Bizarro Fiction: What The Actual Fuck?

Stumbled onto this site in the midst of a Google search for something wholly unrelated. Is this an actual thing that I've somehow completely overlooked the existence of?

What Is Bizarro?

Bizarro, simply put, is the genre of the weird.

Bizarro is literature’s equivalent to the cult section at the video store.

Like cult movies, Bizarro is sometimes surreal, sometimes avant-garde, sometimes goofy, sometimes bloody, sometimes borderline pornographic, and almost always completely out there.

Bizarro strives not only to be strange, but fascinating, thought-provoking, and, above all, fun to read.

Bizarro often contains a certain cartoon logic that, when applied to the real world, creates an unstable universe where the bizarre becomes the norm and absurdities are made flesh.

Bizarro was created by a group of small press publishers in response to the increasing demand for (good) weird fiction and the increasing number of authors who specialize in it.

Bizarro is like:
*Franz Kafka meets John Waters
*Dr. Suess of the post-apocalypse
*Takashi Miike meets William S. Burroughs
*Alice in Wonderland for adults
*Japanese animation directed by David Lynch

Titles include: Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere, The Emerald Burrito of Oz, Ass Goblins of Auschwitz, I Am Genghis Cum, and Santa Claus Conquers The Homophobes.

...What?

so it's the literary equivalent of teenagers who describe themselves as "so RANDOM"

I have never heard of this before either and I tend to keep up on nerdy genre developments. I guess stuff like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fits into this?

It has its own wikipedia article so I guess its a real thing?

i ran into Bizzaro trolling free Kindle books on amazon and found some Andersen Prunty and Carlton Mellick III, never heard of it before either.

it's like if Cyberpunk was inspired by Burroughs' Interzone and Nova Express, this takes off from Hassan's Rumpus Room and the 'talking asshole' routine in Naked Lunch.

Bizarro strives not only to be strange, but fascinating, thought-provoking, and, above all, fun to read.

i have the sneaking suspicion that the authors assume the latter qualities are implicit in strangeness per se. sounds absolutely tedious.

Ass Goblins of Auschwitz

"thought-provoking"

really makes you think (about ass goblins)

I wonder if this is the prose version of flarf:

http://www.pw.org/content/can_flarf_ever_be_taken_seriously?cmnt_all=1

I know two flarf poets in Minneapolis and they are both hilarious and awesome: http://geotypografika.com/2011/03/06/elisabeth-workman-dusie/

Oh, I forgot to mention that there's a bizarro Amazing Stories of the Flying Spaghetti Monster short story collection, which kinda sums this whole thing up pretty succinctly for me.

Has anyone read any of this bizarro stuff? I'm a little bit curious, but the titles I've seen so far are too painful.

fanfic gone so so wrong

the angelfire of the desktop publishing set.

new board description?
Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nke0Gj2SUOs

this doesn't encompass roy orbison wrapped in clingfilm so this genre can gtfo

when i was in middle school my friends and i had a club called weirdo-tea that was focused on being weird, one thing we did was not wear socks on fridays. that is what "bizarro fiction" makes me think of.

I went to school with a kid who composed a ~900 page paen to Rambo Smurf and his adventures sailing around the world in an invisible, elephant-powered submarine.

He got a full scholarship to MIT

i didn't know they had a writing program there

It was for invisible, elephant-powered submarine research, I'd imagine.

it's like if Cyberpunk was inspired by Burroughs' Interzone and Nova Express

uh cyberpunk pretty clearly WAS inspired by Burroughs tho

K.W. Jeter for ex

well, for a sufficiently low-hanging fruit defn. of 'inspired', sure

it's like the subject of one drug-fueled conversation mixed with the subject of another drug-fuled conversation

He stole my Magic: The Gathering cards in eighth grade, and we ended our friendship. Probably did me a favor, tbh.

I have a friend who's way into this shit. She tried to get me to read Satanburger, but I lasted ~5 pages. Tapped out with the big reveal that Satan was living in the characters' spare room AND WAS GAY!!!

This is like something maybe I would have be really super thrilled about 15 years ago in middle school but now I'm rmde. What a stupid time we are living in.

this is so embarrassing

i am embarrassed to even be commenting on it

or to have seen that picture of the 'flarf poets'

I went to school with a kid who composed a ~900 page paen to Rambo Smurf and his adventures sailing around the world in an invisible, elephant-powered submarine.

Yeah i just remembered this is more or less what me and a friend did in most of 6th and 7th grade, write one long continuous story with every pop culture or literary character we could think of. It's more or less the writing equivalent of playing with action figures only a bigger waste of time.

The cover of Satanburger is traumatic.

It's more or less the writing equivalent of playing with action figures only a bigger waste of time.

I would look at it as a way of adolescents to test whether their brains have discoverable borders. Kind of like looking through a big-ass telescope to see if you can find the edge of the universe. Any adults who engaged in this kind of activity would be stuck in immaturity.

adults... or UK rock critics from 1999?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/1999/nov/20/fiction.reviews

this was an awesome and enjoyable part of being an adolescent - working through satire, offensive boundary-pushing, reappropriation etc. have no use for it as an adult.

I feel like reading these would go well with owning an anarchy t-shirt and listening to Marilyn Manson.

*Franz Kafka meets John Waters
*Dr. Suess of the post-apocalypse
*Takashi Miike meets William S. Burroughs
*Alice in Wonderland for adults
*Japanese animation directed by David Lynch

Needs to be a poll.

this was an awesome and enjoyable part of being an adolescent - working through satire, offensive boundary-pushing, reappropriation etc. have no use for it as an adult.

― Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, April 10, 2012 2:26 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, this stuff just makes my skin crawl now

Great blurb!
http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/images/oct2001/tits_out.jpg

having recently watched part 1 of the last harry potter movie, i can't say i'm above this stuff, but i can imagine it would be just as excruciating as watching part 1 of the last harry potter movie.

Just you wait for part 2

Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere

fwiw this is a Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 song title

i think shlocky genre exercises belong in a different category

~900 page paen to Rambo Smurf

omg remy, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO REMIND ME, holy crap omg

he was like Dickens –– there were serialized installments for, like, six years.

there was a whole section of 'bizarro' shelved cover-forward at the SF section of the cardiff waterstones

http://www.ghostwoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/050109_shatner_1.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5134JD6VYQL._SS500_.jpg

i feel like the people who write and read these things, on some level, have given up on life

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uy6A2wCXNHY/TfDRi4-ROJI/AAAAAAAAFI8/WZYdawABW7U/s1600/LOEGCentury1969%2Bfinal%2Bwebreadyjpg.jpg

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
I am a sick f*** August 21, 2005
By Nathan Tyree

There was a point while reading Ocean of Lard when I set the book down and said: "well, that was disturbing." I know that that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but understand: I'm the guy who thinks that thinks that zombie sex with midgets is funny.

Anyway, Ocean of Lard is great fun. It's a a twisted little romp for sick adults. It has pirates, sexy mermaids, pedophillia and everything else a broken mind needs.

I'm the guy who thinks that thinks that zombie sex with midgets is funny.

LOL was just about to post this. These people are all in middle school, right?

http://img.getglue.com/books/kobold_wizards_dildo_of_enlightenment_2/carlton_iii/normal.jpg

i actually kind of want to read this one maybe /:

... is an absurd comedy about a group of adventurers (elf, halfling, bard, dwarf, assassin, thief) going through an existential crisis after having discovered that they are really just pre-rolled characters living inside of a classic AD&D role playing game. While exploring the ruins of Tardis Keep, these 6 characters must deal with their inept Dungeon Master's retarded imagination and resist their horny teenaged players' commands to have sex with everything in sight.

Featuring: punk rock elf chicks, death metal orcs, porn-addicted beholders, a goblin/halfling love affair, a gnoll orgy, and a magical dildo that holds the secrets of the universe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Diver_%28video_game%29

so it's the literary equivalent of teenagers who describe themselves as "so RANDOM"

― some dude, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 3:38 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

most devastating one-line takedown of a genre or style ever, basically

There's a new genre rising from the underground. Its name: BIZARRO. For years, readers have been asking for a category of fiction dedicated to the weird, crazy, cult side of storytelling that has become a staple in the film industry (with directors such as David Lynch, Takashi Miike, Tim Burton, and Lloyd Kaufman) but has been largely ignored in the literary world, until now. The Bizarro Starter Kit features short novels and story collections by ten of the leading authors in the bizarro genre: D. Harlan Wilson, Carlton Mellick III, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Kevin L Donihe, Gina Ranalli, Andre Duza, VIncent W. Sakowski, Steve Beard, John Edward Lawson, and Bruce Taylor.

xp totally

lollin at this tread title

i would totally read these books.

john skipp!

http://bizarrocentral.com/multimedia/rose_bizarro_zombie_musical/

i can't not pull a U when I see a zombie in 2012

http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/galleries/display/55/55168.jpg

frowned when i saw we were stocking this at the bookstore i work at

this is all self-published i take it

I have a friend who's way into this shit. She tried to get me to read Satanburger, but I lasted ~5 pages. Tapped out with the big reveal that Satan was living in the characters' spare room AND WAS GAY!!!

hahaha, i love this. i'm definitely checking out this book at some point.

As vile as the ‘Ass Goblins’ are in this book, they are portrayed in such an absurd way that makes them all the more easier to digest. From the opening chapter up until the poetic melancholy coda, this book is a relentless journey. At the core of this book, is a story about the shift from childhood to adulthood and the loss of one’s innocence. Without a doubt the most enjoyable and strongest asset of this book is its author’s fluid, descriptive, prose and his limitless imagination.

from another review

It's not even really terrible grammar or spelling, just the odd continuity error and sentences that, when you think about it, don't actually have any meaning. For example: "Today seems worse, probably because nobody's condition ever improves in Auschwitz."

so i picked that bit out because i did some skimming of the big names in the genre like cameron pierce and you literally cannot find a single paragraph w/o a sentence like that ... just makes you stop in your tracks and ask yourself if these guys actually have any sense of what good writing "reads like" or if they're just utterly tone-deaf to anything but poop jokes

also

... started writing at the age of ten and completed twelve novels by the age of eighteen

^^ from wikipedia

It's difficult to love a woman whose vagina is a gateway to the world of the dead...

Steve is madly in love with his eccentric girlfriend, Stacy. Unfortunately, their sex life has been suffering as of late, because Steve is worried about the odd noises that have been coming from Stacy's pubic region. She says that her vagina is haunted. She doesn't think it's that big of a deal. Steve, on the other hand, completely disagrees.

When a living corpse climbs out of her during an awkward night of sex, Stacy learns that her vagina is actually a doorway to another world. She persuades Steve to climb inside of her to explore this strange new place. But once inside, Steve finds it difficult to return... especially once he meets an oddly attractive woman named Fig, who lives within the lonely haunted world between Stacy's legs.

i found this enlightening comment box exchange on the blog linked in the op

I think ALL bizarro fiction has artistic merit in one form or another. The bullshit comes from those who draw a firm line between high art and low art. Most art is a combination of both. Most classics are a combination of both ... The point is we shouldn’t bother trying to win over the douchebags. - c.m.

That reminds me of a Nicki Minaj argument I got into with a guy who believed that the only decent music fell in the narrow confines of 70s album rock. The guy even said that Dio was a great vocalist. It was really sad especially since he was so arrogant in his ignorance. He didn’t hear about The Replacements. Or Puccini. Both pretty damn awesome. - t.l.

what is it with these guys and passive voice?

what is it with the fifty pound bag of commas?

why do these guys always cram shit between subject and verb?

the only thing i can think of that explains the bizarro style is that these guys are just transcribing shit that they cooked up verbally?

which would make it true internet-age literature i guess

I read the ebook of AssGoblins of Auschwitz over the course of several sleepy late nights last week. It read like a real SF novel with a word filter substituting in poop words. The word filter must have also been a concept filter. I was half asleep.

I don't actually know.

Maybe I was expecting something like a new Philip Jose Farmer, but I got Mark Leyner meets Andre Norton, an adventure story about lost innocence and escape from bad guys with lots of shit and anuses and penetration.

Maybe the banality was part of the point. I don't have a better understanding of man's relationship with feces.

Most nights I just read ILM and vote in the polls.

mark leyner was what i thought of, when i was trying to decide whether i would read any of these, maybe also you should invest in a malted beverage or something

LOL welcome to 2010, flopson!

feel like the only adequate response to a world full of this shit is a po-faced austere elitism played for spite

feel like the only adequate response to a world full of this shit is a po-faced austere elitism played for spite BIZARRO FICTIOn!

got this book for a quarter today -- is it bizarro?
http://resources3.deepdiscount.com/resources/deepdiscount/images/products/processed/449/9781440512704.zoom.1.jpg

nah that's just spoof

[a] weedtastic tall tale

HahahahA

Anyone read more of this stuff yet? I've heard Steve Aylett and David Britton being categorized here but because they are more critically acclaimed, some would rather they weren't.

My brother read a few of these, said Shatnerquake was quite funny but lost interest in the genre quickly, aside from Aylett, who he loves.

I'm really not a fan of that sort of Troma style of humour but like any other genre, there is supposed to be some good stuff.

Feel like you're doing Troma a grave disservice there.

Maybe, I haven't really kept up with them or anything.