(Bionic Cow) Papal Visit to Mo*Con

Having a blast here at Mo*Con .  Last evening was dinner, open-mic readings, and Maurice Broaddus’ birthday party.   Today will bring panels on faith (or perhaps better put, the lack thereof) as it relates to speculative fiction.

I’ll be blogging more about this fantastic little con in the next few days, but for starters I thought I’d post a few pictures from my reading.  Behold, Bionic Cow Pope!

Resolved: Bizarro Is Not A Horror Sub-Genre

Welcome to the Cushing Bizarro Debate Society.   Today we come to debate the resolution:  “Bizarro Is Not A Horror A Horror Sub-Genre”.

Now, let me start off by saying that I know that there’s not necessarily any malice behind the belief that Bizarroville is just one of the neighborhoods in the sprawling Horror community.  To the contrary, it’s an assumption that’s sometimes made with a positive (even flattering) connotation.  It’s not unusual to hear the ocassional author or editor make the remark that they’d like to see bizarro coronated — like Clive Barker in the old Stephen King blurb — as “the future of horror”.

Just as frequently heard, though, are the laments of fans of what I’ll call (for lack of a better word) “traditional horror”.  They don’t know quite what to make of the bizarros (Are they doing tongue-in-cheek-extreme horror, comedic horror?  Whatever this weird stuff is, it doesn’t tickle my fancy.  I’m outta here).

And that, my friends is why it’s important this topic be discussed more often.  That’s the reason why any genre label is important.  I’ve heard the whole “genre labels are just marketing tools” spiel. But by dismissing them as “just” marketing tools, one risks minimizing the importance of providing the reader with good customer service by giving them a fair idea of what to expect.

If a fan of traditional horror picks up a bizarro book expecting something similar to the latest King, Koontz, or Keene release, then bizarro is, in a sense, being set-up to fail.  More importantly, the reader is being set up to be disappointed.

I’ve had this debate with a few friends before, and this is the point where they usually raise a couple of objections such as…

• “But Nicole, I was there when bizarro was first coming up, and all of those guys were on Shocklines and other horror forums.  They started out with a lot of connections to the horror community”

To which I respond:  Yes, historically, there is a big horror influence in bizarro.  I get it.  My very first exposure to bizarro (before it was even “bizarro”) was attending a reading by Carlton Mellick III at Horrorfind many, many years ago.

But influence does not a sub-genre make.  There are many, many other influences on bizarro besides horror. There’s influences as high-falutin as Dada and the Surrealists and as lowbrow as Troma Films.  Literary influences like Kafka and cinematic influences like Jodorowsky and David Lynch.  Even as far as genre influences go, you can find at least as many science fiction and fantasy influences in bizarro as you can horror influences.

• Objection #2 goes something like this:  “But if it’s not horror, what is it?”

This question is answered in detail at the website Bizarro Central.  Basically, bizarro is the genre of the weird.  The literary equivalent of the “cult” section at the video store.  Just as a horror fan reads to get the experience of “scary” and a romance reader reads to get the experience of “swoony”/”sexy” the die-hard bizarro fan reads to get the experience of “weird”/”trippy”.  It can be weird/trippy with a side of thought-provoking, weird/trippy with a side of funny, or weird/trippy with a side of scary, (or, my favorite, a weird/trippy buffet where I can pick up sides of all three) but the point is for it to be weird/trippy.

• So are you saying that if I’m a horror fan, I shouldn’t buy a bizarro book?

Not at all.  Despite everything I’ve written, there are lots of people who enjoy both bizarro and horor (and even authors — John Skipp, Gina Ranalli, Cameron Pierce, and Andersen Prunty come to mind — who freely write in both genres).  Just like there are lots of people who enjoy both horror and science fiction (and write in both genres) or horror and fantasy.

To say that a horror fan shouldn’t read a bizarro book would be like saying someone who enjoyed France shouldn’t travel to Italy.  Maybe they should, or maybe they shouldn’t.  But they should at least be made aware of when they’re crossing the border, so that they can make their mind up for themselves.

All that having been said, what are your opinions?  I welcome any and all feedback (so long as it’s respectfully expressed — by my subjective standards).  Whether you agree with me, disagree with me, or even take issue with my premise, feel free to contribute to the debate by adding your comment to this thread.  I’m just interested in starting a positive discussion.

Dark Thought of The Day: Negativland, “The Last Supper”

Negativland: People's Choice for Best Artists (Or Was That 'Anti-Artists'?) of 2009

Dark Thought of the Day:

“As more and more artists try everything they can think of, more and more of everything gets used up.  Yet the insatiable public appetite for aesthetic titillation seems never to be satisfied.  As the masses continue to demand more and more experiences from a limited number of entertainers who take more pills to give more and more, the whole crazy cavalcade appears to be hurtling blindly over the edge of massive self-deception, all pushing and complaining that everyone is not far enough out yet; and there’s a whole horde of hopefuls right behind, nipping at the heels of this gaudy gaggle of lemmings, trying to find a vacant spot in the ranks where they, too, can catch a few rays from the dazzling lights that draw them along.”

— Negativland, “The Last Supper”, from the DVD “No Other Possibility” (1986)

Great Moments In Bizarro History: Soldiers Baaing Like Sheep Led To Slaughter

Today’s great moment in Bizarro history comes from the winter of 1915, courtesy of Andrei Codrescu’s new book, The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara & Lenin Play Chess.

Writes Codrescu:  “An estimated 120,000 French soldiers were killed during that brief offensive (against the Hindenburg line, 150 miles from Paris), and a serious mutiny ensued.  One of the most striking events of that dark time was a procession of a group of infantryman through a town, baaing like sheep, to protest that they were like lambs being led to slaughter. That spontaneous irruption of Dada performance posed a serious challenge to artists who felt that they no longer had the luxury of art.  In Berlin, exhibitions of new art…became political occasions that sometimes turned violent.  Art took the war personally, and artists even more so” (emphasis added).

I believe that the Bizarro movement stands on the shoulders of many influences — including Dada.  Perhaps Bizarro, like Dada, is at its most effective when it is its most visceral and its most necessary.  There are some characters, plots, emotions, and thoughts that simply cannot be expressed through anything other than absurdism, Dada, or, if you will, Bizarro.

For me, Bizarro is a movement that fills a void.  At its most vital, it can be the desperate measure with which we meet desperate times.