Soft & Cuddly
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A computer game so nauseatingly gory that it came with a barf bag. Bright druggy graphics that sickened scores of proper English parents. Gameplay so violent that it inspired one of Britain's most infamous killing sprees. Soft & Cuddly, released for the ZX Spectrum in 1987, wasn't quite any of these things. But in an age of manufactured moral panics, John George Jones's fluorescent punk manifesto sure pissed off a lot of people. Featuring new interviews with the game's creator, Jarett Kobek's book dives deep into the gritty world of British yellow journalism, snarky computer fanzines, DIY home programming, and Soviet bootleg mixtapes. If Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party was right that video nasties like Soft & Cuddly were the epitome of 80s depravity, then this book is headed straight to Hell.
Jarett Kobek
Jarett Kobek is a Turkish-American internationally best-selling writer who lives in California. His books have been translated into eleven languages and published in thirteen countries. He is one of only two Twenty-First Century writers to appear on Page A1 of both The New York Times and The Washington Post for reasons other than crime, scandal, or fatwa. Kobek's novels include I Hate the Internet, Motor Spirit, Only Americans Burn in Hell, and The Future Won't Be Long.
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