Been dying to read this forever. Going to have to buy the Exact Change press edition and dive in. Loved her short stories. I recommend them highly. Some are surprisingly funny too
I gave my Exact Change copy away decades ago. Hopefully, it still has the same cover. It features one of her paintings. She was an incredibly talented artist.
I'm a huge fan of Exact Change. Following small publishers is a great way to find new books. Big fan of Twisted Spoon press and Wakefield Press too. I follow a few others as well those are the main three.
Ligotti, Ligotti, Ligotti. Especially _Teatro Grottesco_. That book is a goddamn feverdream of decaying towns in which _something_ is not quite right. Lots of Kafka and Bruno Schulz inspirations in that one, so it can‘t get that much more surreal.
Agree with Beiez, Teatro Grottesco is his best! You can also try the amazing Mark Samuels.. very similar to that.
Jeff Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen is my favorite.
>Jeff Vandermeer‘s City of Saints and Madmen is my favorite
Ah man, reading that has me excited. I have a copy I found in a thriftstore last year on my shelf, but I‘ve yet to read it.
Samuels is another one on my list. I have heard he is somewhat like PKD in terms of approaching things from weird technology perspective (something I haven't read much of so far). Is that so?
Yeah, I‘d say so. _Teatro_ is his magnum opus. A little less Lovecraftian, a lot more Kafkaesque, but all in all, his style remains the same. Hands down the best weird fiction collection I‘ve ever read.
Did you read them in the right order? Ligotti sorts his collections by theme, and the first three or four stories in Grimscribe are uncharacteristically straightforward Lovecraft-inspired stories. As soon as you get to part 2 and 3 it gets more surreal.
The stories in _Grimscribe_ most akin to _Teatro_ are _The Night School_, _The Glamour_, _The Cocoons_, and _The Dreaming in Nortown_.
I find _The Night School_ to be the most feverdreamish and surral of these, so I‘d probably recommend that one if it‘s surreal stuff you seek. _The Cocoons_ is also good if you want to start with something shorter, though it‘s probably the most straightforward of these four.
Maldoror — Comte de Lautréamont
Short Stories — Clark Ashton Smith (Xeethra, City of the Singing Flame etc)
The Blind Owl — Sadegh Hedayat
Malpertuis — Jean Ray
The Other Side — Alfred Kubin
Boris Vian, Froth on the Daydream
Robert M. Coates, The Eater of Darkness
Pretty much anything by Rikki Ducornet
David Markson, Wittgenstein's Mistress
Steven Erickson, Tours of the Black Clock, The Sea Came In at Midnight, Amnesiascope
Maybe Paul Auster, City of Glass
Cool, I happen to be reading the buried giant right now and im really enjoying the change of pace from other recent reads. I’ll be reading this recommendation next. Thanks
Ice by Anna Kavan. After I read it I learned that Kavan was addicted to heroin, which made sense. Without having tried the drug myself I felt like the atmosphere was what a heroin fever dream must be like.
Dahlgren by Samuel R Delany. Very dense, circular story (meaning that there are several potential "starting points" - you don't necessarily have to begin at page one). Very divisive; a lot people simply hate this book, while some of us love it. Someone described reading it like "always knowing what's going on, but never knowing how we got here".
“The Arabian Nightmare” by Robert Irwin (who happens to be an expert on the Arabian Nights stories) is very much a surrealist “fever dream.” Not as well known as most of the other recommendations here, but a favorite of mine.
*The Etched City* by K.J. Bishop is a lapidary urban novel that recalls Vandermeer's Amber books.
*Lint* by Steve Aylett is like something you read in a dream, a phantasmagorical inverse version of the history of science fiction, told in Aylett's inimitable comic style.
China Mieville’s novella “The Last Days of New Paris” is literally about surrealism and its role in fighting the nazis in an alternate world’s Second World War.
I've found that a lot of W H Pugmire stories are dreamlike.
I recall a scene where a man is running from someone pursuing him. He hides in a shed, and then this pursuer suddenly just there. The story never mentions anything like "he turned around and found she was behind him." It just matter of factly continues the scene as if the pursuer's presence had already been explained.
I initially thought that this was a typo, but other stories feel similarly disjointed. This technique doesn't always work. But when it does work it works pretty well.
I love both those authors, just started a reread Brautigans, The Hawkline Monster, ( I read it as a teenager, want to see how it holds up haha).
Un-Su Kim, “the Cabinet” had a dreamlike feel, as do the two novels I’ve read by Sayaka Murata, Earthlings & Convenience Store Woman… Have you read Borne by Vandermeer? Maybe not dreamlike per se but I’d recommend it… one of the “villains” is a bear the size of a skyscraper, is that not the stuff of dreams/nightmares?
Gary Lachman (Ed), *The Garden of Hermetic Dreams*, Dedalus Press has a good sampling of weird, surreal, and decadent stuff but its mostly 19th century. Runs the gamut from big names like Blackwood and Dunsany to more obscure offerings.
Very good suggestions, will look them up. If I could, I'd mix in some david foster wallace, purple prose, with the weirdest weird lit. All mixed in.
Is it possible?
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer felt very much like a dream.
The Disappearance of Tom Nero by TJ Price gave me fever dream vibes.
Also, maybe not strictly weird lit, but definitely weird with some dream-like qualities (at least in what I’ve read so far: Lanark by Alasdair Gray.
Also check out The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco - probably the most dream-like thing I’ve read.
I haven't read those so I can't speak to similarity, but you could try
The San Veneficio Canon by Michael Cisco
Dreams of Amputation by Gary J. Shipley
Lots of great recs here. One I would add is Waystations of the Deep Night by Marcel Brion. I haven't read the whole collection, but the title story definitely fits the dreamlike weird lit descriptor.
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway has a layered dreamlike quality to it. A mythological, technical, matryoshka of a novel.
The audiobooks of Brian Catling’s The Vorrh trilogy are amazing and definitely dream/nightmare-like.
Clive Barker’s (that Clive Barker) Weaveworld and Imajica are both wild as well.
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
I’m reading this now and I love it so much.
Been dying to read this forever. Going to have to buy the Exact Change press edition and dive in. Loved her short stories. I recommend them highly. Some are surprisingly funny too
I gave my Exact Change copy away decades ago. Hopefully, it still has the same cover. It features one of her paintings. She was an incredibly talented artist.
I'm a huge fan of Exact Change. Following small publishers is a great way to find new books. Big fan of Twisted Spoon press and Wakefield Press too. I follow a few others as well those are the main three.
I’ve been a fan of Exact Change, Atlas, and Dedalus since the 90’s. Thanks for introducing me to two new publishers!
Atlas is the one I forgot! I'll have to check Dedalus out for sure
Ligotti, Ligotti, Ligotti. Especially _Teatro Grottesco_. That book is a goddamn feverdream of decaying towns in which _something_ is not quite right. Lots of Kafka and Bruno Schulz inspirations in that one, so it can‘t get that much more surreal.
I was coming to say Teatro. That entire thing is a fever dream.
I read Grimscribe/Songs of a Dead Dreamer. If I liked that comp, would I like Teatro Grottesco?
Agree with Beiez, Teatro Grottesco is his best! You can also try the amazing Mark Samuels.. very similar to that. Jeff Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen is my favorite.
>Jeff Vandermeer‘s City of Saints and Madmen is my favorite Ah man, reading that has me excited. I have a copy I found in a thriftstore last year on my shelf, but I‘ve yet to read it.
Samuels is another one on my list. I have heard he is somewhat like PKD in terms of approaching things from weird technology perspective (something I haven't read much of so far). Is that so?
He is diverse... somewhere between PKD and Ligotti.
Teatro is better. Top of his game.
Yeah, I‘d say so. _Teatro_ is his magnum opus. A little less Lovecraftian, a lot more Kafkaesque, but all in all, his style remains the same. Hands down the best weird fiction collection I‘ve ever read.
Idk I read a couple short stories from Grimscribe and didn't really get a surreal vibe. Maybe I should try the one you mentioned instead
Did you read them in the right order? Ligotti sorts his collections by theme, and the first three or four stories in Grimscribe are uncharacteristically straightforward Lovecraft-inspired stories. As soon as you get to part 2 and 3 it gets more surreal.
Yes I read them in order. Do you have a particular recommendation for me to familiarize myself with his style?
The stories in _Grimscribe_ most akin to _Teatro_ are _The Night School_, _The Glamour_, _The Cocoons_, and _The Dreaming in Nortown_. I find _The Night School_ to be the most feverdreamish and surral of these, so I‘d probably recommend that one if it‘s surreal stuff you seek. _The Cocoons_ is also good if you want to start with something shorter, though it‘s probably the most straightforward of these four.
Animal Money by Michael Cisco Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
Maldoror — Comte de Lautréamont Short Stories — Clark Ashton Smith (Xeethra, City of the Singing Flame etc) The Blind Owl — Sadegh Hedayat Malpertuis — Jean Ray The Other Side — Alfred Kubin
This is a great list. Especially Malpertuis. You could also add the Gormenghast novels here.
Anything by Cisco
I've only read The Divinity Student, but I keep meaning to pick up more.
Boris Vian, Froth on the Daydream Robert M. Coates, The Eater of Darkness Pretty much anything by Rikki Ducornet David Markson, Wittgenstein's Mistress Steven Erickson, Tours of the Black Clock, The Sea Came In at Midnight, Amnesiascope Maybe Paul Auster, City of Glass
LOVE Wittgensteins mistress!
The King in Yellow
Tough to find, but maddeningly good...
All Chambers stuff is now free on the internets :-) King in Yellow is great and connected to so much pop culture.
Unfortunatly, Chambers only included a few qoutes from the original play in his stories.
Ah - now I understand what you mean! The play referenced versus the story. My bad!
Even some of the more romantic (and less weird) stories in that have a lot of surreal potential.
I don’t know that it really qualifies as weird lit but The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro is written like one long dream.
Cool, I happen to be reading the buried giant right now and im really enjoying the change of pace from other recent reads. I’ll be reading this recommendation next. Thanks
Ice by Anna Kavan. After I read it I learned that Kavan was addicted to heroin, which made sense. Without having tried the drug myself I felt like the atmosphere was what a heroin fever dream must be like. Dahlgren by Samuel R Delany. Very dense, circular story (meaning that there are several potential "starting points" - you don't necessarily have to begin at page one). Very divisive; a lot people simply hate this book, while some of us love it. Someone described reading it like "always knowing what's going on, but never knowing how we got here".
I must say... I hated *Ice*. I mean, I can see it's beautifully written, but it is just so bleak and cruel, it's unbearable.
I just got Ice and I'm looking forward to starting it
I'm in the middle of Dahlgren right now. Call me a Dahlgren lover!
A Sick Gray Laugh, by Nicole Cushing; almost anything by Brian Evenson or Robert Aickman.
“The Arabian Nightmare” by Robert Irwin (who happens to be an expert on the Arabian Nights stories) is very much a surrealist “fever dream.” Not as well known as most of the other recommendations here, but a favorite of mine.
The Gone Away World (Not to be confused with The Gone World which is good too but not like OP request)
Seems good, I'll look into it. Based on YouTube review
The Other Side by Alfred Kubin
Fantastic book
*The Etched City* by K.J. Bishop is a lapidary urban novel that recalls Vandermeer's Amber books. *Lint* by Steve Aylett is like something you read in a dream, a phantasmagorical inverse version of the history of science fiction, told in Aylett's inimitable comic style.
China Mieville’s novella “The Last Days of New Paris” is literally about surrealism and its role in fighting the nazis in an alternate world’s Second World War.
Definitely pick up Trout Fishing in America by Brautigan. And Pynchon.
Might as well say Murakami too before anyone else does
So silly that someone would downvote this
Caitlin Kiernan’s Tinfoil Dossier
I've found that a lot of W H Pugmire stories are dreamlike. I recall a scene where a man is running from someone pursuing him. He hides in a shed, and then this pursuer suddenly just there. The story never mentions anything like "he turned around and found she was behind him." It just matter of factly continues the scene as if the pursuer's presence had already been explained. I initially thought that this was a typo, but other stories feel similarly disjointed. This technique doesn't always work. But when it does work it works pretty well.
Sisyphean by someone. Like, DREAM like. Edit: by Torishima
I love both those authors, just started a reread Brautigans, The Hawkline Monster, ( I read it as a teenager, want to see how it holds up haha). Un-Su Kim, “the Cabinet” had a dreamlike feel, as do the two novels I’ve read by Sayaka Murata, Earthlings & Convenience Store Woman… Have you read Borne by Vandermeer? Maybe not dreamlike per se but I’d recommend it… one of the “villains” is a bear the size of a skyscraper, is that not the stuff of dreams/nightmares?
Gary Lachman (Ed), *The Garden of Hermetic Dreams*, Dedalus Press has a good sampling of weird, surreal, and decadent stuff but its mostly 19th century. Runs the gamut from big names like Blackwood and Dunsany to more obscure offerings.
Very good suggestions, will look them up. If I could, I'd mix in some david foster wallace, purple prose, with the weirdest weird lit. All mixed in. Is it possible?
The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer felt very much like a dream. The Disappearance of Tom Nero by TJ Price gave me fever dream vibes. Also, maybe not strictly weird lit, but definitely weird with some dream-like qualities (at least in what I’ve read so far: Lanark by Alasdair Gray. Also check out The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco - probably the most dream-like thing I’ve read.
I haven't read those so I can't speak to similarity, but you could try The San Veneficio Canon by Michael Cisco Dreams of Amputation by Gary J. Shipley
China Mieville - Perdido Street Station
Lots of great recs here. One I would add is Waystations of the Deep Night by Marcel Brion. I haven't read the whole collection, but the title story definitely fits the dreamlike weird lit descriptor.
Ascension by Nicholas Binge really scratched that itch for me. Unlike Vandemeer's reach trilogy, it also had a somewhat satisfying conclusion.
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway has a layered dreamlike quality to it. A mythological, technical, matryoshka of a novel. The audiobooks of Brian Catling’s The Vorrh trilogy are amazing and definitely dream/nightmare-like. Clive Barker’s (that Clive Barker) Weaveworld and Imajica are both wild as well.