Snuff Memories is a rather short experimental work of fiction by David Rodin, an academic philosopher working at the Open University. It’s made up of vaguely connected vignettes that read more like a prose poem than a work of fiction.
Like a sort of cut-up Cronenberg, each segment is filled with body horror and imagery of a grim apocalyptic world. Scattered throughout the text are a few beautifully nightmarish aphorisms: “The universe is composed of windowless monads each locked away and screaming.” However, Snuff Memories quickly and frequently goes from vivid nightmare to hazy dream. Rodens highly stylised experimental style renders the majority of the book incomprehensible, rambling, repetitive and unforgivably dull. I’m unsure if the book is supposed to have some kind of underlining philosophy, if it does, it is completely indecipherable.