Stories made from: microspores, fog maps, infected bass samples, mathematics, patterns of decay, broken machines, blood, code bugs…
November 10, 2011 10:14 AM   Subscribe

Sparkletown, the twitter stories of Jeff Noon.
posted by Artw (19 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's good to see Jeff Noon is still doing that thing of his. I loved Vurt (but hey, it was the nineties, and I haven't reread it to see how well it holds up), quite liked Nymphomation, and this looks good too. It's kind of SciFi-beat or something. He's a master of oblique, abstract descriptions.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:39 AM on November 10, 2011 [1 favorite]


i tried reading vurt and i kind of expected it to leave a damp spot wherever i set it down
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 10:54 AM on November 10, 2011 [5 favorites]


Xa Xa Xa! Xhasy Xhasy!
posted by Artw at 10:59 AM on November 10, 2011 [1 favorite]


Vurt was a little silly, but this is neat. Great post yo!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:05 AM on November 10, 2011


This, of course, alludes to you: "i tried reading vurt and i kind of expected it to leave a damp spot wherever i set it dow"

I like this description, but I'm unable to determine whether you think that's good thing or not. (I would consider it a good thing.)
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:06 AM on November 10, 2011


It's like Pixel Juice! Rad!
posted by giraffe at 11:12 AM on November 10, 2011


I'm alsoreminded of the loopy Cobralingus.
posted by Artw at 11:18 AM on November 10, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wow those are wild!
posted by harrgt44 at 11:36 AM on November 10, 2011


Somehow I suspected he would be doing something vaguely experimental with twitter.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:36 AM on November 10, 2011


I've never read Vurt, but it's always slightly intrigued me because it sounds like a wholly-invented obscene word.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:52 AM on November 10, 2011


I'd say it holds up ok. Last read it a few years back. I catch new details each time I read it.
posted by Ad hominem at 12:03 PM on November 10, 2011


The feathers tickle your throat... take a pink, take a blue... but beware of the black.

Sad that Noon hasn't had more exposure, because he was writing genuinely avaunt-guarde [[wtf?? Firefox, I curse your spell checker]] stuff way back in the '90's, and was an inspiration to a lot of us.


Wait.

That means I'm a fucking hipster.


Pix-elation before death by the 'cool',
posted by Cheradine Zakalwe at 12:06 PM on November 10, 2011 [2 favorites]


It's a real Ballardian slab of semi-surrealist urban SF that really captured a kind of UK rave culture zeitgeist of the time, just as that scene was passing it's peak and beginning to tumble in on itself exposing it's dark side. I think his non-realist take on VR is brilliant in that it skips any technological stuff and just makes it what most authors try to make it anyway - a shifting metaphorical dreamcape of signs and symbols.

Since then he's gotten a bit "I'm not really a Sicence Fiction writer" but his stuff was still cool, then he just sort of disapeared for a bit. i;m really glad to find he's still knocking around.
posted by Artw at 12:09 PM on November 10, 2011 [3 favorites]


Yeah, I got a review copy from a remainder bin at the strand. Has an insert anouncing his first US reading tour and includes a head shot an a curious yellow postcard.

The story was he wrote Vurt as a joke. But I guess he got so much approbation from it the joke soon became serious. IMO the books after were worse.
posted by Ad hominem at 12:10 PM on November 10, 2011


Pollen was good, though a little less mad and free flowing. Automated Alice and Nymphomation were oddities and seemed to be attempts at jamming to muich into those worlds. Pixel Juice had some great, absolutly stunning short stories, some of them Vurt-related.

I guess Needle In The Groove and Falling Out of Cars were more his idea of what he wanted to be doing, and they were okay,but they didn;t grab me the same and seemed a little shapeless.

Cobralingus, his odd book of, essentially, poetry is probably the bets of his later print works.
posted by Artw at 12:14 PM on November 10, 2011 [1 favorite]


Vurt was a really special little piece of magic. I'd wager there's still nothing else quite like it. To this day every time I see a brightly colored feather in a bleak urban landscape I wonder...

Glad Noon is still out and about.
posted by jet_manifesto at 3:12 PM on November 10, 2011


Jeff Noon on inspiration and methodology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNwCiTNgR7g

I wonder what he is listening to now.
posted by vicx at 8:33 PM on November 10, 2011


I love Noon - I group Vurt and Pollen together as a sweet 90s hyper-local, hyper-scene in-their-moment kind-of diptych. Kind of like, say, Todd Grimson with Stainless and Brand New Cherry Flavor. I am looing forward to reading this new thing immensely.
posted by meehawl at 10:42 PM on November 10, 2011 [1 favorite]


The way I look at Cobralingus (at least as an idea), is that it's a brilliant idea. I see it as a way for writers to apply "fx pedals" to their writing like a guitarist would to their guitar playing.
posted by drezdn at 3:03 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]


« Older Corporate Espionage   |   Before the Occupy movement, there were tent cities... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments