Sunday, June 28, 2009

New Weird Intro

Jeff VanderMeer posted the introduction to The New Weird anthology which he co-edited.

In the 1990s, “New Weird” began to manifest itself in the form of cult writers like Jeffrey Thomas and his cross-genre urban Punktown stories. It continued to find a voice in the work of Thomas Ligotti, who straddled a space between the traditional and the avant garde. It coalesced in the David Lynchean approach of Michael Cisco to Eastern European mysticism in works like The Divinity Student. It entered real-world settings through unsettling novels by Kathe Koja, such as The Cipher and Skin, with their horrific interrogations of the body and mind. It entered into disturbing dialogue about sex and gender in Richard Calder’s novels, with their mix of phantasmagoria and pseudo-cyberpunk. It could also be found in Jeffrey Ford’s Well-Built City trilogy, my own Ambergris stories (Dradin, In Love, etc.), and the early short work of K. J. Bishop and Alastair Reynolds, among others.

Makes me want to go find a copy of the anthology and check out the stories. I don't know if the fiction would be my cuppa, but I think it is essential reading for the modern fantasy reader.

1 comment:

V said...

Oooh. "David Lynchian approach."