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Outré
In a future where cinema has usurped reality and there’s nothing special about effects, an aging movie star takes on the role of a lifetime, growing the flesh of an otherworldly kaiju onto his body. At the same time, all of the roles he has played in the past fight for control of his psyche and identity as agents of the media prey upon him. The result is alcoholism, ultraviolence, psychosis . . . and the promise of eternal life.
Combining the aesthetics of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, J.G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition, and D. Harlan Wilson’s own experiences as a model, stuntman, standup comic, and stiltwalker, Outré satirizes the contemporary mediascape while depicting a world in which schizophrenia has become a normative condition. Like his revolutionary biographies of Adolf Hitler, Sigmund Freud, and Frederick Douglass, the novel is written in Wilson’s signature “Hörnblowér” prose and reaffirms the critical consensus that he is a genre unto himself.
Combining the aesthetics of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, J.G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition, and D. Harlan Wilson’s own experiences as a model, stuntman, standup comic, and stiltwalker, Outré satirizes the contemporary mediascape while depicting a world in which schizophrenia has become a normative condition. Like his revolutionary biographies of Adolf Hitler, Sigmund Freud, and Frederick Douglass, the novel is written in Wilson’s signature “Hörnblowér” prose and reaffirms the critical consensus that he is a genre unto himself.
- GenresScience Fiction
126 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2020
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
D. Harlan Wilson
75 books356 followersD. 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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 23, 2020
A quick read but a monstrous piece of literature with an outlandish tilt of science fiction, surreal absurdity programmed at level 100.
This book speaks a language that only DHW is capable of writing and what you decipher is the laughs and the antics behind every curtain to the final page.
Recommended reading!
This book speaks a language that only DHW is capable of writing and what you decipher is the laughs and the antics behind every curtain to the final page.
Recommended reading!
July 21, 2021
I….what?
January 3, 2021
Full Review
Outré is a funny, strange, insightful, and entertaining look at film and its relation to reality. People new to D. Harlan Wilson's odd and unique style may want to start with some of his short fiction, but this book is well worth reading.
Outré is a funny, strange, insightful, and entertaining look at film and its relation to reality. People new to D. Harlan Wilson's odd and unique style may want to start with some of his short fiction, but this book is well worth reading.
November 30, 2020
Stroke of genius.
So proud to publish excerpts from it in Three Crows Magazine Issue 8- thanks Hawgstruffel Media and RDSP for the opportunity.
RTC.
So proud to publish excerpts from it in Three Crows Magazine Issue 8- thanks Hawgstruffel Media and RDSP for the opportunity.
RTC.
November 18, 2020
Outré is a novel that projects sentences and phrases into your brain, like inspirational quotes provided by David Lynch if he were trapped in an elevator for several hours without any light. D. Harlan Wilson manages to turn avant-garde, literary fiction into a vision of a dangerous and strange future that seems rather plausible, though only made plausible because of Wilson’s talent for revealing how such a twisted future could ever be. Outré nearly finds itself masquerading as a Dystopian science-fiction novel with a taste for the prophetic; Wilson melds mental illness with technology and art to craft the schizoverse.
The novel serves nearly as a mental roadmap that links personality disorders with the White Whale metaphor (from the “Great American Novel”, and Moby Dick’s status is used as both a metaphor and a literal event—as literal as anything can get in fiction). As we leap from different personalities and perspectives throughout Outré, the evolution of cinema parallels the disintegration of empathy within the growing reliance on technology. For me, there is a narrative thread within Outré, and it becomes evident when Wilson gives us provides a backdrop “collective consciousness” against the individuality (arguable) in each perspective shift. This is where Wilson’s work succeeds for me; we have the beautiful and incredible imagery coupled with the very plausible techno-apocalypse that merges with a collective embrace of apathy while we allow cinema the permission to mass-produce our emotions for us.
From a narrative perspective, Outré works like good science-fiction; we are not observe a vision of the future, but we begin the experience NOW. Outré is a book that demands to be analyzed rather than critiqued, but the beauty is that you don’t have to do either; the images are often violent or hyper-sexual in the Ballardian tradition, and Wilson serves you sentences as if you deserve them. I believe I did, and I enjoyed many passages that I highlighted for my future eyes. (Review copy provided by publisher)
The novel serves nearly as a mental roadmap that links personality disorders with the White Whale metaphor (from the “Great American Novel”, and Moby Dick’s status is used as both a metaphor and a literal event—as literal as anything can get in fiction). As we leap from different personalities and perspectives throughout Outré, the evolution of cinema parallels the disintegration of empathy within the growing reliance on technology. For me, there is a narrative thread within Outré, and it becomes evident when Wilson gives us provides a backdrop “collective consciousness” against the individuality (arguable) in each perspective shift. This is where Wilson’s work succeeds for me; we have the beautiful and incredible imagery coupled with the very plausible techno-apocalypse that merges with a collective embrace of apathy while we allow cinema the permission to mass-produce our emotions for us.
From a narrative perspective, Outré works like good science-fiction; we are not observe a vision of the future, but we begin the experience NOW. Outré is a book that demands to be analyzed rather than critiqued, but the beauty is that you don’t have to do either; the images are often violent or hyper-sexual in the Ballardian tradition, and Wilson serves you sentences as if you deserve them. I believe I did, and I enjoyed many passages that I highlighted for my future eyes. (Review copy provided by publisher)
June 12, 2020
D. Harlan Wilson is an author I have reviewed probably eight times in the eleven years I have been reviewing books for this blog. In 2008 he won the first-ever Wonderland award for Bizarro fiction for this totally insane novel Dr. Identity which I always mention. The book is one of the most hilarious science fiction novels I ever read. It is one part Philip K Dick and another part Monty Python. Of all the voices working the spaces between Science Fiction, bizarro, absurdism, and literary fiction no one is surfing all those waves like DHW.
On the surface Wilson is not my type of writer, I am a structure and conventional style nerd. What does appeal to me about Wilson's work is I also love weird, and totally gonzo insane concepts. My favorite stuff is the work that balances those two things but this is not about what I like, in this review I want to convince you that if you like weird and out-there stuff you need D. Harlan Wilson in front of your eyeballs.
Wilson could give a fuck about rules, this is not a three-act structure or a narrative that would be taught by a stuffy English professor. Wilson has a weird mind and this book has a concept and setting but within that framework, Wilson is letting the funk out of his mind without limitations. For me, one of the best parts is that I am always laughing when reading this man's books.
This novel is weird, perhaps not as weird as Wilson's last book The Psychotic Dr. Schreber which is 150 pages of insanity. This was a tight concept inspired by a real-life psychopath - A habit Wilson has gotten into over the years. He has written surreal biographies of noted figures including Hitler.
Outre' on the other hand is a return of sorts to bizarro Sci-fi, influenced heavily by the biocritical book he recently wrote about J.G. Ballard. I am not stretching to make this connection on page 15: "Overpopulation has rendered the surface of the earth an exoskeleton of Ballardian highrises." The book is set in a landscape that just screams like parts of Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition. It has that same kind of schiz-flow but with an updated middle finger lifted to the current media landscape.
Now here I have to admit that I have not read Moby Dick since I struggled through it in school but there are many elements of Melville's classic woven in here that probably flew over my head. The thing is That when you read a D.Harlan Wilson novel many concepts will make that journey. You have to accept that you are not on the same plane of existence with the author and just enjoy that you get a glimpse into the strange place between the man's ears.
There are many targets of the modern mass media that get attention from Oprah to film directors. Warner Herzog, David Lynch, and Stanly Kubrick all have fun cameos. The line in the book that hit close to home was near the end. "As such, the presence of zombies in literature is reduced to books only read by their authors - which constitutes the bulk of contemporary fiction." Ouch.
Outre' is a must-read for D. Harlan Wilson fans, and weird absurdist fiction fans. Science Fiction and PKD fans I think you will enjoy this. I certainly think you'll laugh. One more thing for my PK Dickheads - Professor Wilson is one of us.
Certainly, check out his episode on our show:
On the surface Wilson is not my type of writer, I am a structure and conventional style nerd. What does appeal to me about Wilson's work is I also love weird, and totally gonzo insane concepts. My favorite stuff is the work that balances those two things but this is not about what I like, in this review I want to convince you that if you like weird and out-there stuff you need D. Harlan Wilson in front of your eyeballs.
Wilson could give a fuck about rules, this is not a three-act structure or a narrative that would be taught by a stuffy English professor. Wilson has a weird mind and this book has a concept and setting but within that framework, Wilson is letting the funk out of his mind without limitations. For me, one of the best parts is that I am always laughing when reading this man's books.
This novel is weird, perhaps not as weird as Wilson's last book The Psychotic Dr. Schreber which is 150 pages of insanity. This was a tight concept inspired by a real-life psychopath - A habit Wilson has gotten into over the years. He has written surreal biographies of noted figures including Hitler.
Outre' on the other hand is a return of sorts to bizarro Sci-fi, influenced heavily by the biocritical book he recently wrote about J.G. Ballard. I am not stretching to make this connection on page 15: "Overpopulation has rendered the surface of the earth an exoskeleton of Ballardian highrises." The book is set in a landscape that just screams like parts of Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition. It has that same kind of schiz-flow but with an updated middle finger lifted to the current media landscape.
Now here I have to admit that I have not read Moby Dick since I struggled through it in school but there are many elements of Melville's classic woven in here that probably flew over my head. The thing is That when you read a D.Harlan Wilson novel many concepts will make that journey. You have to accept that you are not on the same plane of existence with the author and just enjoy that you get a glimpse into the strange place between the man's ears.
There are many targets of the modern mass media that get attention from Oprah to film directors. Warner Herzog, David Lynch, and Stanly Kubrick all have fun cameos. The line in the book that hit close to home was near the end. "As such, the presence of zombies in literature is reduced to books only read by their authors - which constitutes the bulk of contemporary fiction." Ouch.
Outre' is a must-read for D. Harlan Wilson fans, and weird absurdist fiction fans. Science Fiction and PKD fans I think you will enjoy this. I certainly think you'll laugh. One more thing for my PK Dickheads - Professor Wilson is one of us.
Certainly, check out his episode on our show:
December 25, 2021
Poprocks for your brain. A wordsmith with a style not a template, Wilson makes things happen with words that could be done in no other medium. A book worth rereading.
February 17, 2021
Dream You are invited to take a seat in a soap box derby racer. It was built in 1938. The wheels are tiny and made of steel. They are full of pockmarks that complain of poorly maintained asphalt. Steering is done via jumprope. Pull right to go left, left to go right the voice says before pushing you over the lip of Lombard street. The tiny wheels scream and the whole contraption rattles as gravity wills it faster. You panic and pull right instead of left and go careening through a hedge that is soft enough to slow you but hard enough to scramble your unhelmeted head. Tom Waits and Joe Frank each extend a hand to pull you up. They invite you to an ayahuasca ceremony where they promise you will meet your spirit animal. Your spirit animal is a 20-point buck who locked horns with an opponent whose head was ripped off. He is nonchalant about having to spend the rest of his life starting into the eyes of his bested, decapitated rival. “Don’t worry, I only got room for the one,” he says and tells you he’ll need your help to eat. The back of the dead deer’s head teams with maggots. Your spirit animal leads you through the woods into a clearing where there sits a pagoda next to a sultan’s tent. “You pick,” the buck says. You take the pagoda. “Mmm, wise choice,” says the buck. You enter and see Tom and Joe at the bar. Tom has an absurdly tall pink cocktail in front of him with a dozen umbrellas on top. Joe has a glass of water. The ghost of Jack Kerouac is up on a stage playing trumpet with his butthole. David Lynch tap dances on a slab of meat beside him while Bertrand Russell plays drums and blows bubbles out of a pipe. “Is that Manteca?” you ask Tom. “Night in Tunisia” he says. It’s surprisingly good. It’s no Dizzy Gillespie. But then again what is?
Rewind Outré is dizzying, dazzling, and delirious. There’s a story in there somewhere about an actor in the future who undergoes a nightmarish gene therapy to turn him into a whale so that he can play the part of an actual whale that fell from the sky. But it’s almost ancillary to the trip D. Harlan Wilson takes the reader on. It’s more a surreal and philosophical hallucination/meditation on what movies and entertainment culture have done to humans. I’m almost more tempted to call it cultural commentary than sci fi or bizarro lit. Neil Postman transcribed by J.G. Ballard and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky maybe? That's cheap, I know, but I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like it. And I’m absolutely interested in reading more of what Wilson is serving up.
Rewind Outré is dizzying, dazzling, and delirious. There’s a story in there somewhere about an actor in the future who undergoes a nightmarish gene therapy to turn him into a whale so that he can play the part of an actual whale that fell from the sky. But it’s almost ancillary to the trip D. Harlan Wilson takes the reader on. It’s more a surreal and philosophical hallucination/meditation on what movies and entertainment culture have done to humans. I’m almost more tempted to call it cultural commentary than sci fi or bizarro lit. Neil Postman transcribed by J.G. Ballard and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky maybe? That's cheap, I know, but I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like it. And I’m absolutely interested in reading more of what Wilson is serving up.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews