Torture the Artist

Last updated
Torture the Artist
Torturecover.jpg
Author Joey Goebel
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Publisher MacCage Adams Publishing
Publication date
2004
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages250 pp
ISBN 978-1-931561-77-8
OCLC 55948181
813/.6 22
LC Class PS3607.O33 T67 2004
Preceded by The Anomalies  
Followed by Commonwealth (novel)  

Torture the Artist, published as Vincent outside the US, is a novel by Joey Goebel published in 2004.

Contents

Plot summary

Vincent Spinetti is an archetypal tortured artist, a sensitive young writer who falls victim to alienation, parental neglect, poverty, depression, alcoholism, illness, nervous breakdowns and unrequited love. He is painfully unaware that these torments are due to the secret manipulations of New Renaissance, an experimental organization that is testing the age-old idea that art results from suffering. Since culture is so significantly influenced by music, movies, and television, New Renaissance hopes to improve the mindless mainstream by raising writers who emphasize artistic quality over commerce. As part of its top-secret sub-project, New Renaissance hires reluctant ex-musician Harlan Eiffler to manipulate its most promising prodigy, Vincent. Wickedly antisocial and deeply disgusted by what passes for entertainment in the twenty-first century, Harlan clandestinely pulls the strings so that Vincent remains a true artist. All the while, he poses as Vincent's manager, simultaneously nurturing his prolific career and torturing his soul.

See also


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harlan Ellison</span> American writer (1934–2018)

Harlan Jay Ellison was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. Some of his best-known works include the 1967 Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", considered by some to be the single greatest episode of the Star Trek franchise, his A Boy and His Dog cycle, and his short stories "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman". He was also editor and anthologist for Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Ellison won numerous awards, including multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and Edgars.

<i>Raging Bull</i> 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese

Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Theresa Saldana, Frank Vincent, and Nicholas Colasanto in his final film role. The film is an adaptation of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It follows the career of LaMotta, played by De Niro, his rise and fall in the boxing scene, and his turbulent personal life beset by rage and jealousy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Sharpe Shaver</span> American writer and conspiracy theorist (1907–1975)

Richard Sharpe Shaver was an American writer and artist who achieved notoriety in the years following World War II as the author of controversial stories that were printed in science fiction magazines. In Shaver's story, he claimed that he had had personal experience of a sinister ancient civilization that harbored fantastic technology in caverns under the earth. The controversy stemmed from the claim by Shaver, and his editor and publisher Ray Palmer, that Shaver's writings, while presented in the guise of fiction, were fundamentally true. Shaver's stories were promoted by Ray Palmer as "The Shaver Mystery".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius Schwartz</span> American comic book editor, 1915-2004

Julius "Julie" Schwartz was an American comic book editor, and a science fiction agent. He was born in The Bronx, New York. He is best known as a longtime editor at DC Comics, where at various times he was primary editor over the company's flagship superheroes, Superman and Batman.

<i>The Raven</i> (1963 film) 1963 B movie horror-comedy directed by Roger Corman

The Raven is a 1963 American comedy gothic horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers. The supporting cast includes Jack Nicholson as the son of Lorre's character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream</span> 1967 short story by Harlan Ellison

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a post-apocalyptic science fiction short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in the March 1967 issue of IF: Worlds of Science Fiction.

Adam Joseph Goebel III is an American author, whose work centers around the peculiarities of culture in Middle America. He was raised in Henderson, Kentucky, a small town on the Ohio River across from Evansville, Indiana. His parents, Adam Goebel of Louisville, and Nancy Bingemer Goebel of Henderson, were both social workers and met in Frankfort, Kentucky. His older sister CeCe is also a social worker.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt was an American journalist, editor of the New York Times Book Review, critic, and novelist, based in New York City. He served as senior Daily Book Reviewer from 1969 to 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Steacy</span> Canadian comics artist and writer (born 1955)

Ken Steacy is a Canadian comics artist and writer best known for his work on the NOW Comics comic book series of Astro Boy and of the Comico comic series of Jonny Quest, as well as his graphic novel collaborations with Harlan Ellison and Dean Motter. Steacy was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets 386 Comox Squadron.

"A Toy for Juliette" is a 1967 science fiction and horror short story by American writer Robert Bloch, appearing for the first time in Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions.

Harlan Hubbard was an American artist and writer, known for his simple lifestyle.

<i>The Purple Heart</i> 1944 film by Lewis Milestone

The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Don "Red" Barry, Sam Levene and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley Granger had a supporting role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harlem Renaissance</span> African-American cultural movement in New York City in the 1920s

The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke. The movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by a renewed militancy in the general struggle for civil rights, combined with the Great Migration of African-American workers fleeing the racist conditions of the Jim Crow Deep South, as Harlem was the final destination of the largest number of those who migrated north.

Vincent is a masculine given name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1909 College Football All-America Team</span> Official list of the best college football players of 1909

The 1909 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans for the 1909 college football season. The only selector for the 1909 season who has been recognized as "official" by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is Walter Camp. Many other sports writers and newspapers also selected All-America teams in 1909. The United Press and The Atlanta Constitution both published their own "consensus" All-America teams based on their aggregating the first-team picks of a number of selectors.

<i>S.H.I.E.L.D.</i> (2010 series)

S.H.I.E.L.D. is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics, premiering with a first issue cover dated June 2010. It details the secret history of the occult organization S.H.I.E.L.D. The series is written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Dustin Weaver.

Taylor v. Beckham, 178 U.S. 548 (1900), was a case heard before the Supreme Court of the United States on April 30 and May 1, 1900, to decide the outcome of the disputed Kentucky gubernatorial election of 1899. The litigants were Republican gubernatorial candidate William S. Taylor and Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial candidate J. C. W. Beckham. In the November 7, 1899, election, Taylor received 193,714 votes to Democrat William Goebel's 191,331. This result was certified by a 2–1 decision of the state's Board of Elections. Goebel challenged the election results on the basis of alleged voting irregularities, and the Democrat-controlled Kentucky General Assembly formed a committee to investigate Goebel's claims. Goebel was shot on January 30, 1900, one day before the General Assembly approved the committee's report declaring enough Taylor votes invalid to swing the election to Goebel. As he lay dying of his wounds, Goebel was sworn into office on January 31, 1900. He died on February 3, 1900, and Beckham ascended to the governorship.

<i>The New Prime</i>

"The New Prime" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Jack Vance, first published in the February 1951 issue of Worlds Beyond as "Brain of the Galaxy". In the story, the new leader of the galaxy is chosen using a series of tests.

Cary Selden Rodman was a prolific American writer of poetry, plays and prose, political commentary, art criticism, Latin American and Caribbean history, biography and travel writing—publishing a book almost every year of his adult life, he also co-edited Common Sense magazine.

"The Function of Dream Sleep" is a fantasy short story by American writer Harlan Ellison, first published in his 1988 anthology Angry Candy. Ellison stated that it was inspired by an actual dream.