The Imagination Thief by Rohan Quine, Part VI “Thursday: second spotlight with Alaia”
The Imagination Thief by Rohan Quine, Part VI
“Thursday: second spotlight with Alaia”
SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE and click the below titles 69-83, to view the Video-Book versions of mini-chapters 69-83, which constitute Part VI of the novel.
Above is the Film “SHIGEM 24”, which is embedded on the title page of Part VI of The Imagination Thief’s ebook format. In it are coloured shadows for Part VI as a whole, being one lens’s suggestion of Kim Somerville, with an outline of Shigem Adele watching Jaymi Peek.
Click here to read a transcription of this Film “SHIGEM 24”.
(This Film is also on Vimeo and YouTube and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).)
Buy The Imagination Thief by Rohan Quine in paperback or ebook or audiobook format.
Click the below titles 69-83, to view the Video-Book versions of mini-chapters 69-83
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69. “Alaia fakes for two audiences at once”—click here for Video-Book She plays it “natural” and I play along, but I’m not feeling it. |
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70. “Coldness on the beach”—click here for Video-Book We hear a magic interval between two notes, several times—bewitching, as if an angel lives between them—and I know that I should now leave your mushroom bay. I shan’t intrude again here, so never shall I hear again that magic angel interval; but never will it leave me. |
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71. “Alaia swirls in decreasing circles”—click here for Video-Book I step out, head back towards the ocean and look at the elephant. “Hallo Dotty,” I whisper, give her a kiss and put her in my pocket. |
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72. “The weasel at the window”—click here for Video-Book Suddenly you think you see, there in the high-rise nestled at the skyline, the shape of the man in the shadows of his window. You wave … but he doesn’t wave back, because the view between the two of you is only one-way. His shape behind the window is yours to enjoy, but his view of you is blocked, for he never has thought about the mile of air between you; and the traffic-lights are lonely where you live. |
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73. “A naked Angel on the front path”—click here for Video-Book I still cannot quite tell from this far away but I can see Damian’s guard-dogs pacing in agitation up and down the alleyway beside him, their tails out horizontally in the air like stiffened whiplashes. I cut across the empty street, at a trot—nearer, swaying as I go—and the dogs turn their attention to me, their eyes like pinpoints through the air. |
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74. “Golden on the beach for the last time”—click here for Video-Book Façades recede in both directions, matte brown and grey, flat as scenery or movie screens. A breath of wind in the dust stirs a cellophane wrapper on the road. Tiny in the distance, the street vista vanishes in glare: where it wets the horizon a shimmer hides the buildings, so the roadway punctures the smudgy blue sky. Shreds of air undulate thickly in the heat… |
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75. “Attitude on the phone”—click here for Video-Book “Fine for me. I’ll see you there.” And our miniature bitch-fest is cut short. |
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76. “The pussy-cats lost in translation”—click here for Video-Book I wish I could report that your mouth falls open, that laughter lights your face, that your ears feel like wings and your smile warms the night; but I can’t. |
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77. “Snatching the divine on the corner of the street”—click here for Video-Book That was the clearest channel I’ve ever had into anyone—and straight through him into someone else. |
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78. “Theft four, and Alaia extricates herself”—click here for Video-Book I raise my hands in surrender. “You mean in future? Now the future’s one thing I can’t see, thank goodness! That would feel entirely different…” |
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79. “High voltage for Angel”—click here for Video-Book And yet there’s one problem, Angel, I’m afraid: you see, you can’t die. You’ll stay buried there, still alive, inside yourself, forever more, without dying. Why? Because I like you there! Yes, I like to watch you, have you noticed? Oh I see you, Angel Deon—I see every twist inside you. |
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80. “Who could ask for more?”—click here for Video-Book The effects have not been drastic or intrusive: they have simply made Big Bang a bit more flashy and (this is the most accurate term) slinky than the first broadcast. In fact, I decide—this is probably the slinkiest thing I have ever watched! |
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81. “A farcical audition for Rik”—click here for Video-Book “Eventually some prissy thespian guy with a face like a cantankerous ferret took pity and said, ‘Well, I suppose you may as well audition for something, since you do seem to be here,’ about as enthusiastic as if he was going to get a tooth extracted. He had one of those half-assed moustaches, like he’d just sneezed in an ashtray.” |
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82. “The Supreme Ruler and her space-cat”—click here for Video-Book With her hands on her hips, she concluded her harangue with a slick, swishy, tightly-timed sass: “And that’s that, as far as I’m concerned!” before picking up her leopard-skin rabbit and sweeping across the dance-floor to the management office, followed slinkily by the space-cat emanating a regal felinity that purred Learn it, bitches! to all assembled. |
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83. “Low-budget snarls in the nightclub”—click here for Video-Book “Very pantsy and high-maintenance. He had a tweezy poise and a ferny fragility, don’t you know, and really he was a bitch on a stick, though we couldn’t tell him that. I’d try and give the situation a spasmodic tweeze now and then, but nothing was going to change till he was gone.” |
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The above Video-Book mini-chapters 69-83 of The Imagination Thief are also linked to from inside the novel’s ebook format. They are here too:
And in the Vimeo showcase “THE IMAGINATION THIEF (novel) – Video-Book format – Rohan Quine”:
mini-chapters 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 and 83 of the video-book format of The Imagination Thief.
And in the YouTube playlist “THE IMAGINATION THIEF (novel) – Video-Book format – Rohan Quine”:
mini-chapters 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 and 83 of the video-book format of The Imagination Thief. (If playback of any of these videos looks at all fuzzy on YouTube, then you can quickly and easily adjust the YouTube video-player’s playback “Quality” setting, by doing the following: (1) if you’re on a mobile device, first touch the video image, then touch the three-dots symbol that appears in the top-right corner of the player, touch “Quality” and choose “1080p” (or the highest other setting available on your device, e.g. “720p”); or (2) if you’re on a laptop/desktop device, click the cog symbol on the lower edge of the video-player, click “Quality” and choose “1080p” (or the highest other setting available on your device, e.g. “720p”).)
The 120 mini-chapter title-cards of The Imagination Thief‘s video-book format are also in the Google Photos album “Rohan Quine – THE IMAGINATION THIEF (novel) – mini-chapter titles”.
The Imagination Thief by Rohan Quine is about a web of secrets, triggered by the stealing and copying of people’s imaginations and memories. It’s about the magic that can be conjured up by images of people, in imagination or on film; the split between beauty and happiness in the world; and the allure of various kinds of power. A Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Award 2021, it celebrates some of the most extreme possibilities of human imagination, personality and language, exploring the darkest and brightest flavours of beauty living in our minds.
Buy The Imagination Thief in paperback or ebook or audiobook format.
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Rohan Quine, The Imagination Thief, literary fiction, litfic, magical realism, horror, dark fantasy, cyberpunk, contemporary, science fiction, gay, transgender, LGBTQ+, visionary, spectacular, Asbury Park, New Jersey, New York, small town, psychic, broadcast, enhanced ebook