Carlton sez, “Have you discovered the genre that can be stupid and intelligent at the same time? The Guardian discusses the cult underground genre of campy weird fiction known as Bizarro Fiction. From Jeff Burk’s ‘Shatnerquake,’ about all of the characters Wiliam Shatner has ever played are suddenly sucked into our world on a mission to hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner to Cameron Pierce’s “Ass Goblins of Auschwitz” that is the literary equivalent of Schindler’s List rewritten by the Marquis De Sade and filmed as a Tim Burton animated feature: ‘Bizarro Fiction is by turns stupid, repulsive and crude. But at its best, it is also intelligent, compelling and well-written. Any literary genre that can be both bad and good at the same time is worth watching.'”
Carlton was one of my Clarion West writing students, and is a talented, energetic and successful Bizarro author and impresario — congrats on the recognition from the Guardian, Carlton!
If the history of Bizarro fiction is ever long enough to look back on, it’s likely that Carlton Melick III will loom large over the retrospective. If Shatnerquake typifies the screwball exuberance of Bizarro fiction, then Carlton Melick III exemplifies the intelligence and wit that lurks between its lurid covers. In a genre where crude titles are an art in themselves, Melick is a true artist. Satan Burger, The Cannibals of Candyland, Adolf in Wonderland, War Slut, The Haunted Vagina, The Faggiest Vampire, The Baby Jesus Butt Plug, and my personal alliterative favourite, Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland. These are titles that fail to offend only because of their blatant offensiveness, and illustrate Bizarro’s fascination with the vulgar, smutty, distasteful and crude.
Bizarro fiction: it’s terribly good
(Thanks, Carlton!)