Weird Fiction

A “weird tale,” as defined by H.P. Lovecraft in his nonfiction writings and given early sanctuary within the pages of magazines like Weird Tales (est. 1923) is a story that has a supernatural element but does not fall into the category of traditional ghost story or Gothic tale, both popular in the 1800s. As Lovecraft wrote in 1927, the weird tale “has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains.” Instead, it represents the pursuit of some indefinable and perhaps maddeningly unreachable understanding of the world beyond the mundane — a ‘certain atmosphere A “weird tale,” as defined by H.P. Lovecraft in his nonfiction writings and given early sanctuary within the pages of magazines like Weird Tales (est. 1923) is a story that has a supernatural element but does not fall into the category of traditional ghost story or Gothic tale, both popular in the 1800s. As Lovecraft wrote in 1927, the weird tale “has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains.” Instead, it represents the pursuit of some indefinable and perhaps maddeningly unreachable understanding of the world beyond the mundane — a ‘certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread” or “malign and particular suspension or defeat of…fixed laws of Nature” — through fiction that comes from the more unsettling, shadowy side of the fantastical tradition.

Weird fiction - since its rise to prominence in the 1890s - has long been the generic depository for literature that seamlessly fits the definitions of several genres of speculative fiction. If it wasn't exactly horror or fantasy, quite possibly it could be termed weird. In fact, a basic definition of weird fiction could truthfully be a story that combines elements of fantasy and horror. A broader definition would be a story that includes and merges any number of plot devices, elements, sensibilities, and tropes of horror, science fiction, fantasy, the ghost story, supernatural fiction, mythology, mystery, or Gothic fiction. Literature that includes standards from more than one of these traditions might be considered weird.

Michael Kelly, editor of Weird Horror magazine, agrees that to properly define and categorize the term "weird fiction" could be a difficult task. He writes:
”[…] it can often be unclassifiable and hard to precisely define. […] In my view weird fiction is speculative, and often (but not always) works to explore and subvert the laws of nature, or the natural order. I like to think of it as an unceasing distortion and buckling of ambient space and time; where plot, theme, atmosphere and voice coalesce. Hence, the lens from which you view the world is askew and occluded. A feeling. A mood. A sense of dislocation. Weird fiction is a large umbrella, encompassing many modes of fiction. Before genre rules were established, weird fiction could be said to consist of the science fictional, the ghostly supernatural, the mythical, the cosmic, and the fantastic. An extensive mode of literature. In that regard it shares many properties with its Horror brethren. It’s why weird fiction is, I’d say, most commonly associated with horror fiction. [...] Weird fiction, perhaps more than any other mode, is fluid, adaptable, and ever-changing. I certainly take an expansive view of it, not constrained to the American-based strand (terror and awe) or the European-based (strange tale).”

This view finds further resonance in noted writer Simon Strantzas’ statement: “Instead, these sorts of stories exist in a liminal world of rationalities where things are not quite right. Slightly askew, their axes tilted, they are stories where the everyday is corrupted just enough that the strange can leak through.”
...more

New Releases Tagged "Weird Fiction"

Most Read This Week Tagged "Weird Fiction"

Crypt of the Moon Spider (Lunar Gothic Trilogy, #1)

If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe (John Dies at the End, #4)

More most read this week tagged "weird fiction"...

Weird Fiction Books

Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)

More weird fiction books...

Lists

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Cosmic & Lovecraftian Horror

242 books — 109 voters

Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Unsettling Fictions: Short Stories that Live Beneath the Skin

139 books — 35 voters

Weather and Beasts and Growing Things by Charlotte Suttee

Weird and Monstrous Eco SF

48 books — 14 voters

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Pre-1980 Weird Fiction

22 books — 8 voters

Harlan Ellison's Watching by Harlan Ellison

The Best of H.P. Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft

Best Weird Story Collections

61 books — 14 voters

Genre-Bending True Crime

23 books — 10 voters

Related Genres

Fantasy
Fiction
New Weird
Ｆａｎｔａｓｙ

Ficțion
Fiçtion
ℱantasy
Fañtasy

Featured News & Interviews

Readers’ Hit New Books of the Year (So Far)

Read »

Quotes Tagged “Weird Fiction”

“ One day John J. Eastwood said, “There is a bad guy in town.” He said, “I want to fight him.” “First”, he said, “I’m going to have some whiskey.” Then he went outside and started a fight. But he got shot. But he didn’t really get shot. But he killed a hot dog! The next day he was dead. We had his funeral..... Kids, this is about westerns ”
― chris mackey, Radio Mustard: Book One: The Weight

0 likes

“ Every time you think you have the world figured, trust me, that’s just when the world’s got you figured and is about to spring and break your back ”
― Brian Evenson, A Collapse of Horses

7 likes

More quotes...