bizarro

antiloquax

antiloquax

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I have been rooting about on wikipedia since hearing about a few interesting-sounding writers who get called "bizarro". I've come up with a few titles that sounded good. Has anyone read any of these? Are they any good?

Apeshit Carlton Merrick III
Cursed Jeremy c. Shipp
Ass Goblins of Auschwitz Cameron Pierce
Dr. Identity D. Harlan Wilson
Ballad of a Slow Poisoner Andrew Goldfarb
My Landlady the Lobotomist Eckhard Gerdes
Foop! Chris Genoa
Shatnerquake Jeff Burke
Fission among the Fanatics Tom Bradley
Slaughtermatic Steve Aylett.

I haven't got any of these :mad:. I feel some purchases coming on ...
a
 
I know that John Skipp along with another writer wrote The Emerald Burrito of Oz and Brian Keene and another writer did The Damned Highway, both are supposed to be great.
 
a, my friend on Goodreads, Dan Schwent, is really into bizarro lit. You may want to hit him up - he's got a ton of reviews.

Be careful what you link to/discuss here though re: the sub-genre, as I was reprimanded for linking to some bizarro books on Amazon.com because of their "adult" content. Just don't want you to get into trouble! :)

As a word of warning to would-be clickers, Dan's Goodreads profile contains many bizarro books, and many of them have grotesque covers and titles.
 
D_Davis said:
a, my friend on Goodreads, Dan Schwent, is really into bizarro lit. You may want to hit him up - he's got a ton of reviews.

Be careful what you link to/discuss here though re: the sub-genre, as I was reprimanded for linking to some bizarro books on Amazon.com because of their "adult" content. Just don't want you to get into trouble! :)
Click to expand...

Many thanks D_Davis! I will go and do that.
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Can anyone tell me what Bizarro is because I really don't have a clue.
 
Extrapolating from a very small sample* (I've only read one of the authors on that list, Steve Aylett) I would suggest 'bizarro' is stream of conciousness, unedited crap written by spotty adolescents for other little boys to smirk over.



* Always dangerous - but fun.
 
According to wikipedia:

Bizarro fiction is a contemporary literary genre, which often utilizes elements of absurdism, satire, and the grotesque, along with pop-surrealism and genre fiction staples, in order to create subversive works that are as weird and entertaining as possible.

Here's an article from the Guardian.

So far I have only read 2 titles. One, Cameron Pierce's "A** Goblins of Auschwitz" was a very odd book - more like an extended nightmare than a "novel". The other, by Carlton Mellick III ("The Haunted [...]" was actually very good, I thought. Funny, strange and ... different.

@JunkMonkey you may be right about Aylett - I have yet to read him!
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In my experience, subversive is just a pretentious way of saying "We're making our own rules."

Nothing wrong with that, if they would just say so and not try to adopt the heroic pose.
 
Yea, and just try to get any weirder than various classic lit and fairy tales and whatnot. I would deny bizarro as a definable genre unless there is something unique about it.
 
Doesnt matter what it is really if the books are entertaining.

Jordan Krall books sound fun.
 
Like any movement, there is more to it than some of you see.

In all arts there are movements, and this is one that is happening in fringe lit that happens to be gaining some momentum right now.

It's like steampunk, or whatever sub-genre of a sub-genre people dig.

Am I into this particular movement? Not really. Or, perhaps more truthfully, I should answer - I don't think so. I haven't read much, and, honestly, I don't think it appeals to me. But I know of a few people who write intelligent, critical, and thoughtful reviews of bizarro fiction, and through them I have determined that it is a relevant movement in genre-literature, just as the weird and new wierd movements were/are, or just like the surrealist or minimalist movements were in film and painting.
 
There still has to be a definiton that differs from SF, F,H,C, etc. in some signifigant way, or it's just repacking weird fiction of 100 years ago. No problem with the word Bizarro, but - what is it?
 
J Riff said:
There still has to be a definiton that differs from SF, F,H,C, etc. in some signifigant way, or it's just repacking weird fiction of 100 years ago. No problem with the word Bizarro, but - what is it?
Click to expand...

You might find the article from the Guardian or the entry from Wikipedia helpful, J Riff.
Essentially, though, you are right. From the little I have read so far, these works do seem to be in the same area as some other "weird" fiction. They are characterised by the use of SF tropes, bloody violence, explicit sex and dark humour. The term seems to be promoted mainly by one publishing house (Bizarro Central) which has a few different imprints ("Eraserhead", "Afterbirth" and at least one other I can't recall at the moment).
It's interesting that the horror writer Edward Lee has a book of short stories called "Brain Cheese Buffet" which has a cover (and a title) that seems aimed at the Bizarro readership.
So, maybe it isn't a clearly-defined sub-genre. Basically, I am just interested in finding books that might be enjoyable to read and the buzz around these books piqued my interest.
:)
antiloquax
 
To follow historical precedent, what we probably have now is what the SF Enclyclopedia in ten years will call proto-bizarro fiction (unless DC starts raising a fuss).
 
Actually, Edward Lee has done a series of Lovecraftian pornographic tales as well; so that would hardly be his only entry in the field of bizarro fiction....
 
I'd say that bizarro is a mix of the old splatter-punks, with a dash of the weird, and heaping piles of satire, violence, and gross-out stuff.

In terms of cinema, think David Lynch crossed with Tokyo Gore Police, John Waters, and Miike.
 
j. d. worthington said:
Actually, Edward Lee has done a series of Lovecraftian pornographic tales as well; so that would hardly be his only entry in the field of bizarro fiction....
Click to expand...

Thanks JDW. I have yet to read any of Lee's stuff. I have "Backwoods" on my Kindle ...
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