"Work on Eye Scream started in 1986. I was crossing America constantly and
experiencing the morality shifts, attitudes, and rituals in different parts
of the country - the difference in the way people were in the Bible Belt as
opposed to New York City, the way blacks and whites interfaced, the
intolerance of homosexuality, the morality plays. I started to become aware
of how brutal the country is and how much ferocity, cruelty, and oppression
are inherent in the culture and how much of it was in me. I wanted to
document it and create a book that brought the whole thing to a boil and see w
here it left me off. In the summer of 1995, I finished the book and started
to edit. Re-reading the manuscript over and over, I realized all the things I
had picked up over a decade of playing Devil's advocate and it was inspiring
because it clearly defined who my enemies are. As an American, I feel it
impossible not to be infuriated by the way things are and have been. I refuse
to be happy about the day-to-day and go along with it. There's too much
spitting in my face and too much spitting in the faces of people who don't
know any other way of life. This book is brutal, and at times, funny. I know
that I will probably get a ton of shit for Eye Scream. Enjoy, or better
yet... don't." ---- Henry Rollins
