Colophon

American writer Tony Rauch places himself squarely within the loosely defined genre of “Bizarro” fiction. His latest book, a collection of short stories entitled eyeballs growing all over me…again is a raucous ride from reality to the uncanny, often over the course of a single sentence. The Prague Post recently interviewed Rauch by email to get to the bottom of the Bizarro genre and probe the source of his twisted imagination.

The Prague Post: What exactly is Bizarro fiction?

Tony Rauch: Bizarro is basically the independent or cult movie sections of the video store, but applied to literature. The designation can apply to different forms of writing styles and subject matters – some of which might be outlandish, surreal, silly, dream-like, fairy tale, absurd, fantasy, irreal, cartoon, collage, DADA, deconstructivist, abstract, arty, profane, grotesque, sublime, forms of the extreme, etc. It’s not strictly applied to one single strain though, such as “surreal” or “experimental,” but more to a merging and overlapping of genres.

So the Bizarro designation often includes elements of other genres blended together (humor, cyber punk, social satire, horror, suspense, science fiction, steam punk, etc.) with themes of love, loss, confusion, strange adventures, absurd situations – all swirled together. Some of the stories are strange adventures in strange lands. Some books are full of simple little strange situations, just thumb-nail sketches, while others are more elaborate – like Alice in Wonderland as a fever dream. Some of the work is similar to graphic novels or comic books or paintings, only written down, and thus don’t really fit well into any other specific previously established literary boundaries. But Bizarro is definitely not just one single style, it’s a very broad category.

The terms I would use to describe it is “imaginative” fiction, “unusual” fiction, or “hyper creative” fiction. But that’s just my view of it. I think it’s best left to the adventurous readers to discover what the genre is all about and for them to ascribe their own meanings to it. I would encourage people to check out the vast catalog of the main Bizarro publisher, Eraserhead Press.

There are also some literary journals that highlight this type of fiction, such as Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens and The Dream People.

TPP: Who started the Bizarro genre ?

TR: I think it’s always been with us, dating back to cave paintings and oral traditions.

Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are strange cartoony adventures that have horror, fantasy, and surreal elements blended with themes of escape, discovery, longing. Their weirdness seems to be grounded in deeper, more personal themes that are common to most people, as is the best fiction. The stories just take place in alternative settings.

To me most of Franz Kafka’s work is Bizarro. Or Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. But that’s just an opinion. It could also include something like “bullet in the brain” by Tobias Wolff from his story collection The Night in Question, which is an otherwise aggressively mainstream collection of short literature (I wish Toby would let his hair down more often like that. Come on Tobes, loosen up! Let the carnival spirit take you away). There have been a lot of “weird” writers over the years. Carl Sandburg published Rootabaga Stories in 1922. There is a great tradition in folk tales and fairy tales – strange things happening in strange lands with unusual characters. The tale of the “Three Little Pigs” has a horror element, a surreal element, a comical element, mixed with themes of individuality, sustenance, shelter, freedom – universal themes. Why is this considered a “fairy tale” and not a morality study, or absurdism, or anything else?

I think Bizarro’s similar to any other genre – say the romance, fantasy, or mystery genres. They were once considered a part of the general literature genre, until there was enough of them to break off and form their own section. Science fiction was once considered part of the fantasy category. Each got big enough to create their own weight or gravity. But the advent of universal education and affordable publishing helped introduce their notions to a broad, general audience.

TPP: What authors have you been inspired by?

TR: That would be a long list. Mostly I like short stories as they get to the point quickly. And I like strange or absurd adventures that are well crafted and have a meaning to them.

One story collection I would highly recommend is: Return to the City of White Donkeys by James Tate. Those stories are almost modern fairy tales bordering on prose poems.

Some short stories that really influenced me include: Leonard Michaels: “Murderers” (from I Would Have Saved Them If I Could) and Adrienne Clasky: “From the Floodlands” (from the anthology: Flash Fiction).

I like the spirit of inventiveness and play about these works. There is a freedom in their story telling that breaks away from the strict restrictions of other forms of story craft. They seem open, new, vibrant, alive, original, creative – not closed off, tired, or worn out.

More recent work I like includes Andersen Prunty (The Overwhelming Urge), D. Harlan Wilson (The Kafka Effect, Stranger on the Loose), and David Gilbert (I Shot the Hairdresser). These are more surreal and absurdist short story collections.

TPP: Clearly your stories deviate from “reality” quite severely. What is gained by an author moving away from realism, into magic realism or Bizarro?

TR: Radical freedom. Just more elbow room to explore whatever you think would be funny, scary, strange, or interesting. You can only fly if you’re not bound by gravity or previous conventions of thought. So a freedom of expression (in form and subject matter) is gained over dependence or strict attention to conventional and arbitrary norms.

If you think about it, there’s nothing strange about a giant vegetable who lives up in your attic without you knowing about it. Or you suddenly get a verbally abusive amorphous blob as a roommate. It’s no stranger than us polluting the planet or one group of people killing another group of people because they have slightly different hair styles or celebrate Christmas in a manner that is only slightly different than how the first group celebrates it. Someone trying to steal the siding from your house is no more weird or arbitrary than someone trying to steal your television or a project at work or your girlfriend or boyfriend. How strange is a helicopter or a formula one race car? So what other unusual devices might someone invent or discover?

TPP: What book projects do you have planned in the future?

TR: I just finished three new collections – one absurdist, and two that are similar to my last short story collection: eyeballs growing all over me … again, which are imaginative, whimsical, dreamy, absurd, surreal fantasy, sci-fi, and fairy tale action adventures. Those fables make great story starters for young adults and reluctant readers. Some of the pieces are absurdist or surreal adventures that hearken back to imaginative absurdism, sci-fi, and fantasy of the 1950s.

You can visit my website for samples of the stories and updates on new releases.