New weird

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The term New Weird denotes a tendency or tendency in the works of some writers of recent fantastic literature. These are mostly novelists who are at home in the genres of science fiction or speculative fiction . The term does not refer to a fixed group of authors: there is no common manifesto , the range of styles and content is wide, and the intended authors do not see themselves as part of a “movement”. Rather, New Weird is a term invented by literary critics to describe a perceived tendency in a significant amount of literary texts. Among the authors who can be loosely assigned to this trend are countingSteven Cockayne , M. John Harrison , China Miéville , Alastair Reynolds , Justina Robson and Steph Swainston .

The New Weirds agree that literature should transcend the genre in which it resides, and that it is therefore not only acceptable, but even desirable, for authors to blur the lines between genres in their writing. Many texts that could be described as "New Weird" therefore contain elements from several genres, especially science fiction, fantasy and horror , the weighting of which varies with the individual authors. "The serendipitous constellation of contemporary fantasy writers that belong to or generate the 'new weird' seem generally and in varying proportions to blend the influences of genre writing and literary fantasy, and to weave in non-fantastic signals as well." (Michael Cisco)

New Weird critics note that the boundaries between genres have their reasons, and that traditional genre distinctions are based on which types of ideas can best be combined in a text. Proponents speculate that in the future, the New Weirds could take on the role of the former leading cyberpunk and become an important part of current literature.

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