A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

As some of you may already know, I'm an aspiring writer of the new literary wave called "bizarro" fiction. Basically, it's just really trashy horror and sci-fi thrown into absurdist philosophy and surreal imagery. Think of taking two completely unrelated things and putting them together... "Alice in Wonderland" meets "Videodrome," or "The Care Bears" meet "Naked Lunch." Many of the titles in the bizarro catalogue are adult-oriented and take advantage of irrealism-- which is basically just extreme surrealism.

Some of the bizarro books you may have heard of are "Satan Burger," by Carlton Mellick, which is about Satan opening up a fast food restaurant where he charges you a soul instead of cash for a great burger, then there's "Extinction Journals" by Jeremy Robert Johnson, which is about a man who survives the nuclear holocaust by building a suit made of live cockroaches, and then there's a bunch of others, "Shatnerqauake," "Fistful of Feet" and "The Kafka Effekt." There's quite a few of them. I'm currently working on something marketable, but if you're interested in reading some bizarro fiction check out the following websites...

Bizarro Central
Eraserhead Press
Deadite Press
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Grindhouse Press

Those are the big five when it comes to bizarro fiction. I write for Eraserhead Press, though I am currently unpublished. Not for long, however. If you have any ideas for bizarro stories or are a fan of the genre, post in this thread and we can talk all about what it is that makes bizarro fiction great. Personally, I like that it's like the literary equivalent of a "Ren and Stimpy" cartoon, or some outlandish thing. It's like candy for your brain, and it's totally bad for you-- but that's all a part of what makes it so much fun.

Am I the only one who thinks SMB is sort of like Bizarro fiction, except not nearly as trashy?

I do remember an idea I had when I was 11 called Space-Ific ocean which was about a submarine that finds a portal into space. Basically the R-rated goodness would mostly come from the aliens attacking the ship during when they're in the ocean. The space part would mostly come as a surprise at the end.

Also I do remember reading something about the Cannibals of Candyland which is so bizarrely awesome that I really want to read.

1upmushroom wrote:Am I the only one who thinks SMB is sort of like Bizarro fiction, except not nearly as trashy?

I do remember an idea I had when I was 11 called Space-Ific ocean which was about a submarine that finds a portal into space. Basically the R-rated goodness would mostly come from the aliens attacking the ship during when they're in the ocean. The space part would mostly come as a surprise at the end.

Also I do remember reading something about the Cannibals of Candyland which is so bizarrely awesome that I really want to read.

Bizarro's not just for adults, though. There are children's bizarro books, and many of the stories can entertain anyone of any age. But for the most part, it tends to be R-X-rated.

So what are the requirements of Bizarro Fiction can it just be any weird idea as long as it has a structured plot and sense of proper continuition and all that?

1upmushroom wrote:So what are the requirements of Bizarro Fiction can it just be any weird idea as long as it has a structured plot and sense of proper continuition and all that?

Bizarro Fiction in general depends on a sense of what's called "irrealism," which is similar to surrealism-- which means "weird reality," but whereas all of surrealism is based in reality, "irrealism" is a lack of the sense of "reality" and emphasis on the weird. Read anything by Carlton Mellick, D. Harlan Wilson or Jeremy Robert Johnson and you'll get a good idea of what I'm talking about.

For example- the book "Extinction Journals" is written from the point of view of a man who survives a Nuclear Holocaust by sewing a suit out of live cockroaches-- because it is said that only two things would survive worldwide nuclear armageddon: Twinkies and cockroaches. He then rides the suit of cockroaches around the ruined world where he meets various other survivors who have lived on by making suits out of Twinkies, or have become mutated into human/bug hybrids. People in the story learn to control insects with their own minds, and nothing more- if for no other reason, just because it's weird and it feels like a dream.

That's not bizarro fiction at all. That's just two companies trying to be funny. Bizarro fiction is more of a literary thing than a visual thing. It would be hard to adapt many works of bizarro fiction into film or graphic novel form because the imagery depicted therein is so odd and outrageous that it cannot be put to film or on a canvas by conventional means.

Nor should it- the resulting effect would be rather disturbing and most likely highly unpleasant. Just reading a real bizarro book like Satan Burger, Extinction Journals or anything by D. Harlan Wilson will tell you that.

Also, bizarro fiction tends to be more short story based, the books can be as short as eighty pages long, though there are bizarro "epics" like Electric Jesus Corpse. If you want to know exactly what bizarro fiction is, click here, here and here. Also, Spock automatically wins because he has a phaser.

Hmm, you know I really am into this genre. Though I am dissapointed, none of these are at the library.

I have been thinking of some bizarro ideas though I'm afraid they'll just come of as weird stories and not complete surreal bizarro fiction. Any tips you can give?

1upmushroom wrote:Hmm, you know I really am into this genre. Though I am dissapointed, none of these are at the library.

I have been thinking of some bizarro ideas though I'm afraid they'll just come of as weird stories and not complete surreal bizarro fiction. Any tips you can give?

First of all, you can ask your library to order bizarro books and they probably will. Second, bizarro fiction is usually something that comes naturally out of human emotion. Like for me, my stories are all built on fear, rage and hatred, then I take an embarrassing detail and amplify it and make it so outrageous that no one would have ever thought of the idea before, and if they did, they didn't put it to paper in the manner I did.

You really ought to read some actual bizarro fiction, first, though. I'd suggest going to Amazon and ordering the three "Bizarro Starter Kits," Orange, Blue and Purple. They're ten dollars each and shipping is free for all orders over twenty-five dollars, so at thirty bucks, no tax, free shipping, it's a great deal.

The authors I'd recommend you read are Carlton Mellick III, D. Harlan Wilson, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Jeremy C. Shipp, Garret Cook and Jordan Krall-- authors of books like "Satan Burger," and "Fistful of Feet." D. Harlan Wilson usually writes in a more lucid manner than the others, but if you're looking for something really strange, go with anything by Carlton Mellick.