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Strange Playgrounds

Strange Playgrounds is a short story collection written by author George Daniel Lea and published by Dark Moon Books. A series of surreal prose stories and poems, the collection has been noted for its use of grotesuqe and surreal subject matter to explore subjects of identity, transgression and metaphysics:

"For George Daniel Lea's Strange Playgrounds horror is opposed to the delineation of the sensible, `the lines blur, parameters dissolve' (p.231), in which categories like interiority and exteriority becomes meaningless, `even his thoughts were audible' (p.3). It's an ecstatic vision, a style more than a means to preclude or incite expectations about content. It pushes against the limits of its vehicle, `Language was a lame mule, a leper with no arms or legs.' (p.272). And the point is not to elicit a designated response, but spur transformation."

- MR. R.B. FORTUNEWOOD, via Amazon.

The stories, though not specifically linked in narrative terms, carry cerain consistent thematic elements throughout and are bounded by the story which lends the title both its collection and over-arching themes. Collectively, they have been described as post-modern "myths;" parables which mark not revolution or the appeal to new ideologies, but the celebration of their collapse and the establishment of a new, wholly more protean dynamic:

"The over-arching theme of the collection is certainly transformation: it's a consistent preoccupation of mine, since it seems to lie at the core of what lies behind our assumptions concerning consciousness and personality: both are misapprehensions, determined by the limitations of our language and the manner in which our minds naturally solidify and compartmentalise: people are not this or that absolutely: they shift and alter and shed themselves throughout their lives, right up to the point of death, and maybe even beyond: this is what I set out to explore in the collection, along with and via the myriad subjects that otherwise obsess me: love, sex, human relationships to one another: the re-writing of self, dissolution of the enshrined and established. I understand that the recurrence of the theme may come across as repetitive: I hope that each story explores a slightly different facet of human metamorphosis: transformation of body, consciousness and everything in between."

- George Daniel Lea

The collection has also been praised for its highly evocative cover art, which was produced by Tamworth-based artist, Grace Burley, which depicts a man being systematically flayed to the bone before dispersing into a state of sentient ashes, all semblance of shape and definition dissolved.

Strange Playgrounds is currently available to purchase from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.