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Clive Barker

Clive Barker was born in 1952 in Liverpool, England. While studying English Literature and philosophy at Liverpool University, he formed a company to perform his plays. Then, as now, his focus was the fantastic, the erotic, and the darkly imaginative. Many of his works from this time were later published as a book called Incarnations.

Barker began publishing short fiction while in his late twenties. The result was The Books of Blood Volumes 1-3. More successful were the books The Inhuman Condition, In the Flesh, and Cabal. They were published in the United Kingdom as The Books of Blood Volumes 4-6.

Barker then turned his attention to directing. This was at least partially because he was unhappy with the treatment his works had received in two movies already made. His first effort was Hellraiser, based on the novella The Hellbound Heart. Even for his first effort, the film was wildly successful. There have been several sequels, comic books, models, and millions of dollars worth of other merchandising.

He followed this with Nightbreed. Based on the book Cabal, this film is often under appreciated except by loyal fans. The movie featured a host of beings that were generally near human in appearance, although they were really a totally different breed. Barker was also responsible for the movie Lord of Illusions.

Aside from his talents as a writer and director, Barker is also a successful artist. His works, which echo many of the themes present in his writings, have been featured in a book called Clive Barker: Illustrator. He has also had art shows in Los Angeles and New York.

Clive Barker is very unconventional, and his work has always been outside the norm, whether plays, novels, movies, or paintings. However, Clive Barker is even more unconventional than that. He is also an atheist and a homosexual.

He discussed the latter extensively in an interview published in The Advocate and re-published on the official Clive Barker website. In it, he links the fertile grounds of his mind with the freedom he feels his homosexuality grants him. Barker has tried on a couple of occasions to present movies with gay main characters and has yet to have been successful. The Hollywood executives appear to be unable to accept a gay character in a movie that does not have homosexuality as its focus.

Barker also believes that God is a creation of man, instead of the other way around. He is fascinated by the paradox of equally good and bad things being done in the name of the same god. He is also interested by the power that the church controls, and its generally patriarchal structure.

Clive Barker has been hugely successful at everything he has attempted. The very fact of his success, which has been gained as a gay man and an atheist, proves that the unconventional can succeed. Just ask anyone who has enjoyed the worlds he has created. Besides those which have already been mentioned, these include: The Great and Secret Show, Everville, The Thief of Always, Imajica Book One and Book Two, The Damnation Game and Weaveworld.

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