MLA 2015 Vancouver, session roundtable on “Weird Fiction, Weird Methods”. Does weird fiction have a single coherent approach and origin? Does it need to be read and studied differently than other fiction? Can it find a place in academia, or is it just too… weird?
* Kate Marshall (elements of American naturalist literature may have been co-opted by the early weird)
* S. T. Joshi (recapping Lovecraft’s theories of the weird)
* Ali Sperling (the early literary weird should be understood as part of the history of modernist literature)
* Matthew Taylor (what the new Speculative Realist philosophy has taken from the old weird, especially re: autonomous self-generating systems that have unhuman frames of reference)
* Eileen Joy (can academics develop a weird methodology for weird literature, by borrowing ideas from the philosophers of OOO Speculative Realism?)
Ah the obscurity of the weir tale. I went through a writing course with Longridge Writers Group, and through correspondence my teacher said that weird fiction was, at times, a lazy genre that any writer could use. I was offended for Mr. Lovecraft at first, but then she explained further, stating that a lot of “bad” writers were attempting to make their way into the literary world through this meme by writing terrible stories that had virturally no real plot elements or poor structure and calling them weird tales.
I told her that it was my favorite genre and that I would like to be part of the movement that brings it to the surface as a genre comparable in popularity to horror or fantasy – especially since weird fiction is mostly right inbetween those two genres. Then she went on to tell me “Good luck with that. I will continue to grade and edit your assignments as I would any other, but know that this is not a recognized genre in most minds and that without a proactive character/plot with a meaning and explanation you will most likely fail.” Awesome stuff, huh?
I believe it is this emotion from most “seasoned” writers/publishers that hold new generations of writers back. And, more importantly, why every weird story/novel author has actually been very nice and helpful to those working in the same genre and not knocking them down so they stay on top.
Does anyone else see this happening?