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Rose McLaren

Rose McLaren is an artist in London.



Articles Available Online


Talk Into My Bullet Hole

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July 2015

Rose McLaren

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July 2015

‘Someday people are going to read about you in a story or a poem. Will you describe yourself for those people?’ ‘Oh, I don’t...

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May 2014

Art Does Not Know a Beyond: On Karl Ove Knausgaard

Rose McLaren

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May 2014

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle has an oddly medieval form: a cycle, composed of six auto-biographical books about the...

The Professor stormed into the brothel’s reception hall in the evening and kicked away our singing radio It flew through the air, slammed against the wall, and shattered to pieces on the cracked floor It ended the music, ‘One Love’, to which Roseline and I danced, holding hands as we cavorted around the floor, our hips and backsides jiggling He’d been away since morning, giving us a bit of liberty to play around As he scanned the cash register, checking customer ledgers, I shrank like a burnt plastic bag, horrified But Roseline looked unscathed, wearing an I-don’t-care expression as her mouth worked on her chewing gum She crossed her arms on her chest, sitting on the torn couch and staring at The Professor   ‘Abigail and Roseline, you are both fools,’ he roared, pointing two middle fingers at us ‘You haven’t made any money since morning, and you’re making so much noise What a total waste of employees!’   ‘Sir, we’ve b-been waiting for customers to come,’ I said ‘But we haven’t seen any men Sorry, sir’   ‘Shut your mouth, Abigail Why does this brothel make money only when I’m around to service our female customers? How many men have you satisfied today? Answer me now, fools!’   ‘Stop calling us fools,’ Roseline yelled, frowning, her red lips sparkling under the white bulb ‘We made plenty of money for you yesterday, and now you’ve broken my precious radio’   I cringed at Roseline’s audacity She’d done this job for eight years, and I hoped she wouldn’t lose it There was no job elsewhere in this shabby city of Lagos   The Professor tramped across the floor towards her, huffing ‘Look here, Roseline, if you dare talk to me like that again, the devil in me will roast you dead’   ‘I don’t fear your powerless devil,’ she said, springing to her feet and pointing at his face ‘Oh, you thought I would melt in the corner because of you? Think Again’   I was the one melting in a corner instead I hoped The Professor wouldn’t slap her face as usual or push her into the street so that she became homeless   I scuttled towards

Contributor

August 2014

Rose McLaren

Contributor

August 2014

Rose McLaren is an artist in London.

The Prosaic Sublime of Béla Tarr

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Issue No. 6

Rose McLaren

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Issue No. 6

I have to recognise it’s cosmical; the shit is cosmical. It’s not just social, it’s not just ontological, it’s really huge. And that’s why we...
Stalker, Writer or Professor? Geoff Dyer's Zona and Genre

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February 2012

Rose McLaren

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February 2012

‘So what kind of a writer am I, reduced to writing a summary of a film?’ wonders Geoff Dyer half way through Zona. Such...

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poetry

April 2014

MUEUM

SJ Fowler

poetry

April 2014

Since I have worked at the mueum I have published, and I have written 486 pems. I have seen...

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February 2011

The dole, and other bailouts

Chris Browne

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February 2011

One of my first actions as a Londoner was to sign on for as many benefits as I could...

Interview

March 2017

Interview with Bae Suah

Deborah Smith

Bae Suah

Interview

March 2017

The Essayist’s Desk, published in 2003 and written when its author Bae Suah had just returned from an 11-month...

 

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