Reviewed by Ted Gioia
With the possible exception of romance, horror must be the
most despised of literary genres. Yet anyone who has tried to
write a scary story, or even tell one to credulous children,
knows how hard it is to find a fresh angle on this old, almost
primeval style of narrative. And horror, like slapstick comedy,
is unforgiving—fear and laughter bypass the rational part of
our brain, and grab us instead in
some deeper part of our psyche.
Either the storyteller hits the mark
or misses completely.
Richard Matheson ranks among
those who hit the mark—the
bullseye here being the reader's
central nervous system—and
belongs on any short list of the
greatest horror writers in literary
history. Stephen King has cited
him as his primary influence, and
Matheson's name is not out of
place alongside those of King,
H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch and
Bram Stoker and a handful of
other prominent heirs of Edgar
Allan Poe. Not long ago, the Horror Writers Association
named Matheson's I Am Legend as the vampire book of the
century—infuriating fans of Twilight and Buffy, no doubt, but it
was the obvious and proper choice—and even people who
don't recognize his name are familiar with Matheson's stories,
as presented on The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Alfred
Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery and other TV shows,
or in movies by Steven Spielberg, Roger Corman and
other influential filmmakers.
But Matheson is ambivalent about his connection to the horror
story. He prefers to see his specialty as 'terror'—a subtler
effect, in his opinion, than the blood and gore of the horror
genre. At his best, Matheson could evoke spine-tingling fear
through the sheer unrelenting possibility of what might happen.
(See Duel, a 1971 car chase film with a demented twist—
directed by 24-year-old Steven Spielberg and based on a
story and script by Matheson—for a textbook example of how
this is done.) If horror is, as I suspect, the most existential of
literary genres, Matheson is that modern master who
understands the implications of this truth. Like Kierkegaard,
who claimed our vertigo in a high place results from our
knowledge that we are free to jump over the edge, Matheson
comprehends that terror can never be reduced to the present
moment, but always hides in the unconstrained freedom of
what comes next.
Matheson’s most ambitious attempt to break out of his
pigeonhole as a horror writer is his 1978 novel What Dreams
May Come. In fact, the hero of this book, Chris Nielsen, is a
middle-aged screenplay author who has come to lament all
the years he spent contriving scary stories. Acknowledging
his "failure as a writer," Nielsen looks back with disgust at "the
host of scripts I’d written which did no one any good and, many
harm." He arrives at a harsh judgment over, in his words,
“what I might have done and how irrevocably I fell short of
almost every mark.”
Ah, it’s too late for Nielsen. He's already dead when he
arrives at this conclusion. In fact, he's already dead at the
start of Matheson’s novel. Usually when an author offers up a
deceased protagonist on page one—for instance, in Paul
Auster's Leviathan or Martin Amis's Time’s Arrow—we need
to get ready for a book filled with flashbacks. But Matheson
has a different agenda here. He wants to explore the afterlife.
His hero's death in a car crash starts him on a journey to the
hereafter. The manuscript of the novel is presented as his
post-mortem account, communicated to a psychic who has
spent six months transcribing Nielsen's description of life after
death. She delivers the finished manuscript to the dead
man's brother, who now shares it with us—and adds a bit of
advice. "If this manuscript is true, all of us had better examine
our lives. Carefully."
As this prelude makes clear, Matheson is on different terrain
here. Instead of Lovecraft and Poe his role models include
Dante and the Orpheus myth. Shakespeare provides the title
and epigraph:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
Thus says Hamlet, in Shakespeare’s finest horror story (which
starts with a ghost, and ends up with more dead characters
than a slasher film). Matheson himself is not averse to
inserting a few gruesome scenes into his life-after-death story.
He offers up his alternatives to both the Inferno and Paradiso
in this novel, and delivers some hellacious encounters not for
the squeamish. But if I say that this novel has redeeming
qualities, I am talking about more than just Matheson's skill
as a writer. His theology has more redemption than damnation.
Is it appropriate for me to use the word 'theology' in describing
this novel? Matheson almost requires us to do so. How many
novels include a bibliography? Yet Matheson gives us six
pages of references to books about the hereafter, and urges
people to "read them all." "You will find it an enlightening—
and extraordinary—experience." For the first time in his
career, he adds an introduction to a novel, using it to explain
that “only one aspect of it is fictional: the characters and their
relationships. With few exceptions, every other detail is
derived exclusively from research.” In short, this isn't just a
story; it's a belief system.
Okay, it’s also a story, and a very gripping one. You can’t take
it with you, or so they say, but even dead people have
baggage they bring with them into the next world—at least
emotional baggage. They have problems and choices, and
face consequences for bad decisions, and not just for those
of their past life. Our protagonist is especially concerned
about the wife he left behind. In fact, Matheson's novel turns
the traditional Orpheus myth on its head. In his reworking, the
dead spouse wants to reclaim the living one. But midway
through the novel, Matheson adds a new twist when Nielsen's
wife Ann commits suicide. Now our dead hero embarks on a
mission to rescue his soulmate from a fate in the afterlife that
is literally "worse than death."
What kind of theology is embedded here? I believe the term
used in religious circles is "cafeteria spirituality." Matheson
finds room on his plate for a bit of Hinduism, a helping of
Christianity, a smidgen of Tibetan Buddhism, and various
other doctrinal odds and ends, all garnished with a veneer of
New Age mysticism. There's even a place for atheists in
Matheson's afterlife—where they can continue disbelieve in
the afterlife. You can’t get much more tolerant than that.
The author's protestations notwithstanding, I’m not about to
place this volume on the non-fiction shelves in my library. But I
give Matheson credit for imparting some intellectual substance
to his musings, and constructing a view of life after death that
is thought-provoking even when implausible. And the little
touches make all the difference in the world. I was delighted
to read that music fans in the hereafter attend concerts where
they enjoy the inspired melodies of Beethoven’s Eleventh
Symphony. I imagine jazz fans like me can finally hear the
Buddy Bolden band live in concert. Okay, maybe dead in
concert.
Matheson has boasted that What Dreams May Come is his
most important book. He has expressed pride in its positive
impact on readers, some of whom, the author relates, no
longer fear death after reading his book. So the writer who
spent most of his career creating fear now takes a turn at
relieving it. Nice twist, no? And I suspect that Matheson saw
some karmic value in this novel for himself in addition to the
help it gave to his readers.
Of course, Matheson didn’t give up horror—uh, excuse me,
terror—stories after What Dreams May Come. Shortly after
its publication he collaborated with his son Richard Christian
Matheson on "Where There’s A Will," another tale that starts
after the funeral of its hero. Only in this case the protagonist
wakes up buried alive in a coffin. So much for karmic
redemption.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature, and popular
culture. His newest book is The Jazz Standards: A
Guide to the Repertoire.
With the possible exception of romance, horror must be the
most despised of literary genres. Yet anyone who has tried to
write a scary story, or even tell one to credulous children,
knows how hard it is to find a fresh angle on this old, almost
primeval style of narrative. And horror, like slapstick comedy,
is unforgiving—fear and laughter bypass the rational part of
our brain, and grab us instead in
some deeper part of our psyche.
Either the storyteller hits the mark
or misses completely.
Richard Matheson ranks among
those who hit the mark—the
bullseye here being the reader's
central nervous system—and
belongs on any short list of the
greatest horror writers in literary
history. Stephen King has cited
him as his primary influence, and
Matheson's name is not out of
place alongside those of King,
H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch and
Bram Stoker and a handful of
other prominent heirs of Edgar
Allan Poe. Not long ago, the Horror Writers Association
named Matheson's I Am Legend as the vampire book of the
century—infuriating fans of Twilight and Buffy, no doubt, but it
was the obvious and proper choice—and even people who
don't recognize his name are familiar with Matheson's stories,
as presented on The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Alfred
Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery and other TV shows,
or in movies by Steven Spielberg, Roger Corman and
other influential filmmakers.
But Matheson is ambivalent about his connection to the horror
story. He prefers to see his specialty as 'terror'—a subtler
effect, in his opinion, than the blood and gore of the horror
genre. At his best, Matheson could evoke spine-tingling fear
through the sheer unrelenting possibility of what might happen.
(See Duel, a 1971 car chase film with a demented twist—
directed by 24-year-old Steven Spielberg and based on a
story and script by Matheson—for a textbook example of how
this is done.) If horror is, as I suspect, the most existential of
literary genres, Matheson is that modern master who
understands the implications of this truth. Like Kierkegaard,
who claimed our vertigo in a high place results from our
knowledge that we are free to jump over the edge, Matheson
comprehends that terror can never be reduced to the present
moment, but always hides in the unconstrained freedom of
what comes next.
Matheson’s most ambitious attempt to break out of his
pigeonhole as a horror writer is his 1978 novel What Dreams
May Come. In fact, the hero of this book, Chris Nielsen, is a
middle-aged screenplay author who has come to lament all
the years he spent contriving scary stories. Acknowledging
his "failure as a writer," Nielsen looks back with disgust at "the
host of scripts I’d written which did no one any good and, many
harm." He arrives at a harsh judgment over, in his words,
“what I might have done and how irrevocably I fell short of
almost every mark.”
Ah, it’s too late for Nielsen. He's already dead when he
arrives at this conclusion. In fact, he's already dead at the
start of Matheson’s novel. Usually when an author offers up a
deceased protagonist on page one—for instance, in Paul
Auster's Leviathan or Martin Amis's Time’s Arrow—we need
to get ready for a book filled with flashbacks. But Matheson
has a different agenda here. He wants to explore the afterlife.
His hero's death in a car crash starts him on a journey to the
hereafter. The manuscript of the novel is presented as his
post-mortem account, communicated to a psychic who has
spent six months transcribing Nielsen's description of life after
death. She delivers the finished manuscript to the dead
man's brother, who now shares it with us—and adds a bit of
advice. "If this manuscript is true, all of us had better examine
our lives. Carefully."
As this prelude makes clear, Matheson is on different terrain
here. Instead of Lovecraft and Poe his role models include
Dante and the Orpheus myth. Shakespeare provides the title
and epigraph:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
Thus says Hamlet, in Shakespeare’s finest horror story (which
starts with a ghost, and ends up with more dead characters
than a slasher film). Matheson himself is not averse to
inserting a few gruesome scenes into his life-after-death story.
He offers up his alternatives to both the Inferno and Paradiso
in this novel, and delivers some hellacious encounters not for
the squeamish. But if I say that this novel has redeeming
qualities, I am talking about more than just Matheson's skill
as a writer. His theology has more redemption than damnation.
Is it appropriate for me to use the word 'theology' in describing
this novel? Matheson almost requires us to do so. How many
novels include a bibliography? Yet Matheson gives us six
pages of references to books about the hereafter, and urges
people to "read them all." "You will find it an enlightening—
and extraordinary—experience." For the first time in his
career, he adds an introduction to a novel, using it to explain
that “only one aspect of it is fictional: the characters and their
relationships. With few exceptions, every other detail is
derived exclusively from research.” In short, this isn't just a
story; it's a belief system.
Okay, it’s also a story, and a very gripping one. You can’t take
it with you, or so they say, but even dead people have
baggage they bring with them into the next world—at least
emotional baggage. They have problems and choices, and
face consequences for bad decisions, and not just for those
of their past life. Our protagonist is especially concerned
about the wife he left behind. In fact, Matheson's novel turns
the traditional Orpheus myth on its head. In his reworking, the
dead spouse wants to reclaim the living one. But midway
through the novel, Matheson adds a new twist when Nielsen's
wife Ann commits suicide. Now our dead hero embarks on a
mission to rescue his soulmate from a fate in the afterlife that
is literally "worse than death."
What kind of theology is embedded here? I believe the term
used in religious circles is "cafeteria spirituality." Matheson
finds room on his plate for a bit of Hinduism, a helping of
Christianity, a smidgen of Tibetan Buddhism, and various
other doctrinal odds and ends, all garnished with a veneer of
New Age mysticism. There's even a place for atheists in
Matheson's afterlife—where they can continue disbelieve in
the afterlife. You can’t get much more tolerant than that.
The author's protestations notwithstanding, I’m not about to
place this volume on the non-fiction shelves in my library. But I
give Matheson credit for imparting some intellectual substance
to his musings, and constructing a view of life after death that
is thought-provoking even when implausible. And the little
touches make all the difference in the world. I was delighted
to read that music fans in the hereafter attend concerts where
they enjoy the inspired melodies of Beethoven’s Eleventh
Symphony. I imagine jazz fans like me can finally hear the
Buddy Bolden band live in concert. Okay, maybe dead in
concert.
Matheson has boasted that What Dreams May Come is his
most important book. He has expressed pride in its positive
impact on readers, some of whom, the author relates, no
longer fear death after reading his book. So the writer who
spent most of his career creating fear now takes a turn at
relieving it. Nice twist, no? And I suspect that Matheson saw
some karmic value in this novel for himself in addition to the
help it gave to his readers.
Of course, Matheson didn’t give up horror—uh, excuse me,
terror—stories after What Dreams May Come. Shortly after
its publication he collaborated with his son Richard Christian
Matheson on "Where There’s A Will," another tale that starts
after the funeral of its hero. Only in this case the protagonist
wakes up buried alive in a coffin. So much for karmic
redemption.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature, and popular
culture. His newest book is The Jazz Standards: A
Guide to the Repertoire.
| The Year of Magical Reading (click here) |
| THE YEAR OF MAGICAL READING What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson |
| Click on image to purchase |
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
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
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 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
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
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
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
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
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
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
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
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
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
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
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
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
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
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, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
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
Emphyrio
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
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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
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.
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 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
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
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
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
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
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
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
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
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
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
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
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
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
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
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, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
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
Emphyrio
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
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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
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.