Fear of Novels: A Thriller is a book written by Richard Meros and handwritten by Ellen Rodda. It exists in a copy of one and is only available through the serendipitous passing onwards of a friends, acquaintance or man on the street with your best interests at heart. It passes itself on like a cold, never disappearing. As it is an artefact unreliant on mechnical reproduction it belongs more to an age of theological proprieties than mass marketing, and so the very verbose descriptions of the book are not needed. They are a waste of my time. The proof is in the printing, in the loops of the 'o' and the crossing of the 't'.
Meros discusses the book:
"The present book was one of four that I wrote when I was
living in a hotel in the city of Aleppo, or Haleb, in northern Syria in 2009.
Some of those books (Privatising Parts,
Zebulon, Easy Whistle Solo) have been published, but Fear of Novels has not (nor has Dating
Westerners: tips for the petit bourgeois from the east). The present book
was not published because it seemed odious while I was editing it. I put it
aside and focused on the other books that felt more vigorous. It would have stayed that way if Ellen
Rodda had not been in touch looking to co-author a project with me. Now it is a
book as artifact, as rental product, as journeyman."
