UrbanWeird? Huh?
I’d thought I would start of this subsection of the inaugural issue of the UrbanWeirdist by describing what UrbanWeird is. UrbanWeird is a term I came up with to help describe my overall artistic aesthetic. My writing is heavily influenced by the New Weird literary movement of the turn of this century with the likes of China Miéville and Jeff VanderMeer. New Weird in turn is heavily influenced by the Weird writings of authors such as H. P. Lovecraft in the early decades of the 20th century. New Weird is a mélange of dark fantasy (in opposition to traditional fantasy a la Tolkein), horror, and sometimes sci-fi. Today, it would probabaly also include the newer dystopian fantasy subgenre of grimdark. It often has as its motifs decadent urban settings (either real-ish or imaginary) populated with weird entities, almost always including a tentacled inhabitant here and there. This is a nod to Lovecraft’s Cthulu Mythos; hence, my tentacled logo. These urban inhabitants however are really only weird to us eavesdropping readers.
My version of the New Weird - UrbanWeird - locates itself in über-urban often megalopolises that are worlds unto their own populated by an almost uncountable number of cultures, sub-cultures, and sub-sub-cultures all with, to us anyway, weird cultural and physical traits. The UrbanWeird City does not have to explain itself; the reader just has to accept that that is the way things are in these wonderfully weird metropolises. The sense of uncanny will and should dominate until the immigrant reader becomes acclimated to their new literary home.
UrbanWeird, like the tradition of the New Weird and Weird, is dark, but dark with an element of camp. I am a gay male of a certain age, and I can’t help myself by adding a soupçon of camp in my writing. I am intrigued by the subgenre of grimdark, though I do not quite understand it thorughly. Like many artistic genres/movements, it is difficult to define even by its practioners (look for a future article about my mental fumbling of trying to define it for myself). From what I know of it thus far, I would categorize UrbanWeird as grimdark, though with that gay sensibility.
I also aspire (I don’t think I am there quite yet) my writing to be considered “literary speculative”, melding/smooshing the often too dichotomous fiction worlds of literary and genre. What does it mean for a piece of writing to be literary? Like everything else, it is rather difficult to pin down. From what I have gathered, it is being more character rather than plot driven with style/wording/word choice taking centre stage in creating the atmosphere around the characters. I do not consider myself very plot driven but heavily setting/world driven, which makes sense since The City is almost always a character in it own right in my writing. I am an avid reader and have a deep appreciation of the literary classics and can only hope the ink-laden fragrance of their words perfume mine some day soon.
