This is an absurd tale of Willis Hornbeck Jr, the operator of a film projector who, when drunk, mixes reels up to accidentally create acclaimed avant-garde cinema. The prose is also deeply funny and captures some truths about art, creativity and the inexplicable sources of genius.
“And there in the projection-room window above, a shadow loomed with wide-sprung eyes. The projectionist, bottle in numbed hand, gasped down upon our revelry”
First published with the title ‘The Year the Glop Monster Won the Golden Lion at Cannes’ in Cavalier, 1966. Collected in One More for the Road, William Morrow, 2002
A Personal Anthology 