Pedro Proença's Blog

Esse texto aparece originalmente no site Bizarro Central , e foi traduzido por mim mesmo, com revis��o da minha esposa Suelen Lopes.

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O QUE �� BIZARRO?

1. O Bizarro ��, basicamente, o g��nero do weird, do esquisito.

2. O Bizarro �� o equivalente liter��rio da se����o de filmes cult de uma videolocadora.

3. Assim como os filmes cult, o Bizarro �� ��s vezes surreal, ��s vezes vanguardista, ��s vezes bobalh��o, ��s vezes sangrento, ��s vezes praticamente pornogr��fico e quase sempre exagerado.

4. O Bizarro n��o tenta ser apenas estranho, mas fascinante, intelectualmente instigante, e, acima de tudo, divertido de ler.

5. O Bizarro com frequ��ncia det��m certa l��gica de desenho animado que, quando aplicada ao mundo real, cria um universo inst��vel, em que o estranho se torna a norma e as absurdidades ganham corpo.

6. O Bizarro foi criado por um grupo de pequenas editoras em resposta �� demanda crescente por (boa) fic����o weird e ao grande n��mero de autores que passaram a se especializar nela.

7. O Bizarro ��:

Franz Kafka misturado com John Waters Dr. Seuss do p��s-apocalipse Takashi Miike misturado com William S. Burroughs Alice no Pa��s das Maravilhas para adultos Uma anima����o japonesa dirigida por David Lynch

Apesar de os autores que comp��em o Bizarro serem escritores cult fora do mainstream, eles ganharam impressionante respeito da ind��stria liter��ria, tendo sido elogiados por nomes como Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore, William Gibson, Jonathan Lethem, Piers Anthony, Cory Doctorow, Poppy Z. Brite, Michael Moorcock e Charles de Lint, para citar alguns, e por publica����es como Asimov���s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fangoria, Cemetery Dance Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Details Magazine, Gothic Magazine, The Face, entre diversas outras. Obras de Bizarro tamb��m foram finalistas de premia����es de destaque, como Philip K. Dick, Bram Stoker, Rhysling, Wonderland Book Award e o Pr��mio Pushcart.

O Bizarro n��o �� apenas fic����o weird, �� fic����o weird MUITO BOA; ele cresce exponencialmente a cada dia, ent��o quer voc�� o ame ou o odeie, inevitavelmente o ver�� ganhar mais espa��o nos pr��ximos anos.

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Everything Danger Slater writes is great, and I say that despite considering him a dear friend. MOONFELLOWS is no different.

[image error]just a couple of wild and crazy guys

Set in 1906, the book tells the story of the first US manned mission to the moon, in search of a mysterious yet powerful mineral.

Narrated by the gravedigger of the crew, chosen because of his ability to, well, dig, this is a tall tale with zero science involved, but that encapsulates greatly the American spirit of "doing first, think about it later".

Everything goes wrong in this ill-fated journey to our satellite, but more than that: everything can ONLY go wrong when the only driving force behind an action of this magnitude is hubris.

Danger makes it clear through his writing that all the stuff that goes down is not the fault of the crew of the ship. It's the American hubris, with its Manifest Destiny type of madness that befall the doomed crew of brave men and women.

I know I'm making it sound like this book is some serious exploration of the true meaning of the American spirit...and it is. But it's packaged as a fun romp through space, in the likes of M��li��s'A Trip to the Moon and The Martian. It's absurd and lovable, surreal and moving and sad. It's a great book.

Click here to buy Danger Slater's MOONFELLOWS

Rating: 5/5 stars.

I hate April Fool's, and not just because of the "practical jokes" aspect of it. It's also the anniversary of the coup d'��tatwhich transformed my country in a military dictatorship that killed and tortured hundreds of people. It was a dark time in our History, thatit's still celebrated by many on political right.

Also, on an April Fool's day when I was a teen, I was fake mugged on the street. The guy approached me, said he had a gun on his bag, asked me for my phone. I gave it to him, he looked at it, said "nevermind", and walked away.

Safe to say no one believed me in school that day.

I guess I just don't like the kind of jokes that usually get thrown around on this day. It's not my style.

Not to say I don't like jokes in general, far from it. In fact, want to hear my favorite joke ever? It's from the movie Kung Pow.

What do you get when you cross an owl with a bungee cord?

My ass.

Anyways kids, fake mugging teens is bad. Military dictatorships are also bad. Hell, the political right is also Bad, with a capital b.

Catch you later.

after a good while, i have a story coming out in a new anthology.

i really should be writing; i really like writing, and when i'm in the zone doing it, i actually write really quickly; but, i have serious attention problems, it's hard for me to actually sit down and do stuff.

but, i wrote a little something for this anthology, run by my good friend leigham shardlow, who runs the uk based bizarro fiction press ex-parrot press; this anthology is called his soul's still dancing, and all the stories are inspired by the absolutely insane character that is nicolas cage.

here's the list of authors on this beautiful piece of work; my story is called the story of the shaman, and it's a little surrealist piece involving a hermit in the woods and some girl scouts trying to sell him cookies; it's a lot of fun!

anyways, i will write more; i like it, i'm confident enough that i'm at least one step above mediocre at it, and it makes me feel good when i click on that last save.

hey, this looks different! yes, i've finally caved and started using jekyll for formatting my site, and it's so easy to use, that i'm kicking myself for not using it sooner; anyways, here's a review for eric larocca's you've lost a lot of blood

my second book from this author, the first one being things have gotten worse since we've last spoke; i actually liked this one better, although they are mostly different.

i mean, both have an epistolary nature, and graphic and heavy imagery; but the reason i loved this one so much is because it left me with a lot of questions.

without spoiling too much: the book is about two lovers who have gone missing, and it's said to have been compiled by an editor to show the inner machinations of one of the two characters; the foreword specifically tells us that we are reading that character's writing; but the rug is sort of pulled from under us at the end.

this got me thinking about the "editor", and it shone a light on the rest of the book, which is comprised of poems written by one of the lovers, transcriptions of recordings he made with his phone (which recorded over with his inner thoughts, like he was planning to make those recordings into a book), and a full novella said to been written by the character; this novella is also called you've lost a lot of blood, and there's a computer game inside this novella with the same name.

there's a connection between the stories, especially when we learn the pseudo twist at the ending; there's a overarching theme of identity; the conflicts between who we think we are, who we actually are, and who we want to be; no one is really real in this book, in several meanings of the word; there's a sense of doom looming over everything, from the poems to the transcriptions to the novella-inside-the-book; if we look at it from the meta standpoint, the editor which compiled this book is also not real, having been invented by the author as a literary device.

once i got into this book, i started to think that maybe the novella within the book would work best as a standalone story; it's super interesting and well written; but the last chapter feels off, and i have a theory that it's linked to the twist at the ending; i really don't want to spoil it, so if you read this book and want to talk about it after, hit me up; anyways, based on the last chapter, i changed my mind, and the novella actually serves a giant purpose in revealing the themes of identity and, especially, of creation and imagination (also talent and craftsmanship).

this book is amazing, and this author is amazing; go follow then on twitter and read their books, you won't regret it.

rating: 4.5/5 stars.