I read the first several miniature chapters of George Saunder’s Lincoln In The Bardo with some misgivings. I knew and loved Saunders from Tenth of December and was accustomed to his style, but the overbearing nature of epistolary literature has always rubbed me the wrong way. And this was a whole novel of that? Very hard to grab onto, yet the reviews glowed and gushed. So I pushed on.
So far the Class of ‘93 mixtape series has payed homage to those early rave genres we all know and love: hardcore breakbeat, techno, trance, jungle, acid. This time the focus shifts to ambient, a genre that enjoyed a brief spotlight in the early ’90s, both in and out of the rave scene, and easily deserves a mixtape of its own.
Better stock up on orange juice and back rubs—the fifth installment in my Class of ‘93 mixtape series will leave you burning with ecstasy!
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I considered myself a science fiction writer all the way through my first novel, Pareidolia. With portals, time travel, impossible rooms, and recovered alien artifacts, there’s no way it could be anything else.
I figured I ought to have a glancing familiarity with my genre, so I assigned myself a long reading list, starting with Frankenstein and ending with the hottest new sci-fi novel of the moment. It didn’t go well.
I started reading Robert Bolaño’s formidable novel 2666 last month, and I’m sure it’ll take me another month to get through it. I don’t read nearly as much as I should, which sometimes makes long novels a pain in the ass to get through. But not this novel. I’m savoring every minute of it.
I just wrote a 70k word novel that started with a single idea, and I never want to forget that. It’s been an uphill climb to start my second novel, and I know I’m not the only writer who fights with this. What’s the point in writing anything at all without a fully-formed and explosively fantastic idea?
The events described in the last ten chapters of Pareidolia all occur on the same day. This wasn’t a plotting challenge as much as it was a technical nightmare. I was all for describing different events from different character perspectives earlier in the novel, even with a little overlapping thrown in, but this was a whole other level of insanity.
A page with links to all chapter posts is here.
Thanks to all who read and liked! More is on the way.
Enjoy this excerpt from my first novel, Pareidolia. The premise is available here, and the table of contents can be found here.
MARCUS
Society Hill, Philadelphia | Tuesday August 1st, 2000
It’s not like, you know a big deal or anything, is what Erin’s telling me back in the library now that the head honcho has retired upstairs for a brief rest after his trip. She’s seen him before, not too long ago either. Back when he was here in town for that New Age expo.
Jason Herrboldt 