Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ashar Kor-Azor]

I talked to Cia about this months ago. It was mainly centered on a list of works that I (and then we) felt had a common theme, but no clear genre. Let me tell you what they are:

-Palanahuick's works, esp. Fight Club but also others;
-Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
-Tongkat or Tonguecat, by Peter Verhelst
-Vurt, by Jeff Noon, Cia's suggestion

Possibly also books by Kurt Vonnegut. Not sure.

All of these feature a sort of common thread to do with bombarding the reader constantly with powerful imagery that is sufficiently moving and yet sufficiently varied, or well-spaced, or whatnot, not to be overpowering in its, uh, thrust. Which sounds like intercourse, but there you have it - these books are sexy.

Wat yew think?

[Eva]

They all feature large quantites of hallucinogens, so perhaps Naked Lunch belongs on there?

[Ashar Kor-Azor]

I really can't say. I know the prose in some of these is often described as 'nearly psychedelic.'

[Natalcya Katla]

Would you include The Doors Of Perception by Aldous Huxley in that same genre as well? It's not a work of fiction (though Fear and Loathing isn't entirely fictive either), but the subject matter is related and, iirc, the language is, too.

[Tiberius Wenchel]

There's already a classification for that stuff. It's called Juvenalian Satire, and it has been around since, well, Juvenal.

[Sinjin Mokk]

Also known as Prose Poetry, Psychadelic, Gonzo Literature...

Say it in front of a mic and it's Spoken Word.
 
Stuff like Noon's has been tossed into the "New Wave SF" category, but it's all really just literature.

Add to the list "Crash" by J.G. Ballard and maybe Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash?" Definately add just about anything by William S. Burroughs. He developed a "cut-up" technique that produced some mind-blowing good lit.

[Crucifire]

Cruci's behavior very inspired by Dr Gonzo from Fear and Loathing, it's my favorite book.

[Jev North]

There's already a classification for that stuff. It's called Juvenalian Satire, and it has been around since, well, Juvenal.

Interesting. I'm a fan of Robert Morgan's work. The prose is not as distinguished as the names that have been floating around here, but shares certain stylistic characteristics - and when you squint your eyes and tilt your head just right, the Kovacs trilogy can be read as a scornful complaint about the horrors of war and dehumanization; the Steel Remains series, about slavery, social evil, and fundamentalist religion.