Reading list

[Shweta]

1. Fundamentals

(Not that I have read these all yet, just that they seem definitional)

Interstitial fiction
Interfictions (http://www.lcrw.net/iaf/index.htm) anthology (Eds: Theodora Goss and Delia Sherman; Interfictions 2 is eds. Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak)

Slipstream
Feeling Very Strange (http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Very-Strange-Slipstream-Anthology/dp/189239135X) anthology (Eds: James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel)

New Weird
New Weird (http://www.amazon.com/New-Weird-Ann-VanderMeer/dp/1892391554) anthology (Eds: Ann and Jeff Vandermeer)
Probably also Jeff's City of Saints and Madmen (http://www.amazon.com/City-Saints-Madmen-Book-Ambergris/dp/1587154366)
The Leviathan (http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/levoverview/) anthology series


Cross-genre fiction in general
Polyphony anthology series (Wheatland press), Volume 6 (http://www.wheatlandpress.com/polyphony/v6.html) edited by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake.


2. Other recommendations
some snagged from the list below, not in any particular order, just whatever I know well enough to agree with, or you guys specifically flag as belonging in post #1:


Paper Cities (http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Cities-Anthology-Urban-Fantasy/dp/0979624606) anthology (Ed Ekaterina Sedia), though I wasn't entirely taken with it, definitely breaks open the borders of urban fantasy.
LCRW's best-of anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Best-Lady-Churchills-Rosebud-Wristlet/dp/0345499131).
As Cranky points out below, 100 years of solitude. It may not be any of the things we're doing now but it's influenced many or most of them, hasn't it?
Castle Waiting (http://www.amazon.com/Castle-Waiting-Linda-Medley/dp/1560977477) by Linda Medley.
In The Forest of Forgetting, by Theodora Goss
The Orphan's Tales books by Cathrynne M. Valente


<more to come>

Recommended writers:

JG Ballard
Jasper Fforde
Theodora Goss
China Mieville
Delia Sherman (especially her books for grownups)
Jeff Vandermeer

[eyeblink]

If you can get hold of it, Bruce Sterling's original article "Slipstream" in Science Fiction Eye #5. (And there's a much-missed non-fiction magazine.) His definition of the word, if memory serves, is different to what other people's have been since.

Four important anthologies which helped define "slipstream" fiction (in the UK anyway) are three edited and published by Christopher Kenworthy, The Sun Rises Red, Sugar Sleep and The Science of Sadness and a best-of from the first ten issues of The Third Alternative magazine, Last Rites and Resurrections, edited by Andy Cox. All of these are out of print, but I suspect you could find used copies in the usual places although I haven't checked.

[Shweta]

If you can get hold of it, Bruce Sterling's original article "Slipstream" in Science Fiction Eye #5. (And there's a much-missed non-fiction magazine.) His definition of the word, if memory serves, is different to what other people's have been since.
Yeah.
Lucky for us, Wikipedia quotes him :D


Four important anthologies which helped define "slipstream" fiction (in the UK anyway) are three edited and published by Christopher Kenworthy, The Sun Rises Red, Sugar Sleep and The Science of Sadness and a best-of from the first ten issues of The Third Alternative magazine, Last Rites and Resurrections, edited by Andy Cox. All of these are out of print, but I suspect you could find used copies in the usual places although I haven't checked.

Man, if I could only get a hold of those...

[Dawnstorm]

Yeah.
Lucky for us, Wikipedia quotes him :D

Even more lucky for us, wikipedia has a link.

And the Article has a reading list. See? (http://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Catscan_columns/catscan.05)

[Shweta]

ooooh.

[AMCrenshaw]

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney-- Urban Sci-fi with some mescaline.

Kafka on the Shore and The Elephant Vanishes: Stories by Haruki Murakami-- Magical realist, surrealist, irrealist. This Japanese writer blew up in popularity kinda recently. The characters often misbehave, interact with the universe in absurd ways. Murakami is not without his reference to mythology, so a little reading in Japanese mythology might help discern drawing the line between real and not. I typically enjoy letting the images go, letting the metaphors become concrete.

Memory and Desire by Charles de Lint-- the power of consciousness is to make tangible our deepest, hidden realities, even if at great costs.

Aegypt by John Crowley-- Whew. This is tough reading, in my opinion, but only because it's fantastical metafiction, so discerning realities is not so much an exercise as discerning what they mean. With some patience, though, Crowley's prose sweeps an attentive reader into what Gardner calls the fictional dream.

Last Dragon by J.M. Mcdermott-- Another difficult read. This features an unorthodox blend of narratives, many without time-differentiation, the organization of which I've found no pattern except that it resembles a more modern sense of what history is. In this story, it's not about often a distinction between reality and fantasy, but between truth and lie, sincerity and perception. Mcdermott shows how individual ambivalence and multiplicity creates a complex "web" of memory, individual and collective.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon-- I'm sort of at a loss for what to say. A sort of delving deep into schizo-culture.

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson-- "Historical" "fantasy" "romance," with a dizzying touch of magical realism. This novel is one of her more accessible in that it's less of a meta-fiction than, say, Sexing the Cherry. One of the central metaphors-- about hearts-- might endure the ages.

The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Reader -- essential reading of (Weird)*
Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges*

*People I consider founders or major figures in the development of the genre.



AMC

[eyeblink]

Man, if I could only get a hold of those...

If anyone wants to visit Aldershot, copies are on display in my flat. :)

I've just looked on Amazon UK and used copies of all four are available. The Sun Rises Red is a bit pricey, the other three are inexpensive.

[sunandshadow]

The Unlimited Dream Company by J.G. Ballard
The Luck In the Head graphic novel by John Harrison and Ian Miller
Cages graphic novel by Dave McKean

[eyeblink]

Pretty much most of Ballard, now you come to mention it.

Also Christopher Priest - The Affirmation especially

[Shweta]

In the Graphic Novel group, I'd add Castle Waiting (http://www.amazon.com/Castle-Waiting-Linda-Medley/dp/1560977477) by Linda Medley.

And query on two more:
1) Blankets by CraigThompson? It's arguably just memoir, but it's memoir turned into story; unclear how literally accurate rather than emotionally accurate it's meant to be.

2) And Watchmen? It's its own thing now, but when it was written it challenged superhero genre assumptions to the point of busting them open, didn't it? And it's an odd combination of comic and "files".

[Cranky]

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney-- Urban Sci-fi with some mescaline.

Kafka on the Shore and The Elephant Vanishes: Stories by Haruki Murakami-- Magical realist, surrealist, irrealist. This Japanese writer blew up in popularity kinda recently. The characters often misbehave, interact with the universe in absurd ways. Murakami is not without his reference to mythology, so a little reading in Japanese mythology might help discern drawing the line between real and not. I typically enjoy letting the images go, letting the metaphors become concrete.

Memory and Desire by Charles de Lint-- the power of consciousness is to make tangible our deepest, hidden realities, even if at great costs.

Aegypt by John Crowley-- Whew. This is tough reading, in my opinion, but only because it's fantastical metafiction, so discerning realities is not so much an exercise as discerning what they mean. With some patience, though, Crowley's prose sweeps an attentive reader into what Gardner calls the fictional dream.

Last Dragon by J.M. Mcdermott-- Another difficult read. This features an unorthodox blend of narratives, many without time-differentiation, the organization of which I've found no pattern except that it resembles a more modern sense of what history is. In this story, it's not about often a distinction between reality and fantasy, but between truth and lie, sincerity and perception. Mcdermott shows how individual ambivalence and multiplicity creates a complex "web" of memory, individual and collective.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon-- I'm sort of at a loss for what to say. A sort of delving deep into schizo-culture.

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson-- "Historical" "fantasy" "romance," with a dizzying touch of magical realism. This novel is one of her more accessible in that it's less of a meta-fiction than, say, Sexing the Cherry. One of the central metaphors-- about hearts-- might endure the ages.

The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Reader -- essential reading of (Weird)*
Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges*

*People I consider founders or major figures in the development of the genre.



AMC

Nice list! I already had The Crying of Lot 49, and thanks to your recc'y, I *just* ordered The Elephant Vanishes: Stories from Amazon. Yippee! :) Oh, along with one that wasn't on any of the lists I saw here (maybe it doesn't fit?) 100 Years of Solitude.

[Shweta]

So I'm editing post #1 as I understand to be appropriate -- I see it as the summary. Necessarily affected by my biases/limits of knowledge, so if anything is canonical/definitional, please flag it as such and tell me which category to put it under, and I'll add it to post #1.

[Esopha]

Vandermeer's Shriek: An Afterword was my maiden voyage into new weird. I liked it!

How do we feel about China Mieville? Sometimes he does interstitial, and sometimes it's more mainstream...

[AMCrenshaw]

China Mieville is generally called "New Weird" or Urban Fantasy.

Probably fits here.



AMC

[eyeblink]

Another specifically slipstream anthology is Subtle Edens, edited by Allen Ashley and published last year by Elastic Press.

[badducky]

Italo Calvino, especially "...if on a winter's night, a traveler" and "Cosmicomics"

You mention Marquez as an influence, Shweta, but leave off Borges? For shame.

Be sure to check out Kelly Link, and Hal Duncan.

I recommend the short story "Lull", and Hal Duncan's "Ink" and "Vellum".

[Shweta]

eep! It's a work in progress. I'm not "not mentioning" people yet!
It's just who comes to mind when.
And I'm not very with it just now...

[AMCrenshaw]

A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay. I think this is a must-read for any SF/F or Interstitial reader. One of the best books ever written, in my opinion.

AMC

[Dawnstorm]

New Weird (http://www.amazon.com/New-Weird-Ann-VanderMeer/dp/1892391554) anthology (Eds: Ann and Jeff Vandermeer)


Why I love Jeff Vandermeer:

From a FAQ (http://vanderworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/new-weird-anthology-knives-out.html) on his blog about the anthology (written before it actually came out):

[Q:]You hate New Weird as a term. You're on the record about that. You're a hypocrite.
[A:]No, I can just hold two semi-opposing ideas in my head at the same time without going mad.

:D

[LaceWing]

http://www.poormojo.org/cgi-bin/miki.pl?Squid

[Quark]

I'd recommend:


Magical Realism: Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell
Prose Poetry: Russell Edson (I'm kind of in love with Edson's writing right now).

[Dandroid]

i imagine that mark danielewski fits here

[Marya]

I'd recommend award-winning Brit writer Nina Allen too -- a couple of her short stories give me chills.

Her website The Spider's House is here

http://www.ninaallan.co.uk/