Rapid Eye Volume 1 by Simon Dwyer

Simon Mckenzie Dwyer was a curious fellow. A pub brawler and a football hooligan. A Plymouth Argyle supporter with a tender soul and ferocious intellect.

Initially started as a fanzine in 1979, Rapid Eye quickly became something bigger and more fully formed. Dwyer had started Rapid Eye as a zine after he moved to London amid the cultural tumult of post-punk in 1978. Developed through the eighties, it culminated in 1989 with the first of three ambitious coffee-table volumes.

Here we have the first of three volumes of Simon Dwyer's collected interviews and writings from hallowed contributors such as Kathy Acker, William Burroughs, Aleister Crowley, Brion Gysin, Derek Jarman, Charles Manson, Psychic TV and Genesis P-Orrdige, Hubert Selby, Austin Spare and Colin Wilson. Alongside articles and essays on Alchemy, UFOs, Mescalin and Body Modification. 

Rapid Eye, and the passionately curious and affirmative spirit of Dwyer which is infused into every page of these volumes seems in some ways to be lost to time. There is very little about Dywer and Rapid Eye online comparatively to other compendiums of counter culture from the same period such as RE/Search publications. I would highly recommend reading the beautiful obituary for Simon written by his widow, Fiona Dwyer. You can find it here in full.

-

Cover: Photo of Aldous Huxley taken by Cecil Beaton, 1936 (Part of the National Portrait Gallery Collection)

Edited by Simon Dwyer

Revised and Expanded Edition, 1993

Published by Annihilation Press