Tuesday, January 06, 2004
THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD POCKET GUIDE TO ECCENTRIC & DISCREDITED DISEASES
I borrowed the above book, a "guide" to fictional diseases with entries by various sf, fantasy and experimental writers, from the library the other day, and have been dipping into it. The book's concept is promising in theory, and so is the idea of blurring the lines between sf and experimental fiction (an idea realized better in the anthology Leviathan 3, with which it shares a number of contributors). In practice, though, the entries show a lack of inspiration: the best of them is "Diseasemaker's Croup" by Neil Gaiman, which is, surprisingly, the only one to actually be written in an experimental style. The guidebook format may have inhibited the authors' creativity, as the best writing is found in the back of the book, after the entries per se: the "reminiscences" by Michael Cisco and Eric Schaller, "The Putti" by Shelley Jackson, and especially "The Malady of Ghostly Cities" by Nathan Ballingrud, the stand-out contribution to the book.
I borrowed the above book, a "guide" to fictional diseases with entries by various sf, fantasy and experimental writers, from the library the other day, and have been dipping into it. The book's concept is promising in theory, and so is the idea of blurring the lines between sf and experimental fiction (an idea realized better in the anthology Leviathan 3, with which it shares a number of contributors). In practice, though, the entries show a lack of inspiration: the best of them is "Diseasemaker's Croup" by Neil Gaiman, which is, surprisingly, the only one to actually be written in an experimental style. The guidebook format may have inhibited the authors' creativity, as the best writing is found in the back of the book, after the entries per se: the "reminiscences" by Michael Cisco and Eric Schaller, "The Putti" by Shelley Jackson, and especially "The Malady of Ghostly Cities" by Nathan Ballingrud, the stand-out contribution to the book.
