Tag: metafiction
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The Aylett Project: Rachel Kendall Interviews Bill Ectric
Rachel Kendall of Sein und Werden interviewed me about the new collection of essays on the work of Steve Aylett, edited by me and D. Harlan Wilson. Here’ an excerpt: Rachel Kendall: A number of writers in the anthology refer to Aylett as a writers’ writer. What does that mean to you, and do you…
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Updates: My 7 Favorite Metafictional Science Fiction Novels
Two of my favorite subjects: Science Fiction and Metafiction!
Bill Ectric
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Nothing Is Real
The story, of course, is just a simplistic retelling of the animated feature film, but the reason I’m including Yellow Submarine in Bill’s Bookshelf is the extras at the end of the book. It had been years since I pulled this book from the shelf, and I had totally forgotten the humorous meta-fictional entries in…
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Intrepid Travelers
As with any genre, travel writing can be deliberately formulaic or ambitiously literary, depending on the writer’s intent and/or ability. From Petrarch to Percy Shelley to Tom Bissell, authors have used travel as backdrops for larger themes. Petrarch’s Ascent of Mount Ventoux (1336) makes mountain climbing an allegory for spiritual growth. Historians disagree as to…
Bill Ectric
A History of Connecticut Wine, Afoot in Connecticut, Ascent of Mount Ventoux, Bridgeport, Bridgeport CT, Eric D. Lehman, geography, Hamden, history, Kelly Lynn Thomas, metafiction, Michael Abraham, Paganism, Percy Shelley, Petrarch, Stuart McGehee, The Goddess Espana, The Spine of the Virginias, Tom Bissell, travel, travel writing, witch -
Kelly Lynn Thomas Parses Metafiction and the 4th Wall, Lays Down the Law
Am I as paranoid as Strindberg’s Inferno persona, or is Kelly Lynn Thomas talking about me when she says people are confusing metafiction with breaking the 4th wall? But it’s okay if she is. In fact, I would be flattered. Kelly is totally accurate when she clarifies the difference between the two terms. Check out…
Bill Ectric
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Slipstream: Feeling Very Strange
Coming soon: More of my notes on Thomas Pynchon, Steve Aylett, and Charles Wadsworth Camp, but check this out! From Science Fiction Studies, a fantastic Special Issue on Slipstream, edited by Rob Latham, who begins by saying: In July 1989, in his “Catscan” column in the fanzine SF Eye, Bruce Sterling published an essay entitled “Slipstream.”…
Bill Ectric
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Believe
On her metafictional travel memoir-in-progress, The Goddess España, Kelly Lynn Thomas says: I’ve spent two years polishing and refining this book from a more academic-oriented experiment in how to combine fiction and nonfiction to a beautiful travel memoir with wonderful short stories scattered throughout. I say that not to brag, but because I’m confident that…
Bill Ectric
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Conan Doyle as Metafictionist?
With his big mustachioed laugh and a twinkle in his eye, maybe Conan Doyle was only pulling our leg about his absolute and seemingly naïve belief that the Cottingley Fairy photographs were real. I’m not saying he didn’t believe in the spirit world at all. For that matter, I don’t know why people make such…
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Notes on My Novel
Tamper strives to balance mainstream storytelling with some of the more modern conventions, sometimes called meta-fiction, without alienating fans of either style. This gives fans of both meta-fiction and mainstream fiction something to talk about. To borrow a phrase from Cory Doctorow, it “brings more people into the tent.” In his book, The Modern Weird…