The Cosmology of the Wider World

by Jeffrey Ford, Jeff Vandermeer (Introduction)

A modern fable based on the labyrinths created by us all

Belius has led a peaceful if not uneventful existence until now, as far as minotaurs' lives go. He mostly keeps to his house, avoiding anyone outside of his family. Despite his human parents' efforts to shield him from the potential hysteria of the townspeople, Belius hears about something beyond his home's walls, even beyond the town itself--something called the Wider World. He decides to explore this strange place where the possibilities far outnumber those of the mundane real world. Here, Belius has a chance to be the minotaur he has always wanted to be. He is joined by Vashti the owl and Pezimote the tortoise, creatures that provide the philosophical guidance he will need if he is to complete his physical and metaphysical journey.

From World Fantasy Award winner Jeffrey Ford, The Cosmology of the Wider World is about the hopes, dreams, and visions we create for ourselves.

This ebook includes an introduction by Jeff VanderMeer.

Genres: Fantasy

173 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Jeffrey Ford is an American writer in the Fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humor, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he studied with the novelist John Gardner.

He lives in southern New Jersey and teaches writing and literature at Brookdale Community College in Monmouth County. He has also taught at the summer Clarion Workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers in Michigan. He has contributed stories, essays and interviews to various magazines and e-magazines including MSS, Puerto Del Sol, Northwest Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Argosy, Event Horizon, Infinity Plus, Black Gate and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

He published his first story, "The Casket", in Gardner's literary magazine MSS in 1981 and his first full-length novel, Vanitas, in 1988.

Reviews

[Karl]

Thjs paperback edition is numbered 70 of 500 copies and is signed by Jeffrey Ford.

Cover art by Kim Deitch

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a talking animal fable, but one intended for adults, full of sex and drugs and violence. It is tragic and sweet and lovely and funny and sad, and somehow manages to touch on themes of loneliness and creativity and normality as seen through the eyes of a minotaur and his friends. I could have read a hundred pages of Thip the flea's diagnostic declamations on the state of the minotaur's health.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeffrey Ford can write almost anything; noir, sci-fi, epic fantasy trilogies, horror, meta-fiction, literate fiction that could fit in the pages of Mcsweeneys or New Yorker, absurdism, dark fairy tales, magic realism, or something that blurs the lines between them, all in a style that blends accessible entertainment with surrealism(as the Jeff Vandermeer intro ably points out). In this book he writes a “talking animal” entertainment more along the lines of Kipling, Carroll, or Marquez than Disney. An erudite, digitalis smoking Minotaur with tragic past, alongside a blackmailing flea, a lecherous turtle, prophesying whale, a living world, a golem or Frankenstein’s monster type creature, the ghost of a book, and much more come together in Ford’s entertaining stew.

[Magdelanye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Belius is a monster of exquisite sensitivity. Sometimes he is so overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings that he can't speak. At such times he might moo.

Belius is a minotaur,neither animal nor fully human,existing on the margins of society.Inspired by Scarfinati's great work, he devotes his time to writing his own great opus.

When he realizes the extent of his grandoise fantasy,he requires the help of his friends to restore meaning to his life.

This is a fun fable for adults with an unusual creation myth and odd characters a reader can love.

[Peter Krevenets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something is missing from this book, it has many components that make Ford's books so wonderful, and yet something is amiss... it's as if the idea never took to the sky

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

i am appalled at this rating! alas, it is mine and i am of (mostly) sound mind, so it stands... this was awfully dull... Ford is an amazing talent and i love his work almost without pause, until now... the Foreword by Jeff VanderMeer is the best part of the publication, and that is harsh, isn't it? absolutely nothing new or inventive about talking animals, done elsewhere with something besides a big huge snoring pile of whatever... Belius is a taurian Eeyore, mostly... the other animals are only slightly more interesting, with the flea being probably the most fun and the biggest personality, ironically from the teeniest of creatures... nothing really happened for me, and surely i am missing some grand symbolism but if i have to cramp my medulla oblongata to manufacture meaning in a tale, it ain't for me... i will just end this review, as i am getting annoyed and depressed thinking about this story...

[Barrita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este me gustó un poco más que Ahab's Return: or, The Last Voyage pero igual no conecté tanto como con otras obras del tío Jeffrey. En medio del absurdo, Ford tiende a incluir comentarios sobre la sociedad y además su sentido del humor reluce, pero el tema no me atrapó tanto. Creo que el uso del minotauro genera expectativas pero al final el laberinto en que Belius se mueve no es tan interesante como la mitología sugiere.

[Sara]

Far from Danti infirno
belong to myth time
sea and sun
fly from wonder for far away
to dilet cloud
over the moon and stars
in the lesser of mex
wonder if reatrn or forget
many philsophy thow cross that shadow
in fog full of friend
paint many meet
where love was
murdered time
larg in the wide world
alone without thee
the mirror inside me
thee my friend

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the fifth publication of Ford's that I have read. He is one of my favorite authors. The copy I have is even signed by the author, being one of 500 paperback copies printed and signed by him (I have number 46). I had forgotten it was signed when I started reading it, so was in a hurry to get done with it so I could put it away somewhere safe.

From the publisher's site, here is a rundown on the plot:

Jeffrey's Ford's extraordinary fantasy novella, The Cosmology of the Wider World, is a beast epic, a talking animal story in the vein of The Jungle Books and The Wind in the Willows; but this is no ordinary fable. The protagonist, Belius, is a minotaur, a wanderer in strange labyrinths of the mind and body, and his story features sex, drugs and a healthy dose of pyrotechnic metaphysical profundity. There's murder too, an instance of bestiality, and quite a few references to Dante's "Inferno"...

From his coral tower in the other-dimensional refuge of the Wider World, Belius thinks back on his days in the lesser world of men, where he was born, a shocking anomaly, to a farming couple. His great philosophical work, The Cosmology, is at a standstill, and he realizes he cannot proceed with the book until he comes to terms with his halfling nature: one foot in the human world, one hoof in the animal.

While his friends - Vashti, the owl, and Pezimote, a philandering tortoise - try to help him achieve peace of mind, Belius recalls scenes from his previous life, interspersed with the daily tribulations of the Wider World … via a love story, a literal and figurative inner journey, a bloodletting, a haunting by a ghostly apparition, a bet, a blinding, a prophecy, an act of creation, and an act of climactic destruction, he must come at last to a mad revelation of self.

One other interesting aspect of making nods to other books is on the back cover. The rest of the picture reveals a book shelf with three books by authors that I have read and are friends of Ford's. Two of the books, "The Etched City" by K. J. Bishop and "Veniss Underground" by Jeff VanderMeer, are books that I have read.

This is listed as a novella, and I would say that it probably more proper. Though it clocks in at 173 pages, a novel length back in the early days, the typeface is rather large and it turns out that the story is short.

As always, Ford has a unique voice. This book is somewhat different though from what I have read of his work in the past. It was great to see an author I already like do something different then I am used to reading by them. All the characters were interesting, adding much to the story, even though short, and that these characters weren't getting a lot of attention. And for those that would be worried about "an instance of bestiality", you need not worry. Given that Belius is a minotaur, and we are talking about "a love story", what would you expect. It's just the publisher's way of sending shock waves so people read it.

As much as I enjoyed the book, this wasn't Ford's best work. Again, it was great to see him do something that was different then what I am normally accustomed to from him. And it is still better then a lot of other schlock out there.