by Ted Gioia
In a strange piece of advice to writers, Philip K. Dick
once suggested that God should never appear as a
character in a novel. Few authors would feel limited
by such a rule—a prohibition that tells us more,
perhaps, about Mr. Dick (who, in his novel Valis,
came close to breaking his own commandment) than
about the craft of fiction. On the other hand, many
writers would be unhappy if they couldn't bring the
Devil into their stories. Satan
himself, or one of his associate
demons, figures in a number
of novels, including works as
diverse as C.S. Lewis's The
Screwtape Letters, Thomas Mann's
Dr. Faustus, and Chuck Palahniuk's
Damned.
But any short list of great
Luciferian novels must include
Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master
and Margarita, written between
1928 and 1940, but unpublished
until the late 1960s. Bulgakov builds his story around
a compelling idea, rife with both humor and pathos:
namely, the Devil decides to visit the Soviet Union in
order to see firsthand whether human nature has
changed under communism. Has a new era of
collectivism eliminated covetousness, greed and all
those other familiar sins? Or have the old vices merely
found new outlets, under different names perhaps?
Of course, the new regime has not just abolished
capitalism and private ownership, but religion as well;
so the Devil is put in the ticklish situation of visiting a
place where he himself officially does not exist.
The Devil arrives in Moscow in the person of a Mr.
Woland, a practicing magician, specializing in the
black arts, who arranges to give a performance at the
local Variety Theater. He is accompanied by several
subalterns, who include his assistant Korovyov, an
enormous talking cat named Behemoth, the fanged
and wall-eyed Azazello, and a scantily-clad maid Hella.
Together this unholy crew wreaks havoc with local
comrades, high and low. The Devil takes particular
interest in the arts, and meddles incessantly with those
involved in literary or theatrical matters, but soon his
influence is felt everywhere—in taxis, retail stores,
government offices, restaurants and other locales.
Woland's stay in the capital city last but a few days,
but before his team departs, their antics have caught the
attention of the Soviet police, and have spurred a
massive—albeit unsuccessful—manhunt.
This story line, brilliantly conceived and artfully executed,
is filled with diverse characters and fanciful incidents,
and could stand on its own as a complete, satisfying
novel. But Bulgakov packages it with two related
but contrasting stories. The first involves "the Master"
of the novel's title, a writer living in poverty who struggles
to complete a psychological novel about Pontius Pilate
—a angst-ridden work of Dostoevskian proportions—
only to find that such a book is far too controversial to
be published under the Soviet regime. The Master's
only loyal reader is his lover Margarita, the wife of a
wealthy man who longs to leave her husband and join
her fate with the unfortunate author. She is determined
to do whatever she can to help "the Master"—which is
her affectionate name for the writer—even if it means
dealing with the Devil. The third plot line is a novel-
within-a-novel: the fictionalized account of Pontius
Pilate, chapters of which are interspersed with the
other sections of The Master and Margarita.
The story of "the Master" draws on tragic elements
of Bulgakov's own life. He too found it difficult to
publish his work under the Soviet regime. Bulgakov
even wrote a personal letter to Stalin in 1929, asking
for permission to emigrate if the government could
not find a productive use for his talents. Stalin, who
had admired Bulgakov's play The Days of the Turbins,
intervened on the author's behalf, and helped him
secure a position with the Art Theater. Even so,
Bulgakov's most important work could not be published
in his lifetime, and he labored for years over The Master
and the Margarita—just like the Master in the story—
even though it was inevitable that such a novel would
be banned. The book would not be published until
1966, a quarter century after Bulgakov's death, and
even then more than 10% of the work was eliminated
and other sections changed. A complete version of
The Master and Margarita would not be made available
until 1973.
The emotional range of this work is as extravagant as
its plot. Bulgakov shows great skill as a comic writer,
wresting wry, dark humor from the juxtaposition of
devilish cunning and communist ideology. His depiction
of Woland's magic show at the Variety Theater—a
public spectacle designed to evoke greed and crass
materialism from the comrades in attendance—ranks
among the most compelling scenes in modern fiction.
Yet for all his comic genius, Bulgakov is even more
attuned to the tragic elements of his story. His characters
battle with an unforgiving destiny, and Fate (with a
capital F) looms large here—almost on the scale of
classical mythology or Attic drama. The psychic toll is
heavy. During the course of this novel, many of the
characters either appear to be mad, or veer toward
actual insanity. In another book, this oppressive tone of
foreboding and mental collapse might seem excessive
or contrived, but takes on a far different quality here when
mixed with Bulgakov's comic touches, the toxic realities
of his socio-historical setting, and the surreal fantasy of
his story.
The result is a masterpiece of the grotesque and
ludicrous. Over time, this book has gradually
established its credentials as a classic of twentieth
century fiction, one of only a handful of counter-
culture novels from the Soviet years in Russia to
overcome the censorship of the period and achieve a
lasting impact on the global literary community. But
don't let the renown of this work prevent you from
appreciating its essential strangeness. The Master and
Margarita is a haunted, troubling book, and the fact
that it is no longer prohibited by authorities does not
mean that it isn't still dangerous to read.
Publication Date: April 23, 2012
Ted Gioia's most recent book is Love Songs: The Hidden History, published
by Oxford University Press.
In a strange piece of advice to writers, Philip K. Dick
once suggested that God should never appear as a
character in a novel. Few authors would feel limited
by such a rule—a prohibition that tells us more,
perhaps, about Mr. Dick (who, in his novel Valis,
came close to breaking his own commandment) than
about the craft of fiction. On the other hand, many
writers would be unhappy if they couldn't bring the
Devil into their stories. Satan
himself, or one of his associate
demons, figures in a number
of novels, including works as
diverse as C.S. Lewis's The
Screwtape Letters, Thomas Mann's
Dr. Faustus, and Chuck Palahniuk's
Damned.
But any short list of great
Luciferian novels must include
Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master
and Margarita, written between
1928 and 1940, but unpublished
until the late 1960s. Bulgakov builds his story around
a compelling idea, rife with both humor and pathos:
namely, the Devil decides to visit the Soviet Union in
order to see firsthand whether human nature has
changed under communism. Has a new era of
collectivism eliminated covetousness, greed and all
those other familiar sins? Or have the old vices merely
found new outlets, under different names perhaps?
Of course, the new regime has not just abolished
capitalism and private ownership, but religion as well;
so the Devil is put in the ticklish situation of visiting a
place where he himself officially does not exist.
The Devil arrives in Moscow in the person of a Mr.
Woland, a practicing magician, specializing in the
black arts, who arranges to give a performance at the
local Variety Theater. He is accompanied by several
subalterns, who include his assistant Korovyov, an
enormous talking cat named Behemoth, the fanged
and wall-eyed Azazello, and a scantily-clad maid Hella.
Together this unholy crew wreaks havoc with local
comrades, high and low. The Devil takes particular
interest in the arts, and meddles incessantly with those
involved in literary or theatrical matters, but soon his
influence is felt everywhere—in taxis, retail stores,
government offices, restaurants and other locales.
Woland's stay in the capital city last but a few days,
but before his team departs, their antics have caught the
attention of the Soviet police, and have spurred a
massive—albeit unsuccessful—manhunt.
This story line, brilliantly conceived and artfully executed,
is filled with diverse characters and fanciful incidents,
and could stand on its own as a complete, satisfying
novel. But Bulgakov packages it with two related
but contrasting stories. The first involves "the Master"
of the novel's title, a writer living in poverty who struggles
to complete a psychological novel about Pontius Pilate
—a angst-ridden work of Dostoevskian proportions—
only to find that such a book is far too controversial to
be published under the Soviet regime. The Master's
only loyal reader is his lover Margarita, the wife of a
wealthy man who longs to leave her husband and join
her fate with the unfortunate author. She is determined
to do whatever she can to help "the Master"—which is
her affectionate name for the writer—even if it means
dealing with the Devil. The third plot line is a novel-
within-a-novel: the fictionalized account of Pontius
Pilate, chapters of which are interspersed with the
other sections of The Master and Margarita.
The story of "the Master" draws on tragic elements
of Bulgakov's own life. He too found it difficult to
publish his work under the Soviet regime. Bulgakov
even wrote a personal letter to Stalin in 1929, asking
for permission to emigrate if the government could
not find a productive use for his talents. Stalin, who
had admired Bulgakov's play The Days of the Turbins,
intervened on the author's behalf, and helped him
secure a position with the Art Theater. Even so,
Bulgakov's most important work could not be published
in his lifetime, and he labored for years over The Master
and the Margarita—just like the Master in the story—
even though it was inevitable that such a novel would
be banned. The book would not be published until
1966, a quarter century after Bulgakov's death, and
even then more than 10% of the work was eliminated
and other sections changed. A complete version of
The Master and Margarita would not be made available
until 1973.
The emotional range of this work is as extravagant as
its plot. Bulgakov shows great skill as a comic writer,
wresting wry, dark humor from the juxtaposition of
devilish cunning and communist ideology. His depiction
of Woland's magic show at the Variety Theater—a
public spectacle designed to evoke greed and crass
materialism from the comrades in attendance—ranks
among the most compelling scenes in modern fiction.
Yet for all his comic genius, Bulgakov is even more
attuned to the tragic elements of his story. His characters
battle with an unforgiving destiny, and Fate (with a
capital F) looms large here—almost on the scale of
classical mythology or Attic drama. The psychic toll is
heavy. During the course of this novel, many of the
characters either appear to be mad, or veer toward
actual insanity. In another book, this oppressive tone of
foreboding and mental collapse might seem excessive
or contrived, but takes on a far different quality here when
mixed with Bulgakov's comic touches, the toxic realities
of his socio-historical setting, and the surreal fantasy of
his story.
The result is a masterpiece of the grotesque and
ludicrous. Over time, this book has gradually
established its credentials as a classic of twentieth
century fiction, one of only a handful of counter-
culture novels from the Soviet years in Russia to
overcome the censorship of the period and achieve a
lasting impact on the global literary community. But
don't let the renown of this work prevent you from
appreciating its essential strangeness. The Master and
Margarita is a haunted, troubling book, and the fact
that it is no longer prohibited by authorities does not
mean that it isn't still dangerous to read.
Publication Date: April 23, 2012
Ted Gioia's most recent book is Love Songs: The Hidden History, published
by Oxford University Press.
| THE YEAR OF MAGICAL READING The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov |
Click on image to purchase
| The Year of Magical Reading (click here) |
Welcome to my year of magical
reading. Each week during the
course of 2012, I will explore an
important work of fiction that
incorporates elements of magic,
fantasy or the surreal. My choices
will cross conventional boundary
lines of genre, style and historical
period—indeed, one of my intentions
in this project is to show how the
conventional labels applied to these
works have become constraining,
deadening and misleading.
In its earliest days, storytelling almost
always partook of the magical. Only
in recent years have we segregated
works arising from this venerable
tradition into publishing industry
categories such as "magical realism"
or "paranormal" or "fantasy" or some
other 'genre' pigeonhole. These
labels are not without their value, but
too often they have blinded us to the
rich and multidimensional heritage
beyond category that these works
share.
This larger heritage is mimicked in
our individual lives: most of us first
experienced the joys of narrative
fiction through stories of myth and
magic, the fanciful and
phantasmagorical; but only a very
few retain into adulthood this sense
of the kind of enchantment possible
only through storytelling. As such,
revisiting this stream of fiction from a
mature, literate perspective both
broadens our horizons and allows us
to recapture some of that magic in
our imaginative lives.
The Year of Magical Reading:
Week 1: Midnight's Children by
Salman Rushdie
Week 2: The House of the Spirits by
Isabel Allende
Week 3: The Witches of Eastwick
by John Updike
Week 4: Magic for Beginners by
Kelly Link
Week 5: The Tin Drum by Günter
Grass
Week 6: The Golden Ass by
Apuleius
Week 7: The Tiger's Wife by Téa
Obreht
Week 8: One Hundred Years of
Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Week 9: The Book of Laughter and
Forgetting by Milan Kundera
Week 10: Gargantua and Pantagruel
by François Rabelais
Week 11: The Famished Road by
Ben Okri
Week 12: Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel
Week 13: Winter's Tale by Mark
Helprin
Week 14: Dhalgren by Samuel R.
Delany
Week 15: Johnathan Strange & Mr.
Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Week 16: The Master and
Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Week 17: Dangerous Laughter by
Steven Millhauser
Week 18: Conjure Wife by Fritz
Leiber
Week 19: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Week 20: The Hobbit by J.R.R.
Tolkien
Week 21: Aura by Carlos Fuentes
Week 22: Dr. Faustus by Thomas
Mann
Week 23: Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Week 24: Little, Big by John Crowley
Week 25: The White Hotel by D.M.
Thomas
Week 26: Neverwhere by Neil
Gaiman
Week 27: Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Week 28: Fifth Business by
Robertson Davies
Week 29: The Kingdom of This
World by Alejo Carpentier
Week 30: The Bear Comes Home
by Rafi Zabor
Week 31: The Color of Magic by
Terry Pratchett
Week 32: Ficciones by Jorge Luis
Borges
Week 33: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Week 34: Dona Flor and Her Two
Husbands by Jorge Amado
Week 35: Hard-Boiled Wonderland
and the End of the World by Haruki
Murakami
Week 36: What Dreams May Come
by Richard Matheson
Week 37: Practical Magic by Alice
Hoffman
Week 38: Blindess by José
Saramago
Week 39: The Fortress of Solitude
by Jonathan Lethem
Week 40: The Magicians by Lev
Grossman
Week 41: Suddenly, A Knock at the
Door by Etgar Keret
Week 42: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Week 43: The Obscene Bird of
NIght by José Donoso
Week 44: The Fifty Year Sword by
Mark Z. Danielewski
Week 45: Gulliver's Travels by
Jonathan Swift
Week 46: Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Week 47: The End of the Affair by
Graham Greene
Week 48: The Chronicles of Narnia
by C.S. Lewis
Week 49: Hieroglyphic Tales by
Horace Walpole
Week 50: The View from the
Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier
Week 51: Gods Without Men by
Hari Kunzru
Week 52: At Swim-Two-Birds by
Flann O'Brien
reading. Each week during the
course of 2012, I will explore an
important work of fiction that
incorporates elements of magic,
fantasy or the surreal. My choices
will cross conventional boundary
lines of genre, style and historical
period—indeed, one of my intentions
in this project is to show how the
conventional labels applied to these
works have become constraining,
deadening and misleading.
In its earliest days, storytelling almost
always partook of the magical. Only
in recent years have we segregated
works arising from this venerable
tradition into publishing industry
categories such as "magical realism"
or "paranormal" or "fantasy" or some
other 'genre' pigeonhole. These
labels are not without their value, but
too often they have blinded us to the
rich and multidimensional heritage
beyond category that these works
share.
This larger heritage is mimicked in
our individual lives: most of us first
experienced the joys of narrative
fiction through stories of myth and
magic, the fanciful and
phantasmagorical; but only a very
few retain into adulthood this sense
of the kind of enchantment possible
only through storytelling. As such,
revisiting this stream of fiction from a
mature, literate perspective both
broadens our horizons and allows us
to recapture some of that magic in
our imaginative lives.
The Year of Magical Reading:
Week 1: Midnight's Children by
Salman Rushdie
Week 2: The House of the Spirits by
Isabel Allende
Week 3: The Witches of Eastwick
by John Updike
Week 4: Magic for Beginners by
Kelly Link
Week 5: The Tin Drum by Günter
Grass
Week 6: The Golden Ass by
Apuleius
Week 7: The Tiger's Wife by Téa
Obreht
Week 8: One Hundred Years of
Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Week 9: The Book of Laughter and
Forgetting by Milan Kundera
Week 10: Gargantua and Pantagruel
by François Rabelais
Week 11: The Famished Road by
Ben Okri
Week 12: Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel
Week 13: Winter's Tale by Mark
Helprin
Week 14: Dhalgren by Samuel R.
Delany
Week 15: Johnathan Strange & Mr.
Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Week 16: The Master and
Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Week 17: Dangerous Laughter by
Steven Millhauser
Week 18: Conjure Wife by Fritz
Leiber
Week 19: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Week 20: The Hobbit by J.R.R.
Tolkien
Week 21: Aura by Carlos Fuentes
Week 22: Dr. Faustus by Thomas
Mann
Week 23: Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Week 24: Little, Big by John Crowley
Week 25: The White Hotel by D.M.
Thomas
Week 26: Neverwhere by Neil
Gaiman
Week 27: Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Week 28: Fifth Business by
Robertson Davies
Week 29: The Kingdom of This
World by Alejo Carpentier
Week 30: The Bear Comes Home
by Rafi Zabor
Week 31: The Color of Magic by
Terry Pratchett
Week 32: Ficciones by Jorge Luis
Borges
Week 33: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Week 34: Dona Flor and Her Two
Husbands by Jorge Amado
Week 35: Hard-Boiled Wonderland
and the End of the World by Haruki
Murakami
Week 36: What Dreams May Come
by Richard Matheson
Week 37: Practical Magic by Alice
Hoffman
Week 38: Blindess by José
Saramago
Week 39: The Fortress of Solitude
by Jonathan Lethem
Week 40: The Magicians by Lev
Grossman
Week 41: Suddenly, A Knock at the
Door by Etgar Keret
Week 42: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Week 43: The Obscene Bird of
NIght by José Donoso
Week 44: The Fifty Year Sword by
Mark Z. Danielewski
Week 45: Gulliver's Travels by
Jonathan Swift
Week 46: Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Week 47: The End of the Affair by
Graham Greene
Week 48: The Chronicles of Narnia
by C.S. Lewis
Week 49: Hieroglyphic Tales by
Horace Walpole
Week 50: The View from the
Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier
Week 51: Gods Without Men by
Hari Kunzru
Week 52: At Swim-Two-Birds by
Flann O'Brien
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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 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
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
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
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
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
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
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
Camp Concentration
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
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
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
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
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
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
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
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
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
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
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
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
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
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
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
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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
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The Handmaid's Tale
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The State of the Art
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
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The View from the Seventh Layer
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A Clockwork Orange
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Ender's Game
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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2001: A Space Odyssey
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Babel-17
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Dhalgren
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Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
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Ubik
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VALIS
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Camp Concentration
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Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
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The Obscene Bird of Night
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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
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Like Water for Chocolate
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Aura
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American Gods
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Burning Chrome
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Time Enough for Love
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Winter's Tale
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Dune
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Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
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Conjure Wife
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His Master's Voice
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Magic for Beginners
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Hell House
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What Dreams May Come
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
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Dangerous Laughter
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Cloud Atlas
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Beloved
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Gateway
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The Color of Magic
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More Than Human
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Cat's Cradle
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Lord of Light
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