Scott Nicolay

Ana Kai Tangata

Tag: John Skipp

Garrett Cook: Narrative Tyranny and the Gilawalrus in the Living Room | The Outer Dark: Episode 28 — JANUARY 21, 2016

Cook-HungryWallsGarrett Cook discusses his latest novel A God of Hungry Walls, an extreme, brutally transgressive and claustrophobic haunted house tale that not only pushes the limits of Bizarro but provides the latest twist on a lineage of “malevolent genius loci” that starts with Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Twisted topics include the influence of “growing up in a grim and antiquated place,” i.e. New England, his commitment to make each story “really different,” literary and cinematic influences from Robert Marasco’s Burnt Offerings to Clive Barker’s Coldheart Canyon, uncomfortable intimacy among roommates, using narrative to invoke an unpleasant hypnotic state, his poetry roots, Dante (yes, that Dante), existential psychosis that doesn’t trace back to anything, avoiding haunted house story tropes such as the psychic, the microfiche research scene, the occult detective and the Scooby Doo ending, a Nouveau Roman approach that makes the novel seem like Jack Ketchum’s Last Spring at Marienbad,” the tyrannical nature of surrealism versus Bizarro’s narrative omnipotence, Jeff Burk’s couch, and bench-switching and writing in his own swan spot. Garrett also talks about some of his other works, including his first novel Murderland, his first foray into Bizarro Archelon Ranch, his intentionally historically inaccurate science fiction novel Time Pimp, and his short story collection You Might Just Make It Out of This Alive (Eraserhead Press).

widenerThe conversation then veers to the relationship between weird and Bizarro and Bizarro Central’s New Bizarro Author Series, which Garrett edited, including Karl Fischer’s Towers, Betty Rocksteady’s Arachnophile, Madeleine Swan’s Rainbows Suck, Chris MeekingsElephant Vice, Anthony Trevino’s King Space Void, Christoph Paul’s Slasher Camp for Nerd Dorks, Pedro Proença’s Benjamin and Lee Widener’s Rock n Roll Head Case, which Garrett calls the “absolute buy-ticket-and-ride” of the series or “Bill Plimpton’s Laser Blast.” He also “screams” about Autumn Christian, Danger Slater, and John Skipp, who is publishing them both via his Fungasm Press, a groundbreaking new imprint from Eraserhead. Finally: Garrett’s new performance series in Portland, Ore., Gilbert Road Grotesque, co-hosted by Alicia Graves, and hats.

furnace_cover_sm-662x1024News from the Weird:. Arkham Digest columnist/Strange Aeons fiction editor Justin Steele joins Scott once again with the latest about Livia Llewellyn, Richard Gavin, Xnoybis 2, Nightscript 2, Lost Signals, and more. Then special guest Michael Griffin unveils The Lure of Devouring Light, his much-anticipated first collection, now available for preorder from Word Horde Press and scheduled for release in April 2016. I have no erection, and am afraid that Levitra 20mg may be a problem. And Justin reviews Christopher Slatsky’s Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales (Dunhams Manor Press).

This archival episode will be available again at This Is Horror soon. In the meantime, subscribe at iTunes or Blubrry to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

Next week’s guest: Mark Shapiro, marketing/brand management at Laika Studios (ParaNorman, Coraline) talks about this innovative stop-motion animation house’s upcoming release Kubo and the Two Strings.

More Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Christian/e/B006QJ5USQ

https://www.theionpublishing.com/books/the-benighted-path-primeval-gnosis-and-the-monstrous-soul/

Varieties of Weirdness Panel at BizarroCon 2015 | The Outer Dark: Special Presentation — NOVEMBER 9, 2015

bizarroconpanelModerator: Ross E. Lockhart. Panelists: Garrett Cook, G. Arthur Brown, Mike Griffin, Rios De La Luz.

Writers and editors working in Bizarro and Weird discuss the Germanic origins of the word “weird” in “wyrd” and how its association with fate and destiny continues in the contemporary Weird narrative form, whether Weird and Bizarro grew out of same sense of the Weird or are unrelated movements, authors who have walked between the lines of Weird or Bizarro in mind-blowing works of fiction, film and comics, the importance of dream realms and logic in Bizarro Weird fiction, if New Weird and Bizarro are different blurry wings on the same creature, similarities to the loud versus quiet horror rift, artificial taxonomies and bleed-through, slipstream as literary effect, Bizarro as a movement and a community, irreality versus surreality and how it might relate to Weird, objective vs. subjective lies, magic in fantasy versus Bizarro, and more.

Thanks to Helen Hopley for the panel photo.

This archival episode will be available again at This Is Horror soon. In the meantime, subscribe at iTunes  or Blubrry to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

More Links:

https://bizarrocon.com/

https://www.fedoganandbremer.com/products/ana-kai-tangata-deluxe-limited

https://wordhorde.com/

https://cafeirreal.alicewhittenburg.com/index.htm

Next on Nov. 11: Orrin Grey, author of Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts.

Nicole Cushing: Outdreaming the Nightmare | The Outer Dark: Episode 5 — JULY 21, 2015

MrSuicide_Cover_small-259x400Author Nicole Cushing visits The Outer Dark to talk about her brand new debut novel Mr. Suicide (Word Horde Press) and her immanent (sic) short story collection The Mirrors (Cycatrix Press). Along the way we touch on the cosmological implications of her rare early works, the struggle between sadism and nihilism, anti-natalist just-so stories, the inevitability of oblivion and its manifestation in the Great Dark Mouth, why we all love Ross Lockhart, doing right by mentally ill characters, why her writing has a richness to its foulness, how the battle of Weird Horror is being won on the playing fields of Bizarro, and why you should read Garrett Cook, Cameron Pierce, Brian Evenson, and Glen Hirshberg.

This archival episode will be available again at This Is Horror soon. In the meantime, subscribe at iTunes  or Blubrry to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

Additional Links:

Mr. Suicide

The Mirrors

NEXT WEEK’S GUEST:  Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Signal to Noise

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