Weird Tales from the 20th Century

October 12, 2019 2:10 AM

Elvia Wilk, "Toward a Theory of the New Weird" (LitHub, 5 Aug. 2019), building on late 20th C. stories like Margaret Atwood's "Death by Landscape" (1990; PDF) and Kathe Koja's "The Neglected Garden" (1991): "Weirdness is a confrontation with the nonhuman. Weird knowledge does not deny the capacity of the human mind and body to produce knowledge, but it does not reduce the world to human subject experience either. Unlike science fiction—in which there is a rational explanation for everything—and fantasy—where magic explains it all—weirdness hovers between poles of explainability."

At a related event held on March 28, 2019, Wilk also gave an introductory talk recorded on video (18 mins.), which was followed by Alison Sperling's talk, "An Unruly Weird. Re-Thinking the Old Weird through Queer and Feminist Embodiment" (28 mins). Sperling's recent dissertation Weird Modernisms (2017; PDF) makes a case for including early 20th C. authors like Zora Neale Hurston, Djuna Barnes, and Carson McCullers in a genealogy of the weird in literature, not specifically because of these stories available online but for similar material encounters (strange/inexplicable, possibly supernatural, evoking the ineffable, etc.) in related sources:

• Djuna Barnes, 1917, "No-Man's-Mare"
• Zora Neale Hurston, 1925, "Spunk"
• Carson McCullers, 1951, "A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud"

A few more conventional examples, limited to 20th C. stories available online, offer further opportunities to consider these perspectives on both Old and New Weirds:

• Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, 1903, "The Lost Ghost" (an archetypal story; see also "The Hall Bedroom" or the very well-known "Luella Miller" (1902)--as discussed by Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth in their regular column on weird fiction)
• E. Nesbit, 1905, "The Shadow" (see also "The Pavilion" (1915); though known for her children's books and weird fiction, Nesbit was also an advocate of socialism and fantasy city dioramas)
• Zinaida Gippius, 1906, "Fate" [Open Library] (a remarkable story--a sort of clairvoyant existentialism; bio at Queer Portraits in History)
• Olivia Howard Dunbar, 1908, "A Shell of Sense" (see also "The Long Chamber," which is told in a more conventional way; the title "A Shell of Sense" comes from a play by an author whose widow's life Dunbar would write about in A House in Chicago; for other stories of ghosts with relationship concerns, see "The Token" by May Sinclair (1922) or "The Readjustment" (1909) by Mary Hunter Austin, author of The Land of Little Rain as discussed in Outside)
• Edith Wharton, 1910, "Afterward" (probably the most-anthologized of her many ghost stories, but see also "The Eyes" (1910) or the mysterious puzzle of "The Lady's Maid's Bell" (1902))
• Inez Haynes Gillmore, 1916, "The Sixth Canvasser" ("When she was a girl, she had heard Susan B. Anthony speak. She had never had to hear anybody else.")
• Eleanor Scott, 1929, "Randalls Round" (a classic story of 'folk horror')
• Margaret Irwin, 1930, "The Book" (see Lisa Hannett on "The Monstrous Allure of 'The Book'" and a discussion by Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth; but see also "Monsieur Seeks a Wife" (1934) and "The Earlier Service" (1935))
• C.L. Moore, 1933, "Shambleau" (discussion by Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth; see also Leigh Brackett's "The Treasure of Ptakuth" (1940))
• Simone Yoyotte, 1933, "Pale Blue Line in a Forced Episode ..." (screenshot of Surrealist Women [Open Library] offering a brief, vivid example of Surrealist writing; the same anthology collects prose like "The Invisible Adventure" by Claude Cahun; in The Custom-House of Desire [again, Open Library] there are very short stories by other Surrealists, e.g. Marianne Van Hirtum, "Euthanasia--A Cat Kidnapped--Thirty Francs--The Veterinarian" (1972) and Gisèle Prassinos, "The Three-branched Tree" (1934))
• Leonora Carrington, 1939, "The Debutante" & "The Royal Summons" (see Siobhan Leddy, "Leonora Carrington Brought a Wild, Feminist Intensity to Surrealist Painting"; see also an excerpt from Carrington's memoir, her story "Mr. Gregory's Fly," and at the Open Library "A Man in Love" and "The Neutral Man")
• Elizabeth Bowen, 1941, "The Demon Lover" [PDF] (see also Shirley Jackson's "The Daemon Lover" (1949)--two stories loosely connected with a traditional ballad later performed by Joan Baez)
• Daphne du Maurier, 1952, "The Birds" (radio dramatization; see Alix Ohlin's "Life Was Sometimes Lovely and Sometimes Rather Sad: Du Maurier Reconsidered")
• Margaret St. Clair, 1954, "Brenda" (modern zombie story; St. Clair is better known for overtly humorous weird fiction, e.g. "Horrer Howce" (1956) or especially "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles" (1951); as a later example of tongue-in-cheek weirdness, see Penelope Lively's "Uninvited Ghosts" (1981))
• Silvina Ocampo, 1959, "The House Made of Sugar" (see also "The Lost Passport" (1937) and a selection of her poems)
• Khalida Asghar, 1963, "The Wagon" (see the accompanying editorial on Asghar and fiction in Urdu)
• Christine Brooke-Rose, 1965, "On Terms" (Brooke-Rose previously on MeFi; obituary thread; see also "Red Rubber Gloves" [audio only] from 1966 and "The Foot" [Open Library] from 1967)
• Mercè Rodoreda, 1967, "The Salamander" (see a discussion by Anne M. Pillsworth and Ruthanna Emrys)
• Josephine Saxton, 1971, "Living Wild" (a weird post-apocalypse ... etc.)
• Octavia Butler, 1984, "Bloodchild" (audio; see Sofia Samatar on "Strange Symbiosis in 'Bloodchild'"; interview with Butler previously on MeFi)
• Angela Carter, 1987, "Ashputtle, or The Mother's Ghost" (versions of a fairy tale--Carter's collected short stories are available at the Open Library; see also Yumiko Kurahashi's "The Demons of the Adachi Moor" (1984), a version of a famous legend / play [PDF]--her The Woman with the Flying Head and Other Stories is also at the Open Library)
• Rachel Pollack, 1988, "Fake Dream" (surreal flash fiction by the author of Unquenchable Fire [Open Library]; review and review)
• Leena Krohn, 1992, "Lucilia Illustris" (see also "The Bystander" (1985; excerpt from Tainaron) and "Eyelids That Spatter Blood" (1987; excerpt from Gold of Ophir))
• Lisa Tuttle, 1992, "Replacements" (interview with the author in Nightmare magazine)
• Tanith Lee, 1996, "Doll Skulls" (obituary thread; see also Lee Mandelo's "Tanith Lee--A Brief Retrospective" in his regular column on Queering SFF)
• Kelly Link, 1998, "The Specialist's Hat" (see Helen Marshall on "Sex, Death and the Man-Omelet in 'The Specialist's Hat'")
• Yōko Ogawa, 1998, "Sewing for the Heart" (see also "The Last Hour of the Bengal Tiger"--two of eleven connected stories in Revenge; review and review)

Previously: Weird Tales from the 18th Century; (Translated) Weird Tales from the 19th Century.

posted by Wobbuffet (6 comments total)

Wow. I thought I'd enjoyed the post when I read the linked article from the front page; imagine my surprise when the more inside was such a great list of weird!

Thank you very much Wobbuffet.
posted by Fraxas at 2:42 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

Wow! I just finished Death by Landscape. I love this post!! Thank you so much!!!
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 3:59 AM on October 12, 2019

Fantastic post, I am getting stuck into that dissertation! Seeing Sofia Samatar write about my favourite Octavia Butler story is also brilliant!
posted by ocular shenanigans at 5:52 AM on October 12, 2019

I'd been hoping to read Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover", but hadn't realised it was available on-line: so thank you, Wobbuffet, just for that, and many more thanks besides for everything else, which is bonus upon bonus - I will be revisiting this post for some time to come.
posted by misteraitch at 1:48 PM on October 12, 2019

What else can you say: thank you for this fantastic post. A few stories I know and love and so many more I don't and am looking forward to reading.

(And now I noticed your two previous amazing weird fiction posts. Does this mean there will be a weird tales from the 21st century post soon? Has there been enough weird fiction...? No pressure but maybe a tiny bit of hopeful expectation)
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 7:49 AM on October 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

This was a lot of fun to put together, but I have no plans for the 21st C. One of my key sources sort of dries up then (stats of "most anthologized," according to ISFDb), and for half the timeframe too much is unavailable online, while for the other half too much is available online. I suspect it'd come out substantially composed around things already posted to Metafilter, but I'm glad to list a few of those here off the top of my head--it's mostly in line with the theme of this post anyhow:

• K.J. Bishop, 2004, "Alsiso" (a well-known author but also a sculptor of the weird)
• Sarah Monette, 2004, "Wait for Me" (among other stories featuring Kyle Murchison Booth linked previously)
• Rikki Ducornet, 2006, "Blue Funk" (incidentally K.J. Bishop mentioned Ducornet as a favorite of hers along with the collection Surrealist Women)
• Ruthanna Emrys, 2014, "The Litany of Earth" (see her column with Anne M. Pillsworth mentioned above)
• K.M. Ferebee, 2014, "The Earth and Everything Under" (spectacular story by the former violinist for the band Beirut who also has a relevant thesis and dissertation)
• Ursula Vernon, 2014, "Toad Words" (based on a Mother Goose story, but I recommend going further back and in particular getting Nancy L. Canepa's unexpurgated translation of an earlier collection that has it under the name "The Two Little Pizzas")
• Lesley Nneka Arimah, 2015, "Who Will Greet You at Home?" (interview with the author at PBS)
• Kij Johnson, 2015, "The Apartment Dweller's Bestiary"
• Lincoln Michel, 2015, "Dark Air"
• Sophie Wereley, 2015, "Unconventional Advice for the Discerning Reader" (see also A.C. Wise's "The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate" from the same year)
• Shaenon K. Garrity, 2016, "Demon Clown Diary" (as recommended here)
• Alice Sola Kim, 2016, "Successor, Usurper, Replacement"
• Vanessa Fogg, 2017, "Taiya"
• Kristen Gleason, 2017, "The Refugee"
• Allison Mills, 2017, "If a Bird Can Be a Ghost"
• Julia Armfield, 2018, "The Great Awake" (previously; her collection is out now too)
• Tess Allard, 2018, "The World Holds What It Remembers Most" (previously)
• Heather Morris, 2018, "There's No Need to Fear the Darkness"
• Ivy Spadille, 2018, "The Whist Clowns of Old Frizzle"

Oh, and it'd be hard to choose among stories by Yoon Ha Lee.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:15 AM on October 13, 2019 [7 favorites]