Essay by Ted Gioia
I first came to the American slave narrative via a roundabout
path. Many years ago, my interest in black music, folklore and
culture spurred me to undertake a slow, thorough study of
primary documents that might broaden my grasp of those
subjects. Back in my student days, my teachers never told me
about Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography (first published in 1789)
or Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave (1853) and other
similar accounts from the antebellum era, but I later stumbled
upon them as part of my self-assigned reading list in black
cultural history. Yet if I started reading these works because of
my research, I came to prize them for their inspiring testimonials
and thought-provoking accounts of quiet heroism.
I also read the more familiar memoirs
by Frederick Douglass and Booker T.
Washington, and later dug into the
massive collection of oral histories
from former slaves compiled by the
Federal Writers’ Project in the late
1930s. Eventually I sought out far
more obscure first-person source
documents, a process that confirmed
my view that the unfiltered
reminiscences of participants are
almost always a better starting-point
in any historical inquiry than the
current-day theories of academics.
(I still regret my inability to secure
a copy of Harry Middleton Hyatt’s
massive five-volume collection—
a total of 4,766 pages—Hoodoo -
Conjuration - Witchcraft – Rootwork, an out-of-print rarity that
draws on interviews with 1,600 African-Americans, most of them
conducted in the 1930s. The last time I checked, a copy of this
work cost $6,500. Maybe someone will give it to me as a birthday
present someday.)
I do not envy the novelist who tries to match the power or
intensity of these accounts in their works of fiction. Yet our
nation’s leading storytellers are drawn again and again to this
rich, almost inexhaustible subject. The plot of the oppressed
seeking freedom is compelling and timeless…and also woven into
the fabric of American experience. Even outsiders to African-
American culture can relate to it. When my Italian grandfather
came to America from Sicily at age 14, he was tricked into
signing on with a gang of railroad workers, whose overseers kept
him in chains and forced him to work against his will. He had to
overcome a guard late one night and make a rapid pre-dawn
escape from the chain gang camp before he could launch his own
pursuit of the American dream. Many others had similarly
troubled introductions to the opportunities of the New World. For
them the African-American slave narrative might not be represent
their identical story, but they can grasp its emotional and
psychological truths as symbolic of their own heritage.
I suspect that emotional connection explains why William Styron,
a white writer from the South who later moved North, decided to
write The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), a searing literary
work which won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction at a time when the
Civil Rights movement was stirring up debate in America. But a
backlash soon set in, and Styron was accused of “whitened
appropriation” of black history. Like other books from that period
on racial issues by sympathetic white liberals—such as Norman
Mailer’s essay “The White Negro” or John Howard Griffin’s Black
Like Me—The Confessions of Nat Turner gradually lost its
progressive credentials and disappear from school reading lists
as an embarrassing example of white usurpation of the black
narrative.
That’s now a distant memory, and the next phase ushered in a
new generation of African-American writers who had their own
notions about the slave narrative. Their efforts were, in an odd
way, both progressive and unprecedented, yet also marked a
return to the roots of the genre. In its first manifestation, back in
the 19th century, these stories were told by black writers but
targeted at a broad general audience, and their purely literary
qualities coexisted with a desire to enlighten and influence. That
now happened again, with books such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved
and Edward P. Jones The Known World—both of which won the
Pulitzer Prize, just as Styron had done a generation earlier.
These novels broke new ground, but also harkened back to the
firsthand accounts by Northup, Equiano, Douglass and others who
created the genre.
Is it still possible to find a new angle on this old story in the
current day? Colson Whitehead aims to do just that with his
2016 novel The Underground Railroad. At first glance, the book
seems to follow the familiar path of the slave narrative, with all
the usual character types and incidents; but as the reader
proceeds more deeply into the story, unexpected elements
appear in the work. The plot begins to dance across genre
categories, and a phantasmagorical quality enters the tale.
At the most basic level, The Underground Railroad is a historical
novel dealing with the worst aspects of plantation life in Georgia
during the pre-Civil War period. But on top of this chronicle,
Whitehead mixes in elements of magical realism and alternate
history. Yet these never undercut the intense realism of the
unfolding story. The end result is a kind of slave narrative as it
might be imagined by Franz Kafka or Gabriel García Márquez, but
still retaining the plausibility of a non-fiction memoir. In some
ways, I am reminded of Toni Morrison, who defied expectations
by inserting a ghost into the fabric of Beloved, yet without
misleading anyone into thinking she had written a horror genre
story.
Whitehead's story follows the life and times of Cora, a young
woman who aims to escape the degradation of the Randall
Plantation and make her way North. She is approached by
Caesar, an ambitious fellow slave who has seen life outside of
Georgia and has come into contact with a representative of the
Underground Railroad. His friend can facilitate their secret
departure, and Casear proposes that Cora join him on this
journey to freedom. Years before, her mother had made a similar
escape, somehow managing to elude the slave catchers who
followed in her wake. Now the daughter agrees to take the same
dangerous course.
So far, these details will be familiar to readers who have read
other slave narratives. Yet Whitehead departs dramatically from
historical realism when he introduces the actual Underground
Railroad. In real life, this network of Abolitionists, former slaves
and sympathizers organized a series of safe houses and travel
itineraries that allowed the transit of slaves without the
detection of the white authorities. Yet in Whitehead’s novel he
turns this loose-knit group of paths and people into an actual
underground railroad, a kind of subway with railcars, stations and
conductors. It’s an alternative transit system for those who can’t
use the trains above ground.
“I had the idea for the book about 16 years ago,” Whitehead told
an interviewer “recalling how when I was a kid, I thought the
Underground Railroad was a literal railroad and when I found out
it wasn’t, I was disappointed. So I thought it was a cool idea,
and then I thought, ‘Well, what if it actually was a real railroad?
That seems like a cool premise for a book.’”
The Underground Railroad thus takes its place alongside a series
of high-profile new millennium novels that mix tiny amounts of
fantasy with large doses of realism, creating a new hybrid form.
Jonathan Lethem set the tone for this new approach with his
2003 novel The Fortress of Solitude, which is a semi-
autobiographical novel about the author’s childhood in Brooklyn.
The story proceeds with a gritty real-life urban quality, except for
a few passages in which the leading protagonists find a
superhero’s cape which allows them to fly through the air. Most
other writers of ‘literary fiction’ would have feared that this tiny
addition—akin to something out of a comic book—might
invalidate the social realism of the rest of the book, but Lethem
grasped that the introduction of a wee bit of magic could actually
amplify the potency of his narrative. In his final novel, The Pale King,
David Foster Wallace did something similar: the entire
novel follows the rules of realism with scrupulosity, except for
one character who can float in the air a few inches from his chair.
The Oscar-winning film Birdman starts out with precisely that
same notion—a hero who floats above ground—yet once again
the plot keeps magical elements mostly in reserve in a story that
not only avoids excessive fantasy elements, but is actually a
critique of their bloated importance in popular culture.
This genre needs a name. The basic formula can be described
succinctly: (1) the book cannot embrace escapism, but must
address actual social or personal issues, even dark and tragic
ones; (2) an element of magic is introduced into the story; but
(3) the realistic elements must account for 90% of the setting
and story. Indeed, the fantastic ingredients are rarely allowed to
enter into the forefront of the tale. When they do so, they are
treated as everyday and normal, hardly worthy of attention. What
shall we call these works, stories that represent a breed of
fiction similar to magical realism, but downsizing the magic and
supersizing the realism? For want of a better label, I will call
them hyper-realist fantasies.
The surprising subway isn’t the only odd ingredient here.
Whitehead also rewrites nineteenth century history, envisioning a
range of political initiatives and agendas that never existed—for
example a genocidal plan in North Carolina to kill everyone of
African descent and staff plantations with Irish, German and
other white immigrants. The ideas on display here are
provocative and the story proceeds with energy, although
teachers assigning this book in a classroom will need to spend
some time educating students on the difference between the
fantastic and historical aspects of the narrative.
Even so, the emotional force of The Underground Railroad won’t
need explaining. The heroes and villains are presented in stark
relief—alas, sometimes in an almost outlandish degree. But this
isn’t a novel about nuance and the moral judgments here could
hardly be more stark. Indeed, the story proceeds with the clarity,
verve and sense of righteousness we have come to expect from
Hollywood big-budget films. So much so, that I’d be surprised if
this Whitehead’s story doesn’t show up on theater screens in the
not-so-distant future.
Ted Gioia's latest book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books)
Publication date: Novemeber 4, 2016
I first came to the American slave narrative via a roundabout
path. Many years ago, my interest in black music, folklore and
culture spurred me to undertake a slow, thorough study of
primary documents that might broaden my grasp of those
subjects. Back in my student days, my teachers never told me
about Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography (first published in 1789)
or Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave (1853) and other
similar accounts from the antebellum era, but I later stumbled
upon them as part of my self-assigned reading list in black
cultural history. Yet if I started reading these works because of
my research, I came to prize them for their inspiring testimonials
and thought-provoking accounts of quiet heroism.
I also read the more familiar memoirs
by Frederick Douglass and Booker T.
Washington, and later dug into the
massive collection of oral histories
from former slaves compiled by the
Federal Writers’ Project in the late
1930s. Eventually I sought out far
more obscure first-person source
documents, a process that confirmed
my view that the unfiltered
reminiscences of participants are
almost always a better starting-point
in any historical inquiry than the
current-day theories of academics.
(I still regret my inability to secure
a copy of Harry Middleton Hyatt’s
massive five-volume collection—
a total of 4,766 pages—Hoodoo -
Conjuration - Witchcraft – Rootwork, an out-of-print rarity that
draws on interviews with 1,600 African-Americans, most of them
conducted in the 1930s. The last time I checked, a copy of this
work cost $6,500. Maybe someone will give it to me as a birthday
present someday.)
I do not envy the novelist who tries to match the power or
intensity of these accounts in their works of fiction. Yet our
nation’s leading storytellers are drawn again and again to this
rich, almost inexhaustible subject. The plot of the oppressed
seeking freedom is compelling and timeless…and also woven into
the fabric of American experience. Even outsiders to African-
American culture can relate to it. When my Italian grandfather
came to America from Sicily at age 14, he was tricked into
signing on with a gang of railroad workers, whose overseers kept
him in chains and forced him to work against his will. He had to
overcome a guard late one night and make a rapid pre-dawn
escape from the chain gang camp before he could launch his own
pursuit of the American dream. Many others had similarly
troubled introductions to the opportunities of the New World. For
them the African-American slave narrative might not be represent
their identical story, but they can grasp its emotional and
psychological truths as symbolic of their own heritage.
I suspect that emotional connection explains why William Styron,
a white writer from the South who later moved North, decided to
write The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), a searing literary
work which won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction at a time when the
Civil Rights movement was stirring up debate in America. But a
backlash soon set in, and Styron was accused of “whitened
appropriation” of black history. Like other books from that period
on racial issues by sympathetic white liberals—such as Norman
Mailer’s essay “The White Negro” or John Howard Griffin’s Black
Like Me—The Confessions of Nat Turner gradually lost its
progressive credentials and disappear from school reading lists
as an embarrassing example of white usurpation of the black
narrative.
That’s now a distant memory, and the next phase ushered in a
new generation of African-American writers who had their own
notions about the slave narrative. Their efforts were, in an odd
way, both progressive and unprecedented, yet also marked a
return to the roots of the genre. In its first manifestation, back in
the 19th century, these stories were told by black writers but
targeted at a broad general audience, and their purely literary
qualities coexisted with a desire to enlighten and influence. That
now happened again, with books such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved
and Edward P. Jones The Known World—both of which won the
Pulitzer Prize, just as Styron had done a generation earlier.
These novels broke new ground, but also harkened back to the
firsthand accounts by Northup, Equiano, Douglass and others who
created the genre.
Is it still possible to find a new angle on this old story in the
current day? Colson Whitehead aims to do just that with his
2016 novel The Underground Railroad. At first glance, the book
seems to follow the familiar path of the slave narrative, with all
the usual character types and incidents; but as the reader
proceeds more deeply into the story, unexpected elements
appear in the work. The plot begins to dance across genre
categories, and a phantasmagorical quality enters the tale.
At the most basic level, The Underground Railroad is a historical
novel dealing with the worst aspects of plantation life in Georgia
during the pre-Civil War period. But on top of this chronicle,
Whitehead mixes in elements of magical realism and alternate
history. Yet these never undercut the intense realism of the
unfolding story. The end result is a kind of slave narrative as it
might be imagined by Franz Kafka or Gabriel García Márquez, but
still retaining the plausibility of a non-fiction memoir. In some
ways, I am reminded of Toni Morrison, who defied expectations
by inserting a ghost into the fabric of Beloved, yet without
misleading anyone into thinking she had written a horror genre
story.
Whitehead's story follows the life and times of Cora, a young
woman who aims to escape the degradation of the Randall
Plantation and make her way North. She is approached by
Caesar, an ambitious fellow slave who has seen life outside of
Georgia and has come into contact with a representative of the
Underground Railroad. His friend can facilitate their secret
departure, and Casear proposes that Cora join him on this
journey to freedom. Years before, her mother had made a similar
escape, somehow managing to elude the slave catchers who
followed in her wake. Now the daughter agrees to take the same
dangerous course.
So far, these details will be familiar to readers who have read
other slave narratives. Yet Whitehead departs dramatically from
historical realism when he introduces the actual Underground
Railroad. In real life, this network of Abolitionists, former slaves
and sympathizers organized a series of safe houses and travel
itineraries that allowed the transit of slaves without the
detection of the white authorities. Yet in Whitehead’s novel he
turns this loose-knit group of paths and people into an actual
underground railroad, a kind of subway with railcars, stations and
conductors. It’s an alternative transit system for those who can’t
use the trains above ground.
“I had the idea for the book about 16 years ago,” Whitehead told
an interviewer “recalling how when I was a kid, I thought the
Underground Railroad was a literal railroad and when I found out
it wasn’t, I was disappointed. So I thought it was a cool idea,
and then I thought, ‘Well, what if it actually was a real railroad?
That seems like a cool premise for a book.’”
The Underground Railroad thus takes its place alongside a series
of high-profile new millennium novels that mix tiny amounts of
fantasy with large doses of realism, creating a new hybrid form.
Jonathan Lethem set the tone for this new approach with his
2003 novel The Fortress of Solitude, which is a semi-
autobiographical novel about the author’s childhood in Brooklyn.
The story proceeds with a gritty real-life urban quality, except for
a few passages in which the leading protagonists find a
superhero’s cape which allows them to fly through the air. Most
other writers of ‘literary fiction’ would have feared that this tiny
addition—akin to something out of a comic book—might
invalidate the social realism of the rest of the book, but Lethem
grasped that the introduction of a wee bit of magic could actually
amplify the potency of his narrative. In his final novel, The Pale King,
David Foster Wallace did something similar: the entire
novel follows the rules of realism with scrupulosity, except for
one character who can float in the air a few inches from his chair.
The Oscar-winning film Birdman starts out with precisely that
same notion—a hero who floats above ground—yet once again
the plot keeps magical elements mostly in reserve in a story that
not only avoids excessive fantasy elements, but is actually a
critique of their bloated importance in popular culture.
This genre needs a name. The basic formula can be described
succinctly: (1) the book cannot embrace escapism, but must
address actual social or personal issues, even dark and tragic
ones; (2) an element of magic is introduced into the story; but
(3) the realistic elements must account for 90% of the setting
and story. Indeed, the fantastic ingredients are rarely allowed to
enter into the forefront of the tale. When they do so, they are
treated as everyday and normal, hardly worthy of attention. What
shall we call these works, stories that represent a breed of
fiction similar to magical realism, but downsizing the magic and
supersizing the realism? For want of a better label, I will call
them hyper-realist fantasies.
The surprising subway isn’t the only odd ingredient here.
Whitehead also rewrites nineteenth century history, envisioning a
range of political initiatives and agendas that never existed—for
example a genocidal plan in North Carolina to kill everyone of
African descent and staff plantations with Irish, German and
other white immigrants. The ideas on display here are
provocative and the story proceeds with energy, although
teachers assigning this book in a classroom will need to spend
some time educating students on the difference between the
fantastic and historical aspects of the narrative.
Even so, the emotional force of The Underground Railroad won’t
need explaining. The heroes and villains are presented in stark
relief—alas, sometimes in an almost outlandish degree. But this
isn’t a novel about nuance and the moral judgments here could
hardly be more stark. Indeed, the story proceeds with the clarity,
verve and sense of righteousness we have come to expect from
Hollywood big-budget films. So much so, that I’d be surprised if
this Whitehead’s story doesn’t show up on theater screens in the
not-so-distant future.
Ted Gioia's latest book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books)
Publication date: Novemeber 4, 2016
Colson Whitehead & the Evolution of
the American Slave Narrative
In The Underground Railroad, antebellum
history joins hands with hyper-realist fantasy
the American Slave Narrative
In The Underground Railroad, antebellum
history joins hands with hyper-realist fantasy
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The New Canon
Great literary works
published since 1985
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Reviews of current books
Postmodern Mystery
Experimental works of mystery &
suspense
Fractious Fiction
Radical, unconventional and
experimental fiction
Ted Gioia is publishing essays on his
50 favorite works of non-realist fiction
released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
alternative history, sci-fi, horror, and
fantasy, as well as mainstream literary
fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
verisimilitude.
50 favorite works of non-realist fiction
released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
alternative history, sci-fi, horror, and
fantasy, as well as mainstream literary
fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
verisimilitude.
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
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Campbell, Ramsey
The Nameless
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
Cline, Ernest
Ready Player One
Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park
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
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
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
Egan, Jennifer
A Visit from the Goon Squad
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
Haig, Matt
The Humans
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
Hendrix, Grady
Horrorstör
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box
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
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
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
Lindqvist, John Ajvide
Let the Right One In
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Machen, Arthur
The Great God Pan
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
Embassytown
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
Morris, Jan
Hav
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
North, Claire
The First 15 Lives of Harry August
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
Roth, Philip
The Plot Against America
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
Straub, Peter
Ghost Story
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
Weir, Andy
The Martian
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
Wong, David
John Dies at the End
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Yamada, Taichi
Strangers
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
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Campbell, Ramsey
The Nameless
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
Cline, Ernest
Ready Player One
Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park
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
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
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
Egan, Jennifer
A Visit from the Goon Squad
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
Haig, Matt
The Humans
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
Hendrix, Grady
Horrorstör
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box
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
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
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
Lindqvist, John Ajvide
Let the Right One In
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Machen, Arthur
The Great God Pan
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
Embassytown
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
Morris, Jan
Hav
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
North, Claire
The First 15 Lives of Harry August
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
Roth, Philip
The Plot Against America
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
Straub, Peter
Ghost Story
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
Weir, Andy
The Martian
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
Wong, David
John Dies at the End
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Yamada, Taichi
Strangers
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.