Law Fought the Law and — Law Won

As a member of the Suicide Club and longtime collaborator with the San Francisco Cacophony Society and Survival Research Laboratories, as well as New York’s Dark Passage and Madagascar Institute, John Law has exposed more than a few journalists to the clandestine joys of urban adventuring amid sewage pipes and abandoned factories. For the most privileged and trusted among them, these escapades have revolved around Law’s undying love of bridges as engineering marvels and psychological metaphors. His first book, The Space Between, is a collection of three stories that uses the bridge as a conduit between the author's pragmatic Midwest nature and those dark, esoteric leanings that first drew him to H.P. Lovecraft. In the book, structural details are tempered by a poetic love of place and a bit of mystery; the tentacles of fear are always overpowered by fascination, albeit morbid fascination, and the reader is left with creeping sensations and a bird’s-eye view few have seen. Although Homeland Security has made real-life explorations next to impossible, you will surely view your morning commute a little differently after hearing Law speak.
Thu., March 5, 7 p.m., 2009