Customer Reviews

ParaSpheres: Extending Beyond the Spheres of Literary and Genre Fiction: Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the United States, most published fiction falls under two categories: "genre fiction" and "literary fiction."

According to Ken Keegan, editor at Omnidawn Publishing, genre fiction, which accounts for about 90% of all fiction published, is often defined as "escapist," usually follows a "winning" formula, and seldom has any lasting literary value. Literary fiction (also referred to as narrative fiction), which accounts for the remaining 10% of all fiction published, is primarily realistic and possesses more depth, characterization and lasting cultural impact. (625-8)

But what happens to fiction that doesn't fit into one of these categories? Novels like The Mists of Avalon, Brave New World, or Life of Pi, for instance--works that have unrealistic settings or plots and aren't officially "literary," yet have incredible depth and power?

As we all know, necessity is the mother of invention. Thus, in the Fall 2002 issue of Conjunctions, the literary journal from Bart College, a new term was coined: New Wave Fabulist. Put simply, New Wave Fabulist is non-realistic, literary fiction. You may also think of it as literary fiction with strong elements of horror, science fiction or fantasy.

Looking back, other terms have been used to describe this type of fiction: magic realism and speculative. Yet magic realism is chiefly associated with Latin American novelists like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose One Hundred Years of Solitude greatly exemplifies it. On the other hand, speculative fiction disregards literary quality, making it impossible to always represent serious works.

Omnidawn's latest anthology, Paraspheres: Extending Beyond the Spheres of Literary and Genre Fiction, excellently illustrates New Wave Fabulist fiction.
The carefully crafted stories, fifty in all, combine elements of magic realism, the paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, mythology, fable, dream vision, even fairy tale, yet are serious literary works filled with symbolism and allegorical power, inviting the reader to ponder at their underlying meaning.

The authors, many of who have won prestigious prizes such as the Nebula, Hugo, Kafka, and National Book Awards, and who have published works in such renown publications as Ploughshares, Chicago Review, The American Life, The Literary Review, Pearl, Pleiades, The Berkeley Fiction Review, American Literary Review and Glimmer Train, among others, offer the reader an interesting array of styles, plots, settings and character studies.

In "Skunk," by Justin Courter, the reader takes a mesmerizing glimpse into the mind of a man who has a skunk fetish: "The first time I took skunk musk straight, the effects were overwhelming. I held Homer over my head, squeezed a full shot straight down my throat, and was aware of a burning sensation in my sinuses for an instant before I blacked out. I awoke on the ground, with little idea of how much time had passed. By overdosing the first few times I drank musk, I missed out on much of the experience. Measuring my dosage, I found I could administer myself just enough to induce a sense of euphoria without passing out. Instead of squeezing a full shot directly down my throat, I squeezed Homer over a glass and then used an eyedropper to obtain a single droplet I let fall to my tongue." (421) Needless to say, the story stands as a metaphor for the protagonist's dark childhood.

Contrasting with this morbidity is "The Tree," by Noelle Sickels, which begins as a sweet fairy tale: "Long ago, in a land very far from here, there lived a prince and princess. They had a comfortable castle, which, by magic, stayed clean and in good repair."(382) Not necessarily what you would call a beginning for a serious work of fiction, except this story turns out to be a serious allegory with a powerful message about gender roles.

Stories like "The Ice-Cream Vendor," by Leena Krohn, have strong elements of science fiction in it, while others like "Third Initiation: A Gift From the Land of Dreams," by Mary Mackey, combine dream vision and myth.

"The Town News," also by Justin Courter, tells the paranormal story of a young man who is cursed with the "gift" of being able to visualize people's future deaths as soon as he meets them. Poignant, beautifully written and filled with emotional intensity, this is one of the best stories in the anthology.

Many unforgettable images fill the pages of this book. The following is from "The Secret Paths of Rajan Khanna," by Jeff Vandermeer. Notice how the language flows to create this haunting visual image: "...Rajan notices the boy off to the side, thrown clear, probably a pedestrian, and the way he sits under a newly planted tree, as if broken in on himself, a blotch of blood spreading across his side, and at first all Rajan can focus on is the spray of blood across the scattered snow, and the way the red, under the lights, doesn't deepen but diffuses as it widens, until it's pink and crystallized in the cold, and then just a shade deeper than the white." (476)

In spite of the subject versatility among the stories, one thing ties them together--their authors' faithfulness to the craft and a sharp, fresh imagination.

At the end of the book, Ken Keegan includes an intriguing and fascinating essay about New Wave Fabulist Fiction--its origins, history, and hopeful future.

Though the term is controversial, and most scholars will never accept a Fantasy or Science Fiction novel--no matter its depth or sociological impact--as "real" literature, one thing is for sure: New Wave Fabulist Fiction is a strong force to be reckoned with. Most importantly, it is a necessity for those gifted, consummate authors out there who give as much importance to the imagination as they give to the depth of thought and beauty of language.

***This review originally appeared in The Bloomsbury Review.

This anthology begins with a fascinating discussion of fiction and its subdivisions. The stories here are what might variously be termed "slipstream," "surreal," or "speculative" in different contexts. These editors prefer to call them "fabulist and new wave fabulist stories." They are tales of weirdness and wonder, largely set in odd analogues of our own world. Not quite like ordinary literature, nor yet like typical fantasy, they hold a unique and intriguing flavor. My favorite story is "The Third Jungle Book: A Mowgli Story" by Michael Moorcock. Herein Mowgli has moved to London and become a lawyer. There he befriends the foxes who live in the city - and must fight against a proposed law which would kill most of them. Just wait until you find out who Mowgli's "friend" is! Another gem is "Third Initiation: A Gift from the Land of Dreams" by Mary Mackey. Set in ancient times, this tale follows the potter Marrah as she strives to satisfy a demanding taskmaster during her initiation. The goal is to make a perfect pot, but the reason for it is the point of the story. Worth noting on the scientific side is Michael Constance's "Finding the Words." It questions the nature of reality and consciousness, as the main character travels through virtual reality. These and many other fine tales await you in ParaSpheres. You'll enjoy them more if you don't try to make sense of them. -- Sheela Ardrian for the FEARLESS REVIEWS

I really hate giving this book a bad review. Actually I'm giving it a lukewarm review but even that is painful. I want to be praising this book to the skies. I want to recommend it to all my friends and tell them to read it. I want to be so excited by this book that I'm buying it as birthday presents (like I do with Gilad Elbom's Scream Queens of the Dead Sea or Ronald Damien Malfi's books).

You see this book is a collection of short stories that are purposefully non-conformist. They aren't genre. They aren't literary. They are both. While Kafka, Allende, Morrison and Silko can write ghost and fantasy stories as literary masterpieces, most writers are stuck in the ghettos of genre or literary. The genre writers get no respect. The literary writers get no money. An anthology that combines the best of both worlds should be groundbreaking.

Instead it's merely ok. There are great stories in it. I liked the one about ghosts in London and I rather enjoyed Michael Moorcock's take on Tarzan. However, there are also stories that just drag on. The writers are so enthusiastic about their Harper's Literary Tricks (long endless description of trees - and no I'm not making that up) that I find myself skipping through more stories than I read.

The main problem is the bloating that happened. It's as if the editors didn't want to keep anyone out. There are even writers that appear twice. Most of the writers are MFA students who threw a few ghosts into the story to make themselves seem genre. Many of the stories are just bad and one suspects that the editor really really liked the person enough to ignore the tedium. At least the prose is good(Just read Nick Pacione's anthology or any lulu book to see what happens when there's absolutely no standard in prose) but even the prose gets old as it's all flowery and clever.

In conclusion, this could have been a 200-page anthology with 10-15 really good stories. Instead it's a 636 page door stopper with 49 stories (!?) that range from great to ok to mediocre to boring as hell. You will enjoy many of the stories; you'll just hate having to search for the good ones.