New Weird

The New Weird is a literary genre that began in the 1990s and developed in a series of novels and stories published from 2001 to 2005. The writers involved are mostly novelists who are considered to be parts of the horror and/or speculative fiction genres but who often cross genre boundaries. Notable authors include China Miéville, Jeff VanderMeer, K. J. Bishop and Steph Swainston.

Influences

Works which have been cited as influencing the New Weird include H.P. Lovecraft's stories, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, and M. John Harrison's Viriconium series.

Definition

Various definitions have been given of the genre. According to Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer, in their introduction to the anthology The New Weird, the genre is "a type of urban, secondary-world fiction that subverts the romanticized ideas about place found in traditional fantasy, largely by choosing realistic, complex real-world models as the jumping off point for creation of settings that may combine elements of both science fiction and fantasy." According to Gardner Dozois, however, the VanderMeers' anthology "ultimately left me just as confused as to what exactly The New Weird consisted of when I went out as I'd been when I went in." Robin Anne Reid notes that while the definition of the New Weird is disputed, "a general consensus uses the term" to describe fictions that "subvert cliches of the fantastic in order to put them to discomfiting, rather than consoling ends". Reid also notes the genre tends to break down the barriers between fantasy, science fiction and supernatural horror. In comparing The New Weird to Bizarro fiction, Rose O'Keefe of Eraserhead Press claims that "People buy New Weird because they want cutting edge speculative fiction with a literary slant. It’s kind of like slipstream with a side of weirdness."

Weird

Weird may refer to:

See also

Weird (comics)

The Weird is a fictional DC Comics character created by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson. He first appeared in his own self-titled miniseries The Weird in 1988.

Publication history

The Weird appeared in the eponymous mini-series.

The character returned in a number of series written by Starlin: the 2006 Mystery in Space series, Rann-Thanagar Holy War (2008) and the 2009 Strange Adventures series.

Fictional character biography

A being of pure energy from an alternate dimension, The Weird was a member of a race known as the Zarolatts. For years, his people had been exploited as energy sources by a cruel race known as the Macrolatts. However, for some unknown reason, The Weird did not share the docile acceptance of the rest of his race. When the Macrolatts sought to bridge the dimensional gap and attack other realms, The Weird knew he had to act. Escaping through a portal to another world, The Weird found himself on the planet Earth.

Seeking a corporeal form to contain his energy, he possessed the body of a dead man named Walter Langley. This produced a composite form which contained both The Weird's memories and traces of Langley's. In this shape, he sought out Earth's superheroes for aid and was dubbed "The Weird" by the Blue Beetle. With the heroes' assistance, he was able to repel the Macrolatt invasion.

Serial Experiments Lain

Serial Experiments Lain (シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン, Shiriaru Ekusuperimentsu Rein) is an avant-garde anime series directed by Ryutaro Nakamura, with character design by Yoshitoshi ABe, screenplay written by Chiaki J. Konaka, and produced by Yasuyuki Ueda for Triangle Staff. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to September 1998. The series is influenced by themes such as reality, identity, and communication, and it demonstrates them by using philosophy, computer history, cyberpunk literature, and conspiracy theory.

Plot

The series focuses on Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the Internet. Lain lives with her middle-class family, which consists of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her emotionally distant mother, and her computer-obsessed father. Lain herself is somewhat awkward, introverted, and socially isolated from most of her school peers, but the status-quo of her life becomes upturned by a series of bizarre incidents which start to take place after she learns that girls from her school have received an e-mail from Chisa Yomoda, a schoolmate who had committed suicide. When Lain receives the message herself at home, Chisa tells her that she is not dead, but has merely "abandoned her physical body and flesh", and is alive deep within the virtual reality-world of the Wired itself where she has found the almighty and divine God. From this point, Lain is caught up in a series of cryptic and surreal events that see her delving deeper into the mystery of the network in a narrative that explores themes of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality.