Week Four: The New Weird

by - 3:00 AM

This week we will be discussing recent trends in the horror genre and among the most influential, in my view, is what some call the "New Weird." 

The term evokes the old Weird Tales Magazine, a pulp magazine in which a range of stories appeared  dramatizing uncanny experience, tales of the monstrous, or experiences with the supernatural. There was an easy mixing of genre in this publication with little attention to whether any individual work would have been considered horror, science fiction or fantasy. Some works appearing there would have elements of all three. 

The New Weird seems to me to imply something of an emphasis on the horrific or uncanny, while "slipstream" a similar term that evolved in roughly the same time period, seemed to place something of an emphasis on the science fiction elements of the story. Both terms reflect interests that were self-consciously literary and whose projects tended to dissolve barriers between genre. While based in genre, works of these types often use surreal and anti-real strategies and don't necessarily rely on the storytelling conventions of realistic fiction. 

Bizarro fiction, a literary based movement with a similar orientation against the conventions of realistic storytelling also emerges in roughly the same time period, especially the years 2007-2008 when these terms become more widely discussed.

The featured novel for this week is Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation, a very evocative work in terms of landscape.  This short novel is the featured choice for this week.  Vandermeer's Borne, an eco-fiction that tells a character-based story amidst a landscape of biotech hybrids gone feral is an alternate choice.. 

The most prominent writer described as embodying The New Weird is the English novelist, China Miéville. King Rat, his first novel which takes place in the old school dub step culture of London is an alternate featured work for this week, Three Moments of an Explosion which is a collection of shorter work is also a good alternative Another recent novel of hisRailsea, a reimagining of Moby Dick with steam trains and giant moles. Perdido Street Station, a longer novel is considered one of the major works of The New Weird.

The movie, Cabin in the Woods, with its over-the-top deployment of every genre element it can muster is this week's featured movie.  The old school weird movie Freaks by Tod Browning is also highly recommended.

The recent movie by Jordan Peele, Get Out, will be discussed in class this week as well.

There are a number of other books and films listed on the Course Resource Page and on the Reading Pathways for this week. 

For links to reading and video resources please go to the Activity Page for this week.

In the writing assignment for this week I would like you to create a blog post that discusses what you read for the topic of the New Weird and what you think other future trends in the genre of horror might be and why that trend is developing.


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