6.17.2006

Slipstream?

What do Carol Emshwiller, George Saunders, Aimee Bender, Bruce Sterling, Ted Chiang, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, and Michael Chabon have in common? They're all in Feeling Strange: The Slipstream Anthology. Anyone read this? It looks pretty intriguing to say the least. My wallet is itching. Thanks a lot, gwarbot, for leading me to this book.

Described as the "literature of cognitive dissonance and of strangeness triumphant," slipstream is supposed to come off as "hauntingly familiar and very, very strange." Bruce Sterling coined the term in an essay 17 years ago, which a Booklist review says meant "a kind of story that was neither sf nor fantasy, exactly, but that was showing up in all the places that sf and fantasy did; a kind of story that used sf and fantasy elements within otherwise realistic, or at least consistent, settings to provoke a feeling of strangeness or, better, feeling at home, strangely."

2 comments:

cfp said...
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cfp said...

I like this sort of thing. But calling it slipstream, just seems like a way for respectable people to read genre without admitting what they are doing.