The Experimental Fiction Depository

[In A Dark Light]

Recently I've found my taste in fiction gravitating towards the experimental, in particular the works of Joseph S Pulver. My search for further short fiction of a strongly experimental nature has been rather frustrating so far, so I thought I'd start a thread here in which can be posted examples of experimental short fiction, particularly fiction which can be read online.

Anything goes, just so long as it breaks the supposed 'rules' of writing.

[In A Dark Light]

I might as well start us off. Here's a piece from the aforementioned Joseph S Pulver, 'The Unmistakeable Shape of Night's River'.

The Unmistakable Shape of Nights River, by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. | Lovecraft eZine

[gveranon]

A quick list. I'm forgetting a lot, and I'm unaware of a lot. Some listed are more experimental than others. Only a few listed are online; to pursue this interest, it's really necessary to chase down some books.

Nick Mamatas, "Hideous Interview with Brief Man" (a Lovecraftian story written in the style of David Foster Wallace) https://fiddleblack.org/entry/hideou...ith-brief-man/

Thomas Wiloch, several collections of prose poems, vignettes, flash fictions.
Here is a website with, unfortunately, a lot of broken links: Codes and Chaos, Thomas Wiloch's official web site
Here is Thomas Ligotti's tribute to Wiloch after his death: Thomas Wiloch 1953-2008: A Personal Tribute by Thomas Ligotti - THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK

Alfred Jarry, The Passion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race
Also other works by Jarry.

The Complete Short Prose of Samuel Beckett, 1929-1989
Here is "Imagination Dead Imagine": http://www.samuel-beckett.net/Imagin...adImagine.html

John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse (collection)
Here is "Night-Sea Journey," narrated by a spermatozoon:

https://tigerenglish.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/night-sea-journey-john-barth.pdf

D. F. Lewis (who is Nemonymous on this site), "The Weirdmonger" (in the collection Weirdmonger). Linguistic wizardry. I believe an expanded version of "The Weirdmonger" was published as Weirdtongue: A Glistenberry Romance (novella)​
Also other short fiction by Lewis, much of it online, some on this site

Jon Padgett (Dr. Locrian on this site), "20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism" (in The Secret of Ventriloquism)

Harlan Ellison, "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (one of his best stories, widely reprinted)

Samuel R. Delany, "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (reprinted in several books)

Quentin S. Crisp, "Mise en Abyme" (in the collection All God's Angel's, Beware!)

Michael Cisco, Secret Hours (collection); other uncollected stories

Rhys Hughes (several collections)

Brendan S. Connell (several collections)

Justin Isis (two collections)

J. G. Ballard, "The Terminal Beach"; The Atrocity Exhibition (experimental short fictions that Ballard called "condensed novels"); some of Ballard's other short fiction would qualify, too.
I love "The Terminal Beach" and have reread it countless times.

Barry N. Malzberg, "A Galaxy Called Rome" (in the collection The Passage of the Light, which also contains other metafictions)

Joanna Russ, (Extra) Ordinary People (collection)

Robert Coover, A Night at the Movies (a collection of experimental fiction which contains the shatteringly brilliant "Charlie in the House of Rue"); Pricksongs and Descants (an earlier collection)

Michael Blumlein, The Brains of Rats (collection)

David Foster Wallace, Oblivion (collection)

Gary Lutz (several collections)
Lutz is one of the best contemporary writers of innovative (and rather pessimistic) fiction. Highly recommended. Lutz's Wikipedia page has links to some online stories.

Karen Joy Fowler, Black Glass: Short Fictions

​Philip José Farmer, "Riders of the Purple Wage" (novella); "The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod" (mash-up of Edgar Rice Burroughs and William S. Burroughs)

Henri Michaux, Selected Writings; Darkness Moves (collections)

R. A. Lafferty (several collections)

William S. Wilson, Why I Don't Write Like Franz Kafka (collection)

Gabriel Blackwell, Critique of Pure Reason (collection)

Ben Marcus, The Age of Wire and String (collection)

Jeremy M. Davies, The Knack of Doing (collection)

Michael Ayrton, Fabrications (collection)

Donald Barthelme (several collections)

Benjamin Rosenbaum, The Ant King: and Other Stories

[In A Dark Light]

That's a brilliant list Gveranon, thank you. Lots for me to check out there.

[rhysaurus]

I've had a strong interest in 'experimental fiction' for many years. It's a type of fiction that doesn't sell well and isn't even regarded as a worthwhile intellectual exercise these days.

I remember reading an article that plausibly argued that experimental fiction came to an effective end in the mid 1970s. That's when sales began to drop to the extent that Samuel Delany's publisher begged him not to write another novel like Dhalgren, despite the fact that Dhalgren sold half a million copies. The public taste for experimental fiction had gone into sharp decline in the English speaking world. In France the situation was a little different and experimental fiction clung on longer, but it too went into decline there eventually.

Experimental fiction still exists, of course, but it has become a very niche concern. For instance I am putting together a book of my OuLiPo fictions and I don't expect that book to sell very well at all. But I don't read and write experimental fiction for commercial reasons; I involve myself in it just because I enjoy the challenge, the possibilities and the ramifications.

[rhysaurus]

John Barth's 'Frame-Tale', incidentally, is both the longest and shortest story in the world...
http://gloomyseahorse.blogspot.co.uk...rame-tale.html

[Speaking Mute]

Anyone looking for a modern experimental fiction would do well to scan the list of small presses at Entropy Magazine:

Small Press Database | ENTROPY

Atlas Press is one of the seminal publishers of European avante garde fiction that is still in existence - they've published many of the first English translations of everything from Dadaism to the Oulipo:

https://www.atlaspress.co.uk/

I mention Wakefield Press all the time because they've been my personal favorite over the last several years - there's some overlap with Atlas, but Wakefield also picks up authors that fell outside literary movements:

http://wakefieldpress.com/

A few specific classics gveranon skipped:

Les Chants de Maldoror - Lautréamont

The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr - Hoffman

The Book of Disquiet - Pessoa

A few recent books:

The Desert Places - Robert Kloss and Amber Sparks:

https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Places-Amber-Sparks/dp/0988480484

 

https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Places-Amber-Sparks/dp/0988480484

Dominoes - John Boden and K. Allen Wood

https://www.amazon.com/Dominoes-John-Boden/dp/0988272342/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494423856&sr=1-2&keywords=dominoes+book+horror

 

https://www.amazon.com/Dominoes-John-Boden/dp/0988272342/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494423856&sr=1-2&keywords=dominoes+book+horror

[In A Dark Light]

Thanks for the Entropy link Speaking Mute. That should prove invaluable.

Quote Originally Posted by In A Dark Light

I might as well start us off. Here's a piece from the aforementioned Joseph S Pulver, 'The Unmistakeable Shape of Night's River'. The Unmistakable Shape of Nights River, by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. | Lovecraft eZine

This is a good example of the type of experimental fiction that leaves me cold, and I am partial to stream of consciousness fiction when handled in a certain way. I wish the author well as at least they're trying, but I found that irritating to finish reading, and all I got from it was the impression the writer really wanted to impress people and let them know how hip and with it they are, but it came across as sort of.. hollow to me?

Perhaps I'm more conservative than I realised, but I like it when Justin Isis attempts material that I suppose would be considered avant-garde.

[In A Dark Light]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Quote Originally Posted by In A Dark Light I might as well start us off. Here's a piece from the aforementioned Joseph S Pulver, 'The Unmistakeable Shape of Night's River'. The Unmistakable Shape of Nights River, by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. | Lovecraft eZine This is a good example of the type of experimental fiction that leaves me cold, and I am partial to stream of consciousness fiction when handled in a certain way. I wish the author well as at least they're trying, but I found that irritating to finish reading, and all I got from it was the impression the writer really wanted to impress people and let them know how hip and with it they are, but it came across as sort of.. hollow and embarrassing to me? Perhaps I'm more conservative than I realised, but I like it when Justin Isis attempts similar material.

I've come across Justin Isis work before, though I've never actually read any. The titles of his work suggest something within the realms of 'Bizarro', which is a genre I can't get along with, even though I enjoy the experimental. Is his work actually in this line, or should I give him a shot?