Overview
- Examines Vurt’s innovative influence in establishing a new literary form
- Considers the tensions between genre fiction and experimental literature
- Develops the relationship of the novel’s form to various genres of music
Part of the book series: Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon (PSFFNC)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book offers an examination of Jeff Noon’s iconoclastic debut novel, Vurt (1993). In this first book-length study of the novel, which includes an extended interview with Noon, Wenaus considers how Vurt complicates the process of literary canonization, its constructivist relationship to genre, its violent and oneiric setting of Manchester, its use of the Orphic myth as an archetype for the practice of literary collage and musical remix, and how the structural paradoxes of chaos and fractal geometry inform the novel’s content, form, and theme. Finally, Wenaus makes the case for Vurt’s ongoing relevance in the 21st century, an era increasingly characterized by neuro-totalitarianism, psychopolitics, and digital surveillance. With Vurt, Noon begins his project of rupturing feedback loops of control by breaking narrative habits and embracing the contingent and unpredictable. An inventive, energetic, and heartbreaking novel, Vurt is also anoptimistic and heartfelt call for artists to actively create open futures.
Reviews
“Jeff Noon’s Vurt is one of the most beautiful speculative fiction works of the past several decades. Andrew Wenaus’ new book does justice to Vurt in its full mind-blowing complexity, tracing out how the novel offers us new ways to think and to feel.” (Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University)
“Jeff Noon’s Vurt appeared from nowhere and suddenly everyone in the British sf community seemed to be reading it – and the novel also enthused and excited North American and Australian audiences too. A very local novel was a global cult. Wenaus’ authoritative account reminds me why we got so excited.” (Andrew M. Butler, Chair of Judges, Arthur C. Clarke Award)“For thirty years, Vurt has stood tall as a startling, enigmatic work of science fiction. Now, Andrew C. Wenaus pays tribute, exploring this fractal vision through an array of unique angles. Opening new portals into Vurt’s alternate realities, Wenaus celebrates Noon’s talent with an engaging analytical style that draws energy from its subject matter.” (Simon Sellars, author of Applied Ballardianism: Memoir from a Parallel Universe)
“There has long been a need for a primer on Jeff Noon’s Vurt. I can’t think of a better person to write it than Andrew C. Wenaus. He has been a close follower of Noon’s work over the years, has developed a good relationship with the author and offers an ingenious interpretation of the novel based on Italian autonomist Franco Berardi’s theory of chaotic subjectivism.” (Steve Beard, author of Digital Leatherette)
“Andrew C. Wenaus takes us through the Orphic portal of Vurt, Jeff Noon’s post-cyberpunk novel, a rhizome where reality is not so much found as invented. If J.G. Ballard said we’re all trapped in the erotic jungle of a deadly techno-mediascape, then Wenaus like a deep diver plunges us into the re-mix lairs of Noon’s visionary mind where reality is rewritten in black code.” (S.C. Hickman, author of Social Ecologies)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Andrew C. Wenaus is assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Department of English and Writings Studies, a member of the Complex Adaptive Systems Lab, and author of The Literature of Exclusion: Dada, Data, and the Threshold of Electronic Literature. He is also a composer and, with Christina Willatt, has written and performed electro-acoustic scores for theatre, dance, film, and contemporary classical ensemble.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Jeff Noon's "Vurt"
Book Subtitle: A Critical Companion
Authors: Andrew C. Wenaus
Series Title: Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07029-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-07028-0Published: 02 August 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-07029-7Published: 01 August 2022
Series ISSN: 2662-8562
Series E-ISSN: 2662-8570
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 130
Topics: Fiction, Literature, general, Popular Culture , Music, Gothic Studies