Who first came up with the strange notion of combining horror and comedy? Try counting
the jokes in an H.P. Lovecraft story, and you won’t even get into the low single digits. Bram
Stoker doesn’t give Count Dracula any witty one-liners, and Mary Shelley makes her
Frankenstein monster almost exactly like a real human, except for the noticeably absent
sense of humor. Nor do you find this mixture in Edgar Allan Poe. Poe wrote some comic
sketches and stories (not very well, I must add), but never tried to add humor to his scary
tales.
Yet when Roger Corman was making his Edgar Allan Poe
movies more than a century later, he discovered that
audiences responded favorably to humorous elements.
You can actually trace his learning curve over the course
of his eight Poe films—the early efforts stay close to horror
film formulas, but Corman gradually learned that comic
ingredients enhanced the audience appeal of his movies.
When he first embarked on these films, the director had
viewed Poe’s oeuvre as an platform for a more psychological
approach to horror. “I felt that Poe and Freud had been
working in different ways toward a concept of the unconscious
mind,” he later explained. But by the time he had arrived at
The Raven (1963), Corman had settled on a different approach,
filled with dark humor, and enlivened by the comic talents of
his actors, especially the combo of Peter Lorre and Jack
Nicholson, who were cast as unlikely father and son in a film
that became the most profitable of the Poe films to that date.
Later horror film directors learned from Corman’s example.
But I can’t give Corman credit for inventing the comedy and horror combination. The
real launching pad—at least within the confines of Hollywood—had come fifteen years
earlier with Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein (1948). This film was Universal
Pictures' rule-breaking attempt to instill new life into its flagging monster movie franchise
with the addition of the hottest comedy duo of the era. The film proved so successful that
the studio cooked up low-quality sequels matching the comedians with the Mummy,
the Invisible Man and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. These films will never show up on a list
of cinematic masterpieces, but they helped define formulas that still can be found in
current-day cinematic offerings.
Yet the most relevant antecedent to my present subject, the novel John Dies at the End,
is none of these, but rather the distinctive style of slacker horror comedy associated with
the Ghostbusters franchise. Here the comedy is often deadpan and rude, the heroes not
even valiant enough to qualify as anti-heroes. They are people who deal with supernatural
phenomena because they don’t have the skills to get a better job. They confront monsters,
but invariably the supernatural creatures are ridiculous ones, outlandish characters
who themselves would be seen as losers in this monster world. Instead of a mesmerizing
Count Dracula, we have a huge marshmallow man.
Jason Pargin, writing under the name David Wong, captures precisely this tone and
ambiance in John Dies at the End. His protagonists, two buddies John and Dave (yes,
the same Dave Wong who is ostensibly the author of the book) are deadbeats who can't
even fulfill their meager responsibilities as clerks in a second-rate video rental store.
Most of the clients really ought to go to the Blockbuster outlet down the street.
But the monsters John and Dave battle are an even more pathetic bunch. In the course of
this novel, readers will encounter a creature made of assorted pieces of meat, a demented
Ronald McDonald display figure come to life, a gorilla riding a giant crab, and an angry
figure on the inside of a television pounding on the screen in an attempt to break out of
the box. For variety, Pargin mixes in spiders, snakes, cockroaches, and always in large
quantities. Even Moses never mustered so many swarms and plagues. For a change up,
Wong dishes out shadow people, astral projections, and a variety of smart (and
occasionally cute) animals.
The plot advances with all of the subtlety of a
wacko video game. When Dave and John
overcome one creepy monster, they don’t get
much time to celebrate before another more
disgusting one arrives on the scene. I’ve never
read a novel with more bizarre scenes, but unlike
other books that involve surprising happenings,
this one skips over the boring parts in which the
author explains what just took place. If you are
inclined to ask hard questions—such as "Why did
those meat products form together into a human-
shape and go on the rampage?" or "Why was the
gorilla riding on top of a giant crab?"—this is not
the book for you. You won’t get answers, just more oddities in the pages ahead.
By any normal standards—for example, those taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—
this novel must be considered another loser, along with Dave and John and their stink-
up-the-place adversaries from an abandoned abattoir. Yet this book somehow works,
despite the glaring gaps and inconsistencies. Indeed, you might even call it the defining
work of slacker horror fiction—although that label raises the disturbing thought that
publishing imprints might give us more such stories in the future.
In any event, it’s a lowbrow, populist masterwork, not dissimilar to the aforementioned
Ghostbusters, or Mel Brooks’s zanier films, or the narratives of Terry Pratchett and
Douglas Adams. In such efforts, you don’t seek tightly-controlled plots and multiple
levels of symbolism. You are given spectacles and laughs and a can-you-top-this series
of scenes and set pieces. Genre conventions are used and abused, delicate sensibilities
are tweaked, and audience outrage invited at every turn. For those who require trigger
warnings, a new one would be needed every sixty seconds, more or less.
Writing of this sort seems to invite disdain. You can almost hear 'Dave Wong' muttering
to himself behind the scenes: “Take your literary standards and use them to clean up
dog droppings.” In fact, he may even use those exact words at some point in this novel.
But it’s harder to write a successful book of this sort than you might think. Without the
benefit of coherence and character development, the author always operates on a
tightrope. Each page must deliver something funny or striking. The readers may be
suckers, but the author has to be a P.T. Barnum suckering them in at every step with
marvels and amusements. Many storytellers have attempted to write campy and
eccentric books of this sort, and have pratfallen prone on their proboscis.
But 'Dave Wong' (aka Jason Pargin) somehow manages to pull it off. He is, I’m forced
to admit, one of the more adept comic writers around, and displays a mastery of all the
building blocks of humorous fiction—understatement, overstatement, puns, one-liners,
misdirection, slapstick, parody, etc. I’m not sure where he learned these skills. When
he wrote John Dies at the End, he was working as copy editor at a law firm, where his
responsibilities included scrutinizing the text of insurance claims. This isn't exactly a
Harvard Lampoon apprenticeship.
I started reading this novel as a skeptic. I hesitated even before buying it. The cover and
the blurbs seemed targeted at fraternity wastoids. Even the praise of the book’s fans
made me apprehensive. ("It is like an H.P. Lovecraft tale if Lovecraft were into poop and
fart jokes.") With enthusiastic friends like these, who needs enemies? But Pargin delivers
the goods, page after page, and with enough consistency to keep the reader turning the
pages.
Yes, Poe would have been outraged. Lovecraft would have scorned it. Bram Stoker would
have shot it with a silver bullet, and maybe even hammered a stake into the middle of
the cover for good measure. But don’t let reasonable people dissuade you from reading
this book. What do reasonable people know about slacker horror, anyway? This novel is
the slackest of them all, and likely to remain so until pigs sprout wings and hell freezes
over—both of which I expect in Wong's sequel.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from
Basic Books.
Publication Date: October 18, 2016
the jokes in an H.P. Lovecraft story, and you won’t even get into the low single digits. Bram
Stoker doesn’t give Count Dracula any witty one-liners, and Mary Shelley makes her
Frankenstein monster almost exactly like a real human, except for the noticeably absent
sense of humor. Nor do you find this mixture in Edgar Allan Poe. Poe wrote some comic
sketches and stories (not very well, I must add), but never tried to add humor to his scary
tales.
Yet when Roger Corman was making his Edgar Allan Poe
movies more than a century later, he discovered that
audiences responded favorably to humorous elements.
You can actually trace his learning curve over the course
of his eight Poe films—the early efforts stay close to horror
film formulas, but Corman gradually learned that comic
ingredients enhanced the audience appeal of his movies.
When he first embarked on these films, the director had
viewed Poe’s oeuvre as an platform for a more psychological
approach to horror. “I felt that Poe and Freud had been
working in different ways toward a concept of the unconscious
mind,” he later explained. But by the time he had arrived at
The Raven (1963), Corman had settled on a different approach,
filled with dark humor, and enlivened by the comic talents of
his actors, especially the combo of Peter Lorre and Jack
Nicholson, who were cast as unlikely father and son in a film
that became the most profitable of the Poe films to that date.
Later horror film directors learned from Corman’s example.
But I can’t give Corman credit for inventing the comedy and horror combination. The
real launching pad—at least within the confines of Hollywood—had come fifteen years
earlier with Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein (1948). This film was Universal
Pictures' rule-breaking attempt to instill new life into its flagging monster movie franchise
with the addition of the hottest comedy duo of the era. The film proved so successful that
the studio cooked up low-quality sequels matching the comedians with the Mummy,
the Invisible Man and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. These films will never show up on a list
of cinematic masterpieces, but they helped define formulas that still can be found in
current-day cinematic offerings.
Yet the most relevant antecedent to my present subject, the novel John Dies at the End,
is none of these, but rather the distinctive style of slacker horror comedy associated with
the Ghostbusters franchise. Here the comedy is often deadpan and rude, the heroes not
even valiant enough to qualify as anti-heroes. They are people who deal with supernatural
phenomena because they don’t have the skills to get a better job. They confront monsters,
but invariably the supernatural creatures are ridiculous ones, outlandish characters
who themselves would be seen as losers in this monster world. Instead of a mesmerizing
Count Dracula, we have a huge marshmallow man.
Jason Pargin, writing under the name David Wong, captures precisely this tone and
ambiance in John Dies at the End. His protagonists, two buddies John and Dave (yes,
the same Dave Wong who is ostensibly the author of the book) are deadbeats who can't
even fulfill their meager responsibilities as clerks in a second-rate video rental store.
Most of the clients really ought to go to the Blockbuster outlet down the street.
But the monsters John and Dave battle are an even more pathetic bunch. In the course of
this novel, readers will encounter a creature made of assorted pieces of meat, a demented
Ronald McDonald display figure come to life, a gorilla riding a giant crab, and an angry
figure on the inside of a television pounding on the screen in an attempt to break out of
the box. For variety, Pargin mixes in spiders, snakes, cockroaches, and always in large
quantities. Even Moses never mustered so many swarms and plagues. For a change up,
Wong dishes out shadow people, astral projections, and a variety of smart (and
occasionally cute) animals.
The plot advances with all of the subtlety of a
wacko video game. When Dave and John
overcome one creepy monster, they don’t get
much time to celebrate before another more
disgusting one arrives on the scene. I’ve never
read a novel with more bizarre scenes, but unlike
other books that involve surprising happenings,
this one skips over the boring parts in which the
author explains what just took place. If you are
inclined to ask hard questions—such as "Why did
those meat products form together into a human-
shape and go on the rampage?" or "Why was the
gorilla riding on top of a giant crab?"—this is not
the book for you. You won’t get answers, just more oddities in the pages ahead.
By any normal standards—for example, those taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—
this novel must be considered another loser, along with Dave and John and their stink-
up-the-place adversaries from an abandoned abattoir. Yet this book somehow works,
despite the glaring gaps and inconsistencies. Indeed, you might even call it the defining
work of slacker horror fiction—although that label raises the disturbing thought that
publishing imprints might give us more such stories in the future.
In any event, it’s a lowbrow, populist masterwork, not dissimilar to the aforementioned
Ghostbusters, or Mel Brooks’s zanier films, or the narratives of Terry Pratchett and
Douglas Adams. In such efforts, you don’t seek tightly-controlled plots and multiple
levels of symbolism. You are given spectacles and laughs and a can-you-top-this series
of scenes and set pieces. Genre conventions are used and abused, delicate sensibilities
are tweaked, and audience outrage invited at every turn. For those who require trigger
warnings, a new one would be needed every sixty seconds, more or less.
Writing of this sort seems to invite disdain. You can almost hear 'Dave Wong' muttering
to himself behind the scenes: “Take your literary standards and use them to clean up
dog droppings.” In fact, he may even use those exact words at some point in this novel.
But it’s harder to write a successful book of this sort than you might think. Without the
benefit of coherence and character development, the author always operates on a
tightrope. Each page must deliver something funny or striking. The readers may be
suckers, but the author has to be a P.T. Barnum suckering them in at every step with
marvels and amusements. Many storytellers have attempted to write campy and
eccentric books of this sort, and have pratfallen prone on their proboscis.
But 'Dave Wong' (aka Jason Pargin) somehow manages to pull it off. He is, I’m forced
to admit, one of the more adept comic writers around, and displays a mastery of all the
building blocks of humorous fiction—understatement, overstatement, puns, one-liners,
misdirection, slapstick, parody, etc. I’m not sure where he learned these skills. When
he wrote John Dies at the End, he was working as copy editor at a law firm, where his
responsibilities included scrutinizing the text of insurance claims. This isn't exactly a
Harvard Lampoon apprenticeship.
I started reading this novel as a skeptic. I hesitated even before buying it. The cover and
the blurbs seemed targeted at fraternity wastoids. Even the praise of the book’s fans
made me apprehensive. ("It is like an H.P. Lovecraft tale if Lovecraft were into poop and
fart jokes.") With enthusiastic friends like these, who needs enemies? But Pargin delivers
the goods, page after page, and with enough consistency to keep the reader turning the
pages.
Yes, Poe would have been outraged. Lovecraft would have scorned it. Bram Stoker would
have shot it with a silver bullet, and maybe even hammered a stake into the middle of
the cover for good measure. But don’t let reasonable people dissuade you from reading
this book. What do reasonable people know about slacker horror, anyway? This novel is
the slackest of them all, and likely to remain so until pigs sprout wings and hell freezes
over—both of which I expect in Wong's sequel.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from
Basic Books.
Publication Date: October 18, 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 33
White is for Witching
by Helen Oyeyemi
Week 34
The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks
Week 35
King Kong
by Edgar Wallace
Week 36
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
Week 37
The John Silence Stories
by Algernon Blackwood
Week 38
The Magic Toyshop
by Angela Carter
Week 39
The Other
by Thomas Tryon
Week 40
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Week 41
Ghost Story
by Peter Straub
Week 42
John Dies at the End
by David Wong
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 33
White is for Witching
by Helen Oyeyemi
Week 34
The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks
Week 35
King Kong
by Edgar Wallace
Week 36
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
Week 37
The John Silence Stories
by Algernon Blackwood
Week 38
The Magic Toyshop
by Angela Carter
Week 39
The Other
by Thomas Tryon
Week 40
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Week 41
Ghost Story
by Peter Straub
Week 42
John Dies at the End
by David Wong
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
Horror for Slackers The Shameful Success of John Dies at the End |
Essay by Ted Gioia
| To purchase, click on image |
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
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence 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
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never Let Me Go
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
Oyeyemi, Helen
White is for Witching
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
Tryon, Thomas
The Other
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
Wallace, Edgar
King Kong
Walpole, Horace
The Castle of Otranto
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
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence 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
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never Let Me Go
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
Oyeyemi, Helen
White is for Witching
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
Tryon, Thomas
The Other
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
Wallace, Edgar
King Kong
Walpole, Horace
The Castle of Otranto
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.
Poe would have been outraged.
Lovecraft would have scorned it.
Bram Stoker would have shot it
with a silver bullet, and maybe even
hammered a stake into the middle
of the cover for good measure.
Lovecraft would have scorned it.
Bram Stoker would have shot it
with a silver bullet, and maybe even
hammered a stake into the middle
of the cover for good measure.
