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Friday, March 25, 2016

Then I Took Out My Razor Blade Then I Did What God Forbade

I'm loving both these covers, I'm guessing from the early 1980s by the Warner Books cover prices, for Bob Ottum's 1976 thriller The Tuesday Blade. I don't know anything about the book except for what I learned online: sounds like Kirkus didn't give a shit ("It is to blench—line your stomach with Maalox before putting it in a sling") and an anonymous Yahoo reviewer says it ruined her for other books ("as long as I don't have to go through the 'Tuesday Blade ending syndrome' again.... I might wish it on an enemy"). Yikes. Don't it make you feel sick? 


8 comments:

  1. That pen-name has to be a joke, right?

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    1. Not at all! He was a sportswriter turned novelist; look him up!

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  2. I read this years ago but don't remember much about it. But back in high school this kid in my class did a book report on it. Really straight-laced preppy kid, boringly-normal acting guy... and he proceeded to give us the goriest, most depraved book report I ever heard. Then later he told me he didn't even read the book, just found it at home and read maybe the first chapter or something and just made the rest of it up because he figured there was no way the teacher would have read the thing.

    It was doubly bizarre because (A) I never thought this guy, out of everybody in my class, would try to scam the teacher, and (B) I never thought anybody so completely normal could make up some of the twisted stuff that he attributed to the book. So, even though I forget what exactly goes on in the book itself, The Tuesday Blade is kind of iconic for me because of that book report. :)

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  3. The artist of the second cover needs to brush up (ahem, pun intended) on his understanding of the way reflections work.

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  4. So I'm guessing she lops off dudes' cocks with the razor blade?

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  5. I actually think the image behind the blade is supposed to a superimposed copy of the reflection. I think the reflection on the blade is the right one (ie the blade is being held in front of his face behind and to the right of the cover). The artist really needs to work on perspective though, that's for sure!

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