Bizarro Fiction

[Mr Loligo]

Bizarro Fiction: Has anyone ever heard of this genre?
Maybe I'm a little sheltered, but this is new to me.

Bizarro Fiction 101: Not Just Weird for Weirds Sake | Fantasy Magazine

At first I thought it was just another term for Weird Fiction, but half way down the page in the above link it uses Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's anthology of “The Weird” as a comparison between Weird Fiction and Bizarro Fiction.

Some of the films it lists as reference points, like "Brazil" and "Eraserhead" made me take notice, but some of the other examples of this genre seem to aim simply for being odd, unnecessarily shocking and just somewhat random?

Forgive my ignorance, I was just curious if anyone here had any thoughts or if I've misjudged this type of writing?

[Michael]

Naw Mr Loligo, I found out about this relatively recently (happened to come upon Raw Dog Screaming Press). Like with commentary on "The Weird" genre, I think Henderson is making some assumptions that aren't uniform (doesn't mean they're wrong, just not widely accepted by everyone in my opinion). I tend to see Bizarro fiction as having more humor (I think of it partly as a grandson of Dadaism) and in a way (I'm lacking the words to hit on this) it's kind of "punk." Once again, this may be just an idiosyncratic opinion but I think there is WAY more overlap between the Weird and Bizarro than Henderson is giving credit for.

[DoktorH]

I read some Carlton Mellick III book that advertised itself as Bizarro. It seemed like the author had a chart of random scifi, horror, and fantasy tropes and just rolled dice to determine which tropes show up when. it reminded me a lot of the old pen-n-paper RPG Human Occupied Landfill. Particularly the character generation system from the "Buttery wHOLesomeness" supplement, which was largely a bunch of charts full of random scifi/fantasy/horror tropes.

[Wolftrappe]

I looked at some of Carlton Mellick III's work before and was totally unimpressed.

[angstrom]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a couple of copies of this magazine and a book--"Driver's Guide to Hitting Pedestrians" I believe--wanting to get an overview of the "genre" and thinking that the items had some collectibility. I've read a few stories, but not enough to really develop a full-blown opinion. I put "genre" in quotation marks, because it does seem like a manufactured genre, not a naturally emerging one. And what I've read so far has an element of whimsy to it that is outside my tastes. None of it has spoken to me at all. My plan is to read more. Just statistically speaking, there has to be something here that opens up some kind of new fictional territory, at least for me personally. At least in a small way. I'll report back here. It may be more than a month though, so I hope none of you mind if I necromance this thread.

[Wolftrappe]

The only interesting author I've come across who's even vaguely associated with "bizarro" fiction is a Japanese guy named Kenji Siratori, and his books aren't even particularly interesting to read. It's simply interesting in theory (he at least purports to write cyberpunk novels in a constructed markup language of his own devising).

[T.E. Grau]

I tried a bit of pure Bizarro and found it so silly and juvenile in its utilization of sexuality, violence, and pop culture that I thought I was being punked. Burroughs interpreted by a 13 year old taken to the "CRAZY EXTREME!!" Maybe I'm being harsh, but it's not for me at all.

That said, I've read some-time Bizarro writer Jordan Krall's more uncanny and Lovecraftian pieces, and found them to be quite excellent; while J. David Osborne's two stark, understated, often brutal novels are fantastic, and anything but Bizarro as I understand what makes up the mainstay of the genre.

Much like the worst of Hollywood and their "I'm not seeing the poster" mantra, it seems like Bizarro writers come up with a clever/ironic/wacky title first, and then write a hastily cobbled together book around it.

[shivering]

I've now read a bit of bizarro and my favorite author is definitely Jordan Krall. He can actually generate some good atmosphere and is not always out just for some shock or a laugh. Krall also seems at times to have a small amount of Ligotti-tian atmospherics, which of course tickles my fancy.

The rest of those that I have read seem to be a highly variable bunch that are at worst a kind of splattery horror version of Mad Magazine/National Lampoon. Occasionally entertaining, but very quickly forgotten.

My question is how does Edward Lee fit into all this? He seems more an influence than actually bizarro, yet I have seen him mentioned on occasion.

I would recommend Jordan Krall and not much else.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Quote Originally Posted by T.E. Grau

it seems like Bizarro writers come up with a clever/ironic/wacky title first, and then write a hastily cobbled together book around it.

Yeah, I'd say that's pretty much on the mark. I don't mind writers employing humor in their work, but at the same time, I desire some kind of serious intent behind it all. Otherwise it's just jerking around.

[brendanconnell]

Oddly enough, the first piece of fiction of mine to actually appear in print was in Carlton Mellick III's Earwig Flesh Factory, which was the roots of the "Bizarro" scene. It was a story called A Dish of Spouse about a woman serving her husband for supper to the guests, but everyone seems to think it is a completely normal thing to do. ... I had had other things published before (translations) and work that had been slated for publication prior to that, but Mellick was the first person to actually publish my fiction. As far as the value of the books themselves, I could not really say. I suspect however that like any "genre" (or non-genre), there are good books and bad ones. Some types of writing just appeal to some people more than others. I for instance have a huge appetite for things other people could never read, such as Feuilletons, on the other hand other "movements" such as surrealism, I find terribly hit or miss - the best things being really quite great, while a great deal of it I find self indulgent and boring. Other people however love it all (or claim to, though I suspect more people claim to like surrealism than there are people who have actually read anything). I have met some of the Bizarro authors though and they all seemed like very nice people.