June 27, 2005

Bookworms and Bizarro

Wanna read Foop! for free? Here's an idea: ask your library to add it to their catalog. I'm sure there are others, but so far I know for sure that Foop! can be found on the shelves of two wonderful libraries. One is the Vancouver Public Library and the other the Newton Free Library. If anyone lives near these fine establishments you should stop in to thank them for being so bad-ass. If you want to ask your librarian to get Foop!, you can tell them the distributor is Ingram, the publisher Eraserhead Press, and the content is totally bitchin'. You could also print out the reviews on the "Books" page of this site and bring them along in case they need some extra convincing. Also, if you see Foop! in any other libraries please let me know. It would make my day.

If the librarian asks you what genre Foop! is, well, that's another story. Most bookstores will list Foop! as science fiction, but at its heart it's really not. I always thought of it as more of a surreal fantasy than science fiction. And if you really want to get down to it, it's part of this growing literary movement that's been trying for some time to get organized and collectively kick some butt. That's a challenge when you're dealing with authors who are basically a bunch of batshit crazy Discordians, but it looks like we're finally coming together. Kind of like Voltron.

The first major step? Agree on a killer name to describe our genre/community. Because it's hard to join forces if you don't have a name to fight under. Imagine if Voltron wasn't called Voltron but instead called itself "Five Metal Lion Spaceship Thingies That Frequently Come Together To Form A Humanoid Asskicking, Sword-wielding, Evil-fighting Behemoth...Who Can Fly." From a marketing (and asskicking) perspective that just doesn't work. And neither has this loose connection of weird authors. We need to come together and form our own Voltron.

So here are a few of the genre names we tossed around:

Weird Lit
New Bizarre
Bizarre
Weird Wave
Bizarro
Razor Sausage
Freak lit
Weird Shit

The winner?

BIZARRO!

So if anyone asks, Foop! is a Bizarro novel and I, Christopher Joseph Rocco Genoa, am a Bizarro author.

Thank God I don't have to run around saying that Foop! is a dark, surreal, absurd sci-fi comedy anymore. Because, really, what the hell does that mean? Now I can just say it's Bizarro Lit and be done with it.

The name isn't necessarily a direct reference to the Sealab 2021 episode of the same name, but we certainly don't mind the association. Because as writers we're closer in spirit to the Adult Swim cartoons like Sealab and Aqua Teen Hunger Force than we are to a lot of what's going on in contemporary lit these days. Our books are balls to the wall* and often, but not always, crazy as hell.

I'll have a link up soon to the official Mondo Bizarro community message board so you can get to know some of the other Bizarros.

*For those of you who think that "Balls to the Wall" has something to do with a dude pressing his genitals flat against a wall, you're oh so wrong. See here for a correct, and admittedly less fun, definition.

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