In this podcast David Davis, Helen Marshall and Stephen Graham Jones join Scott Nicolay for a roundtable discussion of the State of the Weird at the beginning of 2018. Also Sonya Taaffe discusses the state of Weird poetry.
The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird is a unique immersive one-day event featuring approximately 12 hours of panels, readings, signings and social activities centered around contemporary Weird and speculative fiction. The second annual event will be held Sat. March 24, 2018 at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA, one of the Weirdest Places in the U.S. Limited to 75 attendees. Buy your memberships here.
Show Notes
Editor/translator David Davis (managing editor, Weird Fiction Review), author/editor Helen Marshall (editor, Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume 4) and author Stephen Graham Jones (Mapping the Interior) join host Scott Nicolay for the most epic episode of The Outer Dark since last year’s The State of the Weird. The conversation explores the panelists’ observations on whether paying little heed to genre labels can lead to The Weird, the danger in defining and over-marketing The Weird, the evolution of The Weird as the world itself gets Weirder, a different approach to ‘intrusion’ for Weird versus horror, closure versus ambiguous endings, ‘survival’ in Weird fiction, bifurcation and multiverse, dissecting the notion of ‘realism’ as a category, Philip K. Dick, #metoo and de-normalization, benefits of Weird fiction, NecronomiCon Providence as Area X, game-changing writers and editors, Weird film/TV/video-games/podcasts, stumbling into Weird fiction, catalysts for the Weird Renaissance, nature and British Weird fiction, global Weirding, new translated international Weird fiction, Raymond Carver, hunting for The Weird, the Mandela Effect, looking ahead to the most exciting 2018 Weird publications, the rising Weird of Shirley Jackson and Angela Carter, the Frankenstein bicentennial, and more Weird prognostications.
Sonya Taaffe: The State of Weird Poetry
(1:15:30) Sonya Taaffe joins Scott to discuss the Weird Renaissance’s extension into poetry including its place in the larger speculative fiction explosion, an introduction to non-English language Weird poets and readings, defining elements of Weird poetry, the difficulty in tracing speculative poetic lineages, processes of rediscovery, Ursula K. Le Guin and Robinson Jeffers, pushing beyond narrative poetry, flash fiction, the need for critical attention to speculative poetry, many ‘astonishing poets’ you should be reading, some poets engaging with contemporary Weird fiction, E.T.A. Hoffmann and opera, and even more Weird opera!
Be sure to scroll down to Additional Links to find out more about the authors, filmmakers, poets, and composers mentioned in this episode.
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Additional Links
‘The Double’ by Franz Hellens, translated by David Davis
‘The State of Weird’ by Helen Marshall
TOD 027: A Strange & Darksome Night: A Panel & Readings Celebrating Nightscript III
‘Dogme 2011 for Weird Fiction’ by Scott Nicolay
The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova (Review, The Guardian)
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
“Global Weirding” issue of Paradoxa
Hyperobjects by Timothy Morton
‘A Conversation Between Timothy Morton & Jeff VanderMeer’ (LA Review of Books)
Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials by Reza Negarestani
Infinite Ground by Martin MacInnes
Jorge Luis Borges, The Art of Fiction No. 39 (Paris Review)
‘There Are More Things’ by Jorge Luis Borges (dedicated to HP Lovecraft)
Alfred Kubin archives (Weird Fiction Review)
‘The Age of Genius: The Legend of Bruno Schultz’ (The New Yorker)
Whiskey Tales by Jean Ray (tr. Scott Nicolay; Wakefield Press)
Tales from the Crossroads #1: ‘Solid Objects’ by Virginia Woolf
Stories from the Borderlands #3:’Or All the Seas With Oysters’ by Avram Davidson
They Remain trailer (Entertainment Weekly)
‘Fabulous Beasts’ By Priya Sharma (Tor.com)
‘Thunderstorm in Glasgow, July 25, 2013’ by Amal El-Mohtar (Fireside Fiction)
‘You Are Here’ by Bogi Takács (Strange Horizons)
‘George Sterling’ by Robinson Jeffers
The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti (Studio One)
Marie Powers sings from ‘The Medium’
The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti Youtube links
The Tempest opera by Thomas Adès
The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès (The New Yorker)
The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies (Part 1)
Show Credits
Host/Executive Producer: Scott Nicolay
Co-Host, News From the Weird: Justin Steele
Associate Producer/Show Notes: Anya Martin
Logo Design: Nick “The Hat” Gucker
Music: Michael Griffin
