Seltsam im Nebel zu Wandern
Seltsam im Nebel zu wandern, kein Mensch kennt den andern, jeder ist allein, oder steht allein, ich bin nie mehr sicher wie est geht, a poem by Herman Hesse, reading it along the banks of the Rhine in Cologne on lunch break from the cosmetics warehouse where I worked after getting out of the army, a Gastarbeiter back before the Gastarbeiter became a permanent resident and took over half the country, an illegal Gastarbeiter at that, an American Gastarbeiter, a real oddity, drunk on lunch break. Hell, the whole crew who worked the floor was drunk, we drank beer on morning break and lunch break and we carried it on the carts we pushed up and down the aisles filling orders for the drivers who wheeled in in a cloud of dust in their Audis and BMWs, the drivers would drink beer with us and then roar back into traffic half drunk, the whole country was drunk, it was my kind of country.
On my last day before I left for the States they presented me with a photo they’d taken a week earlier with me up front and smack-dab in the middle, and scrawled across the bottom the inscription, “Für den verrückten Ami! Gute Reise!”
It was one of those rare times in my life that took exception to Hesse’s poem, but overall he proved to be right.
HCOLOM PRESS is the heir to Vagabond Press, which began as a main player in the Mimeo Revolution of the Sixties and continued publishing right into the jaws of the new millennium. HCOLOM PRESS embodies the spirit of Vagabond Press, retooled for the times we live in.
Hcolom is Moloch spelled backwards. Moloch is an Old Testament deity to which children were sacrificed, a practice society still engages in with increased enthusiasm. Consumerism is the new Moloch, manifesting itself like cancer in war, politics, the arts and religion, in every nook and cranny of human endeavor, draining the intrinsic beauty out of life and mutilating the innocence and magic of childhood with its commercial meat hook. HCOLOM PRESS intends to publish books that by their nature repudiate this pernicious force–novels, poetry, children’s books and books that transcend genre.
Our launch book, in June of 2006, was John Bennett’s novel, Tire Grabbers, a fable of sorts, a reality book rooted in the fantasy of our times, the story of the coming of Moloch and the children who rise up in rebellion against it.
Books of kindred spirit will follow close on its heels. Go for it by clicking here… or hit the Hcolom logo above…