words for this kind of cut-and-paste book and they’ll invoke everything from isms to hauntology. I would describe it as ripping the piss.
The story, as much as there is one, is about some old pornographer being harassed by a copyright enforcer and being kidnapped by hot young women. But don't worry, there isn't too much conventional narrative and before you know it, Martinez has lost the plot and digressed into providing a discography of records that promote conspiracy theories about JFK.
Lots of paragraphs I recognised - especially the utterly depraved and filthy depictions of sex - but often I couldn’t name the source. Even using the helpful “You Have Been Reading’ list on pages 128-135, I remained flummoxed about where some of the material originated. But then a lot of what’s referenced at the back are records and TV shows. Given The Bastardizer is the most important novel about copyright since the Berne Convention was foisted on the world, infringement in left field rock and roll plays a big part in its body odour boogie. The message to the man and on copyright is ‘burn, baby, burn’.
Of course Martinez is always getting into deep trouble for their plagiaristic antics and threatened with lawsuits. But any 142 page book that finishes with the words ‘A5 Paperback 128pp’ has got to be a winner! You couldn’t make it up and Chus certainly didn’t because they ripped it off! Each section is standout, since Martinez takes virtually every piece of avant-garde and pornographic trash you ever wanted to read, edits it down to a bite-sized chunk and re-uses it. Genius.
On the face of it mocking a load of famous literary works is a juvenile thing to do - but as burlesque it works a treat! The Bastardizer is essential reading. I ought to know, I published it and I wrote the introduction - although this initial section was plagiarised from one of my books without my permission, so perhaps I should sue! You ought to buy this novel while it is briefly available, since once some uptight literary estate takes it out of circulation, it’ll be a gold-plated and unbelievably expensive collector’s item!
