Diegeses

by D. Harlan Wilson

In Diegeses, acclaimed novelist and critic D. Harlan Wilson channels the "schiz-flows" of Ballard, Kierkegaard, Kafka, Burroughs, and Deleuze and Guattari in two interconnected novelettes. "The Bureau of Me" and "The Idaho Reality" follow a man who goes only by the name of Curd into the nightmarish prism of his own ego. In an ominous, darkly surreal near-future, Curd is visited by a group of mysterious strangers who claim to be representatives of the Bureau of Me. As he struggles to negotiate their weird aggression, he sinks deeper and deeper into alcoholism. The Bureau of Me suspects he is a becoming-god, but deification has its price. Inevitably he finds himself alone in a postapocalyptic wasteland, the last man, zombified physically and mentally. "The Idaho Reality" sees Curd rebooted from end-of-the-world subhuman to futuristic soap opera star. In a series of schizophrenic vignettes that mirror the condition of his psyche, he is turned inside-out. No longer the weak, insecure drunk he was in "The Bureau of Me," now he is an omnipotent television icon, although his penchant for hypermasculine assholery has shifted into high gear, rendering him more clown than becoming-god, degraded by the spectacle of simulation. Literary and grotesque, humorous and dismal, theoretical and streetwise, Diegeses is and avant-pop masterpiece that entertains as much as it enlightens, unstringing the complexities of the mind while tying them into new and undiscovered knots.

"Madcap, macabre black comedy." —Booklist

Genres: Bizarro Fiction

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 24, 2013

About the author

D. Harlan Wilson is an award-winning American novelist, literary critic, editor, playwright, and college professor. He is the author of over thirty book-length works of fiction and nonfiction, and hundreds of his stories, plays, essays, and reviews have been published across the world in more than ten languages. Wilson also serves as reviews editor for Extrapolation and editor-in-chief of Anti-Oedipus Press.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing a review of Wilson's work is always a challenging prospect. I mean, the idea that I can break all of this down, digest it, and regurgitate some kind of synopsis that accurately describes this kind of book is ludicrous. If you've read Wilson's work, you know what I mean. If you haven't, then you should read and see what I mean. Still, this is an impressive showing from Wilson: a fractalistic splatter of images and language that is simultaneously cerebral and instinctual. Can I elaborate? I just did. Really, it's just beyond what I can synthesize in a description. It must instead be viewed firsthand. I would suggest you do that.

[S.T. Cartledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diegeses is the same old D. Harlan Wilson we know and love. His writing flows from one sentence to another to another real smooth and yet the events which occur may be violently absurd or incredibly jarring.

Diegeses is a story told in two parts: The Bureau of Me, and the Idaho Reality. The Bureau of Me is focused on the specific happenings of a man named Curd, where the Idaho Reality covers everything outside of that. Curd is in it, but he is not the centre of it. If you know D. Harlan Wilson, you know ‘reality’ is something he likes to play around with. So what is Diegeses about? There is Curd, who seems to be an ultraviolence magnet. Then there’s the guy that plays Curd in a soap opera, wrapped up in self-indulgence. Sex and violence go hand in hand, and the story reads like a film – highly visual and focusing on the events as they occur moment to moment. In spite of this, if it were a film, it would be wildly abstract and difficult to grasp at exactly what it is.

As is expected of D. Harlan Wilson, Diegeses is fast-paced and ultra-violent. It is visceral and grotesque. It walks in, shoots up the place, blood and exploding body parts, fucks the secretary, then leaves.

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

diegeses: noun, pl. di·e·ge·ses [dahy-uh-jee-seez]
1. the telling of a story by a narrator who summarizes events in the plot and comments on the conversations, thoughts, etc., of the characters.
2. the sphere or world in which these narrated events and other elements occur.
(from Dictionary.com )

“What the...?” is probably the first thing most people will say to themselves while reading Diegeses by D. Harlan Wilson. It's the first book published by Anti-Oedipus Press and is currently only available as an e-book, with a paperback version scheduled to come out sometime in the summer of 2013. This is also my first introduction to Wilson's work, so I had no previous experience on which to found expectations. What I got was a violent, surreal bizarro novella that's probably going to stick with me for a while.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part, “The Bureau of Me,” follows Mr. Curd...er, sorry, that's just Curd, as he is invited to a mysterious group called the Bureau of Me. What is the titular bureau? Well, even if I didn't want to spoil it, I'm not entirely sure that I could tell you. Curd himself seems to be a drunk violence magnet. Weird happenings and violent attacks are drawn to him. Sometimes it's hard to tell if everything is just going on inside his head, although my opinion is that it's not. I'll go into that a little more later.

The second part, “The Idaho Reality,” still involves Curd, but he's not necessarily the center of the story anymore. Or is he? Okay, not really. It follows the production of a hyper-violent and pornographic futuristic soap opera, of which Curd is a part. Is he a character or one of the actors? Again, it's hard to say as the line between what's real and what's just production gets a bit fuzzy here. This one shifts the point of view a lot more through a series of interrelated flash fiction pieces.

It's an odd little book that covers character and storytelling, is about both, but not in the way you might think. It's something that's very difficult to explain without spoiling anything, or writing an analysis that could dwarf the book itself. The whole book is written as a stream of consciousness, involving a lot of weird, violent imagery. It doesn't take much effort to conjure the images in your own head. That being said, despite that and the fact that it's a fairly short book, I wouldn't recommend blowing through the whole thing very quickly. It's not the easiest of reads, and you may need a little more time chew on that last bite before you swallow it and take the next bite. In fact, this is one of those books that I'm probably going to have to go back and reread later to see if I can get anymore out of it or view it from a different perspective. Rarely has a book compelled me to do so.

Despite some of the issues I have with it, such as that the violent imagery may be a little too over-the-top without really adding to the story, the weird looping story arc, or the fact that none of the character are really likeable, I still liked this book in a weird sense. The way Wilson can conjure images into the readers' head without much effort takes talent and is worth the experience. He gives the reader credit for being intelligent without needing to be spoon-fed every last bit. Again, it's not going to be for everyone, what with the violent imagery, or just the stream-of-consciousness style of writing which can be jarring to some readers, and some might even hate this style. But if you give the book a chance, you'll find that it's more thought-provoking than you might have expected.

Diegeses by D. Harlan Wilson earns 4 broken beer bottles out of 5.

[Matthew Vaughn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second piece of work I have read by D Harlan Wilson with the first being his short collection, They Had Goat Heads, which was fantastic. Wilson is an exceptional author. He is the thinking man’s bizarro writer. So when the opportunity to read his newest book, Diegeses came about I jumped at the chance and sure enough I was not disappointed.

The book is split into two halves. The first half is The Bureau of Me. Here we have Curd, a business man of some sort who is being pursued by agents of the Bureau. Basically Curd is an asshole, a drunk, and he may be delusional.

The second half of this book is The Idaho Realty. Again Curd stars in this portion but as a soap opera star. He’s still an asshole, shown best by his lack of desire to dress according to wardrobe or even to learn his lines. Showing up to film scenes in a long sleeve shirt, slacks, and flip flops, he wears a sign around his neck explaining to the audience what he is supposed to be wearing. The lines start to blur between what is the TV show and what he believes is reality.

I’m not going to pretend that I can fully wrap my head around what Wilson is saying with this book. His writing is surreal and abstract. His imagery is amazing and his stories will grab hold of you and refuse to let go until you reach that last page. And even then they still have their claws imbedded in your brain. His work isn’t easy to just finish and walk away from. I thought about re-reading Diegeses after I was finished. I guarantee I missed some things on my first read. So far I haven’t read anything like D. Harlan Wilson, but I have thoroughly enjoyed my two ventures into his books. I believe anyone who is a fan of his work will not be disappointed by his latest effort. And to anyone looking to try Wilson’s brand of bizarre writing this would be a fine book to start with.

[Emory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two novellas brought together in one file tied inexorably together by one asshole.

Who else but D. Harlan Wilson could pull that off?

Playing upon his strengths as both an academic writer and his preternatural gift of stream-of-(post)consciousness, Wilson presents the reader with an examination of both a personal existentialist quandary and the conundrum of the greater existence of reality with "The Bureau of Me." In this part we are introduced to Curd, an asshole typical of Wilson's writing. He is initially harried by agents of the titular Bureau, an organization that has invited him... cordially. From there the story plays out in a style and tone similar to Wilson's first and second entries in his SciKungFi trilogy.

In "The Idaho Reality," we are still facing Curd as our antiprotagonist, only now his modus douchebagi is the life of a soap opera star playing the role of Seneca Beaulac. This novella feels more like Wilson's latest major outing "The Kyoto Man," as Curd is not always the focus of the point of view and the narrative briefly departs into alternative descriptive modes. Where "Bureau" alternated between macro and micro views, "Idaho" is more deeply shrouded social commentary with some peppering of science fiction fan service for good measure.

In any case, "Diegeses" is a nice diversion from mundane fiction. Where I used to suggest Wilson's "Pseudo-City" collection or his entry in the "Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange)" as a good introduction to his work, I believe I will offer "Diegeses" instead. Much like the supreme repository of all knowledge, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Diegeses" is cheaper and comes in a convenient electronic format. That it is also an excellent example of his work is completely beside the point.

Consider yourself invited... cordially.

[Jamie Grefe · Rating 5 out of 5]

D. Harlan Wilson’s DIEGESES destroyed my Saturday evening in the best possible way. I wrote a review about it, but how can one write a review of a book that baffles all of one’s mental models? I suffered. I clawed my teeth out to bring you some words to somehow measure up to Wilson’s brilliance, but I have been known to fall flat and my face is now officially a smear campaign for mothmen. With this in mind, from my small part of the world, I thank you for taking the time to read my review: DIEGESES by D. HARLAN WILSON REVIEW

[R.A. Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

D. Harlan Wilson has quickly asserted himself as an exemplary example of a new wave of writers unafraid to engage in what can only be described as “post-storytelling”. Frenetic pace, schizo-language, ultraviolence, ridiculous plots and hilarious characters all conspire to create truly remarkable works of fiction in every one of his books.

His latest, DIEGESES consists of two shorter novellas titled “The Bureau of Me” and “The Idaho Reailty” published by Anti-Oedipus Press – if you have read Deleuze & Guattari's works, you will realize this is a clue as to the nature of Wilson's writing. The two stories combine, in my opinion, to create a rhizome of sorts. It grows from the middle between them. It is about the tension between two movements of the self, each one is headed in a different direction – TBoM, a territorializing movement towards the structured, stratified reality of ego and sense; TIR, a deterritorializing movement towards the Body without Organs.

“The Bureau of Me” introduces us to Curd, an actor of sorts who relies on alcohol, bad breakfasts and sex with his assistant to get through life. He's also plagued by a shadowy organization known as The Bureau of Me, whose agents cordially invite him to something unspecified. Is Curd suffering as a paranoiac machine, bearing witness to a false movement of persecutory agents intent on doing him harm? He wants to be free, but finds himself continually repressed, depressed and contained by external pressures to become something solid to become an identity. The Bureau of Me is an external representation of his own fears that set his own body against him – hence his witnessing a scene where two men eat each other, at first it seems they will embrace before they engage in devouring each other's flesh.

Moving into “The Idaho Reality” we see the world as a vignette, reality as layers piled on top of one another - it begins with the world as a stage and everything is signs. Perhaps covering the true reality, perhaps as the true reality, that is not important. What is important is that we witness Curd as an actor portraying somebody else and the story moves away from this at the end. If the Bureau of Me is about a paranoiac machine being triangulated to become an Ego, then The Idaho Reality is about the deterritorialization of the strata of reality into a desert: It is about becoming a Body without Organs – represented by Curd's final foray into a desert. It is about losing yourself, rather than finding yourself. Becoming-schizophrenic, not in a clinical sense, but becoming as the world itself is: schizophrenia as a mode of production.

This is a fascinating text, full of Wilson's signature prose and wit, superb descriptions, fantastic dialogue and radical mobilization of Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy. It can be enjoyed on many levels, because it is so wonderfully written. It is one that I will have to come back to again and again in order to read more fully what Wilson is saying, but highly recommend that people read regardless of their interest in that side of it, because Wilson is a sublime writer.

[Adam Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what I thought of: Wm Burroughs - especially Burroughs - Michael Moorcock and JG Ballard, their experiments with narrative, their brilliant attempts to reinvent science fiction. Thought too of the early surrealists, and the dadaists - has D Harlan read Alfred Jarry's The Supermale? He should. Especially the bike race.

At first, reading the first few pages, I also thought of The Matrix, a film I dislike. I was worried, I thought the author was ripping it off - but I was wrong (there may be a nod or two) for which I was glad. But also I was right. Because the word derives from mater - uterus, womb - and Mom is distantly present in the first half, receding coolly on the other end of the payphone, a reluctant player in an anti-Oedipal folie à deux.

Then it's the second act.

A poison pen letter to Idaho. The engine is anger. The very narrative is driven mad by it. Like a chained dog unable to do anything but dig, the author burrows like Burroughs down through the membrane separating something from something else.

We find that the hero's anomie and Idahohatred have burned a hole through to the other side. Freeing him, taking him and the author somewhere they can play with everything - character, style, narrative...

Does that give you some idea?

Like Burroughs's work, it's a book of Good Bits, and just a few I didn't like so much - the raging maleness felt like catharsis, felt too easy - but the Good Bits are fucking amazing. Unbelievable. There's a phenomenal intelligence at work here. Highly recommended.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diegeses will go down as "classic D. Harlan Wilson." The pages are layered sheets of reality, mapping the topography of identity with pop media references, flashes of bloody mayhem, and some genuinely funny moments. Mysterious agents pursue a man named Curd, a leg & ass enthusiast who we learn is an eccentric actor in a soap opera. He calls his mother when he gets drunk and refuses to wear the assigned wardrobe during the taping of his TV show. Curd hasn't been feeling well lately. His plight reminds me of Sartre's Nausea and Kierkegaard's A Sickness Unto Death, and sure enough, as if on cue, Wilson invokes the two philosophers by name. The fact that Wilson regularly reminds us we are reading a book, and then draws us back into the world of the story, eager for more, is a testament to his considerable expertise as a writer. An extended passage on Boise, Idaho showcases the layered sheets of reality I mentioned at the beginning of this review. The passage filled me with a sense of the epic, the visceral, and the absurd, or, as D. Harlan Wilson puts it, "The stuff that has appeared in limitless tomes of kingly representation."

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book that is two novellas that contain a guy named Curd. It's not something you can easily review because it's truly bizarre and a book you just have to read for yourself to truly get what it's about.

Wilson is a talented writer and while some of the short stories fall a bit flat in the second novella I kept reading just to figure out what it all meant. There had to be some meaning hidden among the chaos. That is for you to decide.

All I will say is that this is a solid book. It forces you to open your mind a bit and Wilson is the kind of writer you have to experience if you're exploring bizarro fiction.