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The Primal Screamer

4.05  ·  Rating Details ·  344 Ratings  ·  34 Reviews
A gothic horror novel about severe mental distress and punk rock, this narrative is written in the form of a diary kept by a psychiatrist, Dr. Rodney H. Dweller, concerning his patient, Nathaniel Snoxell, brought to him in 1979 because of several attempted suicides. Snoxell gets involved in the anarchist punk scene, and begins recording songs and playing gigs at anarchist ...more
Paperback, 144 pages
Published December 12th 2011 by PM Press (first published January 1st 2002)
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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30)
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Charlie
Mar 20, 2007 Charlie rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: abdul allhazred
If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or Rudimentary Peni, you've probably read this book already. If you're neither, then read a book on knot-tying and practice 'em around your neck.
George
Jan 07, 2016 George rated it liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: horror
Βαθμολογία: 7/10

Ο Νικ Μπλίνκο είναι στιχογράφος, κιθαρίστας και τραγουδιστής του αναρχοπανκ βρετανικού συγκροτήματος Rudimentary Peni, το οποίο ιδρύθηκε και έλαμψε την δεκαετία του '80 (και νομίζω ότι υπάρχει ακόμα). Το μικρό αυτό βιβλιαράκι είναι μια κατά κάποιο τρόπο αυτοβιογραφία των νεανικών χρόνων του συγγραφέα και των πρώτων του βημάτων στον χώρο της υποκουλτούρας. Η αφήγηση γίνεται μέσω μιας σειράς ημερολογιακών εγγραφών του ψυχιάτρου Ρόντνεϊ Χ. Ντουέλερ, ο οποίος κούραρε τον νεαρό αυτοκτ
...more
Sarina
Apr 25, 2012 Sarina rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Blinko fans
Shelves: favorites
This book is easy to devour in one session. I had to read it being a huge Rudimentary Peni fan & a H.P. Lovecraft fan. I first picked it up when I was living at a punk house a few years back, & I had an annoyingly hip roommate with impeccable taste & resources for sourcing & owning incredibly neat shit that I was always pretty jealous of. This book was one of those things that he owned that always made my fingers itch as I walked past, & I had to remind myself constantly that ...more
David Agranoff
You may not have ever heard of Nick Blinko, but he is well nown and
popular in certain circles. He was the guitarist of Rudimentary Peni,
a popular crust punk band. (crust punk is a subgenre of a subgenre,
anarcho-political punk) besides their fellow British standard Crass -
Rudimentary Peni is one the most popular bands of the genre 30 years
after they started.

Since the band recorded a tribute to HP Lovecraft I think the idea
that the novel was a twisting of Crust punk with Lovecraft vibe was a
little
...more
Skye
Jan 16, 2011 Skye rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
I fell asleep during the first half of it but once Nat started Rudimentary Peni, that's when it got good. I loved hearing all the history behind that stuff. My favorite part was when the doctor says Nat got an acoustic guitar and played constantly and the neighbors didn't care except for when he would scream to sing. I own a copy on Microsoft word if anyone wants to read it.
Tait
May 30, 2008 Tait rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: literature, punk, american
The singer and artist of seminal anarcho-punk band Rudimentary Peni, Blinko followed in the footsteps of many great artists by going insane. From the asylum he produced an album dedicated entirely to H.P. Lovecraft, and this novel. "Primal Screamer" charts his descent into madness and childhood regression from the perspective of his psychiatrist, who may also be going mad.

Ryan Mishap
Sep 07, 2008 Ryan Mishap rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: novel
Autobiographical fiction? Remembered unreality? Madness and a deathwish collide with punk rock, anarchy,a Buddhist psychiatrist, Nathaniel Snoxell and sundry other monstrosities. Gets an extra star for the artwork, some of which I have a tattoo of, btw.
Victoria
Jul 16, 2008 Victoria rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Someone bought this book for me on eBay for $80, and I think it's safe to say it was worth every penny.
Isaac Baker
Mar 09, 2015 Isaac Baker rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: fiction
Nathaniel Snoxell is a disturbed young bloke. This 20-year-old first meets Dr. Rodney H. Dweller, a London psychiatrist, after slicing up both of his wrists in a botched suicide attempt that is anything but a “cry for help.” The doctor admits that he’s has never, “seen such grevious self-inflicted injuries as those that lay upon the wrists of Nathaniel Snoxell.”

Nick Blinko’s novel The Primal Screamer is structured as a series of first-person journal entries from this Dr. Dweller, who treats Nat
...more
Zac
Aug 06, 2015 Zac rated it really liked it
This was a very odd but somehow brilliant piece of writing. ‘The Primal Screamer’ is presented as the journal entries of the psychologist of one Nathaniel Snoxell, a stand-in for the author/anarcho punker/artist Nick Blinko. The teenage Snoxell has just slashed both wrists and seeks psychological help for his “doom laden” feelings. This semi-autobiographical tale follows Snoxell’s progress as he makes friends with a couple of misfits, forms a punk band, plays some shows, and releases some ...more
Tim
Apr 12, 2015 Tim rated it really liked it
I've been wanting to read this since I started seeing it around in 1996 or 97- no idea why it took me so long to get to it as Rudimentary Peni has been one of my favorite bands since then and I love everything they put out, and I've found Nick Blinko to be fascinating as long as I've been cognizant of him. If you like weird punk rock, death rock, anarchopunk, or weird art and have an interest in mental illness, you should absolutely read this. Especially if you also have a predilection towards ...more
Samm
Aug 17, 2015 Samm rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Just finished reading this one. Thought it was great, but am willing to admit that any evaluation of how good this book is may be directly proportional to how much you like Nick Blinko as a musician/artist/whatever--and as I am a big fan of the man, i can acknowledge that my estimation of this book's worth is likely shaded by that bias.

As it was mentioned, the first half of the book is a bit dull--the formation of Rudimentary Peni and the increasing disintegration of the doctor's mental stabilit
...more
Tom Schulte
A don't read fiction often, so I am grateful for having received this work as a gift, else I would not have sought it out and experienced it. The author presents diary like an alternative reality of the history of Rudimentary Peni, his own anarcho-punk/deathrock band along with primal scream therapy experiences. I don't know how real for Nick Blinko those treatments where, but as a fan of underground music, I did find myself going to Google often to see if I could suss out the truth of the ...more
Anjoo
Mar 22, 2012 Anjoo rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Part autobiography, part anarcho punk historical, part Lovecraft-esque "Weird" fiction. Blinko somehow manages to weave his life, the emergence of anarchist punk and the unbridled suspense of Lovecraft's finest works into a single (admittedly far too short) novel. Told from the point of view of Nick (sorry, Nate)'s psychiatrist, Nick chronicles his time undergoing primal scream therapy (as well as the initial formation of Rudimentary Peni) in a shroud of macabre myth and imagery, often giving ...more
Ayla
Feb 29, 2012 Ayla rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
I read this upon the insistence of my boyfriend who said I could relate a lot to the protagonist. So, I obliged him. I am a rudi peni fan, so I figured it would be an accessible enough read. I liked it, but that is it. The book does not include Blinko's BEST art, but the pieces included are very interesting to look at in conjunction with the rest of the story. I wish it had been the first in a longer series, because the ending irked me. I don't think it was a bad ending because the ambiguity of ...more
AK
Because I am fairly boring for a punk, I was much more interested in gleaning information about the rise of anarcho-punk in the UK and the formation of Rudimentary Peni than I was in the Lovecraftian elements. The diary-of-the-psychiatrist format works well, the descriptions of primal scream therapy are fascinating, and all of the characters are well-drawn, not just Nathaniel Snoxell, the stand-in for Blinko himself. Nick Blinko's art is extremely creepy (I mean that in the best possible sense), ...more
Natalie Armstrong
Jan 07, 2012 Natalie Armstrong rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: reviewed
Quick, engrossing read by Rudimentary Peni's Nick Blinko. The story gets absolutely wicked towards the end. And I mean "wicked" in the actual sense of the word. I appreciated Blinko's H.P. Lovecraft style writing, the allusions to artists like Aubrey Beardsley and Odilon Redon, as well as references to the 1932 Tod Browning's film Freaks. I could easily relate these works to Nick Blinko's art. Reading this book not only returned me to my own adolescent nightmares of fetus', but made me throw on ...more
Sarah Élysée
May 30, 2013 Sarah Élysée rated it really liked it
I was really attracted to the Lovecraftian style of writing. Even though the novel was about a young punk completely out of his mind, he was still easy to relate to. However, I wasn't too thrilled about the conclusion, there was no real climax and the outlandish ending was too near the end to hold any real footing in the story.
It's still a great read if you're at all interested in the oddities that are Rudimentary Peni, depression, outsider art, and/or H.P. Lovecraft.
Luke
Dec 10, 2014 Luke rated it it was ok  ·  review of another edition
The story should be interesting, but the fact that the entire novel is filtered through the eyes of a psychiatrist via a series of clinical diary entries robs the prose of any poetry it might've had. His voice is also very pompous and annoying and not much happens in the book until the last few pages.
Eric
Jan 05, 2012 Eric rated it liked it  ·  review of another edition
I think the bookjacket oversold the "horror" aspect of this, but everything else from Nat/Nick's history of Rudimentary Peni to the relationship built with the analyst were fairly well done. Great art in the PM Press edition
Shell
May 07, 2013 Shell rated it it was ok  ·  review of another edition
This was a let-down. I was so excited about the themes of this novel, but found the execution to be messy and unfulfilling. It was wordy, difficult, and after I'd finished the book I didn't feel like I knew anything about the characters or what I'd just read.
James Henry
Weird, semi-autobiographical
account of the life of the Rudimentary Peni front man. Written from
the point of view of his psychologist it makes "sense" out of the
bands lyrics and peculiar obsessions. Just noticed that you can find
crazy Nick on Wikipedia !
Barbara Justiniano
Aug 14, 2016 Barbara Justiniano rated it really liked it
I have to admit that the only reason I bought this book is because the cover intrigued me. The book was a quick and interesting read written in the form of notes, of daily entries, of a therapist about his suicidal patient. Loosely based on the authors own life.
Colin
Jan 25, 2014 Colin rated it it was ok  ·  review of another edition
i love nick blinko's art and music, but this didn't do much for me. i liked the bits about the formation of rudimentary peni, but the rest of the story was self-aggrandizing and dull.
Warren Moeckel
It's not exactly Nabokov or Borges, but it was penned by one of my favorite
musicians, so I read it; I give it a meh.
xDEAD ENDx
Mar 30, 2013 xDEAD ENDx rated it it was ok
Pretty boring. The only thing slightly "haunting" was the last few pages. The rest just seems like a semi-autobiographical tale through the eyes of a psychotherapist. Whatever.
Cheryl Walder
Jun 06, 2011 Cheryl Walder rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Please Help Me - I read this book before and would like to read it again now but have not had any success thus far in locating a copy anywhere that I have looked for it ..
Katherine
Katherine rated it it was amazing
May 08, 2013
Brian
Brian rated it really liked it
Sep 15, 2011
Chelsea
Chelsea rated it really liked it
Jan 23, 2012
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Nick Blinko (born 4 September 1961) is a British musician, lyricist, and artist best known as the lead singer, lyricist and guitar player for the British band Rudimentary Peni. He is also known for being an "outsider" artist who creates all the drawings used by the band for its artwork. Blinko began his career in the band The Magits, which formed before Rudimentary Peni in 1977 and was primarily ...more
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