Are you ready for a horror book that looks like an Ikea catalog?
The horror genre, for all its apparent simplicity, often inspires peculiar forms of
experimentation. In recent years, scary books such as House of Leaves, The Fifty
Year Sword and The Raw Shark Texts have experimented with typography and
layout. A different breed of horror mash-up
has also arisen, driven by a playful merging
of accepted notions of highbrow and lowbrow
narratives—most notably in the surprise hit
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Other
books and films, from various eras (Freaks,
The Blair Witch Project, The Amityville Horror),
have achieved cult status with a kind of post-
modern framing, unusual in genre stories, that
deliberately blurs the line between fact and fiction.
With less successful results, the movie The Devil
Inside irritated viewers with an ending that
referred them to a website.
But until I encountered Horrorstör, I never knew
that a tale of terror could coexist with helpful hints
on home decorating and furnishing options. Grady
Hendrix must have, deep in his past, some very bad
experiences with do-it-yourself assembly, or perhaps
suffered a painful breakup with an Ikea store clerk. In
Horrorstör, he gets his revenge, constructing a haunted
house novel in which the familiar creepy mansion is replaced by a mega-sized big box
retail outlet.
You can tell by the cover that this isn't your typical horror novel. An attractive living
room layout features the Kjëerring modular shelving system ($89, see page 78), and
the streamlined Brooka couch ($299, see page 8). Open the catalog, and the first things
you see are a store map, a home delivery order form, and a list of Orsk policies and
shopping tips. These are interspersed with stale marketing copy and annoying
company slogans ("If you ever have a question, just Orsk!").
If you were expecting Lovecraft, you are now staring at loveseats. Instead of "The Pit and
the Pendulum," you can peruse the plinth and patio chair. Forget Mary Shelley, and buy
some merry shelving.
I‘ll admit I was enticed by this odd presentation. Few things are harder to find than a
truly original variant on an old genre story theme. Take your pick: locked room murder
mystery; time travel tale; gunslinger comes to Wild West town; you name it—all of the
genre angles have been worked over so many times that they have lost their freshness,
smelling as stale as the crypt in an Edgar Allan Poe tale. And what could be more
timeworn than stories about hauntings, perhaps the oldest plot of them all. Yet
Hendrix comes up with a new twist on an ancient story.
Alas, once the reader gets beyond the opening illustrations and into the heart of the
text, it turns into a fairly conventional narrative about slacker millennials in middle
America. Our protagonist Amy has a low level job at the Orsk outlet in Cuyahoga
County, Ohio—one of the 318 "partners" operating a huge superstore. She has a bad
attitude and an even worse rapport with her boss Basil. Her relationship with family
and roommates isn’t much better. She owes rent money, and fears that Basil is planning
to fire her. We follow Amy through the course of her work day, and along the way, we
are introduced to a range of stick figure characters—the loyal checkout counter worker,
the airhead flirt, the hipster employee, the corporate grunt, and the like.
This is a letdown after the come-on of the cover and opening pages. Hendrix is a
lackluster writer, only occasionally enlivening the proceedings with a comic twist or
witty bit of dialogue. The characters are as flat as one of those Ikea boxes with the
make-it-yourself table inside.
The backstory, however, is extravagant. What
Hendrix lacks in writing chops he makes up for
in imagination and bold conceptualization. Orsk,
a massive seller of knock-off minimalist
Scandinavian furniture, has situated a huge store
on the site of an old nineteenth century prison, a
panopticon straight out of the pages of Foucault
and Bentham. At certain places in the store,
pathways exist to an alternative universe in which
the prison still exists, under the supervision of its
demented warden. Most of the time, store
employees and customers can go about their
business, blissfully unaware of the darkness
within, but occasionally—especially late at night—
people move through various pathways that bring
them from the benign normalcy of the shopping
experience to the crazy pathology of an antiquated
penitentiary.
There’s sweet symbolism here. In many ways, we
are imprisoned by our consumer culture. Hendrix
doesn't do much to build on this angle—a more skilled author could have done
something with this implicit message in the book’s premise. But readers can impose
their own metanarrative here about the degradation of mindless consumption. That’s
a horror story that also deserves to be told.
The strange doings at this store can’t evade detection forever. The Orsk outlet in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio has suffered from a series of problems—disappearing
merchandise, acts of vandalism, and mysterious text messages (stating the one word
'help') sent to store employees. Amy and her colleague Ruth Anne are enlisted by Basil
to stay with him overnight at the Orsk outlet, and try to determine what’s going on.
The novel gains momentum in its second half, as the night goes on, and the Orsk
outbreak gets stranger and stranger. Okay, the dialogue doesn’t improve, and the
characters don’t become any rounder (all the more surprising when you consider that
only six of them dominate the novel—certainly Hendrix could impart a bit more weight
and heft to them). But the plot gets more ingenious as a retail store gradually turns into
a nineteenth century prison.
And whenever Hendrix returns to the format of a
furniture catalog—which he does at the start of each
chapter—he again dazzles. The items for sale change
over the course of the novel, and soon start looking
more like torture chamber accessories, and less
like items to spruce up the guest bedroom. (Well, I
guess that depends on what you think of your guests.)
And Hendrix puts in subtle jokes—like the numbers
666 that appear in the catalog number of every product,
or the hidden meanings in the names of the featured
merchandise. Kjëerring, the brand name of the shelving
system, means old woman in Norwegian. A table set is
branded as Arsle, a Swedish slang word for buttocks.
Drittsekk, the name of a modular seating system, is
Norweigan for wanker. You get the idea. The humor is a
step below Mark Twain's, or maybe even the full two
fathoms, but still I left this book with a notion that
Hendrix was working at multiple levels, and had put
clever twists into the stitching of Horrorstör most
readers would miss.
Still, there’s not enough here to convince me to be a
return shopper at his emporium. At the conclusion
of his novel, Hendrix tries to set up the possibility of
a sequel. Hey, I don’t blame him. The Orsk mandate
is brand expansion, and Hendrix is just doing more of the same. But when that new
catalog arrives, I’ll stick it in the neighbor’s mailbox. Maybe they want a new Kjëerring
or Arsle, and are willing to do their own assembly. For my part, I prefer works that
arrive on my doorstep already finished and polished.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from
Basic Books.
Publication Date: November 21, 2016
The horror genre, for all its apparent simplicity, often inspires peculiar forms of
experimentation. In recent years, scary books such as House of Leaves, The Fifty
Year Sword and The Raw Shark Texts have experimented with typography and
layout. A different breed of horror mash-up
has also arisen, driven by a playful merging
of accepted notions of highbrow and lowbrow
narratives—most notably in the surprise hit
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Other
books and films, from various eras (Freaks,
The Blair Witch Project, The Amityville Horror),
have achieved cult status with a kind of post-
modern framing, unusual in genre stories, that
deliberately blurs the line between fact and fiction.
With less successful results, the movie The Devil
Inside irritated viewers with an ending that
referred them to a website.
But until I encountered Horrorstör, I never knew
that a tale of terror could coexist with helpful hints
on home decorating and furnishing options. Grady
Hendrix must have, deep in his past, some very bad
experiences with do-it-yourself assembly, or perhaps
suffered a painful breakup with an Ikea store clerk. In
Horrorstör, he gets his revenge, constructing a haunted
house novel in which the familiar creepy mansion is replaced by a mega-sized big box
retail outlet.
You can tell by the cover that this isn't your typical horror novel. An attractive living
room layout features the Kjëerring modular shelving system ($89, see page 78), and
the streamlined Brooka couch ($299, see page 8). Open the catalog, and the first things
you see are a store map, a home delivery order form, and a list of Orsk policies and
shopping tips. These are interspersed with stale marketing copy and annoying
company slogans ("If you ever have a question, just Orsk!").
If you were expecting Lovecraft, you are now staring at loveseats. Instead of "The Pit and
the Pendulum," you can peruse the plinth and patio chair. Forget Mary Shelley, and buy
some merry shelving.
I‘ll admit I was enticed by this odd presentation. Few things are harder to find than a
truly original variant on an old genre story theme. Take your pick: locked room murder
mystery; time travel tale; gunslinger comes to Wild West town; you name it—all of the
genre angles have been worked over so many times that they have lost their freshness,
smelling as stale as the crypt in an Edgar Allan Poe tale. And what could be more
timeworn than stories about hauntings, perhaps the oldest plot of them all. Yet
Hendrix comes up with a new twist on an ancient story.
Alas, once the reader gets beyond the opening illustrations and into the heart of the
text, it turns into a fairly conventional narrative about slacker millennials in middle
America. Our protagonist Amy has a low level job at the Orsk outlet in Cuyahoga
County, Ohio—one of the 318 "partners" operating a huge superstore. She has a bad
attitude and an even worse rapport with her boss Basil. Her relationship with family
and roommates isn’t much better. She owes rent money, and fears that Basil is planning
to fire her. We follow Amy through the course of her work day, and along the way, we
are introduced to a range of stick figure characters—the loyal checkout counter worker,
the airhead flirt, the hipster employee, the corporate grunt, and the like.
This is a letdown after the come-on of the cover and opening pages. Hendrix is a
lackluster writer, only occasionally enlivening the proceedings with a comic twist or
witty bit of dialogue. The characters are as flat as one of those Ikea boxes with the
make-it-yourself table inside.
The backstory, however, is extravagant. What
Hendrix lacks in writing chops he makes up for
in imagination and bold conceptualization. Orsk,
a massive seller of knock-off minimalist
Scandinavian furniture, has situated a huge store
on the site of an old nineteenth century prison, a
panopticon straight out of the pages of Foucault
and Bentham. At certain places in the store,
pathways exist to an alternative universe in which
the prison still exists, under the supervision of its
demented warden. Most of the time, store
employees and customers can go about their
business, blissfully unaware of the darkness
within, but occasionally—especially late at night—
people move through various pathways that bring
them from the benign normalcy of the shopping
experience to the crazy pathology of an antiquated
penitentiary.
There’s sweet symbolism here. In many ways, we
are imprisoned by our consumer culture. Hendrix
doesn't do much to build on this angle—a more skilled author could have done
something with this implicit message in the book’s premise. But readers can impose
their own metanarrative here about the degradation of mindless consumption. That’s
a horror story that also deserves to be told.
The strange doings at this store can’t evade detection forever. The Orsk outlet in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio has suffered from a series of problems—disappearing
merchandise, acts of vandalism, and mysterious text messages (stating the one word
'help') sent to store employees. Amy and her colleague Ruth Anne are enlisted by Basil
to stay with him overnight at the Orsk outlet, and try to determine what’s going on.
The novel gains momentum in its second half, as the night goes on, and the Orsk
outbreak gets stranger and stranger. Okay, the dialogue doesn’t improve, and the
characters don’t become any rounder (all the more surprising when you consider that
only six of them dominate the novel—certainly Hendrix could impart a bit more weight
and heft to them). But the plot gets more ingenious as a retail store gradually turns into
a nineteenth century prison.
And whenever Hendrix returns to the format of a
furniture catalog—which he does at the start of each
chapter—he again dazzles. The items for sale change
over the course of the novel, and soon start looking
more like torture chamber accessories, and less
like items to spruce up the guest bedroom. (Well, I
guess that depends on what you think of your guests.)
And Hendrix puts in subtle jokes—like the numbers
666 that appear in the catalog number of every product,
or the hidden meanings in the names of the featured
merchandise. Kjëerring, the brand name of the shelving
system, means old woman in Norwegian. A table set is
branded as Arsle, a Swedish slang word for buttocks.
Drittsekk, the name of a modular seating system, is
Norweigan for wanker. You get the idea. The humor is a
step below Mark Twain's, or maybe even the full two
fathoms, but still I left this book with a notion that
Hendrix was working at multiple levels, and had put
clever twists into the stitching of Horrorstör most
readers would miss.
Still, there’s not enough here to convince me to be a
return shopper at his emporium. At the conclusion
of his novel, Hendrix tries to set up the possibility of
a sequel. Hey, I don’t blame him. The Orsk mandate
is brand expansion, and Hendrix is just doing more of the same. But when that new
catalog arrives, I’ll stick it in the neighbor’s mailbox. Maybe they want a new Kjëerring
or Arsle, and are willing to do their own assembly. For my part, I prefer works that
arrive on my doorstep already finished and polished.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz from
Basic Books.
Publication Date: November 21, 2016
This is my year of horrible reading.
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
My Year of Horrible Reading
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
Week 18:
Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
Week 19
The Woman in the Dunes
by Kōbō Abe
Week 20
The Dark Eidolon
by Clark Ashton Smith
Week 21
Off Season
by Jack Ketchum
Week 22
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
by Clive Barker
Week 23
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Week 24
The Orange Eats Creeps
by Grace Krilanovich
Week 25
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Week 26
Psycho
by Robert Bloch
Week 27
Fledgling
by Octavia E. Butler
Week 28
Demons by Daylight
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 29
The Complete Short Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
Week 30
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
Week 31
Our Lady of Darkness
by Fritz Leiber
Week 32
Grendel
by John Gardner
Week 33
White is for Witching
by Helen Oyeyemi
Week 34
The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks
Week 35
King Kong
by Edgar Wallace
Week 36
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
Week 37
The John Silence Stories
by Algernon Blackwood
Week 38
The Magic Toyshop
by Angela Carter
Week 39
The Other
by Thomas Tryon
Week 40
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Week 41
Ghost Story
by Peter Straub
Week 42
John Dies at the End
by David Wong
Week 43
The Great God Pan
by Arthur Machen
Week 44
The Cipher
by Kathe Koja
Week 45
Let the Right One In
by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Week 46
The Nameless
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 47
Horrorstör
by Grady Hendrix
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
Week 18:
Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
Week 19
The Woman in the Dunes
by Kōbō Abe
Week 20
The Dark Eidolon
by Clark Ashton Smith
Week 21
Off Season
by Jack Ketchum
Week 22
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
by Clive Barker
Week 23
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Week 24
The Orange Eats Creeps
by Grace Krilanovich
Week 25
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Week 26
Psycho
by Robert Bloch
Week 27
Fledgling
by Octavia E. Butler
Week 28
Demons by Daylight
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 29
The Complete Short Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
Week 30
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
Week 31
Our Lady of Darkness
by Fritz Leiber
Week 32
Grendel
by John Gardner
Week 33
White is for Witching
by Helen Oyeyemi
Week 34
The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks
Week 35
King Kong
by Edgar Wallace
Week 36
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
Week 37
The John Silence Stories
by Algernon Blackwood
Week 38
The Magic Toyshop
by Angela Carter
Week 39
The Other
by Thomas Tryon
Week 40
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Week 41
Ghost Story
by Peter Straub
Week 42
John Dies at the End
by David Wong
Week 43
The Great God Pan
by Arthur Machen
Week 44
The Cipher
by Kathe Koja
Week 45
Let the Right One In
by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Week 46
The Nameless
by Ramsey Campbell
Week 47
Horrorstör
by Grady Hendrix
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
Yes, There's a Horror Novel That Looks Like an Ikea Catalog Everyday is Black Friday at Grady Hendrix's Horrorstör |
Essay by Ted Gioia
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence Stories
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gardner, John
Grendel
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never Let Me Go
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Our Lady of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Oyeyemi, Helen
White is for Witching
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Tryon, Thomas
The Other
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wallace, Edgar
King Kong
Walpole, Horace
The Castle of Otranto
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence Stories
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gardner, John
Grendel
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never Let Me Go
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Our Lady of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Oyeyemi, Helen
White is for Witching
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Tryon, Thomas
The Other
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wallace, Edgar
King Kong
Walpole, Horace
The Castle of Otranto
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
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| Jeremy Bentham's model of the Panopticon, his ideal prison—and perhaps the forerunner of the modern big box retail outlet. |