Episode 019 - Weird Fiction

In this 1 hour and 25 minute episode of our podcast/never-ending quest to become better library staff we talk about Weird and New Weird Fiction! We have a few audio problems this time out (blame Matthew), but we don’t let that stop us discussing the difference between Weird and New Weird, how to make everything about ghost stories, whether you need elements of the fantastic to be considered “Weird”, and existential dread. Plus: Our special guest Jon (who’s getting his PhD in Weird Fiction) drops big words like Oneiric and talks about things like the paradox of aversion, so be ready for that.

You can download the podcast on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes or your favourite podcast delivery system.  

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Recommended

Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer 3 Strange Tales by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa Uzumaki, vol. 1 by Junji Ito (graphic novel) A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates Age of Blight: Stories by Kristine Ong Muslim My Work is Not Yet Done: Three Tales of Corporate Horror by Thomas Ligotti Year's Best Weird Fiction, Volume One edited by Laird Barron Sensuous Science Fiction from the Weird and Spicy Pulps edited by Sheldon Jaffery (only recommended if you have very dubious taste like Matthew does…) Enigma at Amigara Fault by Junji Ito (illegal scan of the comic)

Did Not Finish

The Big Book of Ghost Stories edited by Otto Penzler The Small Hand and Dolly by Susan Hill The Summer of the Ubume by Natsuhiko Kyogoku The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (Recommended) Cogwheel and Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa Get in Trouble by Kelly Link The Scar by China Miéville (Recommended) Searchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic edited by S.T. Joshi

Other books mentioned

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World by Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez (the super racist bit Matthew mentioned) The Horror at Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle The Gormenghast Novels by Mervyn Peake (Recommended) Perdido Street Station by China Miéville City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (graphic novel) Superman: Red Son (graphic novel) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (Recommended) Solaris by Stanisław Lem The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture by Bernice M. Murphy Gyo by Junji Ito (graphic novel) The Rook by Daniel O'Malley (Recommended)

Links and Other Things

Weird Fiction (Wikipedia) New Weird  (Wikipedia) Lord Dunsany (Wikipedia) H.P. Lovecraft (Wikipedia) Arthur Machen (Wikipedia) Call of Cthulhu RPG (Wikipedia) Speculative fiction (Wikipedia) Slipstream (Wikipedia) Cyberpunk (Wikipedia) Cyberpunk derivatives (Wikipedia) Fourteen Notable Women Writers of the Weird from Weird Fiction Review China Miéville's top 10 weird fiction books from The Guardian Matthew’s list of Batman books and comics for every genre we cover (he can’t find a Historical Romance one, any suggestions?) DC Elseworlds comics (Wikipedia) Akutagawa Prize the prize named after the early 20th century Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Wikipedia) The Dungeon Dimensions from the Discworld books (Wikipedia) From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey article from The Atlantic that talks about the dental surgery origins of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation SCP Foundation: Secure, Contain, Protect We Need To Talk About Fifty-Five - The first of the SCP stories that caused Matthew to have crazy dreams SCP-087 - The one about the staircase SCP-093 - The one about the mirror SCP-914 - The one about the Rough/Coarse/Fine machine Brotherhood of Dada (Wikipedia) Solaris (1972 film) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (Wikipedia) Spicy Library Stories - Matthew’s ridiculous zine Gormenghast TV show (Wikipedia) Neverwhere TV show (Wikipedia) (and its rather terrible “Beast of London”) Alien Isolation video game (Wikipedia) Goosebumps series of books (Wikipedia) Rick and Morty TV show (Wikipedia) It Follows movie (Wikipedia) Arkham Horror the board game The weird map thing with rotating rooms Matthew made for an Achtung! Cthulhu game Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (link to the actual story) (also a board game!) Welcome to Night Vale the humourous weird fiction podcast we completely failed to mention

This blog post about Masochistic Reading features our second mention on Book Riot! Also, check out Jon’s blog where he writes up some of the Weird D&D adventures that he runs! And thanks to Sam and Aly from the SS Librarianship podcast for letting us use their recording space and equipment!

Questions

What is your definition of weird fiction? Can you have weird non-fiction? Can you recommend some outer space weird fiction?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the books about Weird Fiction people in the club read (or tried to read), follow us on Twitter, and join our Facebook Group!

Join us again on Tuesday, January 3rd, for our Best of 2016 episode! Then come back on Tuesday, January 17th, when we discuss Coming-of-Age books!