Monsters are making serious coin. Zombies add $5 billion to the economy, according to a
Wall Street financial analyst. The Mummy has generated $1.5 billion at the box office in
recent years—enough to buy his own Pyramid and a lifetime supply of tana leaves.
Frankenstein and Dracula don’t file tax returns, but they must earn as much as
investment bankers. I was hardly surprised when the leading job website called itself
Monster.com—there's gold in scaring people.
So I feel sorry for poor old Grendel. He was the first monster in the English language—
making his appearance in the Old English epic Beowulf, the first great literary work in
the language. Yet where is his movie franchise? Where are his licensing deals? You can't
even find a lousy Grendel T-shirt, let alone a scary Halloween costume.
Thank heavens for John Gardner, our forsaken monster's
only advocate. In his 1971 novel Grendel, Gardner flip-
flopped the Beowulf epic and made it about the villain.
Gardner had published two previous novels, without
much success, when he tackled the unlikely project of
updating a story that was more than one thousand years
old, and almost never read except by students assigned
Beowulf as a class assignment. (Count me in that group:
I read Beowulf only because Stanford wouldn't give me a
degree in English literature if I didn't do so.) Yet Gardner
had learned, when teaching a class on Anglo-Saxon
literature, that this old story made more sense to students
when described in terms of modern philosophical currents.
Gardner told his class that "Grendel is symbolic of the
rational soul gone perverse." He continues: "Somebody
asked me in class if that was just old-fashioned Christian
talk, or was it possible in the modern world for the rational
soul to go perverse. I said 'Sure, Sartre’s Existentialism is
perverse rationality.' As soon as I said it I realized what I
was going to do, I and I began planning Grendel."
The time was ripe for Grendel. As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, the mass audience had
gone beyond the concept of the anti-hero and was embracing the more radical notion of
the noble evil-doer. This could be seen in cinema—in breakthrough films such as Bonnie
and Clyde, Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Godfather. It was
evident in music; “Sympathy for the Devil” was getting airplay even as Gardner worked
on his manuscript and "“I Shot the Sheriff" was recorded shortly after Grendel’s release.
It was especially evident in fiction, demonstrated in books as diverse Wide Sargasso Sea,
In Cold Blood, The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Carrie.
In this new state of affairs, Grendel the monster became
the loveable rebel without a cause, and the traditional
heroes—Hrothgar, king of the Danes, Unferth and
Beowulf himself—emerge as tainted representatives of the
establishment, upholders of a system built on self-serving
lies and barely-disguised violence. This gives Gardner a
pretext for turning his novel about a sixth century hero into
a critique of twentieth century sociocultural practices. Indeed,
the most riveting interludes in this novel are not the fights
or 'action scenes' but rather those moments of insight in
which we see the familiar attributes of our own day in strange
new guises.
In the worldview of Gardner’s Grendel, culture is a deceitful
construct that hides the essential meaninglessness of
existence. The most intriguing character in the novel is
neither the hero Beowulf nor the monster Grendel, but the bard who sings mesmerizing
songs for the King and his court. This poet possesses the most magical power of all: he
can turn the brutality of the everyday world into something glorious and inspiring. Even
Grendel is fascinated by these songs, wanting to believe their lies, though he knows
better. Grendel has heard the inside scoop from a cynical dragon, who can see all past,
present and future, and warns against believing these beguiling fairy tales. But even a
monster finds it impossible to resist the charm of the poetic imagination.
Reading these passages, I couldn't help but recall my favorite scene from Homer’s
Odyssey. Odysseus has returned to his native Ithaca, and is killing off the suitors one
at a time. He doesn’t stop until his vengeance is sated, and all the freeloaders in his
household are slain. But he makes one exception: the bard who was singing for the
entertainment of the suitors is spared. I can’t help but believe that Homer saw himself
in that role, and demanded what we might nowadays call poetic license. All the revelers
get punished, in this roughshod Homeric jurisprudence, but the poet is above the law.
The same kind of license is exercised by the bards of Gardner’s novel, who actually have
more influence than kings in shaping the attitudes and aspiration of the royal entourage.
In the Beowulf epic, the appearance of Grendel is
never described, but we are told that he is
sceadugenga, which translates as a shadow-goer.
He strikes in darkness, much like the vampires of
superstition and pop culture. We are told, also, that
Grendel is a descendant of Cain, one of the few
direct evocations of Christianity in a narrative that
is drenched in Pagan attitudes. Grendel is eventually
slain by the warrior Beowulf, who upholds the values of
courage and blood justice. Perhaps, in a technical way,
Beowulf might be called a savior—he has saved the lives of Hrothgar and his thanes. But
he couldn’t be less similar to the Christian concept of a savior, with its celebration of self-
sacrifice and meek surrender to the violence of others.
Grendel is the real sacrificial victim here. He approaches his death at the hands of the hero,
with a strange mix of repulsion and attraction. To the end he holds on to the cynicism
learned from the dragon, insisting that only mere chance gives Beowulf the victory. But
he also grasps that the persnickety and willful ignorance of humans will allow them to
turn this meaningless incident into something foundational and constitutive—in this
case, an epic poem at the heart of Anglo-American self-identity.
This is never explicitly stated in the novel, but it doesn't need to be. We already know
Grendel's fate: he is destined to serve as the archetypal monster of English literature.
He will be studied by future centuries, a monster allowed into the canon of great literary
sagas. Even I will be forced to imbibe his tale and its justifications of Girardian
reciprocal violence—to the extent that my bachelor’s degree will be withheld from
me if I refuse! And if, as some suggest, all cultures are defined by what they oppose
and exclude, what they attempt to extirpate, then Grendel becomes that supercharged
kind of victim—one who brings a new world into life through his bloody demise.
Is it a beautiful world? Is it a peaceful world? Hardly. In this instance, the circle of
reciprocal violence will continue. In the Beowulf epic, the slaughter of Grendel is
followed by the killing of his mother—an incident prefigured in Gardner’s novel, but
left out of the narrative. But more than that, we also know the long, bloody history of
the succeeding centuries of English history, and can’t help but see the dominance of
the values of vengeance and blood justice celebrated back at the dawn of Anglo-Saxon
storytelling. This history may look grand in the rearview mirror, perhaps even heroic,
but one of the lessons of John Gardner's Grendel is that we do well to question the
nature of this glory, even when (or perhaps especially when) we fall under its spell.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from
Basic Books.
Publication Date: August 6, 2016
Wall Street financial analyst. The Mummy has generated $1.5 billion at the box office in
recent years—enough to buy his own Pyramid and a lifetime supply of tana leaves.
Frankenstein and Dracula don’t file tax returns, but they must earn as much as
investment bankers. I was hardly surprised when the leading job website called itself
Monster.com—there's gold in scaring people.
So I feel sorry for poor old Grendel. He was the first monster in the English language—
making his appearance in the Old English epic Beowulf, the first great literary work in
the language. Yet where is his movie franchise? Where are his licensing deals? You can't
even find a lousy Grendel T-shirt, let alone a scary Halloween costume.
Thank heavens for John Gardner, our forsaken monster's
only advocate. In his 1971 novel Grendel, Gardner flip-
flopped the Beowulf epic and made it about the villain.
Gardner had published two previous novels, without
much success, when he tackled the unlikely project of
updating a story that was more than one thousand years
old, and almost never read except by students assigned
Beowulf as a class assignment. (Count me in that group:
I read Beowulf only because Stanford wouldn't give me a
degree in English literature if I didn't do so.) Yet Gardner
had learned, when teaching a class on Anglo-Saxon
literature, that this old story made more sense to students
when described in terms of modern philosophical currents.
Gardner told his class that "Grendel is symbolic of the
rational soul gone perverse." He continues: "Somebody
asked me in class if that was just old-fashioned Christian
talk, or was it possible in the modern world for the rational
soul to go perverse. I said 'Sure, Sartre’s Existentialism is
perverse rationality.' As soon as I said it I realized what I
was going to do, I and I began planning Grendel."
The time was ripe for Grendel. As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, the mass audience had
gone beyond the concept of the anti-hero and was embracing the more radical notion of
the noble evil-doer. This could be seen in cinema—in breakthrough films such as Bonnie
and Clyde, Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Godfather. It was
evident in music; “Sympathy for the Devil” was getting airplay even as Gardner worked
on his manuscript and "“I Shot the Sheriff" was recorded shortly after Grendel’s release.
It was especially evident in fiction, demonstrated in books as diverse Wide Sargasso Sea,
In Cold Blood, The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Carrie.
In this new state of affairs, Grendel the monster became
the loveable rebel without a cause, and the traditional
heroes—Hrothgar, king of the Danes, Unferth and
Beowulf himself—emerge as tainted representatives of the
establishment, upholders of a system built on self-serving
lies and barely-disguised violence. This gives Gardner a
pretext for turning his novel about a sixth century hero into
a critique of twentieth century sociocultural practices. Indeed,
the most riveting interludes in this novel are not the fights
or 'action scenes' but rather those moments of insight in
which we see the familiar attributes of our own day in strange
new guises.
In the worldview of Gardner’s Grendel, culture is a deceitful
construct that hides the essential meaninglessness of
existence. The most intriguing character in the novel is
neither the hero Beowulf nor the monster Grendel, but the bard who sings mesmerizing
songs for the King and his court. This poet possesses the most magical power of all: he
can turn the brutality of the everyday world into something glorious and inspiring. Even
Grendel is fascinated by these songs, wanting to believe their lies, though he knows
better. Grendel has heard the inside scoop from a cynical dragon, who can see all past,
present and future, and warns against believing these beguiling fairy tales. But even a
monster finds it impossible to resist the charm of the poetic imagination.
Reading these passages, I couldn't help but recall my favorite scene from Homer’s
Odyssey. Odysseus has returned to his native Ithaca, and is killing off the suitors one
at a time. He doesn’t stop until his vengeance is sated, and all the freeloaders in his
household are slain. But he makes one exception: the bard who was singing for the
entertainment of the suitors is spared. I can’t help but believe that Homer saw himself
in that role, and demanded what we might nowadays call poetic license. All the revelers
get punished, in this roughshod Homeric jurisprudence, but the poet is above the law.
The same kind of license is exercised by the bards of Gardner’s novel, who actually have
more influence than kings in shaping the attitudes and aspiration of the royal entourage.
In the Beowulf epic, the appearance of Grendel is
never described, but we are told that he is
sceadugenga, which translates as a shadow-goer.
He strikes in darkness, much like the vampires of
superstition and pop culture. We are told, also, that
Grendel is a descendant of Cain, one of the few
direct evocations of Christianity in a narrative that
is drenched in Pagan attitudes. Grendel is eventually
slain by the warrior Beowulf, who upholds the values of
courage and blood justice. Perhaps, in a technical way,
Beowulf might be called a savior—he has saved the lives of Hrothgar and his thanes. But
he couldn’t be less similar to the Christian concept of a savior, with its celebration of self-
sacrifice and meek surrender to the violence of others.
Grendel is the real sacrificial victim here. He approaches his death at the hands of the hero,
with a strange mix of repulsion and attraction. To the end he holds on to the cynicism
learned from the dragon, insisting that only mere chance gives Beowulf the victory. But
he also grasps that the persnickety and willful ignorance of humans will allow them to
turn this meaningless incident into something foundational and constitutive—in this
case, an epic poem at the heart of Anglo-American self-identity.
This is never explicitly stated in the novel, but it doesn't need to be. We already know
Grendel's fate: he is destined to serve as the archetypal monster of English literature.
He will be studied by future centuries, a monster allowed into the canon of great literary
sagas. Even I will be forced to imbibe his tale and its justifications of Girardian
reciprocal violence—to the extent that my bachelor’s degree will be withheld from
me if I refuse! And if, as some suggest, all cultures are defined by what they oppose
and exclude, what they attempt to extirpate, then Grendel becomes that supercharged
kind of victim—one who brings a new world into life through his bloody demise.
Is it a beautiful world? Is it a peaceful world? Hardly. In this instance, the circle of
reciprocal violence will continue. In the Beowulf epic, the slaughter of Grendel is
followed by the killing of his mother—an incident prefigured in Gardner’s novel, but
left out of the narrative. But more than that, we also know the long, bloody history of
the succeeding centuries of English history, and can’t help but see the dominance of
the values of vengeance and blood justice celebrated back at the dawn of Anglo-Saxon
storytelling. This history may look grand in the rearview mirror, perhaps even heroic,
but one of the lessons of John Gardner's Grendel is that we do well to question the
nature of this glory, even when (or perhaps especially when) we fall under its spell.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from
Basic Books.
Publication Date: August 6, 2016
This is my year of horrible reading.
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
My Year of Horrible Reading
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
Week 18:
Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
Week 19
The Woman in the Dunes
by Kōbō Abe
Week 20
The Dark Eidolon
by Clark Ashton Smith
Week 21
Off Season
by Jack Ketchum
Week 22
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
by Clive Barker
Week 23
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Week 24
The Orange Eats Creeps
by Grace Krilanovich
Week 25
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Week 26
Psycho
by Robert Bloch
Week 27
Fledgling
by Octavia E. Butler
Week 28
Demons by Daylight
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 29
The Complete Short Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
Week 30
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
Week 31
Our Lady of Darkness
by Fritz Leiber
Week 32
Grendel
by John Gardner
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
Week 18:
Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
Week 19
The Woman in the Dunes
by Kōbō Abe
Week 20
The Dark Eidolon
by Clark Ashton Smith
Week 21
Off Season
by Jack Ketchum
Week 22
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
by Clive Barker
Week 23
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Week 24
The Orange Eats Creeps
by Grace Krilanovich
Week 25
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Week 26
Psycho
by Robert Bloch
Week 27
Fledgling
by Octavia E. Butler
Week 28
Demons by Daylight
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 29
The Complete Short Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
Week 30
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
Week 31
Our Lady of Darkness
by Fritz Leiber
Week 32
Grendel
by John Gardner
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
| How the First Monster in Our Culture Grew Up to Become an Existentialist Hero |
To purchase, click on image
By Ted Gioia
He was the first monster in
the English language, but
where is his movie franchise?
Where are his licensing deals?
You can't even find a lousy
Grendel T-shirt.
the English language, but
where is his movie franchise?
Where are his licensing deals?
You can't even find a lousy
Grendel T-shirt.
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gardner, John
Grendel
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Our Lady of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gardner, John
Grendel
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Our Lady of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
| John Gardner |
| A Look Back at John Gardner's Grendel |